Is this the case in real life with schizophrenics, as depicted in the movie «Crazy Love»? A girl gives advice behind his back, a man with a bat always accompanies the patient to fight back his offender, and another «genius» in shorts always incites the hero to various pranks. Is this how everything happens in the head of a person who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia? Or are things much worse?
The only thing we can agree with is the phrase from the film that cancer patients are pitied and treated accordingly, while schizophrenics are feared, wary and oppressed. But both are diseases that equally destroy a person from the inside.
Top 5 Schizophrenia Myths
One thing can be said: schizophrenia is a disease that can be cured. It is not a sentence for the patient. The most important thing is to find an experienced doctor who can understand the origins of the disease, understand its causes and choose the most effective methods of treatment. Since people tend to think up, wind up and believe in fiction, a lot of unreliable data about this mental illness has appeared. Let’s develop the myths:
- This is the most difficult diagnosis in psychiatry. Perhaps many people think so because of the mystery of the disease. Well, just think how a person can see and hear something that is not there, and even sincerely believe in what he sees?! It’s impossible! The disease is still not fully understood, so all the possible causes of its occurrence have not yet been calculated. And yet this is far from the most complex mental disorder. At least for the simple reason that today psychopharmacotherapy is used to treat patients, which allows achieving long-term remission. So everything is not hopeless.
- Split personality is the main symptom of the disease. This is not true. In schizophrenia, there is not a splitting of consciousness, but, for example, emotions. In one moment the patient can be kind to the doctor, and in a minute he becomes aggressive.
- Dementia appears. Not always. If you choose the right treatment in a timely manner, this outcome can be avoided.
- It is dangerous for the people around. Let’s see: the disease is not transmitted to other people, and the attacks of a schizophrenic on a healthy person are extremely rare, which cannot be said about the attacks of healthy people on patients with schizophrenia.
- You have to go to a psychiatric clinic for the rest of your life. If the patient is undergoing treatment, he can go home for rehabilitation and go through it surrounded by relatives. With the onset of remission, you can completely return to normal life with the condition of regular checks with your doctor.
Schizophrenia is not a sentence, not the risks of developing dementia, and not the end of life. The main thing is to start therapy in a timely manner.
Why do myths appear?
This is explained by all the same films and books that described difficult patients. Such works, in order to make them cult, must be added with aggression, complications, the same dementia and harm to the people around them. After watching and reading such masterpieces, people involuntarily begin to think that schizophrenics are the most dangerous people on the planet.