The Main Factors That Influence The Development Of Schizophrenia Disorder

It is often you hear of people living with different disorders that poses as a big effect in their daily living. Although some disorders are not that bad, there are some serious ones that just does not allow you to live as normal. Schizophrenia, a long-mental disorder, is involved in the breakdown of the relation between thought, emotion, and behavior, leading to faulty perception, inappropriate actions and feelings. The symptoms of this disorder is quite alluring because it messes up your cognitive reasoning and you can barely focus, this may include hallucinations, hearing voices, paranoia, some which are very delusional. There are multiple factors on why people attain this disorder, maybe because its biological, neurological, or even environmental. That being said even babies are affected when the development of schizophrenia occurs. Although you cannot cure schizophrenia, its symptoms can be treated, thus relieving at least a little of the mental suffering you have to live with.

In any case, some of us have wished of taking a break from reality, but what if you lose touch with reality? Would that be the kind of break you want to get in your life? Schizophrenia is a devastating disorder with disastrous causes, tragic effects and has very little treatment that they need to overcome to have some sort of mental control over their lives. It is a long-mental disorder that is involved in the breakdown of the relation between thought, emotion, and behavior, leading to faulty perception, inappropriate actions and feelings, withdrawal from reality and personal relationships into fantasy and delusion, and a sense of mental fragmentation. (Landau, 2004) It affects the way people think, feel, respond to those around them. This type of mental illness makes it difficult for the affected individual to know what is real and what is not.

When schizophrenia is active, symptoms will trigger such as the following: hallucinations, trouble with thinking and concentration, and lack of motivation. There are four different types of symptoms: positive, negative, disorganization, and impaired cognition. Positive symptoms is when hallucinations occur. This includes hearing voices, paranoid delusions, and exaggerated or distorted perception, beliefs, and behaviors. Negative symptoms is when their ability to initiate plans, speak, express emotion or find pleasure decrease. Confused and disordered thinking and speech, trouble with logical thinking and sometimes bizarre behavior or abnormal movements are the disorganization symptoms. Last but not the least, impaired cognition in which affects their concentration, memory, attention and declining educational performance. (Reddy, 2015)

In rare occasions, there are voices that command the person with schizophrenia to do something. Some people have been told to steal items. Others have been commanded to commit suicide. People hearing the voices often feel they must do whatever the voices say, even if it means ending their own lives. (Harkavy-Friedman, 2003). It’s very hard for people who lack the ability for reasoning, that when told what to do by voices they choose to listen. In reality, it proves just how serious this disorder can be. Schizophrenia not only hinders the person’s mind from functioning properly, but it’s also the reason why people took their own lives.

Besides committing suicide, people diagnosed with schizophrenia do not really have the mentality to help themselves. For example, Studies have found that 28% of them get some food from garbage cans and 9% use garbage cans as their primary food source. Studies have also shown that at least a third of homeless mentally ill women have been raped. The mortality rate of homeless mentally ill individuals is exceedingly high, including a suicide rate of approximately 15%. (Roy, 1986) It’s obvious that this is a growing issue, that needs to be addressed. People with this disorder can not look after themselves and are also being taken advantage of. If people with this disorder are not given a special place to be treated, more and more people would get hurt.

One popular case known as Colin Ferguson Shooting made headlines across the country. Ferguson was a man who boarded the train in Jamaica, Queens with a gun, and started making a scene. This incident caused 6 dead passengers and 19 wounded people. It could have been more than that if it wasn’t for the 3 men who wrestled him to the ground to stop him from killing more people. (Montaldo, 2019) It was obvious from his behavior on the train and the trial that he suffered from a serious mental illness. Unfortunately, if a schizophrenic person commits a horrific crime, medias often make it seem as if violence is a sure result of being mentally ill. Therefore, it is probably for the best if the government and hospitals can look more closely towards people diagnosed with schizophrenia to prevent anymore incidents.

There are three major factors that interact in the development of schizophrenia. There are biological, neurological, and environmental factors. Genetic predisposition has a big connection with this kind of mental disorder. In fact, identical twins have a higher chance to develop schizophrenia compare to other people. Identical twins, who share nearly 100% of their genes, will have 48-83% chance that the other twin will also develop the disorder if one turns to have developed it. In comparison, if one fraternal twin or a sibling has schizophrenia, there is only about a 10-17% chance that the other will develop the disorder. (Keshavan, 2015)

Some scientists think that factors that negatively affect a fetus’s brain development may play a role also. Studies have shown that mothers who had German measles or who suffered from malnutrition while pregnant were more likely to have children who developed schizophrenia. Recent studies in Germany suggest that complications at birth or during pregnancy, as well as drug use during pregnancy, can have a similar effect. (Landau, 2004) Basically, schizophrenia has a higher chance of occurring depending on how the mother of child takes care of herself.

In terms of neurological factors, people with schizophrenia may have a chemical imbalance in their brains. Some research indicates that they may produce too much of a substance called dopamine, which is a neurotransmitter that allows communication between the nerve cells that line the pathways of the brain. (Plotnik, 2014) This is why schizophrenic people experience surges of dopamine and affect their thinking.

Environmental factors such as viral infection, extensive exposure to toxins like marijuana or highly stressful situations may also trigger schizophrenia in people who have inherited a tendency to develop the disorder. (Minkel, 2010) Though the cause of schizophrenia is still not entirely understood, researchers have been making steady progress in this area. Meanwhile, somethings are certain. Schizophrenia is not caused by poverty or bad parenting. In some environments, people are prone to drug abuse or abuse in general which may lead to the beginning onset of schizophrenia. It is not really because the parents were not there for them, but possible because of who or what they were exposed to.

Similar to other diseases, symptoms can be prevented or lessen with treatment. Unfortunately, it is believed that there is no cure for this disorder, but only treatment that can help the host to prevent having those symptoms. One effective element of treatment is medication. The drugs used to treat schizophrenia are known as anti-psychotics. These help control some of the most distressing symptoms of the diseases in many patients. For most people, these medications quiet the voices they hear as well as to stop the delusions. They allow them to lead fuller lives. The value of a caring environment has been cited in other cases of recovery, as well. (Reddy, 2015)

It is clear that schizophrenia is a very complex mental disorder that can affect people with a variety of symptoms. It has yet to be pinpointed exactly what causes this disease and what factors contribute it, but it seems that genetics and environment play a crucial role in the development of schizophrenia, There are few treatment options available for people that are dealing with this disease, including medication and a caring environment. With simply choosing to have a healthy lifestyle and awareness of this disease, we can prevent the amount increased of the population having schizophrenia.