Amanda Atkins Schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe, and disabling brain disease. 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. Their symptoms can be grouped into three categories: positive symptoms, negative symptoms, psychomotor symptoms. Positive symptoms of schizophrenia include delusions, illusions, disorganized thinking and speech, heightened perceptions and hallucinations, and inappropriate affect. Delusions are ideas that they believe frequently but have no basis in fact. These patients may believe that they, or a member of the family or someone close to them, is the focus of this persecution. Sometimes the delusions experienced by people with schizophrenia are quite bizarre; for instance, believing that a neighbor is controlling their behavior with magnetic waves that people on television are directing special messages to them; or that their thoughts are being broadcast aloud to others. Hallucinations and illusions are disturbances of perceptions that are common in people suffering from schizophrenia. Although hallucinations can occur in any sensory form - sound, sight, touch, taste, smell - hearing voices is most common. Voices may describe the patient's activities, carry on a Page 2 Conversations, warn of dangers, or even give orders to the person. Illusions on the other hand occur when a sensory stimulus is present nut is incorrectly interpreted by the individual. Disorganized thinking and speech makes it incapable to have logical, rational thinking, and often-present very peculiar speech. They can cause great confusion and make communication with others extremely difficult. Inappropriate affect is the display of emotions that are unsuited to the situation. They may smile in appropriately when making a somber statement or on being told ter...
