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THE FACTS
One in five people in New Zealand will experience some degree of mental illness at some stage in their life.
Of all the people living in New Zealand today, 30,000 of them have suffered or will suffer from schizophrenia.
People with a physical illness may have physical symptoms such as stomach cramps or joint aches. Everyone can understand this.
People with a mental illness may have symptoms such as hearing voices which no one else can hear, paranoid feelings, delusions, or depression.
THE WORD ITSELF- SCHIZOPHRENIA
Schizophrenia is based on two Greek words -
'schizo' which means split in many parts and 'phrenos' meaning mind.
It means that the links between the way a person thinks, perceives, feels and acts become disconnected from one another.
WHAT IS SCHIZOPHRENIA
Schizophrenia is a name given to a whole range of mental illnesses that share the fact that the person affected with the illness loses touch with reality.
A person's ability to take things in and make sense of them is seriously affected.
Assembling coherent thoughts, deciding on how one feels and acting on those feelings can be very difficult to do.
Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness and people with schizophrenia need prompt treatment and ongoing support
It is very important that this illness is recognised as early as possible so that with treatment the disruption of a person's life can be minimised.
IS THIS A SPLIT PERSONALITY?
There is no such thing.
There is an extremely rare condition called multiple personality disorder.
It has no link with schizophrenia.
WHERE ARE ALL THE PEOPLE WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA?
Like all mental illness, schizophrenia carries stigma in our society.
This condition is often invisible because we have become experts at hiding or ignoring people who suffer from it.
People with schizophrenia are often discriminated against in work, education, housing, and social situations.
In fact, one in five people in New Zealand will experience a degree of mental illness at some time in their lives.
One individual in every one hundred will develop schizophrenia.
This person could be your family member, colleague, friend or neighbour.
WHAT ARE THE CAUSES OF SCHIZOPHRENIA?
Schizophrenia is a disorder of the brain and people with schizophrenia have an imbalance in the chemicals of the brain.
We know that there is a biochemical cause of the symptoms of schizophrenia because drugs do work to allay the symptoms.
Damage to the nervous system before and during birth can be a factor. There is a genetic factor in that some people inherit a predisposition for schizophrenia.
However, families or parenting problems do not cause schizophrenia.
WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS OF SCHIZOPHRENIA?
Schizophrenia is an illness which has a range of symptoms.
There are Positive symptoms which are those that affect the senses.
The person may hear voices or see things that other people say do not exist.
These voices or hallucinations are outside what a person would usually experience.
The intermittent nature of positive symptoms means that sometimes these symptoms are more active than at other times.
There are negative symptoms which are hard to explain to other people.
They may make a person feel flat and tired, and uninterested in the company of other people.
Difficulties with negative symptoms may lead to unresponsiveness and withdrawal from daily activities by the person with schizophrenia.
Cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia relate to problems concentration and learning.
It may become difficult to follow what people are saying or hard for the person to assemble their thoughts.
EARLY INTERVENTION:
Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness. Early intervention and prompt treatment ensures a good outcome and can minimise disruption to a person's life.
It is very important that this illness is recognised as early as possible so that with treatment, the disruptions to a person's life can be minimised.
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