Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe, and disabling brain disease. Approximately 1 percent of the population develops schizophrenia during their lifetime, more than 2 million Americans suffer from the illness in a given year. Although schizophrenia affects men and women with equal frequency, the disorder often appears earlier in men, usually in the late teens or early twenties, then in women, who are generally affected in the twenties or early thirties. People with schizophrenia often suffer terrifying symptoms such as hearing internal voices not heard by others, or believing that other people are reading their minds, controlling their thoughts, or plotting to harm them. These symptoms may leave them fearful; and withdrawn. Their speech …show more content…
Andrea Yates was diagnosed as having postpartum depression with psychotic features. Diagnosing schizophrenia can take years. Soon after Andrea Yates confessed that she had drowned her five children, one by one, in a bathtub, the prison psychiatrist diagnosed her as having postpartum depression “with psychotic features”. So had the psychiatrist who treated Yates after her 1999 suicide attempt. (Lexile, the schizophrenic mind.) This evidence shows that Andrea Yates was diagnosed with having postpartum depression “with psychotic features”. By two different psychiatrists. Andrea Yates’ family was effected in many ways, her children, husband, and mother where all effected. Yates would sit and stare into space for hours; she would scratch her head bald and pat her foot obsessively. Before the drownings she rarely spoke, testified family members. Police officers responding to the crime described her as emotionless. (Lexile, the schizophrenic mind.) This example of what Andrea did shows that she had no emotion and caused harm to herself which would have major effects on a family if their wife and mother was acting in this way. Yates is the public face of schizophrenia, bedeviled by voices and gripped by evil forces. If Yates is the public face of schizophrenia, bedeviled by voices, gripped by evil forces, then John Nash is the hidden one. As shown in the Academy Award nominated picture “A Beautiful Mind”, the disease, at least in its early stages, can inspire Olympian leaps of creativity and insight. “That’s the wonderful paradox of schizophrenia”, says Dr. Nancy Andreasen, professor of psychiatry at the University of Iowa. “People see things others don’t, most of which aren’t there. But because they perceive the world in a different way, they sometimes also notice things, real things, that normal people don’t. (Lexile, the schizophrenic