A Brain Disease-Schizophrenia

[ellion]

Schizophrenia is a disorder that interferes with normal brain functioning. It causes affected people to exhibit odd and often highly irrational or disorganized behavior. Because the brain is the organ in the body where thinking, feeling and understanding of the world takes place ,a brain disease like schizophrenia alters thinking, feeling, understanding and consciousness itself in affected persons, changing their lives for the worse. People affected with schizophrenia have difficulty thinking coherently, interacting with others normally, carrying out responsibilities and expressing emotions appropriately. Even simple everyday tasks like personal hygiene can become unmanageable and neglected. The disease can thus impact every aspect of affected people's work, family, and social life.Family members are also frequently become distressed and overwhelmed by the difficulties involved in providing care and in coming to terms with the transformation of their loved one into a patient with a serious chronic illness.

[watson]

The only problem is, there is no legitimate scientific or medical proof or explanations for what it is, what causes it or even what all of the symptoms are. It is a blank name for something we do not understand. It is even used as an excuse for some people's behaviors.

[willyoumind]

Yeah, it is pretty hard to identify and detect this Schizophrenia disease...

Most of the peoples even mixed the Schizophrenia with the psychotic disorder, which is completely two different matters at all.

[Schizo]

I do not know what classifies something as scientific or medical proof of schizophrenia, but after living with it for almost 10 years now and reading a lot of medical information on it, I feel pretty confident in the notion that the science and medical communities know a good deal about it.  Being such they are fairly accurate in diagnosing it. 

As I have said I have lived with the disease for years and in that time have seen it function.
Perhaps, neurologically, it is difficult to understand, but from a psychological perspective it is not hard to at least see its symptoms. 



I can imagine large percentages of society saying the same thing, "That person is not mentally ill, their just looking for attention, they are lazy, or that person is odd", it agitates me that they would say those things. 


Anyways I consider myself to be at odds with society for one reason or another, whether it be because of atheism or schizophrenia,  I have known isolation.   

 

[SWM]

the science and medical communities know a good deal about it but do they understand it? science and medicine created the label and attibute it to any person that displays certain symptoms over a period of time.

they know a great deal about the symptoms and there have been huge investments in studying and treating the symptoms but again have they come any closer to understanding it.

i was diagnosed with schizophrenia around 1998, around this time i asked my CPN (community psychiatric nurse) if he could answer some questions about my illness. i wanted to knwo how it was possible that things outside of myself could be caused by my illness. how was it that events external too me could be created by my disordered mind? i could accept that my hallucinations could possibly exist inside my head, but there where many other experiences that did not exist in my head? the fact that the television, radio, CD's DVD's people on the street and even on time a theatre play where all able to mirror replicate predict or act out my thoughts, the thoughts that where in my head. there where many other things that where not in my mind but where out there in the external world. i asked my CPN to explain this too me, he said that it was due to chemicals and he gave me some information to read with diagrams and complex descriptions of neurochemicals. this did not explain anything about what i wanted to know.

i know work with the Community Mental Health Team employed by the same service that employed my old CPN i have worked on the hospitals where i spent time as a patient and the nurses i work with on the wards and in the community still have little to no understanding of the processes involved in the extreme symptoms of psychosis and schizophrenia.

BTW

welcome to the forum! your avatar is great, and i would also like to restate your ideas would make for some great stories.

[sure]

no, ellion !  sometimes it gets so worse (by stalking, talking bad), that it affects the brain. But normally Psychosis is a sickness of the soul, not of the brain. and experts even say, it's not a sickness, but a natural-psychological state of the art of human development.

[Joni]

Has anyone heard of the relationship between schizophrenia and the parasite Toxoplasma gondii ?
It is not whether it is a causative agent or a bi product of poor hygiene. What is know is this parasite which targets cats, is present disproportionately in schizophrenics compared to the general population.

I'm not allowed to post a link, but the doctores involved are E.F. Torrey, R.H. Yolken, Y. Sukthana, S. Bachman, J. Schroder, C. Bottmer

[sure]

you think it's the pets  fault that i'm sick? - their names are cooky and felice -    and fish 'pepe' dropped dead after the uncle was told he exists 

[Joni]

My post should have read- it is not known whether T gondii is a causative agent or a biproduct, only that a relationship seems to exist. Definitely keep your kitties.