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Schizophrenia

There are a lot of myths and missunderstandings about schizophrenia, so I thought it was a good starting point. It's a well-known and unfortunately common mental illness.

People commonly think schizophrenia is to do with a split personalty or multiple personalites. This is not true in any way! I don't really know where the confusion stems from, but it is very commonly belived. The only mental illness causing multiple personalities is Dissacociative Idenitity Disorder (formerly Multiple Personality Disorder). As far as I know, having a split personality is not a sypmtom of mental illness at all.

People also commonly think schizophrenics hear voices. This is a symptom of schizophrenia (particulaly paranoid schizophrenia) but does not apply to all schizophrenics. 'Voices' are a type of hallucination. People with schizophrenia may also see, feel or smell things that actaully there. Hallucinations can be caused by things other than schizophrenia.


To give a proper definition of schizophrenia I have 'translated' the diagnostic criteria with the help of a post from Smart Alex a while ago.

A. Two or more of the thigns below must occur frequently during the space of one month.

1) Strongly-held, strange and illogical beliefs.

2) Hallucinations(seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling or tasting things that are not really there)

3)Talking nonsense. This can inlude linking ideas that are not related at all, talking so all the words are real words but just seem to be randomly thrown together in a nonsensical way (eg. "Popcorn kettle black with eight good morning") or talking about one subject and then concluding on another.

4)Doing extremely repetitive or illogical things or refusing to move completely for very long periods of time.

5) Not doing things normal people do. Someone with this might not show any facial expression, or not speak.

Note: Only one of these, rather than two, is required if the person has extremely strange and illogical beliefs (like believing he/she is being stalked by aliens) or if the person hears a voice that is not real commenting on what they are doing or if the person hears two or more voices that are not real talking to each other.


B. The person cannot take care of themself well or work properly or have normal relationships with people.

C. This stuff has to have been happening for at least 6 months.

D, E and F. This stuff isn't caused by a mood disorder, a pervasive developmental disorder or substance abuse (acahol or drug addiction), because then, obviously, that would be the problem rather than schizophrenia.

This was not posted so you can self-diagnose. It was posted to give people an understanding of what the illness actually is.

Self-Injury

Though this is not an illness, it is linked with mental illness and seems to need explaining! So, here I will put stuff you might have heard about SI and the facts about it.

"Self-injurers just want attention"

Anyone who says this in this thread shall be shot. ninja
This is only very rarely true. One person in a group of forty-three Gain self-injurers did it for attention. A lot of self-injurers hide the marks left from it and avoid talking about it. They wouldn't do that if they wanted attention, would they?
And also, if someone is doing it attention, don't you think that's still a bit wrong? I mean, we've all wanted attention, I think. But would you consider painfully injuring yourself so it leaves clear marks for others to see to get attention? I think not.

"They hurt themselves because they are depressed/ they want to die"

Either can be true, as with the one above, though self-injury is not a suicide attmept (then it wouldn't have it's own term - it would jsut be called suicide).

Everyone's reasons are slightly different, but I don't think anyone does it in a correct state of mind. When most people hurt themselves, they are either faced with an emotion so strong they can't cope with it and hurt themselves as a way of dealing with things. Or, they don't care about anything at that point in time so they don't see any reason not to hurt themselves. Self-injury can be physically and mentally addictive, so people find it hard to stop. Smart Alex has also reminded me that some people hurt themselves when they are psychotic, or don't realise what they are doing.

"Self-injury is cutting oneself"

Nooooooo! This one irratates me a lot though it's not a particularly harmful missunderstanding.

Self-injury is quite simply injuring oneself on purpose. It is not generally applied to hurting onself for pleasure (masochism? Is that the word?). So it can be cutting, hitting, burning, breaking bones, overdosing, pulling out hair and stoping wounds from healing properly can all be self-injury (but not always are).

"Most self-injurers think hurting themselves is a good thing, and need to get proffessional help to stop."

Well, I don't know about 'most', but it is sadly true that there are pro-self-injury people and pro-self-injury websites on the net. Luckily, I think the majority of those who do it and can identify it want to stop.

Though proffessional help is probably a huge benefit in some cases, I would recommend that if one of your friends ever does it, to keep their secret and try and help them with your support at first, before getting everyone invlolved. This could be stressful, and cause them to worsen their self-injury or create further problems. Of course, if you think your friend is in immediate danger, tell someone. If they cannot stop on their own, or with the help of their friends, then therapy is probably beneficial.

Could you tell me about dysthymia? I will research it too, but not now as I am very tired.

I am having trouble understanding this, but I am trying.

Oh, I wouldn't call Dysthymic Disorder "lesser," though it is a Depressive Disorder, because it has to last over two years in adults, wheras other Depressive Disoders include any Major Depressive Episode over two weeks! However, Dysthymic Disorder does not include suicidal ideation or thoughts of death in its list of symptoms, as is common with a Major Depressive Episode.

I think people with DID also have hallcuinations, but other than that I can see nothing in common!