Schizophrenia And Its Effects On The Body And Mind

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I chose Schizophrenia as my topic. It interests me because my great grandmother was Schizophrenic. She was a full blooded Cherokee Indian and was raised on a reservation. My grandmother has blonde hair and so my dad and my Aunt both have blonde hair. She refused to see my dad and Aunt because she believed that anyone with blonde hair was going to send her and her family back to the reservation. Anytime she saw anyone with blonde hair she went into a panic. Because of this, she had to be institutionalized for most of the later part of her life. She was able to manage in the first half of her life, but around age fifty she began to deteriorate. I have blonde hair, so I could never meet her, but her story interested me greatly. I wanted to learn more about the disease and its effects on the body and mind.
Psychologists have learned that Schizophrenia is a biological condition and there is no known cure. It is not a mental disorder, so it is not treatable with psychotherapy. It is the second most genetic of the psychological disorders. It affects one percent of the population and is ten times more likely to occur if a first relative is affected. Some of the characteristics are hallucinations, thought disorders, and delusions. Hallucinations are seeing or hearing things that are not there. An example would be thinking that there are bugs crawling on your skin when there are not. They feel very real to the person. Delusions are similar to hallucinations. They are irrational and unrealistic beliefs that can be dangerous to that person and others if they become negative. If a person with Schizophrenia has delusions that are not dangerous, it is better to go along to the delusions then to try to convince the person they are not real. Th...

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...ed by mentally ill people. Many of these mentally ill people are paranoid Schizophrenics. My fellow education majors and I have to understand the symptoms of Paranoid Schizophrenia to be able to look out for students who might have it and not know or who might be dangerous. School shooters are often students or staff who know the school well and are overlooked. By knowing the symptoms, I could possibly prevent a school shooting from occurring. My friend Mandy works in a nursing home and has a resident who is Schizophrenic. She has a delusion that she is married to Adam Cartwright. These delusions are not dangerous, but they do affect her ability to live a normal life. She has other delusions as well, but was married and had children when she was younger. Schizophrenia is a life-altering disease that can be dangerous if people have negative delusions or hallucinations.

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