Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that affects not only the victim, but also the caregiver and the society. Statistics show that about 1% of the world population is victim of schizophrenia (World Health Organization, 2003). In the United States, nearly 2 million people suffer from schizophrenia. It has been proven that more men are diagnosed with this mental disorder than females (Miller & Mason, 2013).
Besides, the age groups that are at higher risk of contracting the disease is between 17 and 35 years (World Health Organization, 2003). However, this does not exclude older and much younger generations from being diagnosed with the disease, though their chances are slightly lower. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the effects of schizophrenia on the victim, caregiver, as well as the society.
Literature Review
A lot of research has been conducted on schizophrenia as a mental condition. This has resulted in numerous pieces of literature on this condition. The effects of the mental illness are less the same throughout the world. It means that the impacts of schizophrenia in, say America, are the same in Europe, Asia, and Africa, according to (Rastad, Martin, & Asenlöf, 2014), who conducted a study on the effects of schizophrenia to caregivers. In the report, the experiences of the caregivers were less the same across the globe. It implies that the experience of schizophrenia is largely the same worldwide.
Victims of schizophrenia go through a devastating experience. Most of them do not even realize that they are suffering from the disease (Tsuang, Faraone, & Glatt, 2011). They come to realize later that something was not right after losing many chances in life. According to Fallahi, Sheikhona, Rahgouy, Rahgozar, and Sodagari (2014), this leaves the patients under conditions of stress and depression, while others might experience social withdrawal symptoms as they feel embarrassed on realizing how much they have lost compared to their peers. Among the major effects of schizophrenia on the victim is the loss of social life (Li, Lambert, & Lambert, 2007).
A patient may cause chaos in his family during the initial stages of critical schizophrenia. The patient might as well be disruptive to the younger siblings. In such a case, the family might have to take the patient to a rehabilitation center, which could break the family bond that the patient may require. According to Knapp, Mangalore, and Simon (2004), most of the schizophrenia victims who have been separated from their families for quite some time do not end up having good social relations with their families. Instead, they choose a solitude kind of life and develop antisocial behavior (Carey, 2008).
The separation is dangerous to the victim as the members of the family might not be able to recognize signs of a relapse of the disease in good time. The result might be that the victim may harm himself and in the end cause permanent damage to his body.
Victims of schizophrenia also develop anti-social behavior towards the society (World Health Organization, 2003). It is mainly triggered by the fact that the victims have not achieved as much as their peers have achieved. The achievement could be in terms of education, job promotion, and financial growth, among others. Tsuang et al. (2011) reveal that some of the victims of schizophrenia prefer socializing with other victims of the disease as they find it easier to cope with such a person than the larger society.
There are negative effects of this situation. For example, part of the recovery process for a schizophrenia victim is social therapy. During social therapy, a victim is required to interact gradually with some of his former friends (Tsuang et al., 2011). Doing so is said to help the victim recover and accept himself and the society. The process is hampered the moment the victim develops anti-social behaviors towards the society. Also, people who withdraw from the society are more likely to be involved in various crimes, as they view the society as their enemies.
As earlier noted, the age group that is mostly affected by schizophrenia is the category of persons between 17 and 35 years. Most members of this age group are students in the upper grades or the college level (Fallahi et al., 2014). According to Small, Harrison, and Newell (2010), the treatment of schizophrenia can take several years for successful recovery to be achieved. It implies that the victim misses on one or several years of education if he is a student, which is not good news for the victim.
His peers move ahead with their education and probably get good jobs, while the victim is in the recovering phase (Knapp et al., 2004). Therefore, it is evident that a student who develops schizophrenia will find it difficult to catch up with his former schoolmates in terms of education. In some cases, the victims do not go back to school for fear of embarrassment and the feeling of failure (Knapp et al., 2004). It is also the case with a victim who had a job prior to contracting the disease. Most of such people lose their jobs never to get them back (Carey, 2008).
In such a case, the victim finds it difficult to cope with life, especially if the family does not show much financial support to the victim. Rastad et al. (2014) say that losing the only source of livelihood impacts negatively on many people. There is a high likelihood that such people might be forced to engage in robbery and other crimes to earn a living.
In worse cases, the victims of schizophrenia may commit suicide, which follows cases of alienation from the family, as well as the society (Knapp et al., 2004). In most instances, the victim does not differentiate what is good from bad. Therefore, he may cause injuries to himself to a point where he bleeds to death. Others may commit suicide thinking that they are doing the correct thing. Some of the victims of schizophrenia were married before they developed the condition (Knapp et al., 2004).
In rare cases, the marriage mate may decide to divorce the victim due to fear and continued embarrassment. In turn, it may cause more harm to the victim, especially in the recovery process (Knapp et al., 2004). Such a victim may indulge in alcoholism or drug use as a way of relieving the stress caused by the divorce. All these examples show that schizophrenia victims go through a lot.
Caregivers of victims of schizophrenia get affected by the condition. Statistics show that caregivers of schizophrenia victims are mostly family members (World Health Organization, 2003). In the US, 40% of patients living with schizophrenia are given care by their relatives. The situation is quite different in China, where the percentages of schizophrenia patients being given care by their relatives are close to 90% (World Health Organization, 2003). The effects of schizophrenia on the caregivers can be divided into three categories; emotional impact, financial impact, and physical impact (Knapp et al., 2004). Emotionally, caregivers may experience guilt and helplessness.
According to Knapp et al. (2004), guilt comes in when the family fails to understand why they have to go through the situation of taking care of the victim. The caregiver feels as if the world has turned against them. In some cases, caregivers feel that they are carrying out responsibilities for which they are not paid for (Li et al., 2007). Therefore, it is common for such people to experience resentment and anger. Small et al. (2010) report that it is possible for caregivers to feel isolated, as they may not be in a good position to achieve their goals as desired. The responsibilities that come with taking care of a schizophrenia victim require that the caregiver be close to the victim.
Thus, there is the likelihood that the caregiver might not have the chance to attend to all his normal chores. Caregivers may also feel that their friends are not giving them the assistance that they require (Small et al., 2010). They may have thought that their friends may offer themselves to take turns in offering assistance and close care to the victim. Failure of the friends and other relatives to do so impacts negatively on the caregiver, where he develops resentment and anger towards the friends and relatives who failed to offer assistance (Fallahi et al., 2014).
Carey (2008) gives another emotional effect that caregivers go through while taking care of schizophrenia victims. He says that caregivers may feel frustrated on many occasions. Living with a person who is mentally unstable can cause frustration. It is not possible to reason with such a person, as chances of such a person initiating a quarrel are very high. Another cause of frustration is the workload that is associated with taking care of the victim. Many a times, caregivers report that they feel tired as they have to carry virtually almost all activities that the victim should have done by themselves (Carey, 2008). Thus, there is the feeling of the loss of personal freedom for the caregiver, who feels that much of his time is being used in taking care of the victim
The physical impacts on caregivers vary from household to household. Miller and Mason (2013) report that some caregivers experience depression, with the rates of depression in caregivers ranging from 38% to 60%. It has been reported that caregivers of victims of schizophrenia normally experience poor health due to stress and depression. In other cases, caregivers do not get time to participate in regular exercises, which can impact negatively on their health as well (Miller & Mason, 2013).
The chances of caregivers contracting diseases are very high as opposed to non-caregivers. The care providers spend most of their time attending to the needs of the victims. As such, they might forget to look after their health. In other cases, the schizophrenia victim contracts other diseases like flu and colds. The caregiver ends with a higher risk of contracting the same diseases that the victim is suffering (Rastad et al., 2014).
Financially, caregivers become affected grossly. The productivity of the family is likely to reduce as a result of the disruption in the normal activities of the family members acting as caregivers to the victim (Knapp et al., 2004). The work routine of caregivers is also affected. If, for example, the caregivers are business people, then the operations of their businesses are affected. If the caregivers are employed, then the numbers of hours that they use in their employment are reduced and the income emanating from the work or business is reduced (Knapp et al., 2004).
According to Carey (2008), the amount of money that is required to treat schizophrenia is quite high. Medical bills multiply many folds compared to other illnesses. The situation becomes worse if the victim was not medically insured. The cost of taking care of the victim at home is high. For instance, the victim may require a special type of diet that may be expensive to acquire (Knapp et al., 2004). All these factors translate to how expensive it can be to take care of a victim of schizophrenia. The financial burden laid upon the shoulders of caregivers is quite heavy.
The effects of schizophrenia on the society cannot be ignored. According to Knapp et al. (2004), the main effect of the disease on the society is the cost that is associated with the schizophrenia. The amount of money that the government spends on drugs to fight schizophrenia is high. In 1979, for example, the cost of treating a schizophrenia patient was close to $14,000 (Knapp et al., 2004). The amount is said to have increased in the current times. According to Knapp et al. (2004), there is a huge amount of money that is being used in research related to schizophrenia. The actual cause of this condition is not yet known. It explains why extensive research is being done to try and identify the cause of the disease.
Better drugs that can help the victim recover quicker have not been discovered (Carey, 2008). Consequently, more research is being carried out to address schizophrenia effectively. The relationship of the victim with the society more often becomes weak. On the other hand, the victim could have been contributing positively to the development of the society. Upon being diagnosed with the disease, the victim cannot continue offering the services that he used to offer to the society before. Thus, the society is affected negatively because the schizophrenia patients do not offer the services that they are good at.
Discussion
The effects of schizophrenia on the victim, caregiver, and the society can be minimized by accepting that the condition has occurred and that there is a need to carry on with life. Carey (2008) admits that schizophrenia is treatable, and the healing process becomes easier the moment caregivers accept the condition of the victim and offer themselves freely to help with the condition. Healing therapy is mainly dependent on the support of the caregiver. If caregivers are to enjoy the full recovery of the victim, then they ought to fully support the victim without having resentment and anger against the family members that do not offer to assist the victim.
The caregivers need to be educated on how such a patient behaves in order to give support to the victims of schizophrenia fully. They should be made aware that the victim is subject to delusions and hallucinations. If the victim exhibits such behaviors, then the caregivers should not be frightened; instead, they should know the next, appropriate step to take. It is recommended that a qualified health counselor is the one to give the required education to the caregivers so as to instill the importance of good patient care.
On rare cases, the family of the victim is forced by circumstances to send the patient to a mental hospital, where he is rehabilitated over a period. Upon recovery, the victim is sent back home, but the bond with the family members may have reduced. It is highly recommended that the caregivers support such a victim to develop social skills and embrace the family like before. Patience is paramount to recovery. The family members acting as caregivers ought to exercise patience and be dedicated to ensuring that their family member recovers fully.
The society should also offer to assist the victim, especially during recovery. They ought to inculcate good social skills on the victim to avoid withdrawal of the victim from the society. In addition, the society has a moral obligation of reporting cases of straying individuals who seem to be mentally disturbed to the relevant offices. This could be one of the victims of schizophrenia, who has run away from his home. Reporting him will not only assist in the identification of the victim, but it will also aid in the family in tracing their member.
The immediate neighbors, as well as relatives, have a moral obligation of offering assistance to caregivers who attend to a schizophrenia victim. Doing so will not only relieve caregivers of the burden, but it will also help in preventing cases of resentment and anger in the caregivers.
In conclusion, it is evident that the effects of schizophrenia are numerous. The victim is denied the chance to go on with his normal life say in education or the workplace, until they recover fully. The schizophrenia patient feels alienated from the society due to embarrassment and feelings of failure. Close relatives of the victim are mainly the caregivers to such victim. They may feel isolated as they are not able to attend to their normal chores. Their businesses may report losses as more attention is given to the victim.
Those employed may work for fewer hours that, which may reflect on low pay as compared to non-caregivers. The health of caregivers may deteriorate as a result of more stress and depression that may accompany the lack of regular exercises and increased risks of contracting diseases. The amount of money that is used to purchase drugs to treat schizophrenia is high. A lot of research is currently being done to reveal the actual causes of schizophrenia and the best drugs that can effectively fight the condition within the shortest time possible. In turn, high amounts of resources are used to research on a single ailment. Such amounts of money can be channeled into other research studies on different health conditions.
References
Carey, B. (2008). From the elusiveness of schizophrenia: New clues to treatment. The New York Times. Web.
Fallahi K. M., Sheikhona, M., Rahgouy, A., Rahgozar, M., & Sodagari, F. (2014). The effects of group psychoeducational programme on family burden in caregivers of Iranian patients with schizophrenia. Journal of Psychiatric & Mental Health Nursing, 21(5), 438-446. Web.
Knapp, M., Mangalore, R., & Simon, J. (2004). The global costs of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 30(2), 279-293.
Li, J., Lambert, C. E., & Lambert, V. A. (2007). Predictors of family caregivers’ burden and quality of life when providing care for a family member with schizophrenia in the People’s Republic of China. Nursing & Health Sciences, 9(3), 192-198.
Miller, R., & Mason, S. E. (2013). Diagnosis: Schizophrenia: a comprehensive resource. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
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Small, N., Harrison, J., & Newell, R. (2010). Carer burden in schizophrenia: considerations for nursing practice. Mental Health Practice, 14(4), 22-25.
Tsuang, M. T., Faraone, S. V., & Glatt, S. J. (2011). Schizophrenia (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
World Health Organization. (2003). Investing in mental health. Web.