Understanding Schizophrenia

Some people hear voices and see things and due to human nature, Humans are forced to ask “why?” without understanding others classify these people as evil simply because they believe these people are possessed by an evil spirit. They distance themselves from these evil people because they fear the unknown. Some say these people are not capable of reasoning logically and are unintelligent because of their many demons, while some think it’s the lack of effective parenting, and others say these evil people have no future because they cannot make critical decisions. Thanks to psychologists who took their time to study this “evil people”, it is now understand that they have an illness called schizophrenia. People with schizophrenia are being stereotyped and this comes from lack of adequate understanding of the illness, which creates ignorance and causes others to fear schizophrenic people.

On the contrary, people with schizophrenia are not possessed or evil. Schizophrenia is a mental illness that affects the mind and body. “Unfortunately, this has led to the misconception that the illness is characterized by a ‘split personality,’ which it is not” (Picchioni and Murray 91). Schizophrenic people have shattered mind and not spilt personality. Some schizophrenic people see things, smell things or hear things, feel things that are not real. These are all called hallucination. The auditory hallucination is the most common of all ” People with schizophrenia typically hear voices (auditory hallucinations) which often criticize or abuse them” (Picchioni and Murray 91). Hallucination, delusion and loss of reality are all part of the symptoms of schizophrenia. Taking anti-psychotic drugs like resperidone treats schizophrenia.

The fact that hall...

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...tance ourselves from them. They didn’t ask for their illness, it is a mental disorder that can happen to anyone. We should try to understand and know the illness well, keep an open mind before we judge and jump into conclusion. Schizophrenia stereotype comes from lack of adequate understanding, which leads to fear of the schizophrenic people and ignorance about the illness.

Works Cited

Marco M Picchioni and Robin M Murray. British Medical Journal, 335.7610 (14 July 2007): 91-95.

Schofield, Micheal. January First: A Child's Descent into Madness and Her Father's Struggle to Save Her. New York: Crown, 2012. Print.

Nasar, Sylvia. A Beautiful Mind. New York: Simon and Schuster Paperback, 2011.

Reprint.

Singh, Nirbhay. “Elyn R. Saks, The Center Cannot Hold.” Journal Of Child & Family Studies 16.6 (2007): 902-904. Sociological Collection. Web. 30 Mar. 2014.