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What Does Having Schizophrenia Feel Like

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What Is The Typical Age Of Onset For Schizophrenia

What it’s like to have schizophrenia

Men and women are equally likely to get this brain disorder, but guys tend to get it slightly earlier. On average, men are diagnosed in their late teens to early 20s. Women tend to get diagnosed in their late 20s to early 30s. People rarely develop schizophrenia before theyre 12 or after theyre 40.

What Triggers Paranoia In A Person With Schizophrenia

Paranoia is a symptom that affects some people with schizophrenia. Doctors do not know precisely what causes schizophrenia, but it probably stems from a combination of genetic and environmental factors.

It is a complex condition, but have suggested risk factors may include birthing complications, health issues in the birthing parent during pregnancy, a family history of psychosis, childhood trauma, social isolation, living in an urban environment, and cannabis use.

A person who is undergoing treatment for schizophrenia may experience symptoms if they stop using medication.

Maintain Your Social Network

Try to maintain your friendships or the network of people that you have in your life. These will later become important supports as your loved one recovers. Educate them and update them on your loved one’s recovery. People are sometimes afraid to ask questions about schizophrenia and this will put them at ease.

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What Is The Cause Of Schizophrenia

The cause is not known for certain but there are several current ideas. It is thought that the balance of brain chemicals is altered. Neurotransmitters are needed to pass messages between brain cells. An altered balance of these may cause the symptoms. It is not clear why changes occur in the neurotransmitters.

Inherited factors are thought to be important. For example, a close family member of someone with schizophrenia has a 1 in 10 chance of also developing the condition. This is 10 times the normal chance. A child born to a mother and father who both have schizophrenia has a higher risk of developing it but one or more factors appear to be needed to trigger the condition in people who are genetically prone to it. There are various theories as to what these might be. For example:

  • Stress such as relationship problems, financial difficulties, social isolation, bereavement, etc.
  • A viral infection during the mother’s pregnancy, or in early childhood.
  • A lack of oxygen at the time of birth that may damage a part of the brain.
  • Illegal or street drugs may trigger the condition in some people. For example, heavy cannabis usage may account for between 8% and 14% of schizophrenia cases. Many other recreational drugs such as amfetamines, cocaine, ketamine and lysergic acid diethylamide can trigger a schizophrenia-like illness.

Take Action If You Think You Or Your Loved One Is In Danger

Top 10 Schizophrenia Facts

If you think your loved one is at risk of harming themselves or others and they refuse help, it is possible to have them evaluated by a psychiatrist under the Mental Health Act. This process may involve police and other first responders, and it can be a difficult and stressful process for everyone. But it can also be a necessary step if someone is in danger. You can learn more about the Mental Health Act in the info sheet Families Coping with a Crisis and you can find the Guide to the Mental Health Act at www.health.gov.bc.ca/library/publications/year/2005/MentalHealthGuide.pdf. For a more in-depth discussion of the Mental Health Act, see a video with lawyer and health law consultation Gerrit Clements.

If your loved one says that they have thoughts of ending their life, its important to take action. Call 1-800-SUICIDE at any time or message online at www.crisiscentrechat.ca between noon and 1am. If you think your loved one is in immediate danger, you can always call 911 or go to a hospital emergency room.

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What You Can Do: Daily Habits Make A Difference

Once medication and therapy begin to work, these strategies can help ease the challenges of schizophrenia:

  • Stay focused on your treatment goals. Tell family members or friends your goals so they can provide support.
  • Stick to your treatment plan. Even if symptoms lessen, it is important to go to therapy and take your medication as directed. Use a medication calendar or weekly pillbox to remember to take medications.
  • Know your warning signs. Have a plan in place to deal with symptoms as they arise so you can get the right help as soon as possible.
  • Take care of yourself. Your physical health is an important part of feeling good, too. Eat nutritious foods, exercise, and follow a regular sleep routine. Do not smoke, or use alcohol, or illegal drugs.
  • Incorporate relaxation and stress management techniques into your life. Regularly doing activities such as meditation, or tai-chi, can help reduce stress and avoid triggering an episode.
  • Join a support group. Share stories and advice with people who understand what you are going through. It is helpful to connect with and learn from others with schizophrenia.
  • Educate yourself and others about schizophrenia. Learning about the illness can encourage you to follow your treatment plan and also help your loved ones be more supportive and compassionate.
  • Ask about social services assistance. These services help with affordable housing, jobs, transportation, and other daily activities.

Treatment Works. SAMHSA Can Help You Find It.

Doing Everything For Them

When your loved one is unable to do chores, errands, or daily tasks, you might try to help by taking over those responsibilities.

But its often more helpful to encourage them to take steps toward doing these things themselves and offering support when needed.

You can also ask if theres anything specific getting in the way of tasks:

  • If they havent done laundry because they ran out of laundry soap and feel afraid of leaving the house, you could offer to do a grocery run.
  • If they cant prepare meals because a voice threatens them whenever they pick up a knife, you might help them chop a few days worth of vegetables in advance.

You can also offer to help them plan and schedule out weekly responsibilities when you spend time together.

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Ways To Cope With Schizophrenia

While having schizophrenia presents a number of obstacles, there are things that a person can do that can improve their ability to cope. Having an understanding of how their individual symptoms affect them and the areas where they seem to have the greatest difficulty provides a solid foundation.

The next step is finding strategies that can help them function and live their best. If your loved one has schizophrenia, encourage them to:

  • Seek out social support: Encourage them to talk to you or their close friends or family members about their condition. Sharing their challenges can help their loved ones learn to notice when their symptoms might be worse and when they could use additional support.
  • Join a support group: In addition to leaning on their loved ones, joining a support group can be a way to learn new skills and get encouragement from people who share their experiences.
  • Practice self-care: Caring for yourself is important. Encourage them to take steps to make sure that they are treating themselves with kindness and caring for their physical and mental health.
  • Participate in skills training: Skills training can help them with both daily living skills as well and social skills. They can explore ways to manage some of the daily challenges they face and build coping skills that will help both now and in the future.

What Medications Or Treatments Are Used

What’s it like to live with #schizophrenia?

Medication is a cornerstone of most treatment plans for schizophrenia. People with schizophrenia often undergo other treatments that complement or enhance the effects of medications.

There are two main types of medications that treat schizophrenia, typical antipsychotic medications and atypical antipsychotic medications. Other medications may also help treat schizophrenia directly or help reduce the side effects of antipsychotic medications.

Other treatments or techniques that may help include:

  • Psychotherapy: Mental health therapy can help people with schizophrenia understand their condition and adapt to it better. It can also help them manage mental health concerns that may happen with or because of schizophrenia.
  • Electroconvulsive therapy : This is especially helpful when schizophrenia resists medications, or a person has such severe psychosis symptoms that they are a danger to themselves or others.

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What Does Schizophrenia Feel Like

People less familiar with the condition may wonder what schizophrenia feels like. Often, people with schizophrenia struggle with periods of time in which they are unsure what is real and what isnt due to the impact of the condition on ones sensory experiences and thought processes. Delusional thoughts, paranoia, auditory and visual hallucinations can be part of the difficult symptoms for someone with schizophrenia, depending on the type of illness and the individual.

This constellation of potential symptoms creates a disturbing disconnection from ones own understanding of what is real and what is not. As one can imagine, this is distressing and can cause many problems for the person struggling with this condition, particularly when early signs of schizophrenia emerge prior to diagnosis.

Often young people with emerging symptoms avoid telling others of their perceptual experiences due to fear. Imagine how distressing it would be to have your most basic assumptions of reality shaken. It is understandable that prior to diagnosis, it might feel frightening to experience these symptoms and also frightening to tell others about them.

Negative Symptoms Of Schizophrenia

The negative symptoms of schizophrenia can often appear several years before somebody experiences their first acute schizophrenic episode.

These initial negative symptoms are often referred to as the prodromal period of schizophrenia.

Symptoms during the prodromal period usually appear gradually and slowly get worse.

They include the person becoming more socially withdrawn and increasingly not caring about their appearance and personal hygiene.

It can be difficult to tell whether the symptoms are part of the development of schizophrenia or caused by something else.

Negative symptoms experienced by people living with schizophrenia include:

  • losing interest and motivation in life and activities, including relationships and sex
  • lack of concentration, not wanting to leave the house, and changes in sleeping patterns
  • being less likely to initiate conversations and feeling uncomfortable with people, or feeling there’s nothing to say

The negative symptoms of schizophrenia can often lead to relationship problems with friends and family as they can sometimes be mistaken for deliberate laziness or rudeness.

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Help For Family & Friends

The family and friends of someone with schizophrenia need care and support too its okay for family and friends to prioritise their own mental and physical health while they support someone.

There are many other people out there who share similar experiences, and many services designed to help carers of people with mental health issues. Check out our Guide for Families and Friends for more info.

Effective medical, community, and psychological treatment is available and a person who experiences schizophrenia can live a fulfilling life.

To connect with others who get it, visit our online Forums. Theyre safe, anonymous and available 24/7.

What Can I Do To Manage Schizophrenia

Treatment for Schizophrenia

People deal with their experience in different ways. You might need to try different things before finding something that works.

Support groups

You could join a support group. A support group is where people come together to share information, experiences and give each other support. Hearing about the experiences of others can help you feel understood. This may help you feel less alone and boost your self-confidence.

You might be able to find a local group by searching online. Rethink Mental Illness have support groups in some areas. You can find out what is available in your area, or get help to set up your own support group if you follow this link:

Or you can call our advice service on 0808 801 0525 for more information.

Recovery College

Recovery colleges are part of the NHS. They offer free courses about mental health to help you manage your experiences. They can help you to take control of your life and become an expert in your own wellbeing and recovery. You can usually self-refer to a recovery college. But the college may tell your care team.

Unfortunately, recovery colleges are not available in all areas. To see if there is a recovery college in your area you can use a search engine such as Google. Or you can call our advice service on 0808 801 0525 for more information.

Peer support through the NHS

  • recognising and coping with symptoms,
  • what to do in a crisis,
  • meeting other people who can support you, andrecovery.

Self-management techniques

  • talk back to them,

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Moving Into Adulthood: A Turning Point

Schizophrenia is typically diagnosed after age 18, most often in a persons 20s or early 30s.

It may be fairly well-controlled early in life, but moving from home to college and encountering new rules, or no rules exposes vulnerable young people to things theyre not prepared to deal with, says Dr. Bowers.

Living with a college roommate can prove difficult. It may seem easier to avoid talking or eating with others. You tend to isolate yourself and seem preoccupied with your own world, she says.

Increased exposure to alcohol or drug use is also a trigger.

Among 50 college students who smoke pot, a few may get a drug-induced psychosis that clears in weeks, says Dr. Bowers. But one may go on to develop a serious mental health disorder.

Exposure to disturbing news events or potentially false information on the internet and social media can provoke extreme reactions in the vulnerable.

They misperceive whats happening in the environment and develop delusions, she says. They may not make sense or become too aggressive.

Its easy to become so distracted by thoughts that schoolwork and jobs get neglected.

If someone constantly plays video games or focuses only on personal interests, and offers an irrational explanation for avoiding studies or work, thats a warning sign, says Dr. Bowers.

What Negative Schizophrenia Symptoms Are Like

While the positive symptoms may come to mind when you think of schizophrenia, the negative symptoms are often the most debilitating, leading people to drop out of work, school, and everything that matters to them in life, Weinstein points out.

âNegative symptoms are the absence of a certain oomph in life, the absence of normal interest and drive and motivations,â Margolis says. âAt its most extreme, that can be someone who barely talks, who just sits in home doing little or nothing.â

âWhen I looked at the world around me, it was like I was watching TV,â Dickson says. âIt feels like youâre totally cut off.â He remembers reading a description of the 2001 movie A Beautiful Mind, about the mathematician John Nash, who battled schizophrenia for decades: âIt said that Nash lived a âghostlike existence,â and I definitely can associate with that. You feel helpless, you lose your sense of self.â

For Collins, her inability to interact with the world was linked with her perception issues. âIf I tried to walk across the room, it would feel like my feet were falling through the floor,â she says. âThe boundaries keep shifting and dissolving so your ability to function physically, cognitively, and emotionally is totally gone. I couldnât even speak for years. It was like my voice got swallowed up deep down inside. I called it being in the black box: I wanted to get out, but I couldnât get out of the traffic jam that was in my head.â

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How Soon After Treatment Will I Feel Better

If you have questions about how long it will take before you notice the effects of your treatments, the best source of information is your healthcare provider. Your provider is the most accurate source of information because they can consider the factors in your life that might affect when you notice the effects of treatments. They can also talk to you about other available treatment options when initial treatments aren’t effective.

How To Help Someone Else Experiencing Symptoms Of Psychosis:

What Schizophrenia Feels Like
  • Often, family and friends help identify someone who is struggling with psychosis, and suffering from their symptoms, so theyre important to getting them in touch with professionals who can help.

  • Stressful life events, such as going off to college or breaking up with a significant other, can trigger psychosis. Further research is needed into why this is, but a low underlying stress tolerance level is often seen.

  • Its all right to mention to someone that youre worried about them, and open the door to discussing it at that point or later. You can find out if theres an early-psychosis clinic like U-Ms near you, and provide information or offer to contact them.

  • If you notice signs that theyre harming themselves, thats the time to seek immediate help, often by starting with contacting suicide hotline or nearby psychiatric emergency room for advice. People with psychosis have 10 to 15 times the risk of suicidal thoughts or behaviors than others.

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Encourage Your Loved One To Keep Up With Their Treatment And Recovery Plan

This is very important! You are not responsible for your loved ones treatment , but you can support them. Schizophrenia can make it difficult for people to make and go to appointments and follow their treatment plan. With your loved ones permission, you may choose to help by reminding them of appointments, taking them to appointments, or whatever helps in your situation. If your loved one isnt happy with their treatment or would like to try a new approach, you can encourage them to talk with their care team, like their doctor or mental health teamit can be dangerous to stop or change a treatment without a doctors support.

Treatment can be a difficult area for loved ones. Its hard to see someone you love in pain. You might be scared of the things your loved one is experiencing. You want to help. But in order for any treatment to work, your loved one needs to be active in their care. Forcing or threatening treatment generally doesnt work and can often hurt everyone involved. In most cases, anyone 19 years of age and older and not at risk of harm is free to make their own choices. And their choices may include refusing treatment or choosing a treatment that you disagree with. It helps everyone if you can be respectful and keep honest communication open between you. You can learn more about dealing with this situation in Q& A: An adult in my life seems ill and wont find help. What can I do?.

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