Schizophrenia is a brain disorder that affects how a person sees the world. Schizophrenia makes it difficult for you to distinguish between what is real or unreal. It can stop you from thinking clearly, handling your emotions properly or functioning in a normal way. However, one can manage schizophrenia effectively. The best way is to recognise the signs and symptoms that one might be having. Here is how you can recognise the symptoms of schizophrenia:

Delusions: A delusion is an idea that a person might have despite there being obvious evidence that it is not true or does not exist. These are extremely common in schizophrenia and occur in ninety percent of the people with this disorder. These delusions can be of many types:
Delusion of persecution: When a person believes that someone is out to get them.
Delusion of reference: a very neutral environmental event tends to have a personal meaning to them. They might think that a person on the TV or a billboard is trying to send a message specifically for them.
Delusion of control: In this, a person believes that his or her actions are being controlled from the outside.
Hallucinations: These are sensations or sounds that a person experiences as real when they only exist in that person s mind. Visual hallucinations are relatively more common. These are only meaningful to the person who is experiencing them. These voices or visuals are usually horrific, vulgar, abusive or critical. They tend to increase in intensity when the person is alone.
Disorganized speech: People who suffer from this order have a hard time maintaining or concentrating on certain thoughts. They may start sentences and forget what they were talking about. They might even go off track in the middle of conversations. People with this disorder usually say illogical things and speak incoherently. A patient may also make up words or phrases that only have a meaning to them.
Disorganized symptoms: A person is unable to take care of himself or herself or their work. They face a decline in their overall daily functioning and their behaviours are bizarre and may have no purpose. People with this disorder cannot control their impulses.
Negative symptoms: This refers to the absence of behaviours that usually appear normal to other people. These include lack of expressing oneself emotionally, lack of interest or enthusiasm. These also include speech difficulties or abnormalities as well as their lack of interest in the world.
Schizophrenia can be caused due to many reasons. These include lack of oxygen during birth, exposure to a virus during infancy, physical or sexual abuse, depression, hereditary components or enlarged brain ventricles. This disorder can affect a patient s mental as well as physical health and can endanger the people around them as well as their relationships. Hence, the signs and symptoms should be recognised as early as possible in order to get the right kind of treatment.

Schizophrenia - How To Recognize The Signs?

Both schizophrenia and autism are considered to be neurological disorders resulting from atypical neural development, occurring due to a variety of causes. Both these disorders have a genetic predisposition that may be due to environmental factors. However, there are a few basic differences between the two disease conditions.

Autism is also known as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by a spectrum of abnormal behaviour. They include persistent deficits in social communication and interaction, along with restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests or activities.

Signs of autism in babies

By 6 months - No social smiles or other warm, joyful expressions; limited to no eye contact
By 9 months - No sharing of vocal sounds
By 12 months - No babbling or use of gestures to communicate; not responding to one s name when called
By 16 months - No use of words
By 24 months - No meaningful or two-word phrases
Signs of autism at any age

Avoids eye contact and wants to be alone
Finds it difficult to understand other people s feelings
Speaks very less or has delayed language development
Echolalia - Repeats words or phrases
Cannot accept change in routine or surroundings
Performs repetitive behaviours like flapping or rocking
Has restricted interests and hobbies
Reacts unusually intense to sounds, smells, tastes, lights, colours etc.
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a neuropsychiatric disorder that begins during late adolescence and early adulthood. It is characterized by delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech and behavioural changes that cause social and occupational dysfunctions.

Signs of Schizophrenia

The symptoms of schizophrenia are usually observed between ages 16 and 30, such as e.g. delusions, hallucinations, thought disorders, movement disorders etc.
Delusions are false beliefs of the patient that may take many forms like delusions of persecution or grandeur. You may feel somebody is controlling you or may think you have extraordinary powers and abilities.
Hallucinations are when the patient hears voices more than seeing, feeling, tasting or smelling random things, which are not actually there.
Thought disorders are when the person jumps from one subject to another for no logical reason.
Some negative symptoms i.e. these are symptoms which are normally present in a healthy individual, but are absent in a schizophrenic patient. E.g. absence of facial expressions, lack of motivation etc.
Cognitive symptoms affect the individual s thought process. They can be positive or negative based on their expression. E.g. poor  executive functioning  which deals with the ability to understand information and make decisions using them, finding it difficult to focus etc.
Although both Autsim spectrum disorder and schizophrenia are interlinked in their causes and neurological background, the symptoms for each disorder are different. 
Consult your physician if you happen to observe any of these symptoms in your loved ones.

Autism & Schizophrenia - What Is The Difference?

Chronic health disorders like schizophrenia affect not only the patient, but also the life of their care givers. Though schizophrenia can be treated to improve the patient's quality of life, it cannot be cured. Hence, it falls on the care giver's shoulders to watch out for symptoms of this disease and manage the person and their disorder. What should one do in such a case?

1. Educate yourself: the first step towards looking after a person with schizophrenia is to know the symptoms of the disease. With treatment, these may become better or worse so if you notice any change in the symptoms, bring it to your doctors notice at once.

2. Reduce stress: your goal as a schizophrenic person's caregiver should be to give them a calm environment and boost their confidence. Stress has a negative effect on all people and in schizophrenics this effect is much worse. Hence reduce stress and create an effective support system and structured environment for your loved one.

3. Do not ask the patient to change'his reality: when a person is suffering from schizophrenia, you should not force them to change their behaviour and reality, in order to adjust in the society at large. You should rather support the patient to accept his reality, to be at peace, since there is a very strong genetic component involved in its aetiology. Also, it is important that, both the patient and the family in particular should opt for regular counselling sessions.

4. Regular exercise: schizophrenics need not be cooped up in the house all day. Encourage the patient to go outside and exercise regularly. Exercise reduces stress and produces endorphins that make a person feel energized and happy. This should be complemented by a healthy diet. Minimize the amount of carbs and sugar intake and increase the amounts of omega 3 fatty acids in the patient's diet.

5. Join a support group: joining a support group is a very good idea for both the patient and the caregiver. For the patient, this provides a form of social interaction and for the caregiver is a platform to meet people with similar first hand experiences

6. Encourage treatment: convincing a schizophrenic person to seek treatment can be quite challenging. Suggest treating symptoms of the disorder such as insomnia and lack of energy rather than the disease itself to make the patient feel more comfortable. Give the patient options to choose from to make them feel more in control of the situation.

7. Monitor medication: once the treatment has started, ensure that the patient sticks to the prescription. Maintain a regular schedule by using weekly pill boxes and alarms. Also keep an eye on the possible side effects of these medicines. Ensure that your doctor has a complete list of medicines that the patient takes so that there is no chance of medicines interacting negatively with each other.

8. Prepare for crisis situations: it is always a good idea to have an emergency plan in place. Keep emergency contact details of all the doctors and therapists at hand along with the address and phone number of the closest hospital. Share your situation with friends and family so that in case of an emergency, they can be relied upon to take care of your children and other dependants.

Living with Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder which is characterized by disturbed mental thoughts in the patient, paranoia, phobias, hallucination, slow dementia and etc. As it is clear from this brief definition, Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness which can leave a patient stranded from performing basic day-to-day activities or even keeping healthy relationships with their close ones. 

Even though there is no particular age where people are vulnerable from suffering from this disease, yet from a common observation and study conducted on the patients, it has been observed that schizophrenia hit men in their early 20 s and early 30 s in case of women. The study also feels that it is impossible for a schizophrenic to be of age younger than 12 or older than 40. According to another study conducted by the universities, the life of a schizophrenic patient is not guaranteed. 

Symptoms of Schizophrenia:

As mentioned above, there is a common pattern in each schizophrenic patient, however, it is next to impossible to diagnose schizophrenia in teenagers since the onset of the disease is symbolized by the patient's constant change of friends or decrease of performance in school, both of which is normal in teen years. Schizophrenics also isolate themselves and become moody which again, is a common instinct of the teenager. However, apart from these, there are other differentiating symptoms as mentioned below which help in the accurate diagnosis of the disease. 

Hallucinating
Delusional
Emotionally dull and disconnected with their loved ones
Negative social life and academic performance
Dementia
Disability of remembering easy-to-learn and remember things
Causes of Schizophrnia

According to the researchers, there are more than one reasons for this disease. Read them all below:

Genetic mutation and inheritance- genetics play an important role in this disease. It needs more than one mutational combination of schizophrenia to happen and that is why it is observed in less than 1% of the population only. Those who have had a family history of schizophrenia are very hard to inherit the disease because patients hardly ever reach the stage of life called marriage. But a family history of psychosis is sure a determining factor. 
Neurotic reason- this reason includes the brain chemistry and important brain chemical such as- dopamine and glutamate.
Drug abuse- it has been revealed that consuming hallucinating and mind-altering drugs during teenage years are greatly responsible for the increase in the number of schizophrenia cases in early 20 s.
Treatment

As it was mentioned above, there is absolutely no way to cure schizophrenia known to man as of yet. However, the only way to approach it medically is by managing its symptoms separately. Such as:

Antipsychotic medication
Psychotherapies Self-help groups
Nursing care

Schizophrenia - What Causes It?

Bipolar disorder:

Also known as manic-depressive disorder, bipolar disorder is the sudden change in mood, which might take a swing from depression to mania. It is a very severe disorder and can bring about unstable and precarious behavior. The risk of having suicidal tendencies is also quite high. Bipolar disorder is usually treated with medicines alongside therapy.

Symptoms:

1. Bipolar mania
2. Hypomania
3. Depression
4. Mood swings

The mood swings do not follow any particular pattern.

Schizophrenia Disorder

Schizophrenia is a chronic mental disorder which affects the general behavior and lifestyle of a person. Schizophrenics might face a difficulty in distinguishing between the real and the imaginary.
Contrary to public belief, schizophrenia is neither split personality nor multiple personalities. It is not an after effect of any previous traumatic experience. It might be genetic or a result of chemical imbalance in the brain chemicals.

Symptoms:

1. Paranoia
2. Senseless talking
3. Feeling apathetic
4. Insomnia
5. Personality change
6. Hallucinations
7. Delusions
8. Withdrawal from society
9. Attention deficit disorder or add

No specific medicine is available for schizophrenia. Usually, rehabilitation is advised to regain confidence and recover skills required for a productive life.

Psychosis

Similar to schizophrenia, psychosis is another mental disorder which is characterized by hallucinations and delusions. Psychosis is extremely dangerous and harmful as it might spur you to cause self-inflicted wounds and pain. It is of utmost importance to consult a doctor immediately after experiencing psychotic symptoms.

Symptoms:

1. Hallucinations
2. Delusions
3. Depression
4. Anxiety
5. Suspicion
6. Insomnia or hypersomnia
7. Withdrawal from society
8. Attention deficit disorder or add
9. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD

The only available diagnosis for psychosis is a psychiatric evaluation. Certain medical tests and x-rays may also be executed along with it to detect the underlying cause. Psychosis may be caused due to Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, brain tumors, Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy, etc.

Although there aren't any medical complications in psychosis, it should not be left untreated due to its harmful effects. Medication and therapy are the known cures of psychosis.

Symptoms of Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia Disorder and Psychosis

Schizophrenia has been recognized as a mental disorder that combines symptoms like hallucinations with distorted thinking and others like fright and severe paranoia. This condition is one that gets progressively worse over time and leads to delusional thinking. Oversleeping and complaining of fatigue are usually the earliest signs of this condition's onset. Eventually, it becomes a debilitating factor in the life of the patient, who will not be able to function in a normal way due to the severe symptoms.

Read on to know more about the types and causes of this condition:

Genetic Causes: Schizophrenia may be caused due to genetic factors and it may be a learned or inherited disorder. It is known to affect patients who have a parent or a sibling who may have suffered from this condition. Yet, one must also remember that Schizophrenia can only be influenced by genetics, and not determined by the same.
Environmental Causes: When there has been an exposure to a viral infection during the pre natal stage, the patient is susceptible to this condition. Also, it may affect children who have been subject to the loss of a parent or separation at an early age. Physical and emotional abuse in one's childhood may also bring on this condition. Low level of oxygen at the time of birth is one of the causes of this condition in many patients.
Anomalies in Brain Structure: When the brain ventricles of the patient are enlarged, he or she may be prone to this condition. Also, anomalies in the temporal lobes and amygdala have links with the onset of this condition.
Types: A wide variety of mental and medical conditions can manifest with psychotic symptoms that must be considered in the differential diagnosis of schizophreniform disorder. These include psychotic disorder due to another medical condition or its treatment; delirium or major neurocognitive disorder; substance/medication-induced psychotic disorder or delirium; depressive or bipolar disorder with psychotic features; schizoaffective disorder; other specified or unspecified bipolar and related disorder; depressive or bipolar disorder with catatonic features; schizophrenia; brief psychotic disorder; delusional disorder; other specified or unspecified schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorder; schizotypal, schizoid, or paranoid personality disorders; autism spectrum disorder; disorders presenting in childhood with disorganized speech; attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder; obsessive-compulsive disorder; posttraumatic stress disorder; and traumatic brain injury.
Since the diagnostic criteria for schizophreniform disorder and schizophrenia differ primarily in duration of illness, the discussion of the differential diagnosis of schizophrenia also applies to schizophreniform disorder. 

Brief psychotic disorder. Schizophreniform disorder differs in duration from brief psychotic disorder, which has a duration of less than 1 month.

Residual Schizophrenia is a condition where the patient does not experience the various debilitating symptoms of the condition, and is on the road to recovery. Yet, even in this type of Schizophrenia, the patient will not really show any interest in life and the activities around him or her. Finally, the last type of Schizophrenia is Schizoaffective Disorder which is characterised by the symptoms of Schizophrenia as well as the symptoms of major mood disorders. When combined, this condition can lead to major complications and complex behavior.

A patient suffering from this condition will need to see a mental health specialist like a psychiatrist or a psychologist on an immediate basis. The treatment will be carried out on a long term basis for the results to start appearing.

Schizophrenia - Know the Causes Behind it

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