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Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia


Schizophrenia is a disease that mostly affects young people in their prime, and is found all over the world – in the representatives of all races, sexes and social groups. The statistic says that we are not immune, as every one out of hundred people on our planet risks to suffer from schizophrenia (NIMH, 2006).

Until the present days scientists argue what cases schizophrenia. Thus, some say that the illness has resulted from the fact that some people could not control their cerebral blood flow and had abnormal activity in some parts of the brain; other theory states that neurochemical imbalance can become the reason for the disease; brain cell damage or irregularity of it is yet another theory; the are also supporters of such ideas that schizophrenia is caused by genetic predisposition, drug abuse, lack of vitamins, and other (British Columbia Schizophrenia Society, 2001).

However, in reality we do not really know what exactly causes schizophrenia. As of today, doctors generally believe schizophrenia to be a purely brain disease (with causes apparent physical and chemical changes in the brain), that affects young people between the ages 16 and 25 (with some deviation from the rule related to sexes), and can almost always be treatable with medication. The distinguishing feature of this mental condition, however, is that the symptoms can be very different or have different combinations in different patients. Some of the common symptoms include: change of personality (one of the most important symptoms for recognizing schizophrenia, the changes may be subtle at first, but with time they become more and more apparent to the patient's family, colleagues and friends); hallucinations (the signals coming to the person's brain are confused and he/she may actually hear/feel/see and smell things that are not real); disorder of thoughts (interfering with patient's ability to make rational judgments); change of the sense of self (once a patient has a distorted idea of reality, he/she may feel like they are lost in time and space, or simply nonexistent); paranoid feelings of being watched; increasing withdrawal from social contact; difficulties when using language (speech becomes disorganized and the person uses words that do not make sense); sudden excesses such as a desire to sleep all the time or extreme religiousness; holding unusual bodily postures and other. However, the primary indicator that something is "wrong" with the person, which is common for all cases, is a sudden change of abilities and personality, and it can be described by people close to the patient as him/her being not "the same person anymore" (National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, 2003).

The intensity and the length of the condition vary from person to person. Some become diagnosed with it and undergo treatment only once I their lifetime, yet others have to return for treatment every month or never leave the hospital at all. Moreover, schizophrenia is usually difficult to diagnose at early stages since its victims commonly try to withdraw from the society and hide from other people their rather unusual problems. In addition, victims of schizophrenia generally tend to mistrust everyone. In fact, many patients describe how they have felt scared and isolated from the outside world when they started to experience certain symptoms; but usually their symptoms would soon reach the condition when the illness would interfere with the person's social, physical, economical and intellectual life and become apparent (NIMH, 2006).

Due to the lack of proper information, there are many myths and misunderstandings about schizophrenia in our society. For instance, many people tend to think that schizophrenia causes or includes the symptom of a split personality. Or that people with schizophrenia are very dangerous for the other members of society. In addition, some people wrongly expect the victims of schizophrenia to be intellectually disabled. Of course, neither of those is true (National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, 2003).

There are several major ways of treating schizophrenia, which are being developed and used in the world today. First and the most popular treatment is by medication. Today, a variety of medicine is available for the victims of schizophrenia. In addition, patients are usually hospitalized and their progress is followed-up closely. Family members of such person are encouraged to attend family counseling and learn as much as possible about this mental condition. In addition to medications, patients are frequently prescribed psychological treatment provided by qualified therapist, in order for them to adjust to living with schizophrenia and to take care of their mental health (NIMH, 2006).

Unfortunately schizophrenia remains to be the condition which can be treated but not cured (British Columbia Schizophrenia Society, 2001).

Since madness in general and schizophrenia in particular have always fascinated people, it is not surprising that this mental condition has been used numerous times in fiction, plays and film.

One of the famous films about this mental illness is A Beautiful Mind starring Russell Crowe – four Academy Awards winner of 2001, including Best Picture. Main character of the film – Jonh Nash, is a gifted mathematician who makes a brilliant discovery early in his career, but whose success is later hampered by the distressing diagnosis (ABeautifulMind.Com).

As the film progresses, the viewers are shocked to discover that a large part of Nash’s world, which includes some of his best friends and a top-secret governmental job, is nothing more than the illusion of his mind, which actually does not exist in the real world. As the viewer now realizes, John Nash has invented a huge part of his life, believed in it and lived it as if he things he has created were true. In fact, his hallucinations are so vivid that the filmmakers succeed to convince the viewers that they are real, while John himself believes in their reality and, by his numerous tales about them, succeeds to convince his wife of their existence also.

According to the plot of the film, the revelation about his illusionary world comes as a surprise to John as well as to everyone else.

This is the point where the viewer first hears the term "schizophrenia", and some typical symptoms can be identified. As the viewer meets John when his illness has progressed already, one cannot tell with confidence whether significant changes of personality have taken place or not; however, it is apparent that for many years John has had severe hallucinations and has been convinced of their reality. Such strong and persistent hallucinations can be recognized as a common symptom of schizophrenia (National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia, 2003).

There are several factors that might have played a role in the development of this disorder and its persistence over the years. For instance, as the title of the film suggest, Nash has had a very capable mind – most probably his mathematical thinking has been combined with well-developed imagination, which he, among other things, has applied in his imaginary job of breaking secrete codes.

In addition, Nash has been quite lonely during his early student years and was somewhat an outsider in college as well as in his later job. This has been helped by the presence of the imaginary roommate in college and a visiting friend later in life. Since Nash has not got any family, his imaginary friend and friend’s niece gradually become his family, although he later happily marries one of his former students.

Bu the most important factor that played a role in the development of a mental disorder has been the overbearing need for the mental exercise, which Nash has experienced ever since he has made his brilliant mathematical discovery as a college student. Perhaps it is this need that causes him to invent a very complex and challenging job for himself – an illusion that he finds most difficult to give up when the truth about his illness is revealed.

When diagnosed with schizophrenia, John Nash is admitted into a mental institution where he is treated with medication, psychological therapy and severe shock therapy. The treatment seems harsh enough for his condition as the it causes him to loose what he values the most – his exceptional intellectual capacities of a gifted mathematician.
According to the plot of the film, Nash decides to give up the part of treatment in order to be able to carry on his scientific and academic work, and continues to battle with hallucinations inside his mind. The situation seems realistic, as those suffering from schizophrenia are subjects to the medicament treatment, which might cause various side effects, such as difficulties when trying to concentrate or memorize something experienced by Nash.

Since the treatment by medication remains to be the common treatment for schizophrenia, I cannot say that John Nash has received inappropriate for his disorder medical help.
Perhaps, in order to help his progress in fighting with the illness I could suggest for John to receive additional psychological therapy and some counseling for him and his wife in order to be more successful in their struggle with Nash's symptoms.








Works cited:
Basic Facts About Schizophrenia, Families Helping Families, (2001). Retrieved December 11, 2006, from British Columbia Schizophrenia Society Web site: http://www.mentalhealth.com/book/p40-sc02.html#Head_10
Basic Facts About Schizophrenia (2003). Retrieved December 11, 2006, from National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia Web site: http://www.mental-health-matters.com/articles/article.php?artID=674
Schizophrenia (2006). Retrieved December 11, 2006, from National Institute of Mental Health Web site: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/schizoph.cfm
Synopsis. (2001) Retrieved December 11, 2006, from A Beautiful Mind Web site: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/schizoph.cfm
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Posted by: Andrew Blanks

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