Schizophrenia is the most serious mental illness categorized on axis I of the Diagnosis Statistical Manuel (DSM-IV-TR). Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder. The sufferers from this mental disorder are out of touch with reality. They cannot distinguish what is happening in real life from the voices or the images that are being projected from their own mind. For them, the hallucinations and the delusions are real and they will defend their belief regardless of anyone trying to convince them otherwise. It is a terrible, mental illness that not only affects the individual sufferer it affect their families, friends, and can affect everyone who comes in contact with them.

Schizophrenia has been with us since time began, but it has only recently been considered a mental illness. Prior to the 19th century schizophrenia has been misunderstood. It was considered witchcraft during the Middle Ages and criminality in other time periods. People suffering with various disorders such as epilepsy and schizophrenia have been burned at the stake, had holes drilled into their skulls, shot, hanged or been imprisoned, all because the population at the time did not understand mental illness. Today there are currently one to two percent of the population who is afflicted with the disease.

People suffering from schizophrenia may hear voices in their head, they don.t realize the voices are being generated by their brains. They believe other people hear the voices and they are very real. They may see things that are not there, they may believe aliens are sending them telepathic messages, they may feel the CIA is out to get them or they may have delusions of grandeur believing they are the Queen of England or Calvin Klein. These are all classic symptoms of the disorder. They may also feel that people are able to read their minds. They often feel that people are out to harm them. The symptoms are so severe that they become terrified of the outside world, or they are extremely agitated and super vigilant watching everything around them.

There are times that they are very lucid and will appear normal, but often times they are in their own reality and when they talk they do not make any sense. Or they may sit for hours without speaking or moving. They may show inappropriate affect, meaning they will laugh at nothing or cry for no reason, or they may have flat affect whereby they don.t show any emotion at all.

Everyone is affected one way or they other by the horrors of schizophrenia. Families and friends bare the burden of caring for people with schizophrenia. Employees and employers watch as the disease takes it toll. Many schizophrenics can live in the outside world with proper medication and maintain a somewhat normal life while others are so debilitated that they lose their jobs and eventually become so incapacitated that they must be hospitalized. Sometimes a schizophrenic individual will assault someone and then the law is involved until it is determined that the person is suffering from schizophrenia is mentally ill and needs hospitalization.

Fortunately there is treatment available and most people diagnosed with schizophrenia can live normal lives within the community. They can remain with family, live in group homes or in independent living. They can maintain jobs and raise families. Scientists are constantly working to find new medications and new therapies to relieve the symptoms of schizophrenia. They are continuing the research on the causes and therapies for schizophrenia. New medication is being studied and hopefully one day there will be a cure for schizophrenia. There may even be ways to prevent the illness from occurring in the first place. One day the terrible consequences of living with this disease may be a thing of the past.

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