do you know anyone with scizoprania ?

Question

If so can you tell me what symptoms to look out for.Is the person you know able to work if so,what do they do to make a living? thanks

Answer 1

I've known many people with schizophrenia as I worked for 14 years as a primary therapist in an out-patient mental health clinic before my current job. My favorite clients were the schizophrenic clients and I earned the title of the "chronic queen" as a result.

Schizophrenia is an illness that is biogically based. You inherit a predisposition for the disorder which is generally triggered by stress. The typical age of onset is in the late teens to early 20's (the college years).

The general characteristics include both "positive" (acute) symptoms and "negative" (residual) symptoms and there is a prodromal phase, acute phases and residual phases. There are a lot of technical aspects to the correct diagnosis which I won't elaborate, but in general the characteristic signs are any combination of the following:

"Positive" signs:
-Hallucinations (primarily auditory, less often visual and rarely tactile, gustatory or olfactory)
-Delusions (fixed or variable, paranoid/persecutory and grandiose, somatic, erotomanic, nihilistic, etc.-they run the gamut of various types, "ideas of reference" where a person believes that random events have a special meaning meant just for them, delusions of thought control or thought insertion)
-Disorganized Thinking ("Loose associations" where thoughts are strung together with little cohesiveness, "perseveration" where a person gets stuck on the same thought or theme over and over like a needle that skips on a record and keeps replaying )
-Disorganized Behavior (catatonic excitement, catatonic stupor which is like posturing-usually only seen in extremely severe cases and rarely any more)
-Poor Concentration and inability to focus on a thought, sometimes "blocking" where a thought becomes interrupted in midstream)
-Disorganized speech (incoherence, rambling or circumstantial speech-lots of fancy terms like echolalia, word salad, verbigeration, clanging)
-Inappropriate Affect (inappropriate giggling, tears, silliness, etc. that is out of context to the situation)

"Negative" signs:
-social withdrawal and preference to isolate
-flattened or blunted affect (emotional expression)
-Amotivation (lack of motivation, apparent apathy)

There are 5 distinct types:
1-Paranoid: most organized thinking of the types-prominent delusions and hallucinations
2-Disorganized (Hebephrenic): Grossly disorganized thinking and behavior predominates and inappropriate affect
3-Catatonic: catonia, rarely seen any more
4-Undifferentiated: no clear predominant symptoms
5-Residual: Primary negative symptoms-often seen as a "burned out" version where there are fewer positive or acute symptoms

Schizophrenics often are able to maintain jobs in low stress environments with minimal interpersonal demands once they are stabilized. Others may work in sheltered employment with support and guidance. Social skills are greatly impaired and schizophrenics often have great difficulty reading the social cues most of us take for granted and thus they misjudge or misread social situations which reinforces their tendency to self-isolate as do paranoid symptoms. Intimacy is exceptionally difficult as well and they rarely form close or deep bonds with others, making it difficult to function as husbands and parents. They tend to appear aloof and distant emotionally, although often this is a way of coping with feelings of being overwhelmed by other people's emotional expression and demands.

Medication often serves to either completely control the acute symptoms or dampen their impact, but tends to have minimal impact on the negative symptoms. The side effects are often horrendous and intolerable and this leads to a familiar pattern of stopping medication, beginning the trend of repeated courses of decompensation leading to re-hospitalization.

The ineffectiveness of meds and the emotional blunting they can cause often leads to attempts to self-medicate with alcohol or marijuana (usually) which often increase symptoms.

Schizophrenics often perceive the world in unigue and idiosyncratic ways which can cause them difficulty in complying with social norms and expectations, even simple things like generally accepted standards for cleanliness or hygiene. It can also lead them to exceptional creativity and expression in arts and abstract disciplines. Examples of famous schizophrenics are the poet and artist, William Blake (I have many of his works in my office for inspiration) and John Nash, the Nobel Prize winner featured in the movie "A Beautiful MInd".

Answer 2

The two people that i know with schizophrenia take their mediacation and seem pretty normal because the delusional/hallucination type symptoms are under control. Neither of them work (few people with schizophrenia can hold down a job-the meds help, but they don't fix everything, and they have side effects like drowsiness) I think that most people with schizophrenia with a job have a supported job, that is, supervised, or with special allowances, that kind of thing. I'm not a mental health worker or anything, that is just my impression from looking up about my bipolar disability online, and that gets mixed in with schizophrenia statistics a lot.

Answer 3

I work with people with schizophrenia, and symptoms include auditory, visual and other types of delusions, paranoid ideas, ideas of grandiur ie: son of God. Medacation can really help, and depending on the severity of the illness a person can hold down a job. Some people can't, and they need more care. First thing to do is have them see a pshyciatrist, secondly any medication they are prescribed they need to stay on, one of the biggest problems is people go off their meds and relapse and unfortunately with schizophrenia sometimes people don't return to the way they were. Its progressive. I'm not a doctor but just telling you what I've seen. A pshyciatrist seriously should be seen.

Answer 4

Well, the person I know who is schizophrenic was completely delusional. She has been in and out of hospitals for 15 years. Recently, she was in the hospital for a year.

Her delusions were about her being raised from the dead and killed hundreds of time, the North Koreans were poisoning the water, and lots of religious Christian end-of-the-world stuff.

They gave her court-ordered ECT (Electro Convulsive Therapy) and she actually snapped out of her delusions. Now she thinks kind of slowly... but she is coherent. She is still really into the Bible though and that's all she wants to do is read it. She also is into not taking any medication (when she does not take any medication then she ends up right back in the hospital) so she is always looking for natural cures.

No, she does not work. She does not have children. Her husband has gone into thousands and thousands of dollars of debt supporting her long hospital stays.

Currently, she is not in the hospital... but she is in a group home. She may be able to come home to her husband in a few months.

Answer 5

I have schizophrenia and Im on medication. I work Im in restaurant management and make almost 500 a week.Once upon a time I was a basket case.I wanted to die I was scared and angry all the time.I hallucinated.badly at times. Now I take risperdal and Im doing awesome.There is lots of hope out there.

Answer 6

I am a Schizophrenic paranoid (DDD). I was diagnosed as such over 40 years ago. I was experiencing mental telepathy like "voices" and seeing things. The voices were unwelcome, and mostly hostile but I knew they were not my own thought voice. They were sometimes so loud and numerous they forced me to my knees. The things I saw were lights coming on or turning off radios and TVs playing when no one turned them on or colored lights floating in midair (not firefly's but like them). The meds they put me on (neuroleptic drugs) helped reduce the delusions, which one forms to explain the hallucinations, but did not in themselves stop the hallucinations. I don't hallucinate any more. I was able to work and attend university for many years.

Answer 7

Yes, my cousin had schizophrenia and it's basically thinking in a way nobody understand where you're coming from. For example, he thought he was god and his father was the devil. It's a state of delirium you aren't aware you're in. During it's peak there's no way he could have handled working, I'm pretty sure he receives support from the Marines(that's what made him schizophrenic BTW).

Answer 8

Do you mean schizophrenia?
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/healthinformation/schizophreniamenu.cfm

Here's a link to some good information.

Answer 9

my mom has it it broke my family apart my mom was very a abusive to myself and my brothers thought everyone was going to kill her she herd voices and medication is not 100 percent she still has her voices had not seen my mom in years my mom cant not work I'm mom does not cooperate well with her treatment

Answer 10

yep, shes retired now, she was a office assiant shes a great aunt so i dont really know how she got dnx