Today mark the third day of Schizophrenia Awareness Week! There’s so much to talk about in a short amount of time. I’m just going to mention a few things that are widely know about Schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia affects 1% of the population in the U.S. It affects your thinking ability, feelings, and behavior. Its a long term, treatable illness but sadly can not be cured.  For men symptoms usually appear in their early 20s and for woman symptoms usually appear in their late 20s.  Its rare, but in some cases a child could be diagnosed with Schizophrenia. There’s Positive symptoms, negative symptoms, and cognitive symptoms.

Positive Symptoms:

• Hallucination
• Delusions
• Disorganized speech
• Confused thoughts
• Unable to concentrate

Negative Symptoms:

• Trouble finding enjoyment in life
• Flat emotion
• Social withdrawal
• Trouble with speech

Cognitive symptoms:

• Forgetful
• Unorganized thoughts
• Trouble completing task

The most common diagnosed symptoms are Positive symptoms.  Not every schizophrenic has hallucinations or delusions. They also don’t have the same experiences. There’s also schizoaffective, that’s when schizophrenia and bipolar are combined (I left a link below that talks more about schizoaffective disorder). There’s still no results on how people develop Schizophrenia but here are a few that were mentioned.

• Genetics
• Substance use
• Environment
• Traumatic events
• Complications during birth or pregnancy

There’s also many misconceptions about Schizophrenia. I am just going to mention the top 3.

• Schizophrenics have split personalities. (The most common misconception).

• Schizophrenics can’t live a normal life.
• Schizophrenics are violent.

These aren’t necessarily true. When treated they live a normal life like you and I. If schizophrenia is untreated, it could cause you to tune out of reality. With the lack of self-care, it could lead you to homelessness and a lot of the times could lead you to attempt or commit suicide. I personally knew someone that was diagnosed with schizophrenia. I’ve seen it treated and untreated. Schizophrenia is probably one of the most feared mental illnesses to encounter. If you know someone with schizophrenia, please don’t shun them away. Encourage treatment, show love, support and kindness that we all deserve. Remind them they are not alone. They are human beings like you and I, that just need a little more support ❤️.

Links about Schizophrenia: https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/schizophrenia/index.shtml , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIYW9JjZ-Os , https://www.psycom.net/schizophrenia/six-myths-about-schizophrenia/ , https://www.nami.org/Learn-More/Mental-Health-Conditions/Schizophrenia , https://www.webmd.com/schizophrenia/video/video-living-with-schizophrenia , https://www.nami.org/Learn-More/Mental-Health-Conditions/Schizoaffective-Disorder