Schizophrenia and Coping Tips
What is schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia is a type of mental illness in which the affected person cannot distinguish between real and imaginary things or situations. There are times when people can completely lose touch with reality.
Most people with schizophrenia recover well, whereas some experience relapse or worsening of the condition. If you have been diagnosed with schizophrenia, you can cope with its symptoms by combination therapy of medications, psychotherapy, self-care, and a good support system.
What are the symptoms of schizophrenia?
Some of the characteristic signs and symptoms of schizophrenia include:
- Hallucinations: You start seeing, hearing, feeling, or smelling things that don’t exist.
- Delusions (false beliefs): You may not believe things based on facts but instead form your own false or irrational belief.
- Confused thinking: You are unable to focus on a single thought—there is a rapid shift in thoughts that leads to confusion in the thinking process.
- Disordered thinking: Disordered thinking manifests in the form of randomly spoken words and complete incoherence (nonsense sentences) in speaking or writing.
- Inappropriate emotional response: You are not able to understand the difference between serious and light moments. As a result, you display opposite emotions in events where you are expected to react normally as a healthy person (without schizophrenia) would react.
Other signs and symptoms of schizophrenia include:
- You suddenly become overly active.
- There is a sudden appearance of a state (catatonia) in which your body becomes rigid and cannot be moved.
- You take a bath very fewer times in a week and stop grooming (you may look untidy and shabby).
- You start withdrawing from meeting family and friends.
- You are unable to carry out your routine activities at school, work, or home.
- You lose interest even in things that were enjoyable earlier.
What is the medical treatment of schizophrenia?
The medical treatment for schizophrenia works by reducing psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions, paranoia, and disordered thinking. Finding the right drug and dosage takes time, and hence, treatment is a long-term process.
Second-generation antipsychotic drugs seem to work with fewer side effects than first-generation antipsychotics. Some of these include:
