Schizophrenia

 

    Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe mental illness. Effecting 1.1 percent of the population, schizophrenia was discovered in 1887 by Dr. Emilie Kraepelin, but it is believed that it has followed humanity throughout the ages. 

    The word Schizophrenia was coined back in 1911 by Eugen Bleuer, which means "Splitting of the brain." Not meaning a split personality, but rather a separation of cognitive things, such as perception. Eugen Bleuer was the first person to document the differences between psychotic disorders, which he called either manic depression, or dementia. He originally called Schizophrenia 'Dementia Praecox', but he later changed it to schizophrenia because it wasn't something that destroyed the brain, and it could appear either late in life but also much earlier. 

    The symptoms of Schizophrenia are

1.     Hallucinations are seeing something that isn't there. 
2. Delusions are false beliefs that aren't real, such as if someone looked at you wrong, they're going to kill you.
3. Disorganized thinking (Speech) Which means your thinking is scrambled and can make answering questions harder.
4. Messed up motor skills, which cause either childlike silliness or uncontrollable agitation. 
5. Negative symptoms include not bathing or not showing any emotion. A person with schizophrenia can have something of a robot voice, while not making eye contact.

    Children can be affected by Schizophrenia, but this is rare. Before the age of thirteen, there is a 1 in 40,000 chance of developing it. 

    

    Teenage schizophrenia is a lot like adult schizophrenia, but it's also harder to diagnose. They may pull away from friends and family, have trouble sleeping, and decreased performance in school. If a teen uses recreational drugs, such as LSD or Marijuana, the effects of those can cause symptoms of teenage schizophrenia

    .