...Lesson on Schizophrenia As an overview, schizophrenia is a disease to the brain. It is one of the most disabling and emotionally devastating illnesses known to man. It has been misunderstood for a long time. It has a biological basis, so it is like other diseases. It is a very common disease; one percent to one and a half percent of the U.S. has been diagnosed within some point in their life. There is no cure for this disease, although there is treatable medicine. Schizophrenia is not a multiple personality disorder. People who take medicine for it are able to lead normal fulfilling lives. There are two ways that schizophrenia begins. One way is called Acute Onset. This happens very fast, about a couple of weeks. It is easier to recover from this. You are able to get help faster because people notice it sooner. The other way is called Process Onset. This takes a longer period of time to show. It is gradual, sometimes up to years. You may say or do strange things every now and then. It could be a long time before you go to the doctor. There are three main types of delusions a person can have. Delusion of Persecution is when the person thinks that people are out to get him or her. For example the government. Grandeur is when the person thinks he or she is very important, rich, famous, ect. Reference is when the person thinks that the TV is talking directly to him or her. They also think some outside source is talking to them. Schizophrenia has three main...
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...Schizophrenia is a mental illness that usually strikes in late adolescence or early adulthood, but can strike at any time in life. The signs and symptoms may vary from individual to individual, but all who deal with the disorder show many of the same symptoms. Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe, and disabling brain disorder that has affected people throughout history. About one percent of Americans suffer from this illness. It’s a serious mental illness that affects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves. People who have Schizophrenia find it difficult to tell the difference between real and imagined experiences, to think logically, to express feelings, or to behave appropriately (eHealthMD 2002). One’s who suffer from Schizophrenia lead very different lives. They tend to forget things that have happen and look at situations in a different light. They become confused in certain courses that their lives may take. Many times, what they do can not only be dangerous to themselves but also to others who are surrounding them (eHealthMD 2002) Certain experiences can seem threatening and can make them fearful which is when they withdraw themselves from many things that people whom do not suffer from Schizophrenia do on a normal daily basis. People who suffer from Schizophrenia have trouble organizing their thoughts and expressing themselves. Even their speech and behavior can be so disorganized that they may seem frightening to others (eHealthMD 2002). This is one of the most misunderstood...
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...Schizophrenia is a very serious illness that at least 51 million people worldwide are suffering from at this very moment (Chiko). This illness is extremely dangerous and it is possible for anyone to obtain it. Therefore, learning about schizophrenia could become extraordinarily useful. Schizophrenia is a commonly misunderstood mental illness, so knowing the definition, origin, and causes of it could help us understand what it actually is and how to prevent it. The symptoms that occur in schizophrenia are intense. The affected person can have positive, negative, or cognitive symptoms. Once all of this information about schizophrenia is obtained, the treatment for schizophrenia will lurk in the curious parts of your mind, but it is a quite simple...
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...John Nash because she can see him for who he really is. His wife sees his brilliant mind through the odd propensities. As John Nash’s schizophrenia is discovered she is the first to understand and tries to help him out. To me this teaches all of us a great moral lesson that we could all learn from. Nash’s wife loved him for who he is regardless of what he was going through.[JH2] [JH3] John Nash thinks the Russians are after him due to a project he worked on with the American Government. Throughout the movie, Mr. Nash is terrified of people coming to get him. He is a very fearful man and deals with that persistently, but eventually works to overcome it. As John Nash’s Schizophrenia gets worse, a psychiatrist is notified and he takes Mr. Nash away. John takes medicine for schizophrenia for a while. He does not enjoy his medication and finally quits taking it. Mr. Nash fights his troubles with schizophrenia and earns awards for his mathematical accomplishments and his ability to overcome his greatest trouble, schizophrenia. “A Beautiful Mind” is a wonderful movie exploring the strange and twisted workings of an insane genius’ mathematical mind. Although schizophrenic, John Nash is very intelligent and understands things many cannot comprehend. The movie begins when John Nash enters college and follows his journey through schizophrenia. At the end of the movie, he is a professor and receives incredible awards. The movie is encouragement to fight the internal troubles...
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...Schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a disorder which affects how a person thinks, feels and acts. Someone with schizophrenia may have difficulty distinguishing between what is real, and what is imaginary. They may seem to be withdrawn, or have difficulty expressing normal emotions in social situations. In contrast to common stereotypes with schizophrenia the risk of violence towards others is small. Schizophrenia can cause behaviors, and they may be different for each individual. It can cause people to hear voices, hallucinate, or believe other people are controlling their thoughts. They may have trouble organizing their thoughts, or may feel as if their mind is racing from one unrelated thought to another. Many people with this disorder have difficulties maintaining basic hygiene, or keeping a organized home. It also can cause repetitive behaviors such as pacing. These behaviors can be frightening, and often lead to irrational behaviors. Schizophrenia affects men and women at the same rate, and occurs almost equally in all ethnic groups around the world. Symptoms usually begin between ages 16 and 30. The onset tends to be earlier in men, than in women. This disorder rarely begins during childhood, or after the age of 45. People with schizophrenia in their family may have a higher risk for being diagnosed with this illness. The exact cause of schizophrenia is still unknown. Although scientists recognize that this disorder tends to run in families, and that a person...
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...Schizophrenia, Psychosis, and Lifespan Development University of Phoenix Psy 410 November 19, 2012 Schizophrenia, Psychosis and Lifespan Development Disorders are categorized by the DSM-IV-TR and put into different levels of occurrences. Some of these are age specific and developmentally. One such category is Disorders usually first diagnosed in infancy, childhood, and adolescence (Hansell & Damour, 2008). Many of these disorders can be spotted at any stage of life the prevalence of some of them is more likely at different developmental times. Some of these disorders are Schizophrenia, psychosis, and lifespan developments with the psychological stress and physical disorders thrown in there. This paper will also look at the biological, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components of schizophrenia/psychosis and lifespan developments. Schizophrenia/Psychosis Psychosis is defined as a state of being profoundly out of touch with reality (Hansell & Damour, 2008, Pg.455). The symptoms of this disorder consist of a complete loss or separation with what is considered normal reality. Hallucinations and delusions are often the most common symptoms that are noticed first and help to diagnose someone with this disorder. Psychosis is popular in many different mental illnesses but is found more often than any other in schizophrenia. In personality disorders, though, the bizarre thinking and experiences are less severe than they are in schizophrenia (Kring,...
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...that the following Donnie Darko has earned through beautiful portrayal of a tormented soul is made up of mainly adolescents. In the film, Donnie is said to suffer from paranoid schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is defined as: a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a mental illness characterized by impairments in the perception or expression of reality, most commonly manifesting as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions or disorganized speech and thinking in the context of significant social or occupational dysfunction. Paranoid schizophrenia is a subtype of schizophrenia. In Donnie Darko, many of the symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia are obvious in Donnie and the events that happen are easy to believe are staged in the mind of an individual suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. Onset of Schizophrenia is usually late adolescence to early adulthood, and specifically in males most of the time schizophrenia appears in males in their late teenage years and early twenties; specifically 16 to 24. Thus, in Donnie Darko it is very reasonable in its portrayal of paranoid schizophrenia in young Donnie Darko. Although in the film fantasy plays a role which oftentimes overshadows the psychological aspect, Donnie’s behavior is typical of paranoid schizophrenics. Symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia in teenagers...
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...about situations and the way they interact with their environment and react to situations and other people. Problems that may arise when dealing with psychology can be conflict, general unhappiness or depression. Mental disorders/illness are not part of normal human behavior and can lead to problems in relationships as well as harm to the person with the disorder or people close to them. There are a wide range of therapies for such disorders and each situation differs from case to case. A closer examination follows with a contrast of normal and abnormal psychology, mental disorders from the view of psychology and a deeper look into two therapies used for both normal and abnormal psychology. Normal and Abnormal Psychology According to "What Is The Difference Between Normal And Abnormal Psychology" (2015), "The difference between normal and abnormal psychology tends to be one of degree of disruption. Normal psychology is the study of human behavior, with a focus on “normal” or average, socially-acceptable traits and behaviors. Abnormal psychology, by contrast, is the study of unusual human behavior, and includes the study of mental disorders.” (para. 1). The standard of normal versus abnormal psychology can be very apparent, or it can be subtle. It is frequently easy for an eccentric manifestation of behavior to be viewed as abnormal, when it might essentially be an alternate methodology. Normal psychology is considered to be the standard, or normal, behavior that a human...
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...Psychology Laura McCormick, Professor February 15, 2014 Thomas Wallace Dementia Praecox Mental Deterioration at an Early Age Introduction to Psychology Laura McCormick, Professor February 15, 2014 Abstract Schizophrenia, a classification of psychological disorders considered to be one of the most extreme in terms of psychological dysfunction and breakdown (Carson and Butcher, 1992). This disorder can result in a complete breakdown or alteration of reality. Schizophrenia is often termed psychotic in order to separate it from other disorders that are much milder in nature, such as Mood and Anxiety disorders. It is the goal of this paper to provide an overview of some of the issues and debates regarding this difficult and oft misunderstood disorder. What is Schizophrenia? Dementia Praecox, otherwise known as Schizophrenia, has been regarded as a uniquely distinct disease for well over a 100 years. This disease affects those areas that control how a person functions. It manipulates the individual’s thoughts, distorts their perceptions and causes hallucinations, particularly auditory. The person becomes delusional believing others can read their mind and thoughts of others are being placed in their head. According to the criteria for Schizophrenia described by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.; DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013), individuals affected by this disorder suffer from disorganized thought processes, diminished...
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...Analyzing Psychological Disorders Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that makes it hard to tell the difference between what is real and what is not real. Schizophrenia makes it hard to think clearly, and have normal emotional responses. Act normally in social situations is also affected by this disorder. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, approximately 1 percent of the U.S. population is diagnosed with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia has no exact known cause but is categorized as a brain disorder affecting the balance in neurotransmitter concentration of dopamine, glutamate and serotonin systems. Symptoms present in the disorder are positive, which means psychosis, or negative, which means affecting emotions and behavior. The primary areas of the brain implicated in schizophrenia are the forebrain, hindbrain and limbic system (LIVESTRONG, Aubri, John, 2011). The forebrain is the topmost and largest portion of the brain and includes the cerebral hemispheres which are divided into four lobes; they are the limbic system, thalamus, hypothalamus and corpus callosum. As a whole, the forebrain serves to control cognition which is the process of thinking, knowing, learning, judging, sensory and motor function, temperature regulation, reproduction, hunger, sleep cycle and emotional expression. It is within the frontal lobe where thought organization occurs, creating the delusional ideas that are a common positive symptom of schizophrenia. It is also in this lobe that overstimulation...
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...The Myth of Mental Illness Mental illness has existed since the dawn of humanity, but has since been perceived and understood in various ways. This essay will examine the contemporary definition of mental illness and how the definition is shaped more by the contemporary society that creates it rather than by real experience and understanding of the state itself. Unavoidably, this examination of a largely misunderstood subject leads to an investigation of the societal and philosophical influences causing the misunderstanding. Indeed, since the subject of mental health and illness is inextricably and directly related to the nature of reality, the nature of mental illness must be considered not in isolation but in conjunction with the nature of reality. Contemporary understanding of mental illness is exemplified by the first two results obtained from a quick search of its definitions on www.dictionary.com. The first definition comes from The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, and the second from The American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary: "Any of various conditions characterized by impairment of an individual's normal cognitive, emotional, or behavioral functioning, and caused by social, psychological, biochemical, genetic, or other factors, such as infection or head trauma. Also called emotional illness, mental disease, mental disorder." "Any of various disorders characterized chiefly by abnormal behavior or an inability to function socially...
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...INTRODUCTION Schizophrenia is a serious brain disorder. It is a disease that makes it difficult for a person to tell the difference between real and unreal experience, to think logically, to have normal emotional responses to others, and to behave normally in social situations. Approximately 1 percent of the population develops schizophrenia during their lifetime, and more than 2 million Americans suffer from the illness in a given year. Although schizophrenia affects men and women with equal frequency, the disorder often appears earlier in men, usually in the late teens or early twenties, than women, who are generally affected in the twenties to early thirties. Schizophrenia is a complex and puzzling illness. Even the experts in the field are not exactly sure what causes it. Doctors think that the brain may not be able to process information correctly. Some experts said that the genetic, psychological and social and person’s environment factors may trigger schizophrenia. There are five recognized types of schizophrenia such as catatonic, paranoid, disorganizes, undifferentiated, and residual. Features of schizophrenia include its typical onset before the age of 45, continuous presence of symptoms for six months or more, and deterioration from level of social and occupational functioning. People with schizophrenia often suffer terrifying symptoms such as hearing internal voices not heard by others, or believing that other people are reading their minds, controlling...
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...December 5, 2015 The Misuse of Drugs and Schizophrenia Schizophrenia, a brain disorder in which the person interprets reality abnormally. Patients with schizophrenia may hear voice other’s do not hear, they fear others can read their mind or their thoughts. Therefore most of them rely on others for help whether it is traveling to places or simply just making sure they take their medication. Schizophrenics are mostly medicated with anti-psychotics, made to treat severe mental illness. Sometimes these patients stop taking their medication because of the side effects. A side effect that anti-psychotics has is major sensitivity to the sun which increases the likeliness of them getting a sunburn in just minutes. They can also experience the abnormal twitching of the face and problems with their coordination. As well as suffer from less white blood cells than individual who does not use anti-psychotics. And last but not least these patients might experience sluggish talking in their tongue. Many years ago around 1550 B.C., schizophrenia was simply known as madness. In the timeline article “Throughout History, Defining Schizophrenia Has Remained a Challenge” it explains the roots of schizophrenia. In this timeline it mentions how someone with schizophrenia was known to be strange and atypical. During Ancient Egypt and Greece they “believed madness reflected supernatural activity or an imbalance of energies”. Another example of how schizophrenia was viewed would be around 400 B.C. in...
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...* Your School or College Social constructivist perspective for understanding schizophrenia, mental health and illness Mentor: Student: *name *name Spring, 2013 Contents: 1 INTRODUCTION 3 2 Social constructivist perspective of schizophrenia 4 3 CONCLUSION 7 REFERENCES 8 INTRODUCTION In this paper we analyze the concept according to which mental illness is as much a socially constructed disease as it is a physiological one and especially the example of schizophrenia, one of the oldest, most documented, and least understood of all the behaviors that fall under society’s category of mental illness. One of the most influential theoretical positions evident in the sociology of health and illness over the past 30 years has been social constructivism. A central assumption within this broad approach is that reality is not self-evident, stable and waiting to be discovered, but instead it is a product of human activity. In this broad sense all versions of social constructivism can be identified as a reaction against positivism and naive realism. There are multiple intellectual roots of a social constructionist approach to illness. Some of the basic building blocks are evident in the writings of early sociological thinkers (Durkheim, Mannheim, Thomas), but one of the most important intellectual foundations of the social construction of illness is social problems theory...
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...They show a lack of empathy towards any living creature which makes them be very "coldhearted", they tend to be selfish, egocentric, and extremely overconfident. But what really makes these individuals dangerous is that those traits combines can make a human being overly aggressive, violent and impulsive. They are smart and have are incredibly good at blending in with society and are very adept liars, meaning they can lie with all sense of truth in their words. So they appear to be completely normal and in many cases very charming and outgoing. All that combined with a sense of complete dominance makes the perfect killer. These are all the conditions needed to fill the lis of criteria as to what makes a psychopath, Dr. William Hirstein on psychologytoday.com says: " The current approach to defining sociopathy and the related concepts is to use a list of criteria. The first such list was developed by Hervey Cleckley (1941), who is known as the first...
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