Thesis on "Disease of Interest"

Thesis 6 pages (1835 words) Sources: 5

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Disease of Interest

Life is unpredictable, as everything can change in a matter of minutes and anyone can be diagnosed with having Paranoid Schizophrenia. The Paranoid form of Schizophrenia involves people having brain disorders causing delusions of grandeur, persecution, or reference. The malady can be contracted by any person, regardless to the environment that they gave been subjected to or to other factors.

People suffering from Paranoid Schizophrenia often find themselves hallucinating, hearing strange noises, and generally acting paranoid. The symptoms can sometimes be accompanied by the feeling that they are in great danger or that they might be extremely dangerous for the community.

Paranoid Schizophrenia is frequently found in the media with people suffering from it being accused of having performed various crimes. If the disease is not discovered in its early stages, or if the patient refrains from seeing a doctor, he or she may pose a threat to the society they live in. However, if the patient is under surveillance, and receives proper medication, they can still bland in society with the possibilities of an incident ever occurring being reduced to a minimum.

In order for people that suffer from Paranoid Schizophrenia to lead a normal life, they constantly have to take medication. There are also cases in which patients can recover after several years of taking their medicine.

Besides the fact that patients need to stick to their medication, those close to them need to support them in fighting against the disease. Relatives generally feel discomfort when spending time with the one that they previously knew to be perfectly healthy. A person suffering from Paranoid Schizophrenia can intimidate other persons during a dialogue. Also it is normal for one that suffers from the disease to pass from a subject to another without finishing the first, or to avoid eye contact. People that suffer from Paranoid Schizophrenia are reluctant to show their emotions and are less likely to bring their contribution to a conversation between other people.

A normal person that has Paranoid Schizophrenia usually displays the first signs of the sickness during adolescence. The first symptoms are not enough to detect if a certain persons has the malady, but it becomes apparent that something is not ok as they get worse. Young people having the illness find it hard to integrate in social groups and end up spending more and more time alone. The loss of concentration is also one of the early signs displayed by those suffering from Paranoid Schizophrenia. As the disease aggravates, the sick person goes into a deeper state of psychosis and forms a habit from talking to him or herself. It is also in this state of psychosis that the patient might report short-term hallucinations. Sometimes, those suffering from the disease are believed to have gotten better because the malady has stages of relapse and remission. During an episode in which the patients have hallucinations, they might feel that someone imaginary person is talking to them. The disease can get worse if the patients imagine that the imaginary person that they are communicating with is giving orders or is insulting them. People can feel endangered and they can resort to anything that they think would save them from themselves.

Besides from seeing or hearing things that are only their imagination's fruits, sick people can even reach a higher stage of the disease. Patients have reported to have had tactile hallucinations, as they've felt an irritating sensation like their skin had been burning. Delusions can vary with patients practically having claimed to have gone through unimaginable situations from aliens wanting to abduct them to them having the vital role in saving the planet.

Those that are suffering from the illness have a hard time dealing with it and they can sometimes resort to killing themselves. During the early stages of the disease, and, after finding out that they have it, patients can become devastated as they witness the effects that Paranoid Schizophrenia has on them. All of the basic functions may seem difficult to perform for a person suffering from the disease. Dealing with the disease is not just about taking medicine and getting professional help. One has to pay special attention to all the details which can contribute in helping him or her ameliorate the symptoms. Even if traditional methods might seem to be inefficient in comparison to the more advanced medicine, people need to use anything they find useful in fighting the sickness. A first thing that patients suffering from the illness need to do is to accept it and to ask for professional help.

The drugs that people suffering from Paranoid Schizophrenia take are meant to control the disease and not to cure it. Those that aren't taking their medicine in the right quantities, as prescribed by their physicians, have the risk of endangering themselves and the rest of society because they can experience severe hallucinations. Thorazine, Haldol, and Risperdal are three of the drugs intended to help people with Paranoid Schizophrenia relieve their symptoms. Most patients show signs of getting better after the drugs have been administered. Sick people need to receive special care and counseling that would help them cope with the disease easier.

There are numerous cases of crimes having been done by people suffering from Paranoid Schizophrenia that have not been diagnosed with the disease in time. As a result, they haven't received counseling or medicine in order for them to control the disease. In contrast to other mental illnesses, Paranoid Schizophrenia isolates the sick person from the rest of society, and, the respective person tends to become colder and unaffectionate.

It is very possible for a person that refrains from accepting that he or she suffers for Paranoid Schizophrenia to reach a phase where they totally lose their minds and are capable of doing anything. Fred Frese is one of the people that have reported having symptoms that Paranoid Schizophrenia has from an early age. Without searching for help and without accepting that he had a serious health problem, Frese's problem had aggravated to the point where he became homeless. His problem became obvious only until he had been arrested and later diagnosed with the disease. Even though he was in an advanced stage of the illness, Frese recovered with the help of specialists and with the help of strong medication. Not only did he manage to control the illness, but he succeeded in becoming a Chief Psychologist at a mental institution in Ohio. Also, he got married and now has four children. Specialists later found that Frese had had someone in his family suffering from Paranoid Schizophrenia. Genes have a strong influence and when a person suffers from Schizophrenia it is very possible that someone in his or her family has also suffered from the disease.

Table 1.

As shown in table number one, those that have had cases of Paranoid Schizophrenia within their families are more likely to have the disease. Moreover, the chances of having the disease increase as the connection between someone and their sick relative is closer.

There is no actual test through which Schizophrenia can be detected, as the diagnostic is given after the patient reports all the specific symptoms which Schizophrenia has. Medicine has not managed to find a cure for the disease, as people can escape it only by using their will and the proper medicine.

According to Irving B. Weiner, in spite of the fact that Schizophrenia comes under several forms, most patients being diagnosed with the disease are being considered to have the paranoid type. (Weiner, 302)

People with Paranoid Schizophrenia are sometimes difficult to differentiate from normal people because they are less likely to have their IQs lessened by their disease. In contrast, people with other forms of Schizophrenia show explicit signs of having their mental health affected by the malady.

In the cases of those that have not had a relative with the disease, and, they still contract it, it is not clear why it appears. Those that suffer from the disease are likely to have brain disorders. The reason for why the brain of a person with Paranoid Schizophrenia is not functioning properly is unknown.

Paranoid persons generally pay great attention to others as they intend to anticipate their movements and to find an explanation for them. They are inclined to take any action as a sign that someone is trying to hurt them. When performing an act, a person suffering from Paranoid Schizophrenia usually has an exaggerated fear that they will be harshly punished if they fail in what they are doing. Those suffering from the disease are generally obsessed with following rules. Paranoid Schizophrenia has people believing that they are superior to others and that most people have united their powers against them.

The first people that can detect when a person is predisposed to have Schizophrenia are those closest to the respective person. Changes in attitude, frequent visits to the doctor, and the feeling that there is something… READ MORE

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