The Reality of Schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a frightening menace. The mental illness affects approximately 2.2 million Americans (Schizophrenia-Topic…4). Schizophrenia works by tainting the mind with hallucinations, delusions, memory loss, and confusion, causing millions of Americans left mentally crippled and unstable (Schizophrenia-Topic…2). “Schizophrenia is a group of psychotic disorders that interfere with thinking and mental or emotional responsiveness. It is a disease of the brain” (Schizophrenia In-Depth…para 1). Craig Geiser, a paranoid schizophrenic, describes schizophrenia as a living nightmare. “You know how sometimes you are in your dreams yourself and some of them feel like real nightmares… It was like I was walking through …show more content…
The brain is the control system of the body. Schizophrenia primarily affects the brain by distorting reality with imagination. “Schizophrenia is a psychosis, a type of mental illness in which a person cannot tell what is real from what is imagined” (Schizophrenia-Topic…1). Yet there is a deeper association between schizophrenia and the brain. Scientists have established that schizophrenics, compared to healthy people, have differences in brain structure and brain chemistry. Recent discoveries, however, include MRI scans that portray a stunning fact concerning the image of a schizophrenic brain and a normal brain. “…the activity in a brain hearing real voices is almost identical to the same brain hearing imagined voices” (Schizophrenia: Stolen…). Studies have shown that certain anomalies in the brain are also linked to schizophrenia. Such peculiarities can cause damaged nerves and disconnected pathways that transport brain chemicals. “Most brain activity involves communication between cells called neurons. Messages are sent by chemicals called neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin. In people with schizophrenia, these chemicals are often found in abnormal levels” (Schizophrenia: