Schizophrenia- Trapped in Unreality

Let’s talk about schizophrenia today, one of the more complex and more unusual psychotic disorder. As you might have already seen, the title holds the caption ‘trapped in unreality’, I chose this particular caption because this is precisely what happens when a person suffers from schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder where a person loses his/her touch with reality. The person is unable to distinguish between what is real or what is unreal/ or fantasy. The symptoms of this particular disorder is characterized by comparison to normal functioning. Positive symptoms is when there is excess of fuctioning in case of thoughts, emotion or behaviour (Delusions, Hallucinations). Negative symptoms, when there is decrease in functioning in thought, emotion or behaviour, and psychomotor symptoms, known as catatonia. So, what exactly, are the symptoms of schizophrenia?

I. Positive Symptoms

1.Delusions

Delusions are the false beliefs that the person has about the world about himself and which tend to remain unshakeable even with rational arguements. There are various types of false beliefs schizophrenic people hold:
a. Delusion of persecution, in which, the person believes that other people are trying to hurt them, or plotting against them.
b. Delusions of reference, in which, people tend to believe in every action of others, they are being referred to, they attach special and personal meanings to what others say, this goes for television characters too and even books.
c. Delusions of influence/control, in which the schizophrenic person believes that he, or his/her actions are being controlled by something external and he/she has lost control himself/herself. Like demons, aliens or some other seen/unseen forces.
d. Delusions of grandeur, in which people believe to possess some special powers, they have false beliefs and ideas about themselves.

2.Hallucinations

People with schizophrenia may also have hallucinations, experiencing sight, touch, hearing in absense of an external stimuli. Experiencing something which is not really there. Definitely terrifying.
a. Auditory hallucinations, people tend to hear voices which are not present there, a voice talking about them, or to them.
b. Tactile hallucinations, sensatons of something happening on the body, like tingling, burning, touching etc.
c. Visual hallucinations, involves seeing things, people, light or patterns which are not even present, like seeing a dead loved one, or people which can be really distressing.
d. Olfactory hallucinations, in which there is a sense of smell or taste, good or bad. People may smell something, or there is a particular taste of something.

II. Negative Symptoms

Negative symptoms are when there are deficits in thoughts, emotions and behaviour. Schizophrenic people may find it hard to process emotions, they portray poverty of speech, social withdrawal and more.
a. Avolition, the lack of motivation or inability to start or complete a course of action. Schizophrenic people find it hard to complete a task when started or may not even start an action due to lack of motivation, or apathy.
b. Alogia, difficulty in speaking, or speaking very less, it often happens due to impairment in thinking which reflects itself in poverty of speech. People have a hard time processing the information and responding to it using words.
c. Blunted affect, in which people have difficulty expressing their emotions. Their reactions to particular emotion proving stimuli is diminished, less anger, less joy, less sadness.
d. Flat affect, in which the person altogether loses the ability to express, their facial expressions maybe concrete, the same, in response to a provoking stimuli. No difference in facial expressions, tone of voice, they may appear apathetic.

Psychomotor symptoms

Catatonia refers to abnormality in movement, they may not respond to outside world and may remain in same posture for long stretches of time, or may move wildly, showing excessive body movements, with agitation.

So, this was all about the symptoms of Schizophrenia, but talking about the causes of this disorder, the answer to this question lies in the neurodevelopmental model which speculates it is the interplay of both genetics and the environment. The certain passed on genes, the effect of one’s environment, both plays a crucial role.