Viewing Thread:
"Schizophrenia"

I'm doing some personal research into stigma and such and I would like to ask a question.

Without looking it up on wikipedia or anywhere, can you describe to the best of your ability what schizophrenia actually is?

Don't worry about if you think you're wrong, and please, do check up after you answer the question if you want to, but I'm just interested in public perception of what the illness actually is. And don't just say the same as another person who you think might have the right answer, I want to know what you personally believe.

I hope I get quite a few replies here, thank you if you have a go.

Are you saying he won a GAD for this thread?

Okay wait. Grix Thraves came here, dumped all of his schizophrenia crap on us (as he always does time and time again) and won a GAD for it? This amateur rambling of psychological nonsense won a GAD???

Oh, you've got to be kidding me..

Who ever it is awarding GAD needs to check themselves, because just dropping your pants and giving it to who you want as an incentive to keep them coming back is just not the policy that should be advocated around here.

edit: stuck up, uppity snob! you're a disgrace to the GAD system.

haha!!1 Oh man, tonight's a riot on the forums! I guess Grix just had to get it out of his system, but all that is giving me major kanipshuns.. argh. Now -I'm- having a psychotic episode. Gah!

Which one wrote all that then? :D

Grix Thraves wrote:
> Hi all.
>
> I thought I'd try and give you an idea of what it actually
> means, at least, to me. There are some schools of thought that
> don't believe it actually exists, but some of those schools of
> thoughts believe that space aliens dropped the souls of a dead
> race onto our planet etc la la
>
> I guess the first thing to point out is that it's not a split
> personality, or multiple personalities. It can possibly mean
> psycho, as schizophrenia is a form of 'psychosis'. It doesn't
> mean, however, psychopathy, which is entirely different.
>
> Schizophrenia is a rather devestating mental illness that
> usually occurs during the teens and early twenties of males, and
> a bit later on for women.
>
> It's apparently caused by an overflow of a certain substance in
> the brain, possibly dopamine, or possibly an increase of
> receptors. Put basically, the brain is trying to take in too
> much information at once. This leads to, if you will, the brain
> working like an overworked telephone exchange, placing wires in
> holes and connecting ideas constantly. When there's so much
> information coming in, it can be hard to 'filter' out the
> senses. This can lead to schizophrenics being unable to listen
> well, as they're trying to take in all around them. Be it
> hearing, sight, smell taste or feel. Everything is overwhelming.
> This is a sure sign of psychosis. Not only however, is the
> telephone exchange overworking, but if you imagine, some leads
> are placed in the wrong sockets, and this can lead to people
> experiencing sensations that the brain has created, which are
> not really there in reality.
>
> Schizophrenia occurs most often in episodes. However, it can
> occur as a chronic illness, where the symptoms never phase or
> calm. These 'episodes' are known as psychosis, or psychotic
> episodes. During these episodes, the sufferer loses track of
> reality, and experiences things that are quite unreal.
>
> Schizophrenia is split into three sections. There are 'positive'
> symptoms, 'negative' symptoms, and 'cognitive' symptoms. The
> positive symptoms don't mean good symptoms, but symptoms that
> 'add' to someone's experience. These are things like
> hallucinations, delusions, which I'll explain shortly. Negative
> symptoms then, naturally, 'take away' from someone's experience.
> The cognitive symptoms refer to how well the brain works.
>
> Hallucinations are one of the more prominant, exciting things
> about schizophrenia, and is seen as a positive, adding, symptom.
> They can occur in all senses, be it touch, taste, smell, sight
> and hearing. A common finding is that people hear 'voices'.
> These voices can be as distinct as listening to someone talking,
> or as confused as hearing loud, uncontrollable thoughts inside
> your head. People who hear voices often tell of how they, at
> first, used to help, encourage them. Sooner or later, however,
> they turn to demanding, commenting, critising voices, that may
> often ask you to do things you don't want to do. Or they can be
> as plain as talking random nonsense. Some people hear more than
> one voice, often talking to each other, or commenting on what
> the person is doing.
>
> People can also see things. It's different from an illusion,
> where you think you saw something but it turned out to be a
> shadow. These hallucinations are quite vivid, not often
> detailed, but of apparent real things that stand out on their
> own. People see things as vivid as a man sitting next to them,
> to bats dancing in the air, to blobs of colour floating around.
> There are also smell, taste and tactile hallucinations.
> Naturally, these occur when you smell something that cannot
> possibly be there, or taste things differently. This can make
> eating very difficult. Tactile refers to the sensation of touch,
> and can feel like spiders crawling under your skin, or biting
> you.
>
> A very important part of schizophrenia is that of delusions. Put
> simply, a delusion is a belief that cannot possibly be true, seen
> in the eyes of others. They can be as normal as a delusion that
> your spouse is cheating on you, or as distorted as thinking
> you've been implanted with a device, and the Government is
> tracking you. Delusions are mainly of a paranoid style, thinking
> that people are always talking about you, looking at you, to the
> extreme of believing people are plotting to kill you. You cannot
> talk someone out of these delusions, as they believe them to be
> as real as could be. People can then see messages sent for them,
> for example, from the radio, or car number plates. These messages
> feed into the delusion. It's hard to explain, but the mind is
> making strange, loose connections between things. To a
> schizophrenic person suffering from delusions, a window cleaner
> dropping a bucket may give the person a reason to why their cat
> went missing. Often they can be illogical, but sometimes, in
> delusionary, grandoise delusions, things like helicopters flying
> overhead may signal to the person that they're being looked for
> and must hide immedietely.
>
> Some schizophrenics suffer from disorganised speech. If you call
> back to the idea of the telephone exchange, and the leads being
> placed in the wrong holes, people may make associations with
> words that a normal person may not otherwise make. This is known
> as 'word salad', when the speech becomes so disorganised that
> there seems to be no link between words. For example, a
> schizophrenic person in a psychotic episode, unable to organise
> their speech, may utter something like "barbeque sitting
> tiger candyfloss". Connections are made in the
> schizophrenic mind that they believe they are talking perfect
> sense, but to the rest of the world it's gibberish.
>
> Keeping with speech, and thought, there's also a term called
> 'thought removal' which is basically exactly that. Someone may
> be speaking, but then have what they're talking about completely
> removed from their head. If you imagine the telephone system
> again, you could imagine that the leads are simply overworked
> with data and have broken down. This results in someone stopping
> half way through speaking and forgetting what they were talking
> about, and having the word they wanted to say 'removed' from
> their mind. This can result in the schizophrenic person trying
> to find another word to fit, or results in them actually making
> up a word that they believe to be right for the moment. Because
> of people who have their thoughts removed in this way, it can
> lead to a delusion that their mind is being sucked of thoughts
> by an outside force. Perhaps this is why so many schizophrenics
> are so afraid, or aware, of telepathy.
>
> The negative symptoms that take away from a person are very much
> like depression. Schizophrenics can suffer from a complete lack
> of motivation, lack of care for themselves, loss of interest and
> enjoyment, alogia (which is lack of speech), low energy, and a
> lack of emotions. This can be incredibly disabling for the
> schizophrenic in question.
>
> The cognitive symptoms are simply things such as a lack of
> concentration, inability to take in information (if you can
> imagine every sound, sight rushing at you, can you imagine how
> difficult it would be to concentrate on one thing and take it
> in?), and such things like a poor memory.
>
> Schizophrenia can be treated, but not cured. It's treated mainly
> with anti-psychotics, which are designed to basically block
> dopamine and other chemical receptors in the brain, to try and
> prevent the otherflow of information in the mind. This can leave
> people with a very empty feeling, or can work wonders. However,
> the medication doesn't seem to work particularly well with the
> negative symptoms, so a lack of motivation, emotion, would
> remain.
>
> If you have any questions I'd be most willing to answer them.
> Thanks for reading.

:o I didn't read that... Too shocked. .

Hi all.

I thought I'd try and give you an idea of what it actually means, at least, to me. There are some schools of thought that don't believe it actually exists, but some of those schools of thoughts believe that space aliens dropped the souls of a dead race onto our planet etc la la

I guess the first thing to point out is that it's not a split personality, or multiple personalities. It can possibly mean psycho, as schizophrenia is a form of 'psychosis'. It doesn't mean, however, psychopathy, which is entirely different.

Schizophrenia is a rather devestating mental illness that usually occurs during the teens and early twenties of males, and a bit later on for women.

It's apparently caused by an overflow of a certain substance in the brain, possibly dopamine, or possibly an increase of receptors. Put basically, the brain is trying to take in too much information at once. This leads to, if you will, the brain working like an overworked telephone exchange, placing wires in holes and connecting ideas constantly. When there's so much information coming in, it can be hard to 'filter' out the senses. This can lead to schizophrenics being unable to listen well, as they're trying to take in all around them. Be it hearing, sight, smell taste or feel. Everything is overwhelming. This is a sure sign of psychosis. Not only however, is the telephone exchange overworking, but if you imagine, some leads are placed in the wrong sockets, and this can lead to people experiencing sensations that the brain has created, which are not really there in reality.

Schizophrenia occurs most often in episodes. However, it can occur as a chronic illness, where the symptoms never phase or calm. These 'episodes' are known as psychosis, or psychotic episodes. During these episodes, the sufferer loses track of reality, and experiences things that are quite unreal.

Schizophrenia is split into three sections. There are 'positive' symptoms, 'negative' symptoms, and 'cognitive' symptoms. The positive symptoms don't mean good symptoms, but symptoms that 'add' to someone's experience. These are things like hallucinations, delusions, which I'll explain shortly. Negative symptoms then, naturally, 'take away' from someone's experience. The cognitive symptoms refer to how well the brain works.

Hallucinations are one of the more prominant, exciting things about schizophrenia, and is seen as a positive, adding, symptom. They can occur in all senses, be it touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing. A common finding is that people hear 'voices'. These voices can be as distinct as listening to someone talking, or as confused as hearing loud, uncontrollable thoughts inside your head. People who hear voices often tell of how they, at first, used to help, encourage them. Sooner or later, however, they turn to demanding, commenting, critising voices, that may often ask you to do things you don't want to do. Or they can be as plain as talking random nonsense. Some people hear more than one voice, often talking to each other, or commenting on what the person is doing.

People can also see things. It's different from an illusion, where you think you saw something but it turned out to be a shadow. These hallucinations are quite vivid, not often detailed, but of apparent real things that stand out on their own. People see things as vivid as a man sitting next to them, to bats dancing in the air, to blobs of colour floating around. There are also smell, taste and tactile hallucinations. Naturally, these occur when you smell something that cannot possibly be there, or taste things differently. This can make eating very difficult. Tactile refers to the sensation of touch, and can feel like spiders crawling under your skin, or biting you.

A very important part of schizophrenia is that of delusions. Put simply, a delusion is a belief that cannot possibly be true, seen in the eyes of others. They can be as normal as a delusion that your spouse is cheating on you, or as distorted as thinking you've been implanted with a device, and the Government is tracking you. Delusions are mainly of a paranoid style, thinking that people are always talking about you, looking at you, to the extreme of believing people are plotting to kill you. You cannot talk someone out of these delusions, as they believe them to be as real as could be. People can then see messages sent for them, for example, from the radio, or car number plates. These messages feed into the delusion. It's hard to explain, but the mind is making strange, loose connections between things. To a schizophrenic person suffering from delusions, a window cleaner dropping a bucket may give the person a reason to why their cat went missing. Often they can be illogical, but sometimes, in delusionary, grandoise delusions, things like helicopters flying overhead may signal to the person that they're being looked for and must hide immedietely.

Some schizophrenics suffer from disorganised speech. If you call back to the idea of the telephone exchange, and the leads being placed in the wrong holes, people may make associations with words that a normal person may not otherwise make. This is known as 'word salad', when the speech becomes so disorganised that there seems to be no link between words. For example, a schizophrenic person in a psychotic episode, unable to organise their speech, may utter something like "barbeque sitting tiger candyfloss". Connections are made in the schizophrenic mind that they believe they are talking perfect sense, but to the rest of the world it's gibberish.

Keeping with speech, and thought, there's also a term called 'thought removal' which is basically exactly that. Someone may be speaking, but then have what they're talking about completely removed from their head. If you imagine the telephone system again, you could imagine that the leads are simply overworked with data and have broken down. This results in someone stopping half way through speaking and forgetting what they were talking about, and having the word they wanted to say 'removed' from their mind. This can result in the schizophrenic person trying to find another word to fit, or results in them actually making up a word that they believe to be right for the moment. Because of people who have their thoughts removed in this way, it can lead to a delusion that their mind is being sucked of thoughts by an outside force. Perhaps this is why so many schizophrenics are so afraid, or aware, of telepathy.

The negative symptoms that take away from a person are very much like depression. Schizophrenics can suffer from a complete lack of motivation, lack of care for themselves, loss of interest and enjoyment, alogia (which is lack of speech), low energy, and a lack of emotions. This can be incredibly disabling for the schizophrenic in question.

The cognitive symptoms are simply things such as a lack of concentration, inability to take in information (if you can imagine every sound, sight rushing at you, can you imagine how difficult it would be to concentrate on one thing and take it in?), and such things like a poor memory.

Schizophrenia can be treated, but not cured. It's treated mainly with anti-psychotics, which are designed to basically block dopamine and other chemical receptors in the brain, to try and prevent the otherflow of information in the mind. This can leave people with a very empty feeling, or can work wonders. However, the medication doesn't seem to work particularly well with the negative symptoms, so a lack of motivation, emotion, would remain.

If you have any questions I'd be most willing to answer them. Thanks for reading.

=D I'll just pretend I ment that as well...

Chaos wrote:
>
> Bah, I just need to pay attention more... I'm probably just
> confusing one topic with another :)

Like a psycho!

Nin wrote:
> This thread is quite depressing. Chaos, you need a new teacher.

Bah, I just need to pay attention more... I'm probably just confusing one topic with another :)