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What is Schizophrenia?

Definition

What is Schizophrenia

It's a chronic brain disorder. When schizophrenia is active, symptoms can include delusions, hallucinations, trouble with thinking and concentration, and lack of motivation.

Symptoms

Common symptoms

-Hallucinations – hearing or seeing things that do not exist outside of the mind

-Delusions – unusual beliefs not based on reality

-Muddled thoughts based on hallucinations or delusions

-Losing interest in everyday activities

-Not caring about your personal hygiene

wanting to avoid people, including friends

Causes

What are the causes

The exact cause of schizophrenia is unknown. But most experts believe the condition is caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors.

It's thought that some people are more vulnerable to developing schizophrenia, and certain situations can trigger the condition such as a stressful life event or drug misuse.

Real case

How I Went from Being a College Student to Someone with Schizophrenia

Her story

In 2007, I was 23 and attending college, while also working in a restaurant. I was one of the best servers; I didn’t even need a notepad to take down people’s orders.

But at the end of 2008, I started experiencing strange symptoms. I began feeling paranoid. I started seeing things, and hearing voices. I didn’t want to get dressed or even get out of bed. I didn’t understand what was going on.

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By July of 2009, I was hospitalized. The doctors there thought I had a mood disorder—they thought maybe I was bipolar—and put me on a number of medications. But once I got out of the hospital, I stopped taking them. My symptoms were gone, so I assumed I’d be fine.

I was no longer taking classes, but later that summer, I was feeling well enough to get a job doing work like painting buildings at a camp.

Part 2

Still, the memory of those strange symptoms lingered in my mind. In April 2010, when the symptoms returned and I began feeling paranoid again, my family convinced me to check myself into a psychiatric hospital.

The doctors there still thought I had a mood disorder because I didn’t tell them about my paranoia, or about suddenly hearing voices in my head. Instead, I would talk to them and just be me—happy, outgoing—so they thought I was having a manic episode.

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They started me on some new medication, but when I was discharged four months later, I noticed that I was having side effects, like twitching. I wanted to go back to work as a server, but you can’t carry trays in a restaurant when you’re twitching! So I stopped taking my meds again.

Part 3

My grandmother got really sick around Christmas that year. When I saw her in the hospital with all those tubes, I just lost it. I got so hysterical that I had to be escorted out. Soon after that, I got into that altercation with my neighbor and was sent to jail. My symptoms were acting up and I felt so angry.

When I got out of jail, the judge said I had to go to a state psychiatric hospital. I was really nervous, but I talked to a psychiatrist there who made me feel comfortable. For the first time, I opened up about what I was experiencing—the voices, the paranoia. She said, “You are battling schizophrenia.” I didn’t even know what that meant.

She suggested that when I got out of the hospital and off the treatments I was taking there, I try a new treatment for schizophrenia. After weighing the risks and benefits, we both agreed the treatment, given through monthly injections, might help control my symptoms.

Meanwhile, I was doing better at the hospital. I made friends, and gained insight into my illness. During the week, there were movies, cooking classes and education sessions about my disease—basically, activities to help people like me get back into society. I learned about schizophrenia and what some of my triggers were.

Part 4

All told, I stayed there for three months. It was hard, especially when my birthday passed, but I tried to have a little faith, and when doctors told me they were going to send me home in November 2011, that felt like a big triumph. There was light at the end of the tunnel.

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