Analysis of The Symptoms of Schizophrenia

This essay is about schizophrenia and the opposite outcomes it has, and the argument sources to the subject. The topic at hand has the downsides of hallucinations, delusions, as well as emotional and mental behaviors. Certain symptoms that inflict damage to the person’s personal life keep them from having a normal life. Along with schizophrenia come some negative symptoms, psychotic symptoms, and cognitive deficiencies.

There are many symptoms that occur with schizophrenia; however, they can fit in categories. According to New York Times article, negative symptoms include a decrease in self-confidence, a decrease in emotion, monotone voice, inappropriate responses to changes in their life, and a decrease in interest in life or activities that were pleasurable previously. Psychotic symptoms include; hallucinations, and delusions. These are all problems that may occur when an individual has schizophrenia, though not all symptoms are always present in all cases of schizophrenia.

Catatonic behavior is a negative symptom of schizophrenia that occurs in some patients. According to the New York Times article, negative symptoms are more common than psychotic symptoms, which are also called positive symptoms, in older patients. After treatment for positive symptoms, negative symptoms still often continue. According to the Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders, catatonia is a disruption of a person’s physical actions. The most common is a stiff, motionless position that is held by an individual for an extended period of time, sometimes lasting days, weeks, or even longer. Other times, it includes distressed movements for no reason at all. Some individuals with catatonia have a strange posture, or a posture that may be inappropriate for the time or location. 

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association, which is also known as the DSM-IV-TR, 5–9% of all psychiatric inpatients display some catatonic symptoms, and 10–15% of these cases are connected with schizophrenia. Catatonic behavior disturbs all aspects of a patient’s life. It decreases the patient’s ability to form close relationships, and maintain a lasting career. In some severe cases, whether the person is motionless or moves due to distress, he or she needs to be watched at all times so they do not hurt themselves or others. This is just one symptom that is luckily not as common in schizophrenia patients.

Hallucinations and Delusions are other symptoms of schizophrenia. These are psychotic symptoms, which are also called positive symptoms because they are additions to the experiences of a normal person. According to the New York Times article, psychotic symptoms occur in sporadic changes from phases of symptoms to times without symptoms. They usually appear in men ages seventeen to thirty, and women twenty to forty. These are not the only psychotic symptoms; however, they are the most common and most commonly discussed.

Hallucinations and Delusions are sometimes present together; however, they are not together all the time. According to Schizophrenia.com, hallucinations are an incorrect awareness, which are inaccurate, and affect all of the person’s senses. They sense things that others do not. Different patients describe these unusual perceptions, which they can hear, in diverse ways. Some voices that a person hears seem to come from the inside, other voices seem to come from outside the person and involve them in a conversation that only that person can hear. Some voices are demanding, reassuring, menacing, or are flattering to the person. Many patients come to believe that there is a “broadcasting device in their bodies”, or that there is a mystical reason for their unusual perceptions. These perceptions become so real to the individual. Psychologists are not able to make the person believe that it is just their imagination. During rehabilitation, patients learn to suppress the voices and have them only when they want them. During severe phases, the patient usually has the same perceptions. However, the patient often feels like a victim to the feelings. 

Delusions are incorrect opinions or misunderstandings of something that happened. Schizophrenic patients tend to over personalize everything that goes on. If a schizophrenic person is out somewhere and someone runs into them they may think there is a plot out to hurt them, even though to a normal person this is not reasonable. Trying to reason with a schizophrenic person, in telling them that they are misinterpreting something, makes them think the person who is reasoning with them not trustworthy. Hallucinations and Delusions are similar in that they are different perceptions that a schizophrenic person has that are incorrect and are an addition to the perceptions of a normal person.

Cognitive impairment, also known as disordered thinking, is another group of symptoms that occur in schizophrenia. According to a New York Times article, this group of symptoms can happen before other indications of schizophrenia. Symptoms include; a lack of attention, unusually connecting words and ideas that make no sense, memory impairment, and memory loss. Since these individuals often scramble their words together, it makes everyday conversations difficult. Memory impairment and memory loss create problems when trying to remember people, conversations, and events, These are all symptoms that can be found in a lot of individuals, not just in schizophrenia; however, these are symptoms in schizophrenia that make it a burden to live with.

In conclusion, these symptoms can be very disruptive to a person’s life. According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, individuals usually fall under a group of disorders. Paranoid individuals are nervous, often angry or confrontational, and wrongly believe that someone else is trying to harm someone. Disorganized individuals have problems voicing their opinions so that others can understand, act naïve, and often show little feeling. Catatonic individuals may be active or not move at all. They may also be bodily stiff, make unusual facial expressions, and be displaced. Individuals with any type of schizophrenia may struggle with keeping friends and/or a job. These individuals may correspondingly have difficulties with nervousness, depression, and suicidal feelings or actions. This shows that a person with schizophrenia cannot have a normal life, and are in some way or another forced to change their lifestyle when symptoms get really bad.