Schizophrenia

These symptoms interfere with personal and social functioning" (Plotink 583 ). They involve hearing voices outside ones head. "These voices often comment on the victim's behavior. When a person with schizophrenia is in a room alone, loudly telling someone to go away, that someone is probably a voice" (Walsh 46). Delusions of being controlled are often common among schizophrenics. Explanations such as, "the man next door puts thoughts into my head," (Walsh 45) may seem like a reasonable statement to the sick party. Thoughts of persecution are also familiar to a schizophrenic. An example of this would be the schizophrenic thinking that "the FBI is after them" (Walsh 45). .
             Who does schizophrenia affect? What factors determine who is at risk for the disease and who is not? "Picture five-hundred thousand children watching Sesame Street. Statistically five thousand of those boys and girls will get schizophrenia during their lifetime" (Walsh 52). As for the number of people suffering with schizophrenia, "thirty-percent of mental hospital beds are filled with them" (Szasz 3). That is the highest percentage among all mental disorders in the United States. Schizophrenia most commonly appears in adolescence and young adults, it ranges between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five. It is not gender biased, therefore it affects the number of men and woman equally. .
             A startling fact about schizophrenia is that with all of today's technology in the .
             Dardis 3.
             world, it's causes are still not yet known. One theory is that it is caused be a malfunction of the neurotransmitters in the brain due to some sort of deficiency that is not yet know. Family upbringing is not related but genes definitely are. "Every one in ten person suffering from schizophrenia has parents that have suffered from the illness as well" (Pfieffer 234).