Schizophrenia
“When I was 22 I couldn’t leave my house because I thought people were out to get me. Twenty-six came along, and I was in the middle of a full-fledged psychosis. I was walking in 7-degree weather barefoot on some great missions.” Schizophrenia has that effect on people. Schizophrenia, a disease of the mind, has many different types, causes and symptoms however, it can be treated medically. (8)
Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness that distorts a person’s way of thinking. People with schizophrenia cannot control their emotions. They also cannot manage to make decision on their own. Schizophrenia is “a complex, long term mental illness “. The illness can occur at an early or late age. Most common age of occurrence is late
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Eileen Malasprina wanted to be a physician. In 1971, her senior year in high school, her grades began to drop. She was withdrawn from every aspect of her life. She believed her neighbors were talking about her constantly. She was living her dream, going to college on a scholarship, but because of her delusions and depression, she never made it to medical school. Eileen was admitted to the hospital after graduation and was diagnosed with schizo-affective disorder. This specific disorder is a “devastating mix of mania, depression and psychosis.” Eileen’s sister, Delores, did however make it to medical school. She wanted to study medicine to better understand the disease which afflicts her younger sister. Delores is now a psychiatrist at Columbia University, and also practices with the New York state Psychiatric Institute. Delores works and dedicates her life to understanding this disease. Malaspina’s work sheds light over a mystery that had long surrounded schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a common disorder. “One in every 100 people suffers from it.” It runs in families. “At the time, 1971, people had the idea that schizophrenia somehow was a disease caused by how a family raised someone.” It was thought that there was a style of parenting called the “schizophrenogenic mother.” A schizophrenic mother is a mother “who gives her child mixed signals, schisms and skews, leading to tremendous amount of guild and confusion.” Thought his can have an effect on the disease, researchers now understand that genetics plays a greater role in the disease. Kids who have siblings with schizophrenia are ten times as likely to get the disease. Identical twins have a higher risk than others. They have from forty to sixty percent greater chance of developing the disease. They can also not show symptoms until the fourth decade of life. Women are more likely than men to develop this disease also. Biologist suspect that