Schizophrenia: Diagnosis And Early Symptoms

Schizophrenia (which comes from the two Greek words meaning split and mind) is a mental illness which comes from a group of psychotic disorders, in which there are many types i.e. paranoid and hebephrenic schizophrenia, which effects the way people think and how to cope with day to day life. For in every one hundred people, one person will be diagnosed with schizophrenia and 1 in 10 individuals have a parent with schizophrenia. This effects people of all races, more in cities than anywhere else. It is rare to get schizophrenia before the age of 15 and in older adults. For some people can develop symptoms during teens or young adulthood. schizophrenia is a common illness, in the early stage this is called a prodromal phase, during this stage sleep, emotion, motivation, communication, and the ability to think clearly will be affected. if people become ill then this phase is called an acute episode, in this phase, can feel panic, anger, overwhelmed and depressed, for the first time an individual is going through this phase it can be a shocking experience as people will not be expecting or be prepared for it.

Diagnosis and early symptoms

There are no blood test or scans to diagnose schizophrenia, only a psychiatrist can diagnose this after a full assessment. They are manuals to diagnose mental illness, the main manual in use is called International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). must have symptoms for a least four weeks before getting diagnosed. Look out for symptoms the signs to look out for, not sleeping, not eating well, stress and anxiety and milder symptoms hearing voices, worrying, feels suspicious and hard to concentrate. Moodiness, depression, no interest in life, hard to concentrate, withdraw from everything and sometimes being violent. Symptoms hallucinations delusion muddled thought losing interest not caring wanting to avoid people changes to behavior thinking

The effects of the condition positive and negative

Positive symptoms

Positive symptoms, may experience things that are not real, hearing voices, hallucinations and unusual beliefs like being chased or plotted against, people sending you messages through the tv , this is called delusions.

Negative symptoms

Negative symptoms can be the lack of motivation and sleep, withdraw, have less interest in social activities, have body/language changes and can affect the ability to function.

Statistics.

A quarter of a million people today are being treat for schizophrenia

A major public health challenges, yet are poorly understood by the public people with schizophrenia will die 10 to 20 years earlier than usual due to suicide or associated to drugs and alcohol.

Worldwide 1% the population diagnosed with schizophrenia 1.5 million people worldwide this year diagnosed with schizophrenia

Conclusion

Schizophrenia can affect everyone, it is a mental illness that affects the brain giving hallucinations to delusions, this illness that can have a massive impact on their mental health, physical health and emotionally, feeling they are a burden to loved ones, finding a job could be hard to do and can lower their self-esteem, their family can feel the effects of caring for a loved one through financial reasons and giving up on the things they loved to do. in order to care there are a lot of support groups out there and can find them online they offer lots of support to help you live a happy life and with the right medication and therapy from the doctors can live a near normal life.

References

1. Www.priorygroup.com ( 11.09.2020)
2. Www.mind.org.uk (14.09.2020)
3. www.nhs.uk schizophrenia (22.09.2020)
4. www.supportinmindscotland.org.uk (22.09.2020)
5. www.rethink.org (25.09.2020)
6. www.carersuk.org (25.09.2020)
7. www.mygov,scot (02.10.2020)