Example Essay on Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a brain disorder that affects the way someone thinks, acts, and expresses their emotions. Schizophrenia affects the way someone thinks in the following way of making up different scenarios. Schizophrenia is one of the most chronic mental illnesses. People affected by this disease have problems with society, working, school, and relationships with others. This disease isn’t curable, but it’s treatable with the correct medications. People affected by Schizophrenia don’t have split or multiple personalities. Schizophrenia is under the psychosis category, therefore people affected by psychotic disorders often lose touch with reality. Although they don’t realize when things are different they have senses that things aren’t right, in their eyes the world is jumbled confusion. They can’t make out their thoughts, image, and sounds being heard.

The way an affected person acts is shocking and very strange, so when viewed by others, their behaviors seem worse than when viewed by people that know what’s wrong. No one realizes the signs of Schizophrenia because they don’t think about it, but when a person with Schizophrenia starts losing touch with reality they go into a psychotic episode. A psychotic episode is when someone sees stuff that isn’t really there and reacts to that situation, so the person seeing and believing these hallucinations become confused between reality and what they’re seeing. Some would say that people affected by Schizophrenia can control it, but really it isn’t easy to control at all. Someone affected with Schizophrenia often doesn't know they have a problem with anything (A).

As stated in the Neuroscience for Kids magazine article Schizophrenia isn’t just one simple disease there are three different types of Schizophrenia (B).  The word Schizophrenia wasn’t officially used until nineteen eleven by Eugen Bleuler. Eugen Bleuler was a Swiss psychiatrist and eugenicist most notable for his contributions to the understanding of mental illness. He coined the name Schizophrenia. In this paper the following information will be given; the types of Schizophrenia, genetics, and the brain activity of Schizophrenics. 

Types of Schizophrenia

There isn’t just one type of Schizophrenia there are three different types. In the Neuroscience for Kids magazine article it’s stated that the different types of Schizophrenias, which are Disorganized Schizophrenia, Catatonic Schizophrenia, and Paranoid Schizophrenia.

Disorganized Schizophrenia is when the affected has lack of emotion and has disorganized speech. People affected with Disorganized Schizophrenia speak very little or their speech is disjointed. When in the middle of a conversation they will change the sentence mid topic. That’s why at times the affected can be seen rambling on about the scenarios playing in their head. The rambling will sound like a bunch of nonsense, but in their head everything makes complete sense. They believe all of the mixed conversations and thoughts in their mind. 

Catatonic Schizophrenia is when there is movement reduced, rigid posture, and waxy flexibility. Catatonia is a negative impact where the affected are fixed to a single position. By being fixed to a single position that means that once they’re in a certain position they won’t be moving for a while. They’re stuck in that same position. There’s no moving or even flinching. With these negative effects the affected could begin to have social withdrawal. With Catatonic Schizophrenia there is also loss of energy and absence of emotions. People with Schizophrenia sometimes have poor grooming habits. When they lose touch with reality they seem to even lose touch with their daily grooming techniques. If someone tries to help them they would think that the person is trying to harm them or tell them wrong. They wouldn’t know wrong from right in any situation. All because of their brain telling and showing them stuff that isn’t really there.

Paranoid Schizophrenia is when the affected have strong delusions or strong hallucinations. Delusions are unshakable beliefs of something false. These delusions can;t be pushed or shoved away. When something is determined andmade up in their mind it won’t be able to become unchanged. Delusions give the brain false information and make a person think that what they’re thinking is correct and true. But really deep down inside they believe whatever their brain tells them is true (B). 

How It Goes with Genetics

Genetics play a big role in the progression of Schizophrenia. The Neuroscience for Kids states that a part of  the development of Schizophrenia has to do with genetics also (B). Studies have shown that most people who get Schizophrenia are twins. To be exact this is common in identical twins. Monozygotic is the term used for identical twins and Dizygotic is used for fraternal twins. Identical twins are when the babies share everything alike , and fraternal twins are when the babies are completely different. Schizophrenia found in the world population is one percent. One percent of the world’s population is seven billion five hundred twenty- seven million. Studies have also shown that kids who become adopted can also get Schizophrenia. Thirteen percent of the adopted people whose relatives were biological were diagnosed with Schizophrenia. Two percent of the adopted ones whose parents weren’t diagnosed still became infected with it.

Non - genetic factors can be caused by trauma at an early age, infections, bad social interactions, and family stress. These factors can cause Schizophrenia in the following way because trauma can cause someone to relive the same traumatic situations over and over again. The infections can cause the person to think that them being sick is a normal thing in life. Which goes with the concept of negative symptoms where they withdraw from everyone and everything. Family stress can cause people to over work their brain and set their brain to the only situation they know best family problems. Some studies have been done where the focus is on neurotransmitters called Dopamine. Dopamine plays an important role in the functions of the brain and when it communicates with the other body systems, emotions, the way someone learns, and their senses.

Evidence proves that the Dopamine Theory plays a role while there’s data that doesn’t prove it at all. It’s known that Schizophrenia isn’t yet curable, but there are medications that can help control the Schizophrenia symptoms. Antipsychotic medications developed in the nineteen fifties. Twenty- five to forty percent of infected who take these medications have side effects. The affected who do counseling still have symptoms even when taking the antipsychotic. The medications don’t just get rid of the Schizophrenia symptoms but they do reduce how they affect a person who’s infected. They will continue to have difficulty with working with others because they don’t have technical skills. Due to Schizophrenia they weren’t able to fully learn everything they should have properly (B). 

Schizophrenia and Suicide

Schizophrenia isn’t just the brain being affected it also has to do with suicide. People with Schizophrenia are strongly linked to suicide. There are warning signs, but there are also times when there aren’t any warning signs at all. Suddenly they’re giving into the voices telling them to act their thoughts out. For them it’s hard to understand when something  shouldn’t be done because Schizophrenia is telling them it’s the right thing to do. It’s extremely important that family and associates know what to do to care for Schizophrenics well. With Schizophrenia patients many males are the ones who attempt suicide. People who have high IQ’s  which is an intelligence quotient. High achievers are also people who attempt suicide. Attempts are also higher in teens and young adults. If a patient doesn’t take their medications there’s a possible chance that the person could become suicidal. 

Hallucinations and delusions have a weaker link to suicide. It’s important to keep a lookout for when the person feels hopeless and when they have suffered a traumatic loss. Even though they aren’t in the right mind to realize something has changed they still get a feeling when they have lost someone special to them. When people become aware that they have an illness they begin to take care of themselves. Completely healthy people take it harder than people who have been sick their whole life. They go from living a perfect life to having to deal with taking medications and everything comes with this disease. It’s important to watch for suicidal symptoms in these people also because they are at a higher risk of suicide. If someone is diagnosed with Schizophrenia they should be treated for depression also ( C ).

Comparing a Person with Schizophrenia and Without

The brain of an infected person is completely different from someone who isn’t. A journal source from Awesome Stories has a picture of two brains next to each other. The brains are owned by a set of identical twins. One affected with Schizophrenia and the other one isn’t affected by it. The twins are twenty- eight years old. The brain located to the left of the page isn’t affected, his brain appears normal and there’s no swelling. However the brain to the right of the journal page is infected. The brain to the left cracks in the skull and are way bigger and thicker. Which is definitely not good because the cracks are two centimeters bigger than the unaffected twin. In the top part of the brain there are medium size holes in the middle of the brain top half. In the exact middle of the brain everything in the infected has nothing but gaps. The two brains next together you can see where in the infected it looks like everything has been eroded away and the holes and cracks are bigger. One twin is typically diagnosed with Schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is something that should be taken seriously. 

As explained the brain starts to slowly fade away as time goes on and it progresses. Some would question “ How it’s possible to have scans on the brain if one can’t be diagnosed by them.” The answer to that asked question is Schizophrenia isn’t diagnosed by MRI which is Magnetic Resonance Imaging. The MRI only helps the doctor see how progressed it is.  Schizophrenia is diagnosed by psychiatrists. One has to go to counseling and evaluations to become correctly diagnosed with Schizophrenia. There are different types of Schizophrenias which are Disorganized Schizophrenia, Catatonic Schizophrenia, and Paranoid Schizophrenia. Teens, identical twins, and young adults are people who are mostly affected by Schizophrenia. 

Disorganized Schizophrenia is lack of emotion,  Catatonic Schizophrenia is reduced movement, and Paranoid Schizophrenia is strong delusions and hallucinations. Adopted kids can also become Schizophrenics just by stress, infections, and trauma at an early age. Medications have been around for a long time. Those medications don’t get rid of Schizophrenia, but it does get rid of some of the symptoms. Suicide in Schizophrenia patients are high. That’s why it’s important to always watch for signs of different behaviors. Even though people affected by Schizophrenia already have different behaviors it can be noticed when their normal behavior isn’t the same. Is it believable that people with Schizophrenia can live a normal life one day by treating it correctly?