Scizophrenia essays

Scizophrenia essays I chose to write my research paper on the bizarre world of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a serious psychotic disorder that is characterized by a loss of contact with reality. It is a severely disabilitating disease that has stricken the lives of almost two million people in the United States alone. Since the disease is so devastating, the majority of people that suffer from it live either on the streets or in mental institutions. It is believed that patients with schizophrenia occupy almost forty percent of the beds in American mental hospitals. All people diagnosed with schizophrenia have perceptual difficulties or in other words suffer from hallucinations. A hallucination is a false sensory experience, such as seeing things, hearing things, and even feeling things that are not really there. Hallucinations have a compelling sense of reality to the persons who suffer from them. Auditory hallucinations by far are the most common form of hallucination in schizophrenia. Thought disord ers or delusions are also a symptom found in all schizophrenics. These include incoherent speech, quick shifts of ideas from one thing to a totally unrelated one, and bizarre thoughts and ideas. The delusions that all schizophrenics encounter are false beliefs that are believed by the schizophrenic and no one else. The delusions of schizophrenics go well beyond thinking that their being watched. They are often convinced that someone or something is controlling them by either radio, hypnosis or some other related form. Schizophrenic persons also have severe disturbances in emotion and behavior. This is the most worrisome symptom to family and friends of the patient. Schizophrenics are incapable of putting themselves in other peoples places. Side effects range from laughing at sad situations to self-mutilation. What makes this disease to be so frightening and so hard to und ...