Recognizing Schizophrenia, Recognize It Before It's Too Late

What is Schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disturbed assessment of reality. A person with schizophrenia has difficulty distinguishing between something that is real and something that is not real. This disorder is characterized primarily by symptoms of changes in a person's thought process, thought content and perception. The two main symptoms that are easily found in schizophrenia sufferers are delusions and hallucinations.

Hallucinations are disturbances in perception which are characterized by the presence of perceptions from our five senses without any real source. It can appear in the form of auditory hallucinations, namely hearing voices that have no source, usually in the form of people giving orders, making comments, or talking to themselves over the voices. Apart from that, hallucinations can also be in the form of visual hallucinations, namely seeing shadows of people, shadows of spirits, and so on that cannot be seen by other people. Rarer hallucinations include olfactory hallucinations, smelling odors that have no source. Tactile hallucinations are feeling sensations that have no source or for example feeling pain in certain areas of the body.

Gustatory hallucinations are tasting a certain taste even though you are not eating or chewing something. Another perception disorder that can also sometimes occur in schizophrenic sufferers is illusions. An illusion is a perception from our five senses that has a source but is perceived as something else. Visual illusions, for example seeing a tree trunk but being perceived as a snake. Auditory illusions, for example the sound of wind is perceived as a person's voice. Currently there are five subtypes of schizophrenia which are divided based on prominent clinical symptoms.

The five subtypes are paranoid schizophrenia, hebephrenic schizophrenia, catatonic schizophrenia, unspecified schizophrenia, and residual schizophrenia. The most frequently found is paranoid schizophrenia which is characterized by symptoms such as delusions and auditory hallucinations. Delusions are usually of the delusional type (for example, believing that the people around him want to harm him) or grandiose delusions (for example, believing that he is God's chosen person who has special powers). Hallucinations in the form of voices of people giving orders, making comments, or conversing with themselves.

 

Not a Magical Thing

In Indonesia, there are still many people who do not know that schizophrenia is a medical disorder. Many people think that the symptoms of schizophrenia occur because of supernatural things. What is commonly found is that people with schizophrenia or their families think they are getting magic from outside, so the sufferer is usually taken to smart people or alternative healers. This is normal considering that the symptoms are not like other medical disorders but consist of hallucinations, illusions, delusions and disturbed thought processes as discussed previously. Actually why someone can suffer from symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations

in schizophrenia? These symptoms arise due to an imbalance of dopamine neurotransmitters in the brain. Neurotransmitters are substances needed to send information from one brain cell to another brain cell. Neurotransmitters are actually produced naturally in brain cells and are necessary for the brain to function properly. Most people only know that the function of the brain is only to think. Meanwhile, the brain is not only used for thinking

but also regulates emotions, regulates movements, and so on. Under certain conditions, the amount and balance of neurotransmitter levels in the brain can be disturbed. In people with schizophrenia, there are excessive levels of dopamine in the mesolimbic area. Mesolimbic is the part of the brain that functions in regulating emotions and perception so that it can trigger delusions and hallucinations. Dopamine is also needed in the brain for the functions of moving, thinking, and processing information so that the right amount of dopamine and

Balance is very necessary for our brain to function properly.

 

Recognize and Treat Immediately

Schizophrenia can occur in anyone, from adults, the elderly, to children. It is very important to provide correct and appropriate therapy early on or before the symptoms of schizophrenia become severe. For example, because he continuously hears hallucinations of evil voices or because he has delusions of being persecuted, namely feeling that people want to harm him, a person suffering from schizophrenia can go on a rampage. Of course this is dangerous for sufferers and other people.

Another impact is that sufferers can lose their ability to interact with other people or work. Based on existing research, if schizophrenia is allowed to persist for a long time, it will cause irreversible or permanent damage to the brain structure due to continuously high amounts of dopamine in certain parts of the brain. The impact is that over time, if left unchecked, the person can experience a decline in their level of intelligence, find it difficult to process information, and become less independent.

Many chronic schizophrenic sufferers complain that their brains become sluggish when used to think. Sufferers also tend to lack the ability to plan for the future and are lazy about activities due to the decline in cognitive function they experience.

 

Can Recover

Schizophrenia is a treatable medical disorder. Antipsychotic drugs can help relieve the symptoms of schizophrenia. With correct therapy from a psychiatrist (psychiatric specialist) and as early as possible, permanent damage to the brain can be prevented. The combination with psychotherapy will help the person to return to work and interact well with their environment. The longer the therapy, the longer it takes to treat the sufferer and the more difficult it is to prevent the decline in brain function.

The challenges to treatment for schizophrenia are still very large in Indonesia. The culture of society which still strongly believes in supernatural things causes many sufferers to lose the opportunity for early therapy because their families generally take them for treatment to smart people because they are suspected of being used for witchcraft. When they finally get the right medical treatment, a decline in the sufferer's brain function generally occurs, with symptoms It's already heavy so it's getting longer and harder to get rid of, and the response to treatment is getting worse because there's already a very large amount of dopamine circulating in the brain.

The stigma attached to patients, patient families, and medical practitioners involved in the management of this disorder also greatly influences the success of treatment. In reality, many families prefer to hide sufferers from other people because they feel embarrassed rather than taking them for treatment. Many sufferers end up being shackled or confined to their homes by their families. Hopefully this article can be useful in increasing readers' knowledge and can share this information with other people.