What are the Symptoms of Schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness causing difficulty in managing emotions and making decisions, the inability to think clearly, and trouble relating and interacting with other people.
Diagnosing schizophrenia is a difficult task. There is no test that can be used to make a definitive diagnosis of schizophrenia. Other mental illnesses, such as methamphetamine or LSD use, can mimic the symptoms of schizophrenia, and other factors (such as drug use) can cause schizophrenic-like symptoms.
Another roadblock in the diagnostic process is denial, which many people with schizophrenia develop because they don’t believe they have the disease. This lack of awareness makes the diagnostic process as well as subsequent treatment efforts more difficult.
When Does Schizophrenia Usually Show Up?
Schizophrenia affects both men and women at different times:
Men: Late adolescence to early adolescence.
Women: Late twenties to early thirties.
Although schizophrenia can strike anyone at any age, it is extremely rare for someone under the age of 12 or over the age of 40 to be diagnosed.
Symptoms of Schizophrenia
Depending on the stage of the disorder, the symptoms of schizophrenia may vary. Diagnosis can be more difficult at different stages of life and at different ages.
Symptoms may mimic common adolescent behavior when a person is in the early stages of the condition (called the prodromal stage) during adolescence. Symptoms like these could be the first signs of schizophrenia:
- Sleep problems
- A decrease in performance (such as a drop in grades)
- A sudden change in a person’s social or friends’ group
- Withdrawing or isolating oneself
Unfortunately, these early symptoms can also be normal developmental hurdles that an adolescent goes through. This factor is one of several that complicates the diagnosis process.
In addition to a functional decline that must last at least six months, common symptoms of schizophrenia include:
- Hearing voices, seeing things, or smelling things that others don’t notice are all examples of hallucinations. To a person with schizophrenia, auditory hallucinations (hearing voices) and visual hallucinations (seeing people or other things that do not exist) appear very real.
- Delusions are false beliefs that a person clings to despite evidence to the contrary.
- Disorganized thinking causes symptoms such as talking in a jumbled, nonsensical manner, starting a conversation in the middle of a sentence, or otherwise saying things that are nonsensical to others.
- Disorganized or abnormal behavior can manifest itself in a variety of ways, ranging from erratic behavior to agitation, bizarre posture, a complete lack of response, or excessive physical movements.
- Negative symptoms of schizophrenia are those that indicate a lack of normal behaviours, such as those that allow a person to enjoy themselves.
Examples of negative symptoms of schizophrenia include:
- Lack of emotion
- Blunted expression
- Speech that appears dull
- Poor hygiene
- Lack of energy and enthusiasm
- Social isolation
- Difficulty concentrating
- A decreased interest in work, school, goals, and other activities
- Insomnia
Cognitive impairment. including trouble remembering, learning, concentrating, organizing thoughts, completing tasks, and making decisions
Negative symptoms of schizophrenia often appear several years before the person has their first psychotic episode. During the second stage of the disease, psychotic episodes (the active stage) begin.
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