Schizophrenia is a mental illness characterized by a violation of thinking, behavior, perception of the world, as well as emotional disorders.
What are the main symptoms of schizophrenia?
- Reduced activity level.
- Closure.
- Aggressiveness.
- Changeable (often negative) attitude towards close people.
- The poverty of the content of thinking, its illogic, cliffs of thoughts, unusual beliefs, the feeling of influence on thoughts.
- Perception disorders.
- Impoverishment, dulling of emotions.
- Violation of attention and understanding.
- Inability to distinguish between internal and external world.
These symptoms are often accompanied (manifested) by delusions and hallucinations.
What to do if someone close to you suffers from schizophrenia?
- Try, as soon as possible to seek help from a specialist – a psychiatrist. The timing of the start of treatment play an important role!
- Strictly follow the doctor’s instructions and monitor the constant intake of medicines.
- No drugs and alcoholic drinks to a schizophrenic patient! They exacerbate the symptoms of the disease.
- Pay attention to all changes in well-being. If possible, write down and report them to the consulting physician.
- Do not seek to quickly change the social situation of the patient, his place of study, occupation, situation in the family.
- Do not show excessive emotionality in relations with the patient.
- Do not show aggression towards the patient.
- Try to relieve the feeling of loneliness.
- Try to understand the feelings and thoughts of the patient, show sympathy, without causing a sense of danger and not imposing your help.
- Do not laugh at what the patient says, do not humiliate and insult him.
- Do not argue with the patient and do not persuade him.
- Explain easier. Say what you want to say clearly, calmly and confidently.
- Be frank in conversation.
- Reinforce the patient’s sense of reality.
- Maintain and develop the social skills of the patient in his daily activities.
How to treat schizophrenia?
It is important to promptly and accurately recognize the onset of schizophrenia, prescribe a comprehensive and adequate treatment, build a sound system for the rehabilitation of a schizophrenic patient, train him and family members in proper behavior.
Of great importance is the credibility of the attending physician, cooperation with him, as well as carrying out active social work, taking into account the peculiarities of the patient’s family, his social status.
For the treatment of schizophrenia to be effective, it is necessary to select the appropriate medications that eliminate the symptoms of schizophrenia, have a minimal amount of side effects and do not reduce the quality of life.
The best treatment for schizophrenia should begin in the hospital, it should include an accurate diagnosis, since the options for the manifestation of schizophrenia are many. It is desirable that the situation around the patient with schizophrenia should be calm (he was alone in the ward), so that the doctor who assists should have modern methods of psychotherapy.
It is unacceptable to provide the patient with schizophrenia to himself, to exclude the activity that was interesting to him. The activity of a schizophrenic patient should be encouraged by qualified personnel who know not only medicine but also psychology. In some cases, it is important to strengthen the strength of the patient, choosing for him a good nutrition, adequate physical therapy, massage, physiotherapy and balneotherapy. Around the patient with schizophrenia should be not only experienced doctors, but also specially trained psychologists, social workers.
Many believe that schizophrenia is incurable. However, in fact, there is a solution.