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The 8 myths about schizophrenia (and why they are not true)

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Schizophrenia is among the most complex mental disorders, and is therefore one of the most stigmatized. In addition, today there is no consensus among the different professionals regarding various aspects related to this disorder, such as its origin or the most common treatment appropriate; however, today we have numerous advances and research.

On the other hand, there are numerous myths about schizophrenia and among them we can highlight the following: that people with schizophrenia are usually violent and dangerous, that schizophrenia has no treatment, that all people with schizophrenia need hospitalization, or that people with schizophrenia are unable to lead productive and fulfilling lives, among others myths.

In this article you will find several of the main myths about schizophrenia, and an explanation as to why they are not true.

  • Related article: "The 8 types of Psychotic Disorders"

Stigmatization of people with schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder whose main symptoms are the following: hallucinations, delusions, behavioral disorganized or catatonic, disorganized speech and some negative symptoms such as abulia, logia or affective flattening, among others. It should be noted that to make the diagnosis, at least two of the aforementioned symptoms should be present for at least one month.

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On the other hand, these conditions that are characteristic of schizophrenia would involve a series of complications in different areas of the patient's life such as work or academic and also social and/or family for a period of at least 6 months. Today there are multidisciplinary treatments, where the use of psychotropic drugs is usually combined with psychotherapy, which offer very good results.

However, despite the fact that there are many advances in the diagnosis and treatment of schizophrenia, among the general population there is a lot of ignorance and this means that this disease has become so stigmatized.

It is worth mentioning that stigmatization is one of the main causes of suffering for those people who have a diagnosis of severe mental disorder such as schizophrenia can be considered due to the impact it generates at the psychosocial.

Falsehoods about schizophrenia

Because of stigma we can see different things: singling out, discrimination, job loss, resentment of social relations, greater difficulties in rejoining the labor market or loss of status, among others.

The Biggest Myths About Schizophrenia (And Why They're False)

All these negative consequences arising from the diagnosis of the disease have behind a series of myths that have emerged around schizophrenia. That is why we are going to comment on them below.

1. People with schizophrenia are often violent and dangerous

Among the myths about schizophrenia that we can find, perhaps the most widespread is the one that refers to the claim that people who have been diagnosed with schizophrenia are often dangerous, carry out violent behavior and are also unpredictable. Such a statement is still a myth since people with schizophrenia are actually no more violent than the general population. Furthermore, people with schizophrenia are more likely to be victims of violent acts rather than perpetrators.

  • You may be interested: "The 11 types of violence (and the different kinds of aggression)"

2. Schizophrenia develops solely due to genetic causes

Despite the fact that genes can play a significant role in the development of schizophrenia, in the investigations that have been carried out carried out over the last few years with patients, it has been observed that, although schizophrenia is a disease that affects the cerebral, Other psychological and social factors also play an important role.. For this reason, the origin of schizophrenia is still not known with absolute certainty, so there are various theories.

In either case, we cannot say that schizophrenia develops solely because of the genes, being more limited the hypothesis that suggests that various factors influence such as those mentioned previously.

  • Related article: "5 signs of poor mental health that you should not overlook"

3. Schizophrenia has no treatment

The statement that schizophrenia has no treatment is another of the main myths about schizophrenia since Although it has a complex prognosis because it is considered a chronic disorder, there are currently available multicomponent treatments that include pharmacology and psychotherapy that offer very favorable results.

For this reason, we could consider that schizophrenia does have treatment and is manageable with a good therapeutic approach, as occurs with other chronic diseases. The most important thing is to get the treatment that best suits the needs of each patient so that they can lead a full life.

It should be noted that multidisciplinary treatment for schizophrenia according to some experts should follow some recommendations aimed at addressing the symptoms of each patient depending on the phase of the disorder in which it occurs find.

If you are in the first phase, which is what is known as "acute or crisis", the most recommendable would be psychopharmacological treatment in order to stabilize the symptoms of the episode acute psychotic. If you are in the "stabilization" phase, focus on stress reduction and relapse prevention. In case of being in a “stable” phase, the psychopharmacological treatment would have to be adjusted to minimize side effects and influence social skills training and job rehabilitation in order to help the patient to readapt in the different areas of his life.

  • You may be interested: "The 10 benefits of going to psychological therapy"

4. All people with schizophrenia need hospitalization

Here we find another of the most common myths about schizophrenia since a high percentage of people who have been diagnosed with schizophrenia receive outpatient treatment and live in their residence usual.

Normally they usually receive hospitalization after having suffered a crisis or psychotic episode and are discharged at the moment in which the symptoms are stabilized, opting for preferably by outpatient treatment so that patients can lead a lifestyle that fits as closely as possible to their day-to-day life prior to the first crisis. Also, being supported and being surrounded by those closest to you can favor adherence to treatment and a better prognosis.

  • Related article: "The 24 Branches of Medicine (And How They Try to Cure Patients)"

5. People with schizophrenia are unable to lead productive and fulfilling lives

Among the myths about schizophrenia we can also find the widespread idea that people diagnosed with schizophrenia cannot lead a normal life. neither productive nor full, when the reality is that in most cases, having received adequate treatment, the symptoms will subside with the passage of time. time or at least will improve positively to such an extent that a high percentage of people with schizophrenia can lead productive and fulfilling lives at the same time. weather.

It is important to mention that the more integrated patients with schizophrenia are in the different areas of their lives (eg. work, academic, social, relational, etc.) they will have a better prognosis and the symptoms will remit or decrease sooner. In addition, with the appropriate treatment, cases have been found in which the symptoms have been remitting as the years go by, tending to stabilize so that it is possible and feasible for schizophrenia to remit.

6. All people with schizophrenia usually have the same symptoms.

This would be another of the main myths about schizophrenia since there are actually different types of schizophrenia (p. g., paranoid, disorganized, catatonic, residual, etc.). In addition, it is quite common for them to present a very different symptomatology than those people who have been diagnosed with the same subtype of schizophrenia. The same occurs with other mental health problems (for example, depression) where we can observe that, despite the existence of a common or similar symptomatology, each case and each patient is a world and for this reason two diagnoses will never be found identical.

  • You may be interested: "Hallucinations: definition, causes, and symptoms"

7. People with schizophrenia are less intelligent than the average population

This is another of the myths about schizophrenia that has spread the most when the truth is that it does not directly affect the intellect. In reality what happens is that in the development of schizophrenia it is quite common to experience a series of difficulties in attention, memory, processing information, or organizing ideas or thoughts, among others, that usually arise as side effects of the drugs used to treat schizophrenia; however, there are intellectual abilities that can be found intact, as well as sensorimotor abilities.

Furthermore, there are people with schizophrenia who have above-average intellectual abilities or are simply within "normal" levels, so the fact of having this disease is not decisive in terms of the variation of the intelligence.

8. Schizophrenia usually comes on suddenly

Here we can see another of those myths about schizophrenia because today we know that schizophrenia is a disease that develops over time. Normally, a series of strange behaviors are usually observed in the initial phases among which it is worth highlighting the neglect of hygiene and/or social isolation, among others. Later, as the disease develops, it is when the psychotic outbreaks begin and here it would be usually the moment positive symptoms begin, such as hallucinations, delusions, etc.

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