Alright first to know about schizophrenia is a mental disorder that generally appears in late adolescence or early adulthood – however, it can emerge at any time in life. It is one of many brain diseases that may include delusions, loss of personality (flat affect), confusion, agitation, social withdrawal, psychosis, and bizarre behavior. In this essay I will be talking about what could happen to you while being schizophrenic, what it feels like to being schizophrenic and a story about John Forbes Nash, Jr.
Schizophrenia usually occurs around the ages of 20 to 30’s. It usually runs in genetics if none of your family member in the past or current family members have schizophrenia then the chances of you of getting it is very low. Schizophrenia may be related to problems during the mother’s pregnancy that can harm a baby’s developing brain and nervous system. These problems include poor nutrition or a viral infection during pregnancy. If you do get this mental disorder then you will have a to find little or no pleasure in your life, you can’t take care of yourself, you may also have hallucinations that make you hear noises or see things (most likely a human structure that may talk to you.), and finally that you will have delusions which is the same as like a hallucination but it is trying to hurt you in a way. Here is more ways I can describe what schizophrenia can happen to you.
I read an interview about what it feels like to have schizophrenia, and Hedrick Wang describe it like this, “a devil on your shoulder who whispers nasty stuff in your ear and no matter what you do, he won’t go away. Eventually you learn to accept him as a kind of companion, albeit a companion you don’t like but a companion nonetheless. It feels almost like a burden that you eventually get strong enough to carry.” This sounds about horrible and you can really do nothing about this mental illness, besides medicines that help your symptoms. And counseling and therapy help you change how you think about things and deal with the illness.
John Nash is a man who suffered from schizophrenia and he had very hard times in school growing up and got help from his mathematics teachers and he got a full ride scholarship to Princeton University for mathematics. While in college he wanted to figure out the equation of game theory and game theory are strategies in competition, whether in card games or business. In college Nash got married and he had a kid. He resumed his doctorate in mathematics at Princeton. Nash was diagnosed with schizophrenia after his wife’s pregnancy and they knew so because Nash attempted to drown his own daughter in a bathtub while she was gardening. Nash was put into a mental institute afterwards. Nash was released and spent most of his time at Princeton talking to himself in the 3rd person. So on his condition grew worse and he was placed in another mental institute in Boston and finished his doctorate there. Nash became a legendary icon in mathematics and solved the game theory by himself while suffering from a mental disorder. In 1994, he received a noble peace prize in the help of economics in Stockholm.
In conclusion schizophrenia is a very rough mental illness and I hope they find a cure for it someday. No one likes to have hallucinations telling you what to do for your whole entire life and not even know they are hallucinations. But you are also to accomplish many things no matter what the disability is.
What would you do if you had schizophrenia?
What would you hallucinate about if you had this mental disorder? Why?
What are the latest treatments for schizophrenia?