Coming to Grips with My Diagnosis: A Short Story
Every morning, in the past, I would wake up to the soothing melodies of the sparrows outside my window. Only now, their melodies are less soothing and more like cryptic messages from some unseen world. They fill me with alarm and panic. The warm rays of sunlight that used to calm me now feel like piercing surveillance beams from an invisible entity. My reality is shifting. Ive been alternately terrified and despondent, unable to cope, unable to work, unable to communicate this new reality to others and to those who especially are close to me.
The world became distorted. Students' faces would blur in and out during my lectures. I found myself losing track of the discourse as foreign, disjointed whispers seeped into my conscious thought. Words that should make sense became jumbled, frightening. My once crisp, thoughtful analyses were replaced by convoluted theories about invisible forces, ones that I couldnt share with my colleagues out of fear of ridicule. I felt they were all against me. They were in on it.
Physically,...
It was like fighting a constant battle with my own mind. It wore me out. I was often nauseous. It was hard to concentrate. I was startled easily. The hallucinations were visceral and disorienting. A shadow morphs...…hallucinations without feeding into them. I'm learning to decipher paranoia from legitimate concern. I'm learning to trust my partner again, to lean on him for support, and to reassure him that I'm still the woman he fell in love with, albeit battling a mental illness.I am a professor. I am a partner. I am a woman diagnosed with schizophrenia. And I am learning, every day, that while this diagnosis is a part of my reality, it does not define me. I am not my illness, and with each passing day, I am learning to navigate this complex, distorted reality. Each day is a new challenge. Each day is a new victory. And each day…
Schizophrenia Psychosis and Lifespan D Schizophrenia and Psychosis and Lifespan Development Schizophrenia and Psychosis Matrix Disorder Major DSM-IV-TR Categories Classifications Subclassifications Schizophrenia and Psychosis Symptoms Positive (Type I): represent excesses or distortions from normal functioning Delusions Bizarre Nonbizarre Hallucinations Auditory Visual Disorganized Speech Loose Association Neologisms Clang Associations Echolalia/Echopraxia Word Salad Grossly disorganized behavior Catatonic: motoric Waxy Flexibility Negative (Type II): the absence of functioning Apathy Affective Flattening Withdrawal Anhedonia Avolition Poor Concentration Poverty of speech Alogia Schizophrenia and Psychosis Diagnostic Types Paranoid Delusions and Hallucinations Disorganized Disorganized speech Disorganized behavior Withdrawal Affective flattening Catatonic Grossly disorganized behavior Disorganized speech Catatonic Echolalia/Echopraxia Undifferentiated Active symptoms that do not fit other diagnostic types Residual No Type I symptoms but some negative symptoms Schizoaffective
Schizophrenia When people think of what it means to 'go crazy,' quite often the common image that comes to mind is that of someone with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a serious mental health disorder that can be physically, socially, and personally destabilizing. "Schizophrenia affects men and women equally. It occurs at similar rates in all ethnic groups around the world. Symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions usually start between ages 16 and
Schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder, resulting in the patient hearing voices and noise inside his or her mind. Historically, this disorder has been a serious barrier to proper functioning in society. In the past many people were simply locked up in mental institutions because they were a danger to themselves and others. In some cases that is still necessary, but medications and treatments have come a long way. They
Schizophrenia in the Elderly: Robustness of the Research Literature The American psychiatric community has historically ignored the presence of schizophrenia in older adults, especially the elderly, because many researchers and clinicians had attributed the etiology of the disease to organic causes such as dementia (Howard, Rabins, Seeman, & Jeste, 2000). A substantial body of European studies, however, have revealed that a small percentage of schizophrenia patients experience their first symptoms of
Schizophrenia does not really have just one single cause. It is a possibility that this disorder could be inherited but not all doctors are sure. A lot of experts suppose that schizophrenia does run in the family. Individuals that may have a close family member with the disease are more likely to advance the disorder than persons who have no kinsfolks with the disease. A lot think that might have
Schizophrenia as a Functional Disconnection Problem in the Brain Studies by Schmitt et al. (2011) offer conclusive evidence that schizophrenia is a neurodevelopmental disorder. While schizophrenia can be exacerbated by both genetic and environmental factors, the disease has been conclusively linked to developmental disconnectivity of the prefrontal cortex of the brain via neural imaging studies. Schizophrenia is a brain disorder that directly affects the way an individual talks, acts, and perceives the
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