Schizophrenia Informative Essay

Imagine waking up one day to find that one of your closest friends or family members is someone you don’t even recognize. You have to witness them struggling with terrifying hallucinations, paranoid thoughts, as well as disordered thinking and behavior. Sadly, this is the harsh reality of schizophrenia and it can affect anyone, ruining the lives of themselves and their loved ones. Our extensive research on schizophrenia has led us to become incredibly familiar with the many ways that this disorder can negatively impact someone without the proper treatment. We believe it is important that each of you know the effects of this disorder to remain aware of the signs and provide support for the people that this affects. After all, schizophrenia is

Now, when you think of schizophrenia, the first symptoms that may come to your brain are things like hallucinations, voices in someone's head, or delusions, but something you may not be familiar with is why people with this disorder experience this fragmented thinking. According to an article in the Nature Journal titled, “Biological Insights from 108 Schizophrenia”, numerous imaging studies have revealed a greatly reduced amount of gray matter in the brain of patients with schizophrenia, occurring in many of the key brain systems including the frontal cortex, temporal lobe, and the insula. Damage done to the brain over time will decrease one's executive functions, verbal learning, memory, and attention. More specifically, when it comes to the reason for more known symptoms like voices or hallucinations, Tanu Thakur from the South Carolina Department Of Health explains this in an article titled, ”Auditory Hallucinations”, stating that the most consistent finding in neuroimaging studies has established that patients experiencing auditory hallucinations have altered connectivity to temporal and prefrontal parts of the brain where things like sounds, thoughts, and visual perception

While schizophrenia is a spectrum disorder, most patients must experience at least 2 out of these 5 categories to be considered schizophrenic by professionals. Schizophrenic people often behave as if someone is controlling their brain and will act accordingly in possibly very frightening ways. These behaviors can be extremely disruptive to one's life and make it difficult to go to work or school, complete daily tasks, socialize, and even take care of oneself. Sadly, it is not uncommon for schizophrenic patients to also experience suicidal thoughts. As seen in an article titled, “Suicide In Schizophrenia: An Educational Overview”, the author Leo Sher states,” The reported rates of suicide attempts in patients with schizophrenia vary between 18-55%.” While this can seem frightening, schizophrenia doesn't have to ruin someone's life. With proper treatment, someone with this disorder can lead a relatively normal