The overall issue with Schizophrenia comes during development in many cases. Of course, there are always different cases that may involve drug use to induce this condition. After reading several articles covering the neural pathways involved, it can be concluded that the cause is not exactly known at this point. For those that develop Schizophrenia that is not induced by drug use, a great deal of the damage leading up to their conditions has been hypothesized to be acquired during development.
It is important for those in the general public to be understanding of people that have Schizophrenia because this condition is not understood well enough in the science community for many of these people to receive the treatments they may be needing. Schizophrenia is an interesting disorder because it has such a broad range of symptoms and thresholds. Some people may be hearing voices and seeing objects or even people that aren’t present. Much research has contributed these hallucinations to overstimulation of the visual and auditory cortices of the brain. Furthermore, many of those struggling with Schizophrenia have an altered sense of reality which is extremely difficult for them to cope with because they do not view many situations in the same way others do. Currently, some of the best methods of treatment for Schizophrenia are rooted in coping methods along with the pharmaceuticals that aid in treating the manic episodes.
After researching Schizophrenia, I happened to find a newer movie called, “Voices” featuring Ryan Reynolds which although entertaining and twisted, provided me with an alternative view of how to look at Schizophrenia. As a backstory, the character played by Reynolds in the movie was diagnosed with Schizophrenia and the entire movie was narrated from his perspective on how his interactions at work normally went and how he had an altered view of situations compared to his coworkers. To provide an example without ruining the movie, Reynolds’ character lives on his own and through his eyes, his apartment appears to be spotlessly clean and everything seems normal. When the perspective shifts to the people entering his apartment, we find that his apartment is a disorganized disaster. He also has another key symptom of Schizophrenia that with his ability to speak to his two pets that have two completely different personalities through his eyes. As other people meet his animals they are unable to speak and these conversations with the animals are uncontrolled hallucinations.
The most difficult part of Schizophrenia is that there is no definite cure for this disorder. Many people with Schizophrenia will live their whole life treating their symptoms but will never be free of this burden. Because of the many different areas of the brain associated with Schizophrenia, it is difficult for researchers to find a prominent treatment method because each patient is different therefore adding a great challenge. Going back to the beginning, another piece that adds difficulty with research is that because Schizophrenia is involved with development, researchers can’t study those with Schizophrenia until they are in their 20s which is the average age when most Schizophrenia cases are diagnosed. At this point, most development is finished and finding the culprit of the disorder is much more difficult. Where we stand right now, researchers have many hypotheses on what exactly is going wrong during development, but there is a great amount of work to be done yet.
