Schizophrenia - Confusion and Marginalization

Some feelings and experiences encountered at the schizophrenics are also familiar to us: the difficulty of think right, the feeling that you assist your own actions, the uncertainty regarding the way you should interpret the events taking place. But when all this problems become severe and they become an impediment in everyday living they can be diagnosed as a disorder. Persons having schizophrenia have a severe difficulty in separating real facts from unreal ones, difficulty in following the course of their thoughts and in reacting properly towards the daily events.

Schizophrenia shows up in every type of culture, even in those who are situated far away from the stressed industrialized civilizations, schizophrenia being a plague of humanity for over two hundred years.

The disorder affects approximately 1% of the population is it appears in equal proportion for men and women. This disease implies high costs for the individuals caring it and as well for their families and community, because the schizophrenics need regular medical and psychiatric care. The medical costs rise up to more than 20 billion dollars/ an only in the United States. This disorder starts showing up at the end of the teenage period and the beginning of adulthood, at the point when a person begins his career and tries to make a family. Unfortunately, it is one of the most stigmatized disorders, so those suffering from it and also their families often have to endure great shame and marginalization. Furthermore, it has certain characteristics which develop gradually and which lead to isolation and inadequate behavior. These characteristics can be found in the following types of disorder.

Firstly, there are cognitive and attention disorders.

The process of thinking and also the content of the thoughts can be really affected. The words and phrases can make sense by themselves, but when they mixed together and put in a context they make no logical sense. This phenomenon is described by the concept of "salad of words" and it reflects a relaxation of associations in which the ideas flow from one subject to another in a way that seems that they have no logical connection. This confusing process of thinking can be the result of the general difficulty in concentrating the attention on relevant stimuli and ignoring the unimportant ones. The schizophrenics are also submitted to have illusions. These are defined as false beliefs which the great majority of people would perceive as misinterpretations of the reality. The most frequent illusions are those that external forces try to control their thoughts and actions. Such things lead to the idea that they are followed by threatening groups who conspire against them. This type is called paranoid schizophrenia.

Secondly, there are perception disorders.

People suffering from schizophrenia declare that the world seems different because the sounds are much higher, the colors are more intense and their own bodies seems to be different: their hands seem too long or too short, their eyes are dislocated on their faces and they cannot even recognize themselves in the mirror. The most dramatic perception disorders are the hallucinations, referring to the sensorial experiences in the absence of an external and relevant stimulation. These hallucinations are usually very scary and terrible.

In addition, schizophrenics also have difficulties in expressing their emotions. They are not able to show normal emotional reactions. For example, when a man suffering from schizophrenia finds out that his daughter has cancer he does not express sadness, he stands still and says nothing. Another description of this incapacity shows that sometimes they react in contrast to the circumstances. For example, they can smile when tragic events are presented to them. This can derive from the fact that their thoughts rapidly flow from one idea to another, so they do not have time to process the certain information and react properly.

In conclusion, schizophrenia is a stigmatized disorder because it shows little or none capability to react and adapt to the everyday life. Because of their severe condition, schizophrenics can become very aggressive and because of this the need permanent surveillance and medical and psychiatric care. This fact drives away their families and friends and the people surrounding them even inside a psychiatric hospital refuse to connect with them because of their inner world in which they live. This inner world has become in their vision the reality, the ultimate reality.