Knowing What is Schizophrenia: Causes and Symptoms in Adolescents

YOGYAKARTA - Schizophrenia is one of the most serious mental health disorders. Many people ask what schizophrenia is, because this disease is often misunderstood and has a negative stigma from the community.

Schizophrenia is not a "dual personality" or a "crazy" person, but a condition that affects the way a person thinks, feels, and behaves.

This disorder can cause a mixture of hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized thoughts and behavior. As a result, people with schizophrenia often lose contact with reality, making it very difficult to live a daily life.

For more details, see the explanation of what schizophrenia is in the review below.

What is Schizophrenia?

Quoted from the Mayo Clinic website, Schizophrenia is a serious mental health condition that affects the way a person thinks, feels, and behaves. This condition can cause a mixture of hallucinations, delusions, as well as disorganized thoughts and behaviors.

Hallucinations involve seeing things or hearing voices that are not observed by others. Delusions involve strong beliefs in things that are not true. People with schizophrenia seem to lose touch with reality, which can make daily life very difficult.

People with schizophrenia need lifelong treatment. This treatment includes medications, talk therapy (psychotherapy), and help in learning how to manage daily life activities.

Because many people with schizophrenia are unaware that they have a mental health condition and may not believe that they need treatment, many studies have examined the outcomes of untreated psychosis.

People who experience psychosis without treatment often have more severe symptoms, more hospitalizations, poorer thinking and processing abilities, poor social outcomes, injuries, and even death.

On the other hand, early treatment often helps control symptoms before serious complications arise, so that the long-term prognosis is better.

Causes and Factors of Schizophrenia

Although the exact cause of schizophrenia is not fully known, experts believe that this mental health disorder arises due to a combination of genetic, brain chemical, and environmental factors. Schizophrenia usually begins to appear in late adolescence to early 30s.

Symptoms of Schizophrenia

The symptoms of schizophrenia are very diverse and can vary from person to person. Here are the main symptoms you need to know:

Delusion

Delusions are strong beliefs that do not correspond to reality. This happens when a person believes in things that are not real or not true.

For example, people with schizophrenia may think that they are being hurt or harassed when they are not. They may think that they are the target of certain gestures or comments when they are not. They may feel very famous or have extraordinary abilities when they are not. Or they may feel that a major disaster will happen when it is not true. Most people with schizophrenia experience delusions.

Hallucinations

Sufferers see, hear, or feel things that no one else feels. The most common hallucination is hearing a voice that feels very real.

Unorganized Thoughts and Speech

Speech becomes incoherent, difficult to understand, or jumps between topics. Answers to questions are often irrelevant. In extreme cases, it is called "word salad" (a random mixture of meaningless words).

Unregulated Motor Behavior

Behavior can seem very childish, restless for no reason, or very passive and unresponsive. Movements are often not in line with social context and difficult to complete daily tasks.

Negative Symptoms

Other symptoms of schizophrenia are that sufferers experience a decrease in emotional and social functions, such as:

Lack of emotional expression Monotone voice Difficulty feeling pleasure Withdrawal from social environments Loss of motivation and initiative Difficulty planning for the future

Symptoms can vary between individuals, both in terms of type and severity. Sometimes symptoms improve, sometimes they get worse, and some can appear continuously.

Symptoms of Schizophrenia in Adolescents

The symptoms of schizophrenia in adolescents are similar to those experienced by adults, but the condition may be more difficult to recognize. This is because some of the early symptoms of schizophrenia - namely those that appear before hallucinations, delusions, and disorganization - are often seen in many adolescents, such as:

Pulling away from friends and family. Decreased school performance. Difficulty sleeping. Feeling irritable or depressed. Lack of motivation.

In addition, the use of recreational drugs (psychoactive) such as marijuana, stimulants (cocaine and methamphetamine), or hallucinogens can cause similar symptoms. Compared to adults with schizophrenia, adolescents with this condition tend to have fewer delusions and are more likely to have hallucinations.

That's the explanation of what schizophrenia is. Get other interesting news updates by visiting the VOI.id page.

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