What Is Schizophrenia

             Bizarre, unreal perceptions of the environment are the types of hallucinations schizophrenics can experience. These hallucinations can include: .
             A) Auditory (hearing voices) - sometimes the "voices" tell a person to do something .
             B) Visual (seeing lights, objects or faces) .
             C) Olfactory (smelling things) .
             D) Tactile (ie. feelings that bugs are crawling on or under the skin).
             3. Disorganized Thinking/Speech .
             Abnormal thoughts are usually measured by disorganized speech. People with schizophrenia speak very little; others have speech that is disjointed. Sometimes the person will change the topic midway through a sentence.
             4. Impairments:.
             Invariably at some point in the disorder as described above, there is impairment in several areas of routine daily functioning such as work, social relations, and self-care. Supervision may be required to ensure that nutritional and hygienic needs are met and to protect the person from the consequences of poor judgment, cognitive impairment, or actions based on delusions or in response to hallucinations. Between episodes of illness the extent of disability may range from none to disability so severe that institutional care is required. .
             Although violent acts performed by individuals with this disorder often attract public attention, whether the frequency of such acts is actually greater that of the general population is not known. What is known is that the life expectancy of people with schizophrenia is shorter than that of the general population due to an increased suicide rate and death from a variety of other causes.
             5. Catatonic Schizophrenia: Catatonic Schizophrenia is a type of Schizophrenia in which the clinical picture is dominated by any of the following:.
             (1) Catatonic stupor (marked decrease in reactivity to the environment and/or reduction in spontaneous movements and activity).
             (2) Catatonic negativism (an apparent motiveless resistance to all instructions or attempts to be moved) .