How does schizophrenia exist?

Question

I've never heard anyone say, "She was born with schizophrenia," Is this a valid diagnosis, and perhaps only induced by some type of addiction, drug, or form of mental illness?

Answer 1

There are a significant percentage of people who develop schizophrenia who never have done any drugs, nor have they had any significantly negative life experiences. Whether or not they are born with it, it was not caused by drugs or life circumstances , it was caused by a problem with their brain, and it doesn't go away. I do think there is some evidence that there is a genetic predisposition.

Answer 2

I am a schizophrenic paranoid (DDD) who does not believe the disorder is genetic so to be born with the disorder is not possible. I believe this from personal experience with the disorder and observations of many others with the diagnosis in the near fifty years I have been diagnosed as such. Why else do the symptoms appear so suddenly and disappear just as suddenly if it is due to a genetic factor; genes do not change that quick? I also believe that normal is undefined. Some 40% of the human population reports that they have experienced an hallucination in their lifetime but only some 1-2% are diagnosed as being hallucinatorily mentally ill. Schizophrenia in my experience is something that happens to an individual not something that has an internal cause.

Good luck in your study of schizophrenia, good mental health, peace and Love!

Answer 3

Some people can inherit a mental illness. In many cases, a mental illness doesn't really show up until late adolescence. If a parent suffers from mental illness and a child is exposed to mental illness from an early age, they can show dysfunctional behavior early in life. Schizophrenia is a valid illness and can disrupt lives. It should be diagnosed by a psychiatrist and the individual will need a lot of support to have some semblance of a normal life.

Answer 4

well i think that there are multiple types of schizophrenia. like other types of mental illness, schizophrenia is just a term that is used to describe certain sets of symptoms. there is alot of variability to these symptoms. its not as though there is this specific mental disease called schizophrenia. it is just a name we assign to these variable situations. not all people labeled schizophrenic halucinate. not all are paranoid. not all hear things. not all get the reality of their lives confused. i think that it has been observed that often times, some of these symptoms tend to clump, in various combinations. i think that alot of "schizophrenic" symptoms begin turning up when individuals are in their late teens and early adulthood, but i dont think anyone has pinpointed what the actual triggor is. something obviously has changed chemically. perhaps some sort of gene or set of related genes become active at a certain time in an individuals life that can be linked to this...who knows. there could be multiple causes for schizophrenia, as we call it. its just a label and its a very general label, at that.

Answer 5

There is no known single cause of schizophrenia. Many diseases, such as heart disease, result from an interplay of genetic, behavioral, and other factors; and this may be the case for schizophrenia as well. Scientists do not yet understand all of the factors necessary to produce schizophrenia, but all the tools of modern biomedical research are being used to search for genes, critical moments in brain development, and other factors that may lead to the illness.
It has long been known that schizophrenia runs in families. People who have a close relative with schizophrenia are more likely to develop the disorder than are people who have no relatives with the illness.
Basic knowledge about brain chemistry and its link to schizophrenia is expanding rapidly. Neurotransmitters, substances that allow communication between nerve cells, have long been thought to be involved in the development of schizophrenia.
There have been dramatic advances in neuroimaging technology that permit scientists to study brain structure and function in living individuals. Many studies of people with schizophrenia have found abnormalities in brain structure (for example, enlargement of the fluid-filled cavities, called the ventricles, in the interior of the brain, and decreased size of certain brain regions) or function (for example, decreased metabolic activity in certain brain regions).
Developmental neurobiologists funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) have found that schizophrenia may be a developmental disorder resulting when neurons form inappropriate connections during fetal development.

Answer 6

It cause you to hear and see things when there not there and it makes you look crazy so, yeah it's a mental illness..

Answer 7

Demons.... Little gremlins in DA BRAIN! They are EVERYWHERE! AGGGGHHHHH!

Seriously, it's probably an imbalance in the body, brought on by a virus or exposure to radical contaminations. Then again, it may just be DEMONS!

Answer 8

there is still debate on whether or not you can be born with it or if life or drugs bring it on..the symptons usually manafest in the teens