Schizophrenia

Résumé du document

I think I've been schizophrenic since the age of 9 years old. Schzophrenic people go through phases of lucidity, but when they?re not lucid, life is a living hell for them: raging all day, they spend the night in bed in a semi-catatonic state, hearing voices or seeing things that no one else can hear or see (the slender blade of a razor opening the skin like a too ripe raisin, the smell of burned flesh, etc.) And all this is you, but, at the same time, it isn?t - at this moment, only illusion exists; you just opened the door on a new reality, door to which only you has the key. During days, months, years, the Earth doesn?t spin on its axis anymore, and no one can enter. You think you recognize someone you?ve known for years, you see his face on dozens of people, and you realize (sometimes too late) that you were wrong.? - Margaret Gibson

Extraits

[...] Schizophrenia ‘'I think I've been schizophrenic since the age of 9 years old. Schzophrenic people go through phases of lucidity, but when they're not lucid, life is a living hell for them: raging all day, they spend the night in bed in a semi-catatonic state, hearing voices or seeing things that no one else can hear or see (the slender blade of a razor opening the skin like a too ripe raisin, the smell of burned flesh, etc.) And all this is you, but, at the same time, it isn't - at this moment, only illusion exists; you just opened the door on a new reality, door to which only you has the key. [...]

[...] It usually happens at a young age (remember Mrs. Gibson who was struck by the illness at and there is no type of person more likely to become ill. Another reason why the characteristics of schizophrenia are so uneasy to diagnose is because they appear progressively and aren't as spectacular as we, the common people, would want them to be. Still, one point on which everyone can agree is on the main symptoms of schizophrenia, although they do not all appear to every person: Delirium: a person can have the unshakable certitude that his mind is controlled, that thoughts are pushed into his brain without her being able to do anything about it; she feels she is being persecuted, sometimes because she has extraordinary powers or she is a very important person; that her body has changed or has been pushed far from her. [...]

[...] But this very basic definition doesn't take into account that those ‘‘incorrect associations'', as well as all other manifestations of the intense drama those people are living are just the tip of a far more complex iceberg. It is now accepted that schizophrenia implies many other diseases, with different symptoms and causes, depending on the person suffering from it. It is actually the main reason why it is so difficult to treat and understand accurately, the disorder changing with every individual. Anyone, in any part of the world, has one chance out of a hundred of becoming schizophrenic. [...]

[...] Drugs are of a great help to schizophrenics, although it can never be seen as the only way to treat this devastating problem. As well as the manifestations of the disease, the ways of dealing with it are as numerous than the people affected, each one having his own personality and his own history. After the diagnosis has been made, a therapy is prescribed. In less severe cases, the patient can return to a normal life, providing that he continues taking the medication used to control his illness. [...]

[...] Physical symptoms include slower movements, a tendency to isolation, a great excitement and appearance of weird postures or of an affected behavior. For unknown reasons, those last two symptoms have tended to disappear during the last 50 years. As you can see, the range of symptoms is wide, and it is one of the reasons why it is impossible, up to now, to entirely cure serious cases of schizophrenia. One of the most effective ways of coping with the disease and to bring a certain relief to the patient and his family is chemotherapy. [...]