What Is Schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia is a mental illness that affects the way your brain receives and interprets information from the world around you. The illness can make it hard for you to organize your thoughts. You may also find it difficult to relate to other people. The symptoms of schizophrenia can be treated, but it is usually a lifelong condition that requires continued treatment. Symptoms of schizophrenia usually begin in the teenage years or early-to-mid 20s.
Schizophrenia affects the way your brain receives information in several ways:
- Your brain receives an overload of information
- You become more sensitive to stimuli around you, such as lights, noises, and background information, and your brain has trouble sorting out what you hear and see
- Your brain receives information that may not be accurate. You might hear, see, taste, touch, or smell things that others do not. This is known as a hallucination
- Your brain may store information incorrectly. As new information is received, your brain may store it with memories that are not related to it. This may cause you to respond with an inappropriate emotion, such as laughing at sad news
Schizophrenia may affect the way you understand information in the following ways:
- Your brain may process information more slowly
- Your mind may be flooded with information, making it overworked and overloaded. Your response time may slow down. It may take you longer to learn a new skill
- Your brain may not have all of the information it needs to understand the message
- Your brain may receive only bits and pieces of information, like pieces of a puzzle. You may have to struggle to fit those pieces together so that the message makes sense
- Your brain may cause you to reach incorrect conclusions. Using incomplete messages can lead to illogical or incorrect conclusions — resulting in false beliefs, such as delusions
Talk to Your Doctor
If you have additional questions or concerns about this topic, talk to your doctor.
