Schizophrenia Symptoms to watch out for

In schizophrenia, a patient’s inner behavior and world changes drastically. Some of the most common signs and symptoms of schizophrenia are hallucinations, depersonalization, delusions, etc. They may not look ill but might behave bizarrely as the illness builds up. For instance they may cover themselves with aluminum foil to- what they might believe-prevent broadcasting of their thoughts and to protect their brain from harmful waves.

The signs of schizophrenia vary greatly, and in developed cases, the patient may talk illogically or may get angry at imaginary threats. In passive phases they may show a lack of movement, emotion, personality etc. Predictable or unpredictable behavior and alternating between these extremes is common.

Clusters of symptoms concept must be understood to understand schizophrenia symptoms. The symptoms can be grouped as:

·Positive symptoms of schizophrenia- Suspiciousness, hearing voices, delusions, etc.

·Negative symptoms of schizophrenia- Difficulties in speaking and taking personal care, social withdrawal, inability to feel any pleasure, etc.

·Cognitive symptoms- Difficulties in remembering, understanding or analyzing simple things.

·Mood or affective symptoms- mostly relating to depression (often causing suicide).

Some helpful definitions to figure out schizophrenia are:

·Psychosis, i.e. being out of reality. It is marked by hallucinations and delusions. Patients are unaware of reality and imagine things that are unreal. It is prominent to schizophrenia, though not unique to the disease.

·Schizoid or personality disorder, where the patient becomes withdrawn from the society, looking aloof and cold. The emotions and interpersonal settings are restricted.

·Schizotypa, i.e., severe personality disorder. This schizophrenia symptom makes the patient eccentric and odd. They behave bizarrely, showing disturbances in perception.

·Hallucinations, i.e. imagining things. One might sense seeing, feeling, hearing, tasting, etc things that are simply ‘mind’s tricks’.

·Illusion, i.e. wrong perception of things that exist. Like a shadow perceived as a person. It is often confused with hallucination.

·Delusion, i.e. believing in something established as false. For instance the patient might hear the radio warning an extraterrestrial invasion, while it only maybe talking about a road repair schedule.

The different types of schizophrenia and their schizophrenic symptoms are:

·Paranoid-type, i.e. hallucinations and delusions, of being unjustifiable persecuted or being some other (famous) individual. Overall intellectual functioning is normal, though the patient show excessive anger, argumentativeness, anxiety and aloofness.

·Disorganized-type, showing disorganized behavior and speech, inappropriate emotions, etc. For instance the patient may laugh at changing traffic light colors. Normal activities like showering, dressing, etc may get disrupted because of disorganized behavior.

·Catatonic-type, i.e., movement disturbances. The patient may be unusually immobile, too mobile, silent for long hours, or may talk and repeat things insensibly, proving inability to take personal care.

·Undifferentiated-type showing schizophrenia symptoms observed in other types but not matching particularly with one given case.

·Residual-type marked by minimum one past schizophrenia history in a patient not presently exhibiting the positive symptoms. It could be transition period, on the way to absolute remission, sometimes continuing for years without exhibiting any psychotic episodes.