A Daughter's Story

Many Faces of Schizophrenia

First of all, Schizophrenia is a severe mentsl disorder characterized by a breakdown in perceptual and thought processes, often including hallucinations and delusions. Schizophrenia is not a rare mental disorder. In the United States alone, there are as many people with this disorder as the combined populations of Wyoming, Vermont, Delaware and Hawaii. It is equally common in men and women, although, for some reason, it tends to hit men earlier (between the ages of (18 and 25) and women later (26 to 45).

While the treatment for schizophrenia has improved dramatically over the past thirty years, it is often a tough battle to win. Mental health professionals often talk about the "one third" prognosis for schizophrenia:one third makes a full recovery and lead a normal life; one third make a partial recovery; and one third of the time , the person with schizophrenia is faced with a slow, downhill spiral of the disease throughout the rest of his or her life.

The many faces of Schizophrenia are: Disorganized, Catatonic, Paranoid, Undifferentiated and Residual. I will define those categories on my next visit and describe what they mean. Also, next time, I will talk about delusions and hallucinations and Childhood Schizophrenia. Young people have to get this information as well. See you later this same day, the nineteenth of February. I am a very busy college student majoring in Psychology, I have a lot of reading to do and I will be back because all of you are important to me.