There are three main symptoms of schizophrenia, delusions, hallucinations, and thought disorder. Delusions are false beliefs in which the person cannot change, such as believing they are a fictional character, or icon. Hallucinations are usually voices, sights, or visions that only the patient can hear, see, or even smell. These voices can make demands by ordering their victim to do things, or sometimes giving warnings. When a patient has a thought disorder, this usually means he or she has difficulty organizing thoughts.
In some cases the person with schizophrenia may believe their thoughts are being broadcasted so that others can hear them. Incoherent or loosely associated speech is also used as an indicator of thought disorder. Negative symptoms of schizophrenia include affective flattening and alogia and avolition. Affective flattening is a reduction in the range and intensity of emotional expression, including facial expression, voice tone, eye contact and body language. Alogia is the poverty of speech.
Additionally a schizophrenic person may have hallucinations that can include hearing voices or feeling things such as bugs crawling on them but these are unreal perceptions. Another positive symptom is disordered thinking. They may have loosely associated speech or be incoherent and the person feels as though their thoughts have been inserted or withdrawn from their mind. Negative symptoms usually consist of a loss of normal functions such as a reduction in range and intensity of emotional expressions which can be the tone of voice or facial expressions. Similarly, alogia is a negative symptom of schizophrenia.
Jordaan (2013) explains that psychosis refers to a cluster of symptoms, among these disruptions in moods, thoughts, perception, language and behaviour. Jordaan goes on to say that Schizophrenia is the most common psychotic disorder with psychosis being the primary and central set of symptoms, although not all symptoms present in all people. These symptoms can be categorised as positive (active symptoms) and negative symptoms (absence or decline of normal functions) (Jordaan,
Nash has schizophrenia, which is a mental illness or disorder that impairs the ability of a person to think clearly, act correctly, socialize with others, make decisions and manage their feelings. Some common symptoms are hallucinations meaning the person sees and hears voices that so not exist, delusions, disorganized speech and behavior. Other symptoms are more negative, for instance, losing interest in everyday activities, lack of apathy, does not react normal like other people would in different situations and has lower ability to experience pleasure. Nash in the beginning of the movie is not sitting with the rest the men. He is unsocial at the welcome party and prefers to be in his room than being outside making friends.
There are three main types of Schizophrenias. The first type is Paranoid Schizophrenic; people with this suffer preoccupation with persecutory and/or grandiose delusions. The second type is Disorganized Schizophrenic; they suffer from speech and behavior problems and they have a flat of inappropriate affect. The third type is Catatonic Schizophrenic; in this case the person gets motor immobility or excessive motor activity that is purposeless, peculiar movements, echolalia, orechopraxia. In America there are about 2.2 million people with this illness.
Schizophrenia is a disorder of the thought process where patients lose a normal sense of reality. They also have difficulty with basic cognitive functions such as thinking clearly and have disorganized thoughts, expressing feelings, and using appropriate behaviors. This disorder is characterized by the presence of strong delusions, which are irreversible false beliefs that patient’s entertain, even when their beliefs are disproved by presenting strong evidence. Another very characteristic symptom seen among these patients is the presence of hallucinations, both auditory and sensory, but predominantly auditory, which reflects an impaired perception of reality. There are several variants and subtypes of schizophrenia based on the patient demographics, severity and duration of symptoms and response to
Dissociative Identity Disorder, or DID, is a severe mental disorder that cause the patient to experience severe dissociation from the environment and others around them. Dissociation is kind of like daydreaming, which most of us have experienced. People with DID experience a “lack of connection in a person’s thoughts, memories, feelings, actions, or sense of identity”, according to WebMD, a reputable site that provides health information (Costello). Many doctors and psychiatrists believe that DID starts because of a traumatic experience and victims of this disorder dissociate themselves from certain situations to alleviate pain and anxiety that the situation may cause. Although many doctors believe this, there is no proven cause of Dissociative
The manuals are frequently revised and it has recently been updated to DSM V. There are five different types of schizophrenia; paranoid, disorganised, catatonic, residual and undifferentiated. The paranoid type believe people are plotting against them, are anxious, suffer from delusions, are suspicious of people and they respond to medication. The disorganised type is the silly mind and they suffer from the ‘flat effect’ which is a monotone voice and disorganised speech and behaviour. The catatonic type is when a person has problems with their motor movements; either uncontrollable motor movement or being stood like a statue and mute. The residual type is a milder form of schizophrenia and symptoms are reduced in number and intensity.
For most people, the voices they hear present no problem and are not associated with schizophrenia. Delusions Usually strongly held beliefs or experiences that are not in line with a generally accepted reality. Delusions associated with schizophrenia are probably distressing for you, or those around you, as they may be unusual or extreme. For instance, a patient might believe secret agents are following them or that outside forces are controlling or putting thoughts into their mind Negative Symptoms: Being withdrawn, being apathetic, and being unable to concentrate are all described as ‘negative’ rather than ‘positive’, because they show a reduction in thought or function. It can be very difficult to tell whether negative symptoms are part of the schizophrenia, or whether they are present because you are reacting to other frightening or distressing symptoms.