Schizophrenia is an illness which a large number of our adult population is facing these days. It has varying impact on the degree of mental health of people who suffer from this problem. the disease is associated with lots of social stigma, and it greatly hampers the quality of life of a person and the society around him.
Understanding the cause of schizophrenia, the problems associated with it and methods to alleviate those problems may help a lot to decrease the pain of the sufferers
The main problem associated with schizophrenia is hallucination (people see and hear things which are not existing), delusion (believe things which are not true) & paranoia (believing that people around you may harm you).
There are various types of schizophrenia. one is paranoid schizophrenia, where people have frightening thoughts of surrounding around them. Disorganized schizophrenia is associated with speech and behavior which is disorganized and difficult to understand. then there is catatonic schizophrenia, characterized by hampered movements. We also have residual schizophrenia, where people carry thoughts from the past. most of the problems can be put into either one or another category. People often mistake this problem with so called ‘split personality”, which is altogether a different problem and should not be merged with this problem.
The symptoms start early on in the life, but become more prominent in older age. Early signs often includes, not performing well in school activities, changes in behavior such as not wanting to see people around.
The treatment of schizophrenia mainly includes some psychiatric medicines and also counseling therapies. the recovery is often a life long process, where you slowly understand the symptoms, create personal plans and try to meet your goals; and understand how to take help from others. You can also help someone suffering from this disease by showing him / her all your love and trying to learn more about this disease . Also a common problem is that people often stop taking the medicines, once they start feeling better. this often leads to relapse. So you must always be watchful and notice any change in the behavior of people suffering from this problem.