There are many myths about such a disease as schizophrenia. This mental illness is still not fully understood. Among the huge flow of information, there are several interesting facts that relate to this mental pathology.
People with schizophrenia are rarely violent. Often, a schizophrenic is a quiet and reserved person who spends most of his time in his world, in his pathological fantasies. Even with an exacerbation of the condition, not every patient with this mental illness will grab a knife or try to injure a person who accidentally gets in the way. People in a state of alcoholic psychosis are much more violent. As a rule, inappropriate behavior in schizophrenics provokes hallucinations; much depends on a person's temperament and those crazy ideas that fill his mind.
Schizophrenia is not always accompanied by voices or visual hallucinations, illusions. Very often, the disease can proceed without an abundance of disease products. Products are directly called visual, tactile, auditory hallucinations, delusional ideas, and so on. If a person hallucinates, this is not an argument for an instant verdict that he is suffering from schizophrenia.
People with schizophrenia are not devoid of emotions. From the outside, one might get the impression that a schizophrenic is an insensitive person. However, this is just a mask and a distorted view. In fact, schizophrenics usually experience a lot of different emotions, they are characterized by ambivalence. But very often such people are simply not able to distinguish true and false feelings from each other, to describe what they feel.
Schizophrenia can be suspected by looking. The fact is that it is very difficult for people with this mental disorder to focus their gaze. Most often, the eyes of a schizophrenic run quickly, the gaze itself looks restless, absent-minded, inadequate. If the patient looks at his interlocutor, then he may have the feeling that the patient's gaze is directed somewhere through him.
Long remissions are typical for schizophrenia. Remission involves an episode in a person's life when a mental illness does not make itself felt. Most often, patients are taken to remission with the help of medication and supportive psychotherapy. There are cases when a schizophrenic episode was present in a person's life only once, but the patient's status is still assigned to him. However, schizophrenia does not imply complete disability.
Schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder are not identical concepts. In schizophrenia, it is extremely rare to experience symptoms typical of a split personality. When a person claims to have multiple personality disorder / disorder / so on, this may be a reason for suspicion of developing dissociative identity disorder (multiple personality disorder).
Schizophrenia is a young disease. Typically, the first major flare-up of psychosis occurs between the ages of 18 and 25, although background symptoms and behavioral changes have usually been observed for some time. However, there are forms of the disease when the condition is rapidly deteriorating even in childhood. At the moment, the diagnosis of "childhood schizophrenia" is not uncommon. Scientists also note that a greater risk of developing the disease is observed in twins and twins, as well as in children in whom one of the parents or one of the next of kin has a similar diagnosis.
Schizophrenics and creative people have much more in common than it might seem at first. The fact is that according to the results of the conducted research, it was revealed that the brain of a healthy creative person and the brain of a schizophrenic equally incorrectly distribute and direct thoughts. Scientists suggest that in both cases, the brain lacks some important receptors that would be responsible for stereotyped thinking. We are talking specifically about dopamine receptors, which have a direct connection with the thalamus.
True schizophrenia of any form is not a widespread painful condition. In recent years, this diagnosis has been made more often, but at the moment only about 2% of people on the planet are really sick with schizophrenia. However, we are talking exclusively about diagnosed, recorded cases.
Schizophrenia is a disease that cannot be cured. Yes, a patient with this mental illness can be brought into permanent or prolonged remission. Yes, schizophrenia does not always progress quickly and does not always lead to dementia, and then to death. Yes, a schizophrenic can live a conditionally full life, but he is always forced to take certain medications. The dosage of medications may vary over the course of life, some medications may be substituted for others, but medicinal support is needed at all times. Otherwise, the relapse and rapid progress of the disease is very great. Schizophrenia cannot be completely cured.
