Schizophrenia
vs. Schizoaffective Disorder, what are the differences and what do we do if
we have that diagnosis? So stay tuned! So, like I said, today’s topic is kind
of going to be DSM-driven, but I’m also going to give, at the end you’re going
to want to stay tuned because I’m going to give you some treatment options and
ways, either to help those around us or to get help for yourself.
Schizophrenia vs. Schizoaffective Disorder
Schizophrenia vs. Schizoaffective Disorder,
so don’t forget to stay tuned to the end when I give those tips out. But I’m
going to talk about Schizophrenia and Schizoaffective Disorders and what do we do if we have that diagnosis or
if someone around us has that diagnosis and what does it mean, right? Because
people throw around terms a lot and that’s one of my main frustrations with
therapists. It’s that people will be like you’re so duh, duh, duh and they’ll
throw out so diagnosis. Oh, I think they have duh, lush, la, la and I’m just
making weird noises because it’s all over.
They’ll
say you’re schizophrenic. You have delusions. You’re anorexic. You’re
borderline. People will throw around terms without actually knowing. So,
without further ado.
What is Schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia is a common but more serious form of mental illness,
accounting for half or more of the number of people in a mental
hospital. "Schizophrenia" does not mean that a person has a
double or split character at the same time, but that the process of thought and
the expression of emotion are divided and become irrelevant.
For example, when talking about the sadness of a parent's
death, the face is smiling and showing a happy mood.
Schizophrenia
is... I don’t... I guess I’ll just read exactly what it says. But I don’t... I
want to make sure that it makes sense, so let me know if you want me to do
follow-up. But the essential features of Schizophrenia are a mixed
characteristic signs and symptoms both positive and negative, which I’ll
explain, that have been present for a significant portion of time during a one
month period with some signs of the disorder persisting for at least 6 months.
Now,
I wanted to white-board this because it gets really confusing about the time,
but all you need to know is that if someone has had Schizophrenia-like symptoms
for more than 6 months, then they have Schizophrenia. When it’s a shorter
duration, there are all these sorts of different names that I’ve been learning
from my licensing exam. But the positive and negative symptoms of Schizophrenia
are as follows.
Schizophrenia
usually occurs in adolescence or early adulthood, and rarely after 45 years of
age. The onset can be sudden or slow. The development process after
getting sick will also vary from person to person.
Delusions and Hallucinations in Schizophrenia
So
positive symptoms, the way I remember this in my mind is positive, plus, was
adding something to someone, so it’s not just me as myself .I’m seeing things
that aren’t there potentially. I could be hearing things that aren’t there. I
could be feeling things that aren’t there. Think of your senses. Not many
people, like, smell things that aren’t there or even feel things that aren’t
there. The most common are seeing and hearing. Now, when people have
those...And they’re called delusions and hallucinations.
Now, hallucinations are those audio and visual
things that were seeing that aren’t there. Like, if you’ve ever seen; A
Beautiful Mind he has those 2 people that are with him that no one else can see
or hear, but he can see and hear them. They’re like his friends, right? That
would be the visual because he sees them and also hearing them, right? So we
have those, um, audible hallucinations.
Now, delusions which is the next most common,
is those firmly held beliefs. So...When I worked in the hospitals, I had one
client who, no matter what I told him, believed I was working for the Office. And
even though I was like don’t even have any of the things that it would take to
work for them. You know, there’s nothing I could say. It’s a firmly held
belief. Now, the most common beliefs are those of, like, people are watching me
type and the religious type.
I
had many clients who have been diagnosed with Schizophrenia, as well as their
eating disorder because part of their firmly held beliefs had to do with their
belief that they were overweight when they were underweight or the belief that
they needed that much food, even though they didn’t or there’s a bunch of
different things, right? I personally don’t usually diagnose separately, but
some people do. So that’s just another example of a delusion,
So
far we have hallucinations when we see, hear or feel things that aren’t there
and we have delusions - firmly held beliefs. Those are positive symptoms of Schizophrenia. Because was adding
something to it, to us. Now, the negative symptoms of Schizophrenia are things
that often go unnoticed longer. These are things, like what we call, like, a
blunted affect which really just mean slack of emotion.
So
someone will be very... unexciting and they have trouble expressing things and
just very... very boring! Right? It’s a much
blunted, like, there’s no emotion. And I’m trying to think if there are other
ones that they gave...Negative symptoms, yeah. Restrictions in the range and intensity
of emotional expression, flat affect, and in the fluency and productivity of
thought and speech which is called A logia which is like if you... you really
have... trouble... putting... sentences together. It’s very slow and we have a
lot of trouble.
And
that can also kind of go into the same realm as what we call disorganized speech which, if you working a hospital, they
call it word salad and that can be like: why did you come out... sweeping the
floors... Book! I, um... beach, towel, frustrated! And it won’t make any sense.
In their minds it makes sense, but they have lot of trouble putting it
together. And so, it comes out as this, you know, very difficult thing to
understand.
Until people are properly medicated, it can be
really difficult and it can be frustrating for them. Imagine if you have all
these things you want to express but people look at you like: what? Right?
Because none of it makes sense together. So that can be part of that as well.
Another
negative symptom can be...They have trouble initiating goal-oriented behavior.
So I need to get to the store because I’m out of milk, but I don’t... Like,
they don’t know where to start. I may walk out without any shoes on and no
money or I may walk to a clothing store looking for milk. So you can kind of
see where they have trouble making that happen. Okay? So that is Schizophrenia.
Schizoaffective
Disorder Symptoms
Now,
I know there will probably be a ton of questions. It’s really... I’m taking,
like, pages and pages of explanations and turning it into like 3 minutes.
Right? So leave your questions below. I can do more on this if you want. Now,
the second diagnosis is schizoaffective disorder.
Now, I’ve heard from many of you that you’ve
gotten this diagnosis and this is the difference. I’m just going to
differentiate it from Schizophrenia itself. So Schizoaffective Disorder, it
means that you have an uninterrupted period of illness during which there is
either a major depressive, manic or mixed episode concurrent with the symptoms
to meet Schizophrenia.
Schizoaffective
Disorder vs. Bipolar
So
you’ll have a delusion or a hallucination while you also are having some sort
of depressive episode or you could be manic. It could be part of your...It’s
honestly Bipolar crashed into Schizophrenia and it created Schizoaffective. If
Bipolar and Schizophrenia had a baby tied is Schizoaffective Disorder. Okay?
And that’s the easiest way to understand it. And people will have different
sub-types. So you may have some psychosis- the delusions, hallucinations- but
you also have that mood liability that goes along with, Bipolar Disorder. Now, like I said, what do we do? So we have
these diagnoses.
The
number 1 thing, whether this is you or this a friend or a family member, they
need to get medication. And I know medication. We want to be holistic, but
trust me when I say medication can save your life. The sooner we get on it, the
sooner we can get better. Think of your brain as like a balloon and it’s filled
with sand. And as we connect, let’s says we have a hallucination, and I
connect: Oh that figure. I see that shape and that’s a person .And I talk to
that person.
Were
rolling a marble in that sand. And the more we allow that to happen, the deeper
the ridge in the sand gets. And it’s harder for our mind to break out of that.
Does that make sense? That’s the best way for me to conceptualize it. So let’s
say we’ve only made that connection a couple of times and then we get our
medication on board and we realize that those delusions and hallucinations aren’t real.
We stop making that groove deeper and our
brain can headland we can live our life in a more normal manner. So please,
please, please get medication and encourage those people around you to get
proper assessments. And if this is you, please go see a doctor. Go to the
hospital. Make sure you get a proper assessment. And you can get the proper
medication. And ask questions about your medication.
Partial Hospitalization Program Eating Disorder
We
want to make sure the side-effects are good. They don’t interact with other
medications and stuff like that. The second thing is: please find a group or a
PHP program. At many hospitals they have these where you can go and you can
meet other people who are working on this. And it can be so refreshing and good
to know that other people have struggled and they’re doing fine.
They’ve
worked things out. And you know, different government agencies will help you
get paid for this and get the help you need. There’s even boarding cares where
you can live and stay if you’re older and they’ll take you to and from PHP programs. I used to run one with some other colleagues of mine at
a...There’s a group of hospitals down at different County I used to work at.
So
they’re available. They’re there. Please look into that. And the last thing I
always encourage people to do is do reality testing. So if you are not the person,
who has this diagnosis, but you’re a close family friend or any of the above
let them know that you’re a safe person that they can talk to and they can be
honest with. And reality testing is this: so let’s say I have Schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia
and I’ve asked them about something that I heard. And I’m just checking. I’ve
had clients when were at the hospital, right? Were at the hospital and there’s
a lot of overhead. Which I think this is cruel, but they’ll do overhead calls
like: Nancy, to the 4th floor. We have; Right? And it’ll come through all the
speakers. This is really hard for people who have Schizophrenia and are trying
to do reality testing.
They’ll
ask me: Sobi, did you hear that? Yeah. No, that was really... It was the nurse.
She was calling. Just making sure. Because if we are having those breakthrough symptoms, if we’re seeing or
hearing again, we may need to increase our medication or switch or things like that.
So those are the things that I would recommend. Getting a treatment team, right?
The groups, the PHP programs, getting on medication and doing reality testing
as often as we can to make sure that everything is being helpful and giving us,
I guess, the aid that we need. Right? So let me know if you have any further
questions.
Share
your experiences as always. And we will work together towards a Healthy Mind
and a Healthy Body. Just as a side note, know that there is no stigma attached
to either of these diagnoses or any diagnosis. Our
hospitals and our treatment teams and people in the mental health field are
more than well-equipped to handle this.
We
see it all the time. We want you to come and talk to us. Because the sooner we
can get help, like I said, the sooner we can get you well and back in your life
and feeling better. And just so you know, I know I use the acronym PHP.
Schizophrenia & Schizoaffective Disorder Causes
- Genetic
and physiological factors.
- Parents
and children's abnormal communication methods, including parents using
double standards and bilingual opinions, speech content is empty and
chaotic, flowing in pieces, etc., can weaken the children's sense of
reality, let them shrink from reality, and live in their own fantasy
world. Among them, it is easier for children who are growing up to suffer
from mental illness.
- Too
strong external pressure.
Schizophrenia & Schizoaffective Disorder Treatment
- Medication:
The treatment of schizophrenia is mainly based on drugs, especially those patients whose symptoms obviously affect their lives. Drugs must be used to improve. Antipsychotic drugs can eliminate symptoms such as auditory hallucinations and delusions. When the patient has the ability to contact with reality, then cooperate with rehabilitation and psychotherapy. - Rehabilitation
treatment:
Help patients rebuild socially acceptable behaviors, adapt to social life and reintegrate into society, and achieve therapeutic and rehabilitation through meaningful and purposeful activities (such as functional, social, work, etc.). - Psychotherapy:
A
professional therapist can help patients reduce anxiety and fear, and learn how to cope with stress.
Conclusion
What
that stands for its; Partial Hospitalization Program; and these are usually
at different hospitals or clinics. And what that means is you come during the
day for different groups or therapy sessions and then you leave in the evening
and you go back to your house. So it’s just partial. So you’re there for part
of the day. If you have questions and if you have this diagnosis, start a forum
board, start something where you can communicate to one another. You can share
your tips and tricks and get more help.
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here for more knowledgeable information.