Schizophrenia: - One of the most misunderstood illness

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We often talk about mental health issues now-a-days. Schizophrenia is, in a way, one of the most talked about illnesses, though misunderstood. Schizophrenia is a wide spectrum, of which we know very little. Unfortunately, on the basis of half-baked information we get from different sources (mostly unauthentic); we come to the conclusion and exclude the person having Schizophrenia from the society which is painful for the patient as well as his/her family. We should not forget that they are the part of our society. Hence, we need to break the stigma around the illness to help the people having Schizophrenia to live with adequate dignity. One Scottish Psychologist R.D. Lainge said, “Schizophrenia cannot be understood without understanding despair”. So, now, it’s the time to understand Schizophrenia and stop the stigma behind it.

Instead of focusing on symptoms of Schizophrenia much, I would like to brief it and talk more about myths and facts about it. The person having Schizophrenia suffers from symptoms like delusions, hallucinations, disorganized behavior and disorganized speech in the active and positive phase of the illness. Symptoms like avolition (lack of motivation), alogia (significant reduction in amount of speech), anhedonia (inability to feel pleasure in normally pleasurable activities), flat affect, asociality (impairment in social relationships) are part of chronic phase of illness (negative symptoms).

Now, what do you think on these lines after reading the symptoms? Which myths you hold about Schizophrenia? Try to understand what the myths are and what are the facts? Do you want to know? Let’s read now.

Following are some common myths about Schizophrenia-

- Schizophrenia means Split personality.

- Person having Schizophrenia becomes violent very commonly.

- Person having Schizophrenia cannot do a job anymore.

- Person having Schizophrenia need long term hospitalization.

Now, I am sure that you want to know what the facts are. Following are the facts-

The fact is Schizophrenia is completely different from the Split personality. We think it as same may be because there is split between thoughts, emotions, and behavior in Schizophrenia. Split personality or Multiple Personality or Dissociative Identity Disorder is extraordinarily rare and Schizophrenia is a thought disorder not a personality issue. So, it is not same as Split Personality.

Person having Schizophrenia becomes violent very commonly. - They may have anger issues, aggressiveness due to the condition they live in (homeless, hospitalization, isolation, rejection from the society and sometime even from family, etc...). Also, the person having Schizophrenia due to Paranoid delusions responds angrily in some situations and may become violent (out of fear that someone will harm them). However, it can be controlled with medication.

People with Schizophrenia cannot hold a job is another common myth which is obviously not true. There are many people with Schizophrenia proved this assumption or myth wrong. They may not be able to perform at their optimum potential. You might have seen the famous film “Beautiful mind”, where the American mathematician John Nash achieved Nobel Prize for his work in the field. There are many other famous personalities who also proved this myth wrong. To name few of them, Michael Hawkins (American Actor), Lionel Aldridge (Professional Football Player), Syd Barrett (Musician and Founder of Pink Floyd).

Person having Schizophrenia need long term hospitalization- Now-a- days; it is changing because of very good medication and different approach towards Schizophrenia. They need hospitalization but they do not necessarily spend the entire life in the hospital. With proper medication, regular psychotherapeutic treatment and family support, they can manage their life. There are Day care centers for such patients (who cannot continue their jobs at a point of time) where they get engaged with fixed routine by doing recreational activities, cultural activities, etc in a structured way.

Family plays an important role in the recovery of person having Schizophrenia. ‘Expressed emotions’ in the family (shouting, fighting, critical comments, etc) should not be too high. Research has demonstrated that individuals from families with high "expressed emotion" are 3.7 times more likely to relapse than in families from low expressed emotion families. Though the Schizophrenia is not curable completely, but with the right treatment (medication, psychotherapy, support groups, family and societal support), symptoms become manageable and the person with Schizophrenia can live functionally.

Holding myths without knowing the scientific information leads to unhealthy and unhelpful attitude towards the patient. This rejection from the society is as painful for the sufferers and their families as the Schizophrenia is. It is found that around 1 to 3 patients with a diagnosis of Schizophrenia have a Social Anxiety Disorder. Stigma is the root cause of it. It leads to feelings of isolation, poor self esteem, feelings of hopelessness and also increases the probability of relapse of this illness. So, treating them with empathy, dignity and respect is very essential as I said, social support is one of the most encouraging factors for the person having Schizophrenia to heal and become functional. At last, I would like share a beautiful message written by Jonathan Harnisch which depicts feelings of person having Schizophrenia,

“I have schizophrenia. I am not schizophrenia. I am not my mental illness. My illness is a part of me.”

Happy World Schizophrenia Day 2020

By- Mrs. Vaishnavi Kulkarni.

(Consultant Psychologist, Vidula Psychological Consultancy, Pune)