'What is Schizophrenia?'

Wikipedia from Web -

Schizophrenia Schizophrenia (from the Greek word σχιζοφρένεια, "split mind") is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a mental disorder characterized by impairments in the perception or expression of reality and by significant social or occupational disfunction. ~ A person experiencing schizophrenia is typically characterized as demonstrating disorganized thinking, and as experiencing delusions or auditory hallucinations. ~ Although the disorder is primarily thought to affect cognition, it can also contribute to chronic problems with behavior and emotion. ~ Due to the many possible combinations of symptoms, heated debate is ongoing about whether the diagnosis necessarily or adequately describes a disorder, or alternatively whether it might represent a number of disorders. ~ For this reason, Eugen Bleuler deliberately called the disease "the schizophrenias" plural, when he coined the present name. ~ Diagnosis is based on the self-reported experiences of the patient, in combination with secondary signs observed by a psychiatrist, clinical psychologist or other competent clinician. ~ No objective biological test for schizophrenia exists, though studies suggest that genetics, neurobiology and social environment are important contributing factors. ~ Current research into the development of the disorder often focuses on the role of neurobiology, although a reliable and identifiable organic cause has not been found. ~ In the absence of objective laboratory tests to confirm the diagnosis, some question the legitimacy of schizophrenia's status as a disease. ~ Furthermore, some question the status of schizophrenia as a disease on the basis that they do not consider the condition to be an impairment. ~ The term schizophrenia translates roughly as "splitting of the mind", and comes from the Greek σχίζω (schizo, "to split" or "to divide") and φρήν (phrēn, "mind"). ~ Despite its etymology, schizophrenia is not synonymous with dissociative identity disorder, also known as multiple personality disorder or "split personality"; in popular culture the two are often confused. ~ People with schizophrenia are generally not more violent or dangerous than other members of the population. ~ Patients diagnosed with schizophrenia are highly likely to be diagnosed with other disorders. ~ The lifetime prevalence of substance abuse is typically around 40%. ~ Comorbidity is also high with clinical depression, anxiety disorders, and social problems, and a generally decreased life expectancy is also present. ~ Patients diagnosed with schizophrenia typically live 10-12 years less than their healthy counterparts, owing to increased physical health problems and a high suicide rate. ~ Unemployment and poverty are common. ~ Schizophrenia

Comment #1 jacob (63.176.159.10) -

Is there a hotline i can call for Schizophrenia..

Comment #2 Gilbert (63.176.159.70) -

Last month, I found out that one of my old co-worker have schizophrenia and have died by killing himself.

His board mates told us that he is behaving funny weeks before his suicide, he started having halucinations and was afraid of being alone in the house.

BTW, is it true that Singapore has a high rate of this disorder?

Comment #3 Christoph (63.176.159.93) -

I believe that every country has incidents and tragedies involving people experiencing schizophrenia. I believe that people experiencing this could either have a history of a relative or an ancestor having such disorder, or because of outside factors which can drive a person to the edge of insanity.

I hope that the government or any concerned institutions pay attention to the increasingly alarming population of committing suicide or murders because of schizophrenia. More better facilities and medications should be given to such patients to help them overcome such dreadful disorder.

Comment #4 Randy (63.176.159.119) -

How can the government or your community help with this disorder?

Comment #5 bee gee (63.176.159.173) -

is this hereditary? is there a cure for this?

Comment #6 Candice (63.176.159.118) -

This schizophrenia sounds terrible I feel so badly for the thousands of people who can't help that they have this disease.

Comment #7 Mackenzie (63.176.159.237) -

I do not know anyone who has schizophrenia, but I do know of a friend whos dad suffers from it from being in war for about 2 years, and it does seem like something serious, and I think it would be horriable to hear voices inside your head all day, I feel sorry for the people who have it or know someone close to them that has it.

Comment #8 Cassie (63.176.159.222) -

I have a hard time listening to my OWN voice in my head, and than on top of that hearing my husband all day long, I could not EVER imagine hearing "other" voices too, that would be horrible.

Comment #9 Will (63.176.159.114) -

Schizophrenia is something serious and it is always going to be a life long battle. My heart goes out to people who suffer from this awful disease.

Comment #10 Dikya (63.176.159.63) -

We do not have to pity schizophrenic.. It is better to support them. If you have relatives, friends, acquaintances suffering from the disease it is best to guide them and make them feel secured. It is wrong to make them believe in impossible but make them cope up with their situation.

Comment #11 Marion Hubbard (85.27.68.7) -

Schizophrenia has been described as a nonspecific disease by the psychiatric profession. This supposedly devastating condition was originally named by the German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin (1856-1926). Kraepelin believed that the condition involved an irreversible mental deterioration and coined the term named 'dementia praecox' - Latin for 'prematurely out of one's mind'. It later became clear that the term was a misnomer and a new term was coined in 1910 by Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler (1857-1939) who was noted for his kindness and humanity. Bleuler was the teacher of Carl Jung and professor of psychiatry at the University of Zürich where he headed the famous Burghölzli Clinic. Since the condition seemed to involve a mental split between thought and emotion, Bleuler coined the term 'schizophrenia' for 'splitting of the mind'. The term is derived from German 'schizophrenie' from Greek 'skhizein' meaning 'to split' and 'phren' of unknown origin meaning 'heart or mind'. According to Greek etymology, ‘schizophrenia’actually means 'broken soul' or 'broken heart’. Although there is still no universally accepted definition of the term, it has been applied to many so-called 'mental illnesses' including a set of socially and culturally unacceptable thinking and behaviour patterns which other people greatly dislike thus making it a model of ‘unwanted conduct’. The condition is largely misunderstood as a result of people’s fear of the unknown.

It turns out that schizophrenia is not a disease or ‘mental illness’. It is not a hopeless condition but a brilliant one. In fact schizophrenia is a personal 'story' which involves a natural and temporary self-organising transformative process or crisis of transformation, a ‘psychospiritual crisis’now known as 'spiritual emergency' - the term coined by psychiatrist Stanislav Grof. Spiritual emergency is a self-healing process involving the dissolution and removal of illusions and false beliefs originating in the programming of social conditioning which gives rise to aberrant thought complexes and prevent the person from making accurate evaluations for appropriate decision-making for effective social adaptation. In a period of spiritual emergency, the person instinctively surrenders to a spontaneous organismic process involving the temporary separation of thought and emotion (‘ego-loss’) which is necessary for the reassessment of their thoughts without having to deal with the emotional implications. The person undergoes a series of varying stages or ‘episodes’ and eventually learns to grow beyond fear based ego-consciousness, beyond cultural conditioning and the expectations of others to a higher consciousness state and a new level of awareness. The state of so-called ‘ego-transcendance’is characterised by an inner sense of emotional liberation which allows for increased creativity and the discovery of ideas and behaviours which increase the effectiveness of social adaptability. Ego-transcendance purifies and sharpens consciousness and therefore results in clarity and a true perception of reality. Accurate perception is a function of moral consciousness or 'intuition' of rational conscience and depends on complete moral or 'spiritual development’ – the defining characteristic of the human psyche or human personality i.e. ‘human nature’.

And what is human nature? Human nature can be defined in terms of the universal moral values of humanness, the social values required for survival of the species as a social species i.e. ‘human values’. Human values are universal values of moral justice, understanding or 'knowledge', social responsibilityor ‘peace’, wisdom of compassion or 'lovingkindness' and so on. Awareness of human values results in heightened intuition and social intelligence which is necessary for effective adaptation to the complexities of changing social conditions i.e. 'adaptability'. Human adaptability is a function of the social nature of the human organism as a social organism with instincts for social cooperation and social harmony i.e. ‘social instincts’. These must be cultivated in a process of development of moral consciousness or ‘conscience’. Rational conscience is a product of moral or ‘spiritual’ growth based on the preservation of the integrated functioning of the personality and involves transformation of the self or 'enlightenment' of so-called 'spiritual emergence'.

"In the most general terms, spiritual emergence can be defined as the movement of an individual to a more expanded way of being that involves enhanced emotional and psychosomatic health, greater freedom of personal choices, and a sense of deeper connection with other people, nature and the cosmos. An important part of this development is an increasing awareness of the spiritual dimension in one's life and in the universal scheme of things. Spiritual development is an innate evolutionary capacity of all human beings. It is a movement towards wholeness or 'holotropic state', the discovery of one's true potential." (Stanislav Grof)

Spiritual emergence is a gradual dynamic, fluid, naturally ordered and integrated on-going process of personal development into greater maturity and spiritual awareness and involves personal evolution from the limited sense of self or 'ego' and its egocentric perspective to the expanded sense of self beyond ego… the ‘higher self’or 'Self'… and its transpersonal perspective. The transpersonal perspective allows for the attainment of knowledge of one's true nature… or huan nature… as the source of motivation for personal productiveness and creativity or ‘work’ i.e. 'self-knowledge'. As a result of transcendance of the 'ego or ‘ego-transcendance’, the consciousness is expanded, purified and sharpened to allow for a clearer perception of reality. The result is a sense of the wisdom of compassion an understanding of the ultimate connectedness or ‘unity’ of all things and an appreciation for the divinity of humanness. This spiritual awareness allows for more accurate evaluation of changing social conditions and more effective adaptability. Self-knowledge is the source of personal power and creativity i.e 'self-empowerment’.

Each person is at a different stage of spiritual emergence depending on the level of their moral or spiritual development.

Spiritual emergence takes place over a period of years and depends on conditions of freedom in education i.e. 'free education' or 'holistic education'. Holistic education is based on the necessary fulfillment of biologically based motives or ‘human needs’ which must be met in a process of normal moral or ‘spiritual’ development. Human needs include both 'lower' psychological needs for security and self-esteem - the 'ego needs' - and 'higher' psychological needs for moral or ‘spiritual’ development - the spiritual needs or ‘metaneeds’… instinctive yearnings for unconditional love, truth, beauty etc. Motivation by the metaneeds… metamotivation’… allows for the discovery of one’s true potential.

If in highly sensitive individuals the processs of spiritual emergence is blocked for any reason the person might be warned that their growth is in grave danger and that they rapidly need to make adjustments which are for essential for effective adaptation. The transformation process of spiritual emergence can be so dramatic as to become uncontrollable and reach a point of crisis or emergency. So-called ‘spiritual emergency’is known by many names such as transpersonal experience, transpersonal crisis, psycho-spiritual transformation, psycho-spiritual crisis, spiritual journey, hero's journey, dark night of the soul, spiritual opening, psychic opening, psychic awakening, spiritual awakening, enlightenment, kundalini awakening, kundalini process, kundalini crisis, shamanic initiation, shamanic crisis, psychotic-visionary episode, ego death, ego loss, alchemical process, positive disintegration, post traumatic stress disorder with psychotic features, night sea journey, psychosis, shamanism, mysticism, gnosis, inner apocalypse, and so on.

Spiritual emergency is a process of healing and renewal and is characterised by spontaneous alternative consciousness states or ‘realities' in which the person experiences unbearably distressing psychic overload involving chaotic and overwhelming sensory experiences which in fact offer invaluable opportunities for personal growth. The experiences can be frightening and confusing because they appear to be out of context with everyday reality. As a result they are often misunderstood and discredited as being pathological. Hence the medical model of so-called ‘schizophrenia’which in fact is a concern for psychology of the spiritual dimension of human nature i.e. ‘transpersonal psychology’.

Comment #12 Gunnard (63.176.159.187) -

That's quite an article there. Is that all yours or was that from some book or website Marion Hubbard? It would be nice if you'll place the name of the author or website source to credit the original author of that article.

Comment #13 Isaac (63.176.159.104) -

Gunnard, I presume he should have employed some secondary sources but if you do a bit of research online, you will come across a lot of information on the subject in question.

I have not seen a schizophrenic before but it seems it is prone to those people with a certain pattern of behaviour. I have heard cases of Schizophrenia being able to recur. How true is this claim?

Comment #14 crystal from asia -

Schizophrenia is like paranoia. The person suffers on that disease have hallucinations and is overly suspicious. They interpret negatively every actions of the people around them that brings trouble. They are also over sensitive and doesn't want to be looked in the eyes. It's like an extreme paranoia

Comment #15 Sue Barnett (195.93.21.36) -

What is schizophrenia? It is a word attached to an opinion about a conglomerate of manifest behaviour and reported thoughts which may not be linked in any way but the way chosen by the person who so labels them, and there is not necessarily any cause and effect between them. Each element may be perfectly normal understood and dealt with or accepted for what it is in its own context or the context which it provides. Yes, it feels like gobbledegook to me as well! But I think it is a better way of approaching things than lumping everything together because clinicians, who can be wrong both clinically and factually, don't know any other way to deal with it.

I find Marion Hubbard's explanation very interesting, joyous and acceptable. I have been diagnosed schizophrenic. Most of what I've been dealing with has been slander I didn't know existed, both before and since the diagnosis, and the grief caused by that and my own family of origin situation. My personal position is anti-psychiatry, but maybe that is just a manifestation of my own ignorance. At the moment I don't know.

I'm a Christian as well, and it makes sense to me to see what is called schizophrenia as a transitional thing as Marion's post says. It makes profoundly more sense to me, and always has, than the clinical approach, which I literally find very grievous. Unfortunately, most people in our society, even some spiritual organisations, don't know how to deal with this and don't accept it for what it is, or perhaps don't accept the people for who they are trying to become. Many have swallowed and promote the clinical interpretation and approach, hook, line and sinker. It shows an extraordinary narrowness in the approach to life and spirituality which is shameful and terrifying.

Comment #16 Sue Barnett (195.93.21.36) -

Addendum: Actually, I think the distress is probably exacerbated by the leadership style in the first place, if it happens within a spiritual organisation. It would be good if leaders were prepared to take proper responsibility for this and change the way they treat people.

Comment #17 Marion Hubbard (85.27.55.119) -

"transformative process"

So-called 'schizophrenia' is an uncontrolled transformative process and so-called schizophrenic' people are intelligent and sensitive people valuable people who should be protected while they are undergoing this naturally lengthy and terrifying experience. The medical health industry continues to spend millions on misguided 'research'.

Comment #18 Marion Hubbard (85.27.55.119) -

"schizophrenia as transformative process:"

So-called 'schizophrenia' is an uncontrolled TRANSFORMATIVE PROCESS and so-called 'schizophrenic' people are intelligent and sensitive people and therefore valuable people who should be protected while they are undergoing this naturally lengthy and terrifying experience. The MENTAL HEALTH INDUSTRY continues to spend millions on misguided 'research'.

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