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Abnormal Psychology: Mental Disorders

Abnormal Psychology: Mental Disorders

Abnormal Psychology: Mental Disorders

Andrew Walters

Schizophrenia

http://www.mentalhealth.com/book/p40-sc02.html#Head_1

    Schizophrenia is a disorder that can effect anyone. It is the greatest
the greatest disorder that effects teenagers. When someone is effected by the
disorder it is not just that one person that has to learn to deal with it, the
families of the patients must also learn to deal with it.
    There are many possible causes for the disorder with many doctors
believing that there is more than one cause. What has been thought as the main
cause for many years is a chemical imbalance in the brain. This could be an
imbalance in the number of neurotransmitters and/or an imbalance in the amount
of dopamine. Stress is not thought of as directly causing Schizophrenia, but
often makes already present symptoms worse. some doctors feel that
Schizophrenia might be the result of a slow acting virus since the symptoms can
be delayed many years after the first infection. Another possible cause for the
disorder is a genetic disposition. This has yet to be proven but it is thought
of as a likely cause since children who have a parent with the disorder have a
ten times greater chance of developing the illness than children who have
abnormal parents. If both parents have the disorder the chance of their off
spring having the disorder jumps to forty times that of of an off spring with
normal parents. Some times as equally as important as finding what causes
a disease is finding what does not cause a disease. It is said that
Schizophrenia is: not caused by a domineering mother and/or a passive father,
not caused by childhood experiences, poverty, or not caused by the feeling of
guilt or failure.
    People who have schizophrenia can be divided up into three equal groups:
those who only have one episode in their entire life, those who have continual
episodes but live normal lives between them, and a third group who have never
ending symptoms. The symptoms that define an episode of schizophrenia can
generally be described as deterioration from a previous level of functioning.
    The number one symptom of schizophrenia is the inability to separate the
real form the unreal. As stress starts to build and the symptoms get worse
there is often a decline in work achievements along with declining of relations
with others. Because the these symptoms might start off very minor, it is
mostly the families that notice t

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