Schizophrenia

One of the major disorders in the psychology field is schizophrenia, a serious brain disorder. It is a disease that makes it difficult for a person to tell the difference between real and unreal experiences. The word traces back to Greek terms for “split” and for “mental functions.”

There are two different types of schizophrenia. One is reactive schizophrenia, which is characterized by the symptoms that are sudden and easily identified. The second type is called process schizophrenia, which develops gradually over a person’s life. The cause of schizophrenia is so puzzling even experts sometimes don’t know what causes the disease. One possible cause for schizophrenia is from heredity. The disease can be passed down from one generation to another. Some researchers also state that it might be caused from the events in a person’s life. The dopamine hypothesis states that schizophrenia may be caused by an excess of certain neurotransmitters in the brain. There are so many possibilities of how schizophrenia is developed that’s why it makes it so impossible to come up with one answer.

A person who has schizophrenia experiences schizophrenia goes through speech disorder, the person will talk and make no sense but will use proper grammar and sentence structure. They also go through hallucinations and delusions, which the person hears voices that, convey instructions about what to think, feel, and do. For example, my uncle suffers from schizophrenia. During the day he will just stare at the sun. When someone asks him why he is staring at the sun he will say, “They tell me to stare at the sun. It will give you power.” He thinks he is normal but he isn’t. People with schizophrenia don’t realize they have a brain disease. They think they are normal like others around them.

There is no cure for schizophrenia today, but proper treatment can usually control the symptoms of schizophrenia.