Introduction
The brain is undoubtedly one of the most important parts as it is designed to process information and signals projected by the surrounding environment and relay an adequate response to the same throughout the entire body. The brain controls every single muscle of the body whether in an activity as significant as running a marathon or as minute as a twitch.
The brain’s intricate design and the complexity of its operations is something that scientists in general and psychologists in particular find fascinating as each new discovery regarding the functioning of the brain leads to a better understanding of how each part of the body works and most importantly, how to fix it when it stops working either entirely or partially.
However, just like various parts of the body experience difficulty in the performance of their normal functions sometimes, some factors, both internal (within the body) and external, can lead to a disruption of some of the brain’s functions and in severe cases the brain can stop working altogether.
Sometimes, signs and symptoms of such disruptions appear on parts of the body such as the legs causing a lack of mobility or the eyes causing visual disability, while in some cases, they are evident in the behavioral aspect of the person suffering from the disruption.
There are various behavioral disorders caused by the disruption of the brain’s functions including, but not limited to, the bipolar disorder, autism, schizophrenia, and Tourette’s syndrome.
Most people may not be aware of these disorders and may base their knowledge of the disorders on depictions of the same in movies and literary works that often exaggerate the severity of the symptoms for entertainment purposes.
For instance, some writers use their knowledge to write films about possession and people who have the superhuman ability to see things that other people cannot see. In such movies, hallucinations are seen as being good elements and enviable.
This paper looks into schizophrenia, which is caused by various factors either jointly or independently. It discusses the symptoms of the disorder, the cause, and the impact it has on both the individual suffering from it and the people surrounding the victim, both within and outside the family unit.
Definition
The word schizophrenia is derived from two Greek words, viz. “skhein, which translated means ‘to split’ and phrein, which translates to “mind” (Tandon & Maj, 2008, p. 23). Although this etymologizing is mistakenly understood to mean that it is a “split-personality” disorder by many people, schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder characterized mainly by bizarre delusions, hallucinations, and emotional dissociation.
Unlike in other mental disorders such as Tourette’s syndrome and autism where the victims are aware of their actions, individuals with schizophrenia are clueless as to whether they suffer from symptoms of the disorder. Being a disorder that occurs as a combination of various other disorders, schizophrenia is defined through its characteristic elements.
Tandon and Maj (2008), define schizophrenia as, “A mental illness in which a person is unable to link her or his thoughts and feelings to real life, suffers from delusions and withdraws increasingly form social relationships into a life of the imaginations” (p.23). The American Psychiatric Association has set out a criterion for the determination of the disorder. According to the manual, in order to be diagnosed with the disorder, a person must have:
- Two (or more) of the following, each present for the significant portion of the time during a one-month period: (1) delusions, (2) hallucinations, (3) disorganized speech, (4) grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior, (5) symptoms such as flat affect ( i.e. showing no emotion), or inability to engage in goal-directed behavior
- Social/ occupational dysfunction: one or more major areas of functioning (e.g. work, relationship, and self-care) are markedly lower than when the symptoms began.
- Duration: – continuous signs of the disturbance for at least six months including at least one month of active symptoms.
- Symptoms are not due to another disorder (e.g. major depressive disorder, autism), and are not due to substance use or a medical condition (American Psychiatric Association, 2000, p.308).
Causes
Given that different people suffering from the disorder bare unique symptoms from one another coupled with the variation of the symptoms that each of the individuals encounters with the progression of the disorder, a diagnosis on the disorder is made based on observation of behavior and experiences reported to the psychologist concerning an individual.
Schizophrenia usually affects people in their late childhood and early adulthood, and it progresses as people grow older (Marshall & Rathbone, 2009). Some of the known causes of the disorder include genetic factors, environmental factors, drug, and substance abuse. Some scholars also argue that traumatic effects in a person’s life can trigger the onset of the disorder, especially in young adults with a genetic predisposition to the disorder (O’Donovan et al., 2003).
Handling the situation
The main course of treatment involves the use of anti-psychotic medication coupled with social rehabilitation through the attendance of individual therapy sessions as well as support groups.
In cases where the disorder advances to such great lengths that the individuals pose danger to themselves and the public in general, involuntary hospitalization is the method of choice, though it is usually used as a last resort. Treatment of the disorder, as is the case with every other disease and disorder, at its earliest point of detection does go a long way in easing the recovery process.
Effects on Family and society
The disorder has a myriad of effects to the individual and the immediate family, as well as the public. Due to the disorder’s interference with the thought process, the majority of people with schizophrenia display some form of disorganization in the way they perform some of the normal activities such as dressing.
They also suffer from disconnection in the train of thought when discussing issues, lack of long-term memory, low attention spans, poor communication skills, and display a lack in cognitive processes such as planning and problem solving. This aspect usually results to long-term job loss and consequently depression and irritability.
Such individuals become withdrawn, thus keeping to themselves most of the time. Living with such a person within the family unit can be frustrating, as although the person suffers an inability to display affection, it does not necessarily mean that he or she does not need it (Broom et al., 2005, p.31).
On the other hand, it is difficult for family members to show their affection to a person who is withdrawn and emotionally detached as it is innate to expect reciprocation when affection is given. Stigma is also common toward people with schizophrenia, mainly because of ignorance and misinformation of what the disorder entails.
Family members are sometimes compelled to hide the fact that one of them suffers from the disorder for fear that most people do not know the disorder as a medical condition, but rather as a personality disorder associated with heinous behavior such as serial killing. Family members also may not know the proper way to explain the intricacies of the disorder, as they are hard to understand even for the family members, as the symptoms keep changing as the disorder graduates.
It is hard for a person with schizophrenia to hide its symptoms because they do not think that they suffer from it. The effect of this element is that it is hard for people to associate with a person who does not readily accept help as he or she does not think it is necessary.
The victims may also take this move as negative criticism of their abilities to conduct normal activities, which leads to resentment and withdrawal. The lack of ability to conduct cognitive processes such as problem solving and planning leads to long-term job losses, which results to the financial frustration to both the individual and the family unit as the family is then tasked to provide for the person’s needs.
This kind of frustration may lead to the individual contemplating and even in some cases attempting suicide. It could also lead to crimes such as murder, with the schizophrenic person justifying this action as a way of punishing people whom he or she thinks are to blame for the problems he or she faces.
Emotional dissociation means that a person is unable to convey emotions, whether verbally or by any other means, and as a characteristic symptom of schizophrenia, it causes the victim to keep emotions, good or bad, bottled up inside. It is also characteristic of schizophrenics to suffer from an inability to experience pleasure, mainly due to their paranoid delusions of persecution.
The combination of these two characteristics is dangerous mainly due to the ways these individuals resort to as means of releasing the bottled up emotions. Most of them result to drug abuse and alcoholism (Perala et al., 2010) while others go to the extremes, experiencing sudden bursts of rage or extreme sorrow, which may cause them to destroy property or even commit suicide.
Although prevention would go a long way in alleviating the disorder, it is not a possibility yet, for the first symptoms of the disorder are not discernible, as they resemble symptoms of normal factors such as stress. The symptoms can be singled out as specific to schizophrenia only at advanced stages. In addition, the fact that the disorder is more predominant in young adults means that it is not easy to differentiate it from normal adolescence characters (Van Os & Kapur, 2009).
The participation of family members in the rehabilitation forums and consequently the recovery process is essential to both the family and the suffering individual. It prepares the family unit mentally and physically on what to expect and what the appropriate reaction would be. It also helps them to prepare financially so that they do not undergo sudden financial strain. In addition, it aids in the acceptance process and helps them learn hoe to deal with stigma and its effects.
Family members are in a position to know that they would have to make social sacrifices in order to keep the family unit strong. About the individual, family support helps to ease the issues of acceptance that surround schizophrenic individuals. Family support also gives the victims comfort in knowing that they are not dealing with the problem alone, but that the family is present to support them along the way.
Although the way the family treats a schizophrenic individual is not necessarily a cause for the trigger or elevation of the disorder, it does help in the recovery process. Family support presumably reduces resentment and anger and thus it plays a role in the reduction of chances of a relapse after recovery.
Knowledge of how to deal with the condition as a family also reduces the chances of involuntary hospitalization, which in moments of paranoid schizophrenia might be interpreted by the schizophrenic individual as an act of rejection by the family, thus causing anger and resentment.
Supportive work environments are also a good way of aiding in the recovery process as such environments give the victims something to concentrate on unlike in situations when they are left alone. The fact that they have the disorder does not negate their sanity and their ability, although restricted by their condition, to be productive.
Conclusion
Although misunderstood by most people as more of a personality disorder, schizophrenia is in fact a medical disorder that disrupts the normal functioning of the individual affected, without the knowledge of the sufferer that he or she does indeed suffer from it.
The attitude of the people surrounding the individual suffering form it plays a big role in the management and recovery of the sufferer. Particularly, family members play a critical role in helping the victims of this condition along the way, which helps one to accept the condition and live positively.
Reference List
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Washington DC: American Psychiatric Association Press.
Broom, R., Wooley, B., Tabraham, P., Johns, L., Bramon, E., Murray, G., Pariante, C., McGuire, G., & Murray, M. (2005). What Causes the Onset of Psychosis. Schizophrenia Research, 79(1), 23-34.
Marshall, M., & Rothborne, J. (2009). Early Intervention for Psychosis. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
O’Donovan, M., William, M., & Owen, M., J. (2003). Recent advances in Genetics and Schizophrenia. Human Molecular Genetics, 12(2), 125-133.
Perala, J., Kouppasalmi, K., Pirkola, S., Harkanen, T., Saarni, S., Tuulio-Henrikisson, A., Viertio, S., Suviisari, J. (2010). Alcohol-induced psychotic disorder and delirium in the general population. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 197, 200-06.
Tandon, R., & Maj, M. (2008). Nosological status and definition of schizophrenia: Some considerations for DSM-V and ICD-11. Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 1(2), 22-27.
Van Os, J., & Kapur, S. (2009). Schizophrenia. Lancet, 374(9690), 635-645.