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Schizophrenia is a chronic disorder of the mind wherein the patient is unable to characterize their thoughts and experiences as real or otherwise. The patient seems to be losing touch with reality, thus altering their thought process, behavior, emotional responses, expressive practices, perception, and practicality.
There are several schizophrenia symptoms but not all patients demonstrate them all. Some signs of schizophrenia may be dormant and, in some cases, very mild. Plenty of these signs are categorized as positive symptoms of schizophrenia that often lead to innate talent in certain fields. Some of the negative symptoms of schizophrenia, on the other hand, can have adverse effects that make the patient uncomfortable and disoriented in social interactions.
Let us take a look at the signs of schizophrenia for which you need to watch out.
Top 6 Signs of Schizophrenia?
Some people who suffer from the disorder often display early signs of schizophrenia whereas there are those who don’t display signs of schizophrenia till the ages of 16 to 30. Men usually begin expressing early signs of schizophrenia.
Very often, schizophrenic patients may enter the prodrome phase where the schizophrenia symptoms start to develop, eventually taking permanent effects. The signs of schizophrenia can have positive or negative impacts, so here are the negative symptoms of schizophrenia:
Difficulty When Speaking
Alogia or the lack of desire to interact is a common negative symptom of schizophrenia. Patients may prefer to isolate themselves even in a crowd.
Withdrawal
Patients who display schizophrenia symptoms often start to withdraw from their world. Their lack of enthusiasm for social cultures rapidly diminishes to introversion to the point of pursuing loneliness.
Inability To Complete Daily Tasks
People with schizophrenic symptoms often have a hard time keeping up with daily tasks. They may start to avoid general necessities such as bathing, self-care, etc.
Lack Of Voice Modulation
Schizophrenics often have the problem of expressing themselves adequately. This is far more evident with negative symptoms of schizophrenia where the patients lose their ability to express emotions when speaking. Their toes sound flat, devoid of emotions, and sometimes, lacking energy.
Absence Of Pleasure
Oftentimes, patients with schizophrenic symptoms appear devoid of joy they find no enjoyment in the mundane or the exciting parts of life, thus entering a state of anhedonia.
Avolition
A medical term that describes a person who has lost their will to start or even complete a task. People suffering from schizophrenia have a difficult time keeping their focus on singular tasks and completing them as per schedules. They may sometimes be unable to get started in the first place.
There are also several positive symptoms of schizophrenia wherein there are things that may not have a lot of positive impacts but do add to the patient’s condition:
Top 5 Hallucination Signs of Schizophrenia
Hallucinations are the most common schizophrenia symptoms. Patients tend to experience taste, smell, audio stimuli, visual stimuli, and touch with more gravitas than others. The hallucinations may come in the following forms:
Olfactory
Schizophrenics appreciate the heightened smell of good things but may refuse to indulge when they smell bad things.
Gustatory
Patients can identify the taste of good and bad. They may often refuse to eat when dubbing bad taste as harmful substances.
Auditory
It is when the patients hallucinate voices in their heads asking them to take action in different emotions persuasively.
Visual
This is when the schizophrenic symptoms produce illusions where the patients start to imagine seeing people or pets, mostly loved ones they have lost.
Tactile
Patients experience a heightened sense of touch on their body to the point of hallucinating insects and other intrusive creatures on their selves.
9 Common Delusionary Schizophrenia Symptoms
Delusions are very common signs of schizophrenia. The patients start to alter their thought processes and believe they are someone else or that people are out to harm them in some way. These delusions protect the mind in a way and can come in different forms such as:
Referential Delusions
These are schizophrenia symptoms wherein the person starts to believe that there are references made directly to him or her in publically available means of communications. They may believe that a certain song or story was written for them or dialogue by a radio or TV host is directed straight at them.
Persecutory Delusions
These delusions involve the person believing that they are under threat of surveillance. Often they feel like they are being tricked, stalked, framed for crimes, or being hunted.
Somatic Delusions
These schizophrenia symptoms start as hypochondria but can grow into full-blown delusions that the person has serious diseases or abnormalities on their body. Sometimes they might delude themselves into thinking there are worms and dangerous substances under their skin or in orifices of the body.
Religious Delusions
Patients start to believe that they are possessed by demons or share an affinity to god in various forms.
Erotomaniac Delusions
These schizophrenia symptoms are evident when a person believes that celebrated public figures are in love with them or someone they don’t like is attracted to them. They may even start to believe that their partners are being unfaithful and chase the notion.
Grandiose Delusions
Patients with these early signs of schizophrenia often delude themselves into believing that they are important public figures and are highly adored. They may even start to believe that they are politicians or entrepreneurs trying to change the world.
Confusion In Thought And Speech
People with signs of schizophrenia appear to be distracted or uninterested at times. This is one of the positive symptoms of schizophrenia that tend to seem negative. Patients often disconnect due to internal stimuli and appear not to be following what is being explained they may even speak in jumbled words and phrases to communicate their thoughts.
Difficulty When Concentrating
A very common problem among people with early signs of schizophrenia is their lack of attention. They find it difficult to concentrate on a single train of thought due to outside stimulus in various forms.
Movement-related Disorders
People suffering from schizophrenia tend to repeat their actions. Often, they might appear on the edge, quite agitated and jittery. However, contrary to popular belief, this is no indication of violence. People with schizophrenia symptoms maybe still for long periods and the habit is often dubbed as catatonic. However, for the most part, schizophrenics are calm.
Schizophrenia is a chronic disorder of the mind. Therefore, it is ideal to watch people who display early signs of schizophrenia closely and seek medical attention at an early stage.
