On your walk home today, you witness two feathers floating to the ground. You can imagine the crispness of their hollow shaft and the softness of their feathers running through your hand… but what if someone told you only one of them was real?
You experienced both feathers in the same capacity, so you would have no reason to believe one feather is not real without that outside perspective. This experience is one of the harshest realities schizophrenic individuals battle daily.
Schizophrenia can interfere with an individual’s life in many ways. This chronic brain disorder can be accompanied by hallucinations, decreased concentration, lack of motivation, and social withdrawal.
Many areas of the brain are negatively impacted by schizophrenia. This can range from memory deficits managed by the hippocampus to internally generated thoughts in the Wernicke’s area of the auditory system that are perceived as voices coming from the outside. Schizophrenic patients also exhibit smaller brains, less gray matter, and neuronal disconnectivity between brain regions than their control counterparts.
The scientific community has been investigating the inner-workings of schizophrenia in the brain. Right now, they know that the Wnt (a receptor) pathway has an important role, as the inhibition of beta-catenin (a molecule in this pathway) is correlated with schizophrenia. Overactive dopamine receptors have also been associated with schizophrenia, which cause decreased neural growth and connectivity.
These physical changes of the brain are what influence schizophrenic symptoms. Unfortunately, there is no cure for schizophrenia; only medication to assist with the management of their symptoms. However, there is a caveat with treating mental illnesses that only cover up the symptoms of the disease.
If you’ve ever had to adhere to any medication schedule, you would understand the struggle of planning your life around your medication. That can be incredibly frustrating at times, but if you are hypertensive and you see that your medication is lowering your blood pressure, you are more likely to continue to take the medication because you see its benefit.
For individuals with schizophrenia who experience an altered state of mind, their medication regimen is often a balancing act that cannot manage all of their symptoms. Because they cannot always see the benefit of their medication in addition to the side effects of anti-psychotics, schizophrenic patients have very low adherence to their medication.
Reality is relative for schizophrenic individuals, as their blurred reality is much different than someone without schizophrenia. Their blurred truth is more manageable with anti-psychotic medications, but our reality should focus in the wider scope: a cure.
Expectation v. Reality: The Blurred Truth of Schizophrenia
