Schizophrenia A Life Destroyer Essay Research Paper

Schizophrenia A Life Destroyer Essay, Research Paper

Schizophrenia

A Life Destroyer Schizophrenia is one of the most common serious psychiatric illnesses.

It affects one percent of the general population. This is a socially and financially devastating

disease that robs people of their most productive years of life. Schizophrenia still continues to be

one of the most complex, puzzling and disabling of the major mental illnesses. Most symptoms

develop in men around the age of sixteen and twenty-five years old, and around twenty-five to

thirty years old in women. Schizophrenia rarely develops in children and most schizophrenics

appear to have a normal childhood. A delusion, which is a false belief that defies logic and

common sense, is a common symptom of schizophrenia. The person thinks someone is watching

them constantly or they think people can read their mind. Hallucinations, hearing, seeing or

sensing something that isn.t there, are another common symptom of schizophrenia. Some people

experience heightened senses, which is hypersensitivity of sense that leads to visual distortions.

Others experience auditory hallucinations. They sometimes carry on conversations or are told to

do things by one or may voices that are not there. Very rarely, but still as devastating, some

experience visual hallucinations or smell odd smells coming from themselves. (Young, 67-68)

More that 300,000 adults in this country are unable to distinguish their imaginations from reality

(Cookson pg. 12).

In the 1700.s and the 1800.s, before much was known about mental diseases,

schizophrenia was thought of as witchcraft (Nichols pg. 1). Anyone who displayed signs of this

disease was thought to have been possessed. The Puritans believed “distraction”, as they called

it, was either possession by the devil, or punishment for sins. Yet, the strange behavior of those

afflicted was looked upon with tolerance. Through much of the 1700.s, family or friends were

expected to take care of the mentally ill. Dorothea Dix was a school teacher who took up the

cause of the mentally ill in the mid 1800.s, found disturbed individuals living in sordid

conditions, “confined in cages, closets, cellars, stalls and pens: chained, naked, beaten with rods

and lashed into obedience.” She worked to help these people live a more normal life. (Goode

pg. 55)

A dismal outlook for schizophrenia was dramatically changed in the 1950.s with the

development of the first antipsychotic drug, Chlorpromazine. Since then, more that a dozen other

similar-acting antipsychotic medications have been developed. These drugs work by

blocking binding sites of dopamine, which is a main factor in schizophrenia. Chlorpromazine

was first used as an antihistamine. Then, it was found to calm hyperactive schizophrenic patients

out of withdrawal and reduced major symptoms of the disease. A lot of false medication was

used before the discovery of chlorpromazine. An insulin coma, as one example, was used to

relieve most symptoms by overloading the patient.s body with insulin. This helped some

patients, because it calmed them down, but killed most of them.

Electroconvulsive therapy, where brief pulses of electronegativity are passed through the

brain, was also used. It was thought that using this type of treatment, symptoms could be reduced

or eliminated, but it did neither. This only helped the severely depressed and only calmed them

for a little while. Doctors also attempted a frontal lobotomy, which was a surgical removal of the

front parts of the brain. A frontal lobotomy was done because it was thought that the front part of

the brain was responsible for schizophrenia. This did nothing but make a quieter patient. These

practices were commonly used to try to suppress the main symptoms of schizophrenia. Mainly,

these practices did nothing but torture the patient and make him or her suffer extremely. (Young

67-68) Many schizophrenics will carry on conversations with voices or people who are not really

there. The voices may tell them what to do and how to harm themselves or others. This puts the

patient at a huge risk for committing suicide. The medication that is prescribed to them attempts

to stop the voices or other symptoms. In turn, most schizophrenics would experience severely

painful side effects. These side effects included constipation, drowsiness, dry mouth and blurred

vision, which would most like diminish after a few weeks. Other side effects that is less likely to

diminish included restlessness, slurred speech, trembling of hands and feet, muscle rigidity in the

neck and head. Most patients experienced a tremendous amount of weight gain and could not

lose the extra pounds, while some also experienced sun sensitivity and fainting.

The next story is one case of schizophrenia. It shows what a typical schizophrenic would

go through in life. The ending is like most schizophrenics, where the stress becomes too much

and the p

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