The Importance of Learning About Schizophrenia
February 10th, 2009 Posted in Anxiety and DepressionLearning about schizophrenia is a critical part of recovery for schizophrenia patients. While medication is the only way to prevent psychotic episodes, paranoid delusions, distorted thinking and hallucinations, schizophrenia research suggests that understanding the mental illness is necessary for coping. It’s important that patients never feel that it is their fault, since schizophrenia can affect anyone. Approximately 2.5 million people have been diagnosed with schizophrenia in the US and roughly 1/100 people world wide have some form of the illness. In fact, many people don’t realize that schizophrenia is closely linked with social phobias or difficulty ascertaining cause-and-effect.
Schizophrenia research reports some interesting findings. For instance, the mental illness is largely caused by a neuro-chemical imbalance of Dopamine, Seratonin and Norepenephrine. In a normal brain, the frontal lobe increases its blood flow and the “listening” part of the brain diminishes. PET scans reveal that in a schizophrenic brain, the frontal lobe is active but the “listening” part remains just as active. The sensory overload usually causes a hallucination. People who are born with schizophrenia generally have irregular brain cell patterns. Drugs and stress do not cause schizophrenia, but they can certainly exacerbate the symptoms. In some cases, family members who understand very little can agitate the symptoms by using an accusing tone of voice or reacting angrily to the sufferer.
The truth about schizophrenia is that it’s not “just a phase,” but rather something that must be medicated and addressed with behavior therapy. While people with psychiatric disorders may not be able to “cure” the problem, they can learn to live with it in a productive manner. The assistance of family and friends is crucial in a patient’s recovery. Isolation, depression, guilt and uncertainty can prevent a person from getting ahead in life, but with loving support and counsel, greatness can be achieved, despite the serious mental illness.
Many recovering schizophrenics seek to educate the public. While 2.5 Americans have been diagnosed with the disorder, it is believed that many more suffer quietly, for fear of being further ostracized by the stigma of a severe mental illness. Myths propagate the media – insinuating that a few isolated cases of schizophrenia-related violence are representative of the whole. With further education about schizophrenia, more cases will move to treatment and more treatments will be successful.