What is Schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia is considered to be an extremely difficult and severe illness that affects a person mentally in many ways. It tends to be diagnosed as episodes of psychosis in which the sick person experiences a loss of reality. This loss of reality usually includes states of delusion and a presence of hallucinations.
Who does it affect?
Typically it affects men when they are in their late teens or early twenties. More commonly it affects women by their late twenties or early thirties.
What causes this illness?
The reality is that it can be rather difficult to know the exact cause of schizophrenia as the cause and process of the development of the illness are different for each individual. But overall, schizophrenia can interfere with the ability of someone to be able to think coherently.
The person also often experiences great amounts of trouble in relation to controlling their emotions. They cannot make decisions rationally or well most of the time and they have a seriously hard time in dealing with the people around them.
The need for treatment:
When schizophrenia is not treated, then the illness truly impairs the ability of a person to be able to function at their best potential in life. The sad truth remains that there does not exist any single or simple course of treatment for the illness of schizophrenia. That is why various treatments are tried for different individuals.
What the research says:
There has been research that has been conducted by the professionals in the medical field. The research suggests that schizophrenia may be linked to issues regarding brain structure and brain chemistry. Also, research indicates that there are environmental factors as well, such as trauma, stress, etc.
Regarding diagnosis:
There still is no one singular type of laboratory testing for schizophrenia. Also, there is no brain imaging test to diagnose this illness. Therefore it is imperative for the professionals who are administering the treatment for schizophrenia to first take all necessary precautions to rule out factors such as brain tumours and other medical conditions which could seem to be presenting themselves as schizophrenia when they in fact are not schizophrenia related.
Karie Grant has schizophrenia:
Karie Grant is a celebrity who unfortunately knows what it means to suffer with schizophrenia. But with good treatment, the reality is that it can be managed and life can go on well for people. While life will not be completely normal forever, and while they will need the help of health care professionals from time to time, life will be much more pleasurable when the illness is managed as best as possible.
Forms of treatment:
Some forms of treatment that help people who suffer from schizophrenia include medication to help reduce hallucinations and delusions, talk therapy and cognitive behaviour therapy. Some say that cognitive behaviour therapy helps them deal with the hallucinations, to know the hallucinations are not reality and to over time experience fewer hallucinations.
