Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder which affects the thought process, behaviour and emotion of the sufferer. It is estimated that it affects 7 per thousand in the adult population and there is around 24 million people worldwide that have been diagnosed with the mental illness. Most develop the illness in their late teens or 20’s with the onset of early symptoms.
Symptoms
There are many symptoms of the illness. “Positive” symptoms include delusions, hallucinations, racing thoughts. Delusions are most commonly a firm belief or experience which is not shared by general reality. This can lead to paranoia, thinking that people are out to harm you. Delusions of grandeur when they think they are someone famous or important and find it hard to be convinced otherwise. Hallucinations can come in many forms and can affect all your senses. It can be visual which is seeing things which others cannot, it can be auditory, hearing things that others cannot and can even be sense of smell or touch which can be affected. Thought disorder affects the way you think, ideas can be construed and not make any sense to others. As a result, communication with others can become difficult and may lead to isolation or loneliness. “Negative” symptoms are the lack of emotional responses and thought process. Symptoms include apathy, social withdrawal, need to be protected, inability to focus and can show little interest in things. Schizophrenia can also affect a lot of cognitive functions such as memory and attention.
Causes of Schizophrenia
There is not a definite cause for the illness but experts agree it’s a combination of the genes that the person inherits and the environment the person is exposed to. 
Stigma
Schrizophrenia is not a split or multiple personality disorder, this is one of the leading misconceptions about the illness. Sufferers tend to be viewed by the public to have violent tendencies and are a danger to society. A limited number of sufferers are dangerous. The media publishes the strange and horrifying stories of crimes of violence committed by those with mental illnesses. This has scarred a social stigma about Schizophrenics been violent, dangerous and need to be controlled. There is fear in the unknown. Most sufferers are not violent and the only danger they are to themselves as 40% of sufferers will try and commit suicide at least once. Some religious sects see people who suffer from mental illness and judge it as God’s punishment for previous sins of the person or family.
This video conveys the idea of the fear of the unknown.
Time has progressed and knowledge and understanding in mental health has developed compared to the views shared 100 years ago. In 1910, Winston Churchill wrote to the prime minister, Herbert Asquinth, he conveyed his contemporary attitudes arguing for the mass sterilisation of the people who suffer from mental illness. He warned that ” feeble-minded and insane classes” constituted “ a danger which is impossible to exaggerate” and that “the source from which the stream of madness is fed should be cut off and sealed up before another year has passed.” This is no longer a view held in mainstream debate.
Medication and stabilisation of the illness
In the 1950’s Anti-Psychotic drugs were developed and have been proven to effectively deal with the “positive” symptoms of the illness. Most of the symptoms can be controlled by the drugs in a matter of days or weeks. It usually takes a few months to achieve a stable condition. However there are many side effects of the drugs can occur such as drowsiness, skin rashes, rapid heartbeat, sensitivity to the sun and other effects. These are minor effects. Major effects include restlessness, rigidity, muscle spasms, tremors and other effects. ECT- Electro convulsive treatment was developed in 1938 and has been refined over the years to make it safer and more humane. Patient is put to sleep, given a muscle relaxer and a small electric current is applied to the patients temples. This produces a seizure. (Andreasen, The Broken Brain, p. 264). This treatment is issued to those who do not respond properly to the drugs. Cognitive therapy has also proven very effective in combination with controlled drugs, talking the sufferer through their problems and showing them ways to deal with their illness themselves. For an example of cognitive therapy visit:
http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mentalhealthinfoforall/treatments/cbt.aspx
Unfortunately not everyone gets to have cognitive therapy, psychiatrists will often issue drugs before addressing anything else.
In conclusion, not enough education about the illness has been provided to the general public so 100 years on since Churchill’s letter, people still share the stigma towards Schizophrenics.
For more information on Schizophrenia Visit both sites:
http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/mh-sm/pubs/schizophrenia-schizophrenie/index-eng.php
http://www.schizophrenia.com/szfacts.htm
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