Schizophrenia
• A psychosis or psychotic disorder involves a major
disorganization of thought processes, confused and extreme
emotional responses, and distorted perceptions of the world.
• There is a loss of contact with and difficulty in recognizing
reality.
• Thus, it is a very serious mental disturbance.
• Most researchers do not think that it is an extension or
outgrowth of less severe disorders but that it is a separate
problem that arises all by itself.
• All four may not be present in one individual, but typically at least two are.
(1) The first symptom is a serious distortion of mental processes. Often it is hard
to understand exactly what psychotic people are trying to say or to grasp
what they are thinking. This behavior comes and goes so that they are lucid
for a while, then very confused. This symptom is called thought disorder.
(2) The second symptom involves seeing or hearing things that are not there.
Again, this comes and goes. It is not unusual for psychotics to hear voices or
see objects that are not present. This behavior is called hallucinating.
(3) Next, many psychotics hold grossly inaccurate beliefs, such as thinking of
themselves as avenging angels or as victims of persecution by some secret
organization. Such a belief is called a delusion.
(4) Finally, psychotics have a great deal of trouble with emotional responses.
The emotions shown are quite inappropriate; they might show no response at
all when something interesting happens, for example, or they might laugh at
a tragic event. We seriously doubt that they really think it is funny; instead,
we think that they are quite confused and dominated by a malfunctioning
brain.
• Schizophrenia = most serious of all mental
disturbances.
• It affects about 1% of the population.
• Obvious symptoms of this problem are disorganized thoughts and
garbled speech, as well as hallucinations and delusions.
• Researchers doubt that schizophrenia is a single disorder but instead
feel that there are different causes and degrees of severity.
• For example, about a third of such patients have one episode and
get better, never to have it happen again; a third have very severe
symptoms and do not respond to very much treatment at all; the final
third are in and out of institutions most of their lives.
• We suspect that schizophrenia results mostly from some physical or
chemical problem because it appears in late adolescence or early
adulthood, almost never earlier.
• This fact would tend to rule out the suggestion that it is mostly
psychological, because psychological cases should result in the
problem appearing at almost any age.
• In some cases, schizophrenics will speak what is called word salad.
Like the ingredients of a tossed salad, the words are all mixed
together.
• “The house burnt the cow horrendously always.”
• Or there are what are called clang associations, which refer to the
fact that the speech has a rhythm like a bell: “You wear clothes and
how much does this watch cost? Have you a sister? I have three and
they are all fine girls, curls, furls, isn’t that funny?” The clang comes
out with “girls, curls, furls.”
• All schizophrenia has certain symptoms in common, especially thought
disorders. However, there are several subtypes, three of which are
described here.
1. Catatonic – The hallmark of catatonic schizophrenia is a disturbance of
movement. Catatonics usually do not speak, or they say very little. They
appear to be in a stupor much of the time. They may rigidly hold a
peculiar posture or simply stand or sit, unmoving, for hours.
2. Paranoid – Paranoid schizophrenia is marked by strong feelings of
persecution and suspiciousness. It often includes grandiose beliefs as well.
For instance, a paranoid schizophrenic might believe that he or she has
some kind of special or superhuman power.
3. Undifferentiated – Undifferentiated schizophrenia is just what the term
implies. That is, there is nothing special to differentiate or distinguish it.
Many professionals consider this a catchall category. In other words, this
category is used when a schizophrenic does not fit into any other subtype.
• Schizophrenics are not necessarily out of touch with reality all the
time. Their unusual behavior (called psychotic episodes) often comes
in cycles, and in between the person is reasonably lucid.
• But often even those who seem unaware of their surroundings are not
really as completely lost as they may appear.
• Example: One story about this involves a loud and obnoxious student
nurse who frequently made unflattering remarks about the patients.
One day she leaned over to make a bed next to the one on which a
catatonic schizophrenic patient had been sitting immobile for many
hours. She commented on how stupid she thought this behavior was
and suddenly received a good solid kick in the rear. By the time she
had whirled around, the patient had “resumed his ‘poker face’
expression and former posture.”
• Think back to the last time you were at a party with some good
friends and everyone was sitting in a circle. When the discussion
really got going, people were talking rapidly and were
agitated; thoughts were moving very fast. When that was
happening, the level of one of the chemicals that fires nerve
cells in the brain was quite high, causing a speed of speech and
thought that eventually would exhaust most people. This
chemical is called dopamine.
• A major discovery about many schizophrenics is that they have normally high levels of
dopamine in the brain.
• This certainly can explain many of their thought problems.
• If thoughts are running through their heads at a maximum speed hour after hour, day
after day, this would cause confusion and eventually stupor from fatigue - which is just the
way many schizophrenics act.
• Studies with animals show that drugs that increase the levels of dopamine far beyond
normal produce bizarre behavior in the form of strange posturing and robot-like
movements-again symptoms often seen in schizophrenics.
• Finally, some schizophrenics get much better when they are given drugs that reduce
dopamine levels. The only problem is that these same drugs can cause all kinds of side
effects in some patients, including uncontrollable tremors.
• Of importance here, though, is that scientists are on the right track. But they have not been
able to refine the medication enough so that it works safely for most patients.
• We should add that some researchers feel that psychological problems can also cause the
body to manufacture too much dopamine, so we are not limited only to a physical
problem that can be cured by merely chemical means.
• Still, we are on our way toward solving one of life’s most destructive disturbances.
• Two additional points:
(1) The rapidity of thought with the schizophrenic does not ever
resemble that of the manic discussed earlier. Schizophrenics
speak an act as if they are exhausted from too much thought,
(2) The chemical defect in mood disorders does not involve
dopamine. That chemical, as mentioned, is serotonin. There is
some very subtle difference in the chemicals that we don’t
completely understand yet.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWYwckFrksg
• http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/11/what-welearned-sandy-hook-crime-report
• http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/keeping-kidssafe/201212/the-massacre-sandy-hook-elementary-school
“You want to know why. This may sound cynical, but here's why.
It's because of the way the media reports it. Flip on the news and watch how we treat the
Batman theater shooter and the Oregon mall shooter like celebrities. Dylan Klebold and Eric
Harris are household names, but do you know the name of a single 'victim' of Columbine?
Disturbed people who would otherwise just off themselves in their basements see the news and
want to top it by doing something worse, and going out in a memorable way. Why a grade
school? Why children? Because he'll be remembered as a horrible monster, instead of a sad
nobody.
CNN's article says that if the body count "holds up", this will rank as the second deadliest
shooting behind Virginia Tech, as if statistics somehow make one shooting worse than another.
Then they post a video interview of third-graders for all the details of what they saw and heard
while the shootings were happening. Fox News has plastered the killer's face on all their reports
for hours.
Any articles or news stories yet that focus on the victims and ignore the killer's identity? None
that I've seen yet because they don't sell. So congratulations, sensationalist media, you've just lit
the fire for someone to top this and knock off a day care center or a maternity ward next.
You can help by forgetting you ever read this man's name, and remembering the name of at
least one victim. You can help by donating to mental health research instead of pointing to gun
control as the problem. You can help by turning off the news."
• “I Am Adam Lanza’s Mother” article