Schizophrenia
by: Colie Mallis
What is schizophrenia?
- Schizophrenia is a serious brain illness that involves a breakdown with thought processes that could affect the way emotions and behaviors may normally be. This can lead people who have the illness to have hallucinations, delusions, trouble organizing thoughts, and strange movements.
- Other symptoms include cognitive symptoms that affect the thought process causing people who suffer from the disease to have trouble paying attention and using information to make proper decisions. Along with these symptoms the patient may have trouble functioning normally and expressing emotions; because of this the person may seem withdrawn and depressed.
- There is no known cure at the moment, but medicine may control some of the symptoms of schizophrenia. As well as having no cure, no one is exactly cure what causes the mental illness.
Who is affected by the illness?
- Schizophrenia affects more than 24 million people around the world , and in the United States alone it is estimated that 2.4 million people suffer from schizophrenia in any given year.
- About one out of every 100 people in the world meets the accepted medical criteria for schizophrenia.
- Symptoms of schizophrenia usually start between 16 and 30, and men often develop symptoms at a younger age than women. People usually do not get schizophrenia after age 45.
Running for my Life by: Ann Gonzalez
I would recommend this book because it gives a different perspective on the mental illness schizophrenia. The book shows how the disease doesn't only affect the person diagnosed with it, but how it can effect the people around them. For example the book is from Andrea's perspective whose mother is suffering from schizophrenia. Through out the book it shows how she has to deal with the idea that she doesn't have what may be considered a normal family and has to face your everyday teenage dilemmas, including everything from a boyfriend to finding her true passion for running. One situation in the book where schizophrenia was shown in the book is during one of Andrea's therapy sessions, when Andrea vividly describes one of the scenarios she went through with her mom having schizophrenia to her therapist, where Andrea's mother yells at, chases, and forces her to suffocate the pet kitten she had, and in a short amount of time later her mother was seen caressing the same kitten in such a lovable way you wouldn't even think she was the same person described before. This is a perfect example of the many symptoms one might experience when being diagnosed with schizophrenia.