Schizophrenia
This is a mental health condition that is likely to include periods of psychosis. For some of the time your experience of reality will be distorted and you may experience symptoms like hallucinations and delusions.
Signs
- Hallucinations
- Delusions
- Confused thinking
- Withdrawing and losing interest
Causes
- Genetic factors
- Chemical factors in the brain
- Relationships
- Stress
- Alcohol/drug abuse
How to help?
Like with all health conditions, schizophrenia is something where you have to manage your symptoms. Just like someone with diabetes manages theirs with insulin injections, people with schizophrenia manage theirs through both medication as well as a crisis action plan.
A crisis action plan will allow both you and others to know what to do in situations when things worsen. This may be how to calm you down or what steps to take with medication or what things are going to make it worse.
When schizophrenia is not medicated or controlled, it can be quite scary for the person themselves and the loved ones around.
I remember being in the sixth form common room and Lee was covering the plug sockets because he thought our teachers were listening. It was quite scary for us because we knew he was very ill but it was scary for Lee because it was real for him at the time. Vicky