The condition affects less than 1% of adults in the U.S.and tends to be misunderstood.
It also covers treatments and coping strategies that can help.
In someone with schizophrenia, the most basic processes of perceiving and thinking are affected by the illness.
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Every person with schizophrenia will have a unique experience of the world, but there are common themes.
Some schizophrenia symptoms that a person might experience include illogical thoughts, hallucinations, delusions, and unusual movements.
So what does it really feel like to have schizophrenia?
Get our printable guide to help you ask the right questions at your next doctor’s appointment.
The answer isn’t simple.
Each person’s experience is unique and different; people can experience a spectrum of symptoms.
An individuals personal and unique experience, of course, wont be broken into these neat categories.
Symptoms of schizophrenia usually first appear sometime between the late teens and mid-30s.
The symptoms typically appear gradually and increase in severity over a period of time.
Sadness is often a natural response to being trapped in a terrifying and isolating situation.
Delusional ideas have a lot of power to preoccupy thoughts.
Sometimes people with delusions can convince others that their delusions are true.
Even after responding well toantipsychotic medications, a person with schizophrenia may continue to believe their delusions are true.
It’s also possible that someone can develop an insight that other people think the ideas are probably delusions.
For example, hearing voices speaking to you from the radio is a hallucination.
It is possible to experience hallucinations while being aware that they arent real.
Human beings usually rely on their perceptions to tell whats real.
Both of these perceptions are within the realm of normal human experience, and neither are pathological.
That would be a bang out ofauditory hallucination.
Visual hallucinations can take many forms as well.
They may even hold open doors for these hallucinations to pass through when they leave a room.
People experiencing disorganized speech are often aware that their thoughts and words arent communicating the things they intend.
However, they typically dont understand why.
On the other hand, they may seem to be unaware that the listener doesnt understand them.
More and more legal jurisdictions are recognizing mental illness and referring people for psychiatric evaluation.
People without schizophrenia also perform bizarre and socially unusual behaviors.
Relatively healthy people engage in socially inappropriate or unusual behaviors.
In this way, the experience can be like that of certain kinds of depression.
Or the person may also fail to find significant pleasure in things that were once delightful, calledanhedonia.
Many people who have experienced depression will understand this feeling of being in a mental fog.
Loneliness, delusions, hallucinations, perceptual distortions, and disorganized speech and behaviors are common.
Samuel Keith, MD
Real people with real feelings get schizophrenia.
People with this condition may experience feelings of fear about not having control over their own minds.
There is no cure for schizophrenia, but there are ways to cope and function effectively in daily life.
Some antipsychotic medications can be administered by injection once or twice each month.
Psychotherapy
Therapy can also be helpful for managing the symptoms of schizophrenia.
Get our printable guide to help you ask the right questions at your next doctor’s appointment.
The next step is finding strategies that can help them function and live their best.
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