Women: SCHIZOPHRENIA
Posted on: Wednesday, 15 March 2006, 06:00 CST
THIS is widely misunderstood. It is a distressing condition in which the mind has difficulty in functioning as a whole and retaining its grasp on reality.
Symptoms may include hallucinations, delusions (for instance, thinking people want to harm you), behavioural changes, and hearing voices.
But schizophrenia is often wrongly used to describe a "split personality", a very rare condition in which someone's personality switches rapidly from one type to another.
Schizophrenia also receives a lot of negative press about sufferers being violent. But these cases are unusual - people with schizophrenia are not often a danger to anyone except perhaps themselves, as many commit suicide.
Who gets it? It affects one in 100 people and although it can start at any age, it is usually diagnosed in late-teens and 20s. It occurs equally in men and women of all races and backgrounds.
What's the treatment? There is no test for schizophrenia and many symptoms are similar to those for other conditions. A combination of medication, discussions with a professional and social support may help.
Read Surviving Schizophrenia: A Family Manual, by E Fuller Torrey (HarperCollins)
Contact Hearing Voices Network - www.hearing-voices.org 0161 834 5768.
Source: Daily Mirror
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