Schizophrenia Disorder - Research Paper Example

Schizophrenia Disorder SCHIZOPHRENIA DISORDER An overview of the film A Beautiful Mind Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that causes an individual to experience breakdown in thought processes and impaired emotional responses. The condition causes the splitting of the normally incorporated cognitive, behavioral and emotional performance of the brain (Pletson, 2007). The movie A Beautiful Mind features Mr. Nash, a genius mathematics teacher and his struggle with schizophrenia. According to the film A Beautiful Mind, Mr. Nash started to experience the symptoms of schizophrenia in 1958 when he was at the top of his career. This condition manifested itself in various symptoms. One of the significant symptoms of schizophrenia that Nash experienced was lack of emotions. In most occasions, Nash expressed no sign of emotions in almost the entire film, and the noticeable scene is when he is holding his infant son who is crying, he shows no emotions at all, not even an attempt to calm his howling son. Mr. Nash also experienced instances of both voice and visual hallucinations. He had visual hallucinations of Marcee, Charle and Parcher and Dr. Rosen tells Alicia, his wife, that they are all part of his imagination. The situation gets worse when Nash knocks Alicia who was carrying the baby accidental on the ground, as he imagines to be protecting Alicia from Parcher who wants to kill her. As the movie proceeds towards the end, Alicia and Nash leave the auditorium, Nash sees Charlie, Marcee and Parcher, watching him from the opposite side of the road. Furthermore, Nash is able to crack codes and formulate mathematical formulas because of the hallucinations he experiences. According to him, the codes seem real when they appear on paper when in real sense it is all imaginary. He formulates mathematical formulas and he is able to modify theories acceptable and applied in his line of study (Howard, 2001). Mr. Nash preferred to stay a lone and he would work most of the time by himself, he did not like socializing either with his classmates or with friends. He carried scientific experiments together with most of his work by himself from his room. Due to schizophrenia, Nash developed unhealthy practices; he would carry his experiments and work for long hours and days without food. According to the film, that Mr. Nash neither liked staying in hospital nor any sort treatment and medication from his doctors. He refused to take antipsychotic medication given to him by his doctors and viewed the hospital environment and medication as barriers to his science work. Instead of worrying about his condition, Nash concentrated on his experiments; this decision facilitated his healing process. Furthermore, the film explores the significance of the support role demonstrated by Alicia, his wife, together with friends as a major contributor in his recovery and his life with schizophrenia. Alicia accepted Nash’s condition to be true and cared for him without doubts over the existence of the condition. She developed positive thinking and perfectly understood the life experiences of a person living with schizophrenia. Nevertheless, Alicia also employed social copying strategies by ensuring to keep close friends who were essential determinates to his recovery process. She gathered information as well about the condition and how effectively take care of Nash. The love, care and support taken by Alicia enabled Mr. Nash to recover from schizophrenia. It is also important to identify that, Mr. Nash’s recovery process was aided by the fact that, he worked in a community were his condition was widely accepted and specifically supported by friends and family. This was the most important positive contribution to his recovery as he received care and support from community level. Additionally, the support of his family and friends forced him to participate in community activities, which consequently gave him a sense of belonging (Howard, 2001). Nash also accepted the fact that he was ill and the impact the illness had to his family and friends. Therefore, family and community support and self- acceptance was significant to his recovering as it enabled him come face to face with his condition. Schizophrenia and symptoms Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe mental illness affecting millions of people across the globe. There is no clear cause for this condition; however, Pletson (2007) establishes that genetic factors produces exposure to schizophrenia and at times psychological and environmental factors facilitates the occurrence of the condition to a certain degree in some people. Schizophrenia comprise of two classes dependant on the rapidity of their development; reactive schizophrenia, which its symptoms manifest during adulthood in a period of days or weeks, and process schizophrenia whereby the condition begins in childhood developing gradually in a period of months and years (Tsuang, Stephen & Glatt, 2011). Schizophrenia comprise of a number of symptoms, which are not all exhibited at the same time. The symptoms comprise of: voice and visual hallucinations, visual hallucinations are less commonly but are experienced in certain cases; disordered thought, which is characterized with irrational and disorganized thinking; attention problems whereby an individual is easily distracted and experiences trouble when focusing at one line of thought for lengthened period (French, 2006). Furthermore, a person suffers from paranoid delusions and catatonia, in which they seem to be in a trance-like state. Children as young as five years old may experience all the symptoms just like their adult counterparts that are likely to persist to in their adulthood. Patients with Schizophrenia increase risks to suicide, physical illness due to inactive lifestyle and reaction to medication, and exposure to return of the symptoms in cases of alcohol or drugs use (Roberts & Penn, 2013). Treatment of Schizophrenia The successful treatment of schizophrenia depends on life-long procedure of drugs administration and support programs and therapies. Medication and treatment help a person manage the psychosis associated with the condition such as delusions and hallucinations. On the other hand, support programs and therapy helps an individual find a job, form effective social relationships, encourage individual coping skills, and enhances proper communication abilities with others. For individuals to cope well with the initial sages of the condition it calls for support from families, friends and the community (Tsuang, Stephen & Glatt, 2011). The role of support groups and therapies to patients with Schizophrenia Support groups and therapies helps maintain patients to their respective medication plan through guidance, reassurance, modeling, education and reality testing by the therapist (French, 2006). People suffering from schizophrenia face challenges in taking part in daily activities such as communicating, cooking and grooming, therefore, therapy enhances a person to regain confidence and at the same time, take care of themselves. Behavioral techniques such as training of social skills enable an individual to perform better in social together with work environment (Pletson, 2007). Group therapy together with drug administration effectively helps schizophrenia outpatients on the basis that supportive group therapy lessens chances of social isolation among the patients. It is possible to witness positive results, if a group therapy centers on problems, real-life plans together with social relationships. Similarly, family members and caregivers play a crucial role in treatment of schizophrenia. Family therapy plays a significant role in the recovery process of an individual suffering from schizophrenia; this therapy encourages the family members to convey a meeting whenever an issue arises in order to look into the nature of the problem. Robert & Penn (2013) further demonstrate that, family therapies can decrease the relapse rate of a person to a limit of about 10%. The following guidelines are necessary for friends and family to cope with a member suffering from Schizophrenia (Tsuang, Stephen & Glatt, 2011); Establishing of a daily routine for the patient to be followed during the recovery process Helping and ensuring the patient appropriately takes prescribed medication. Keeping a watchful eye on any instances of the symptom return and knowing exactly what to do when they return Opening and maintaining communication regarding problems, fears and feelings of the patient. Demonstrating high level of patience and calmness when dealing with the patient Need to be simple and brief when speaking to the patient and accept simple communication in return. Getting the right support services for both the family and patient to share common experiences, learn suitable ways to deal with frustrations, hopelessness and anger. Risk factors for the development of schizophrenia None of the following factors causes schizophrenia; however, they increase vulnerability to the condition (Tsuang, Stephen & Glatt, 2011). Biological factors Family history of psychosis and particular personality disorder are associated with an increased risk of vulnerability to schizophrenia. Physical abnormality of the brain, there is gathered evidence pointing to the fact that, people with schizophrenia have alteration in their brain such as enlarged ventricles and, or smaller hippocampus. There is also gathered evidence linking chemical imbalance to schizophrenia in the sense that chemical systems involving neurotransmitter dopamine and glutamate are involved among patients with schizophrenia. Neurodevelopment factors Personal attributes such s poor social and coping skills, and poor communication skills link people to schizophrenia. Environmental stress may increase vulnerability to the condition on the basis that stress can interact with other factors to trigger acute events of the illness. These include stress related activities such as work or school problems, drug use, feeling of rejection, low social support among others. Schizophrenia is not preventable; however, symptom return are avoidable by taking medication as prescribed by the physician alongside provision of support from family, friends and community at large. Most importantly, for individuals to cope with schizophrenia it requires support, determination, and understanding so that they can accept their condition and live with it for the rest of their life. Reference French, D., P. Ed. (2006). Schizophrenic Psychology: New Research. New York: Nova Science. Howard, R. (2001). A beautiful mind. USA: DreamWorks ` Pictures, Universal Pictures, Imagine ` Entertainment. Pletson, J., E. Ed. (2007). Psychology and Schizophrenia. New York: Nova Science. Roberts, D., L & Penn, D., L (2013). Social Cognition in Schizophrenia: From Evidence to ` Treatment. London: Oxford University Press. Tsuang, M., T. Stephen V., F. & Glatt, J., S. (2011). Schizophrenia. London: Oxford University ` Press. Read More