Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness characterized by a person experiencing a combination of delusions and hallucinations. Because these delusions and hallucinations feel as real as the world around them, a person with untreated schizophrenia can sometimes have trouble distinguishing actual reality from this altered reality that their brain is telling them.
Symptoms:
- Delusions
- Hallucinations
- Incoherent speech
- Speech that quickly switches topics with little continuity
- Problems in behaviour
- Inexplicable agitation or silliness
- Catatonic behaviour
- Lack of emotional expressions
- Lack of purposeful activity
- Paranoia
- False beliefs
- Unclear or confused thinking
- Hearing voices that others do not
- Reduced social engagement and emotional expression
- Lack of motivation
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Poor dressing sense
- Poor hygiene
- Loss of motivation and judgment
- Lack of responsiveness
- Social isolation