Fighting the Stigma of Schizophrenia

By: Camden Baucke MS LLP

Today is World Schizophrenia Awareness Day and a great opportunity to learn what schizophrenia is, and more importantly what it is not. To start this article we will start by using person-first terminology. This means referring to individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia as “people with schizophrenia” instead of “schizophrenics.” People with schizophrenia have been chronically affected by harmful stigmas. They are often mislabeled as “insane” or “dangerous.” However, this is far from the truth. People with schizophrenia are in pain, and to fight the stigma we need to define what the diagnosis is, how it presents, how it hurts, and how to approach it with a compassionate and accurate perception.

What is Schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia is a severe psychiatric diagnosis in the DSM-V, the current manual for diagnosing mental health disorders. The onset of schizophrenia can start anywhere between late teens to early 30’s. It is primarily a genetic disorder for which there is no cure. Schizophrenia is characterized by the presence of what’s known as “positive” or “negative” symptoms. Think of positive symptoms as in addition where something is added to your perception or experience that’s not supposed to be there. These are the primary positive symptoms in schizophrenia:

1. Hallucinations: Hearing or seeing things that others can not hear or see
2. Delusions: Belief in something that is untrue in reality. This could be about oneself, others, or the world.
3. Disorganized Speech and Thoughts: Difficulty and confusion when attempting to effectively communicate with others

While you may have heard of these symptoms, I can tell you what they present as. Hallucinations are terrifying for someone with schizophrenia. They can be dark shadowy figures lurking around or voices crying that they’re going to be hurt. Delusions are similar in how they can often be about someone coming to hurt them or how somebody is currently hurting them. Additionally, disorganized speech and behavior can drastically impact relationships, often leading to loneliness. Positive symptoms are not something for strangers to be afraid of. They are horrifying for people with schizophrenia. While these positive symptoms are what schizophrenia is known for, there is also pain in the lesser-known negative symptoms.

Negative Symptoms

Negative symptoms are characterized by an absence of something that is supposed to be there. In the same way positive symptoms add something to the typical perception or experience, negative symptoms subtract crucial aspects of life. Here are the primary negative symptoms of schizophrenia:

1. Blunted Affect: Little to no expression of emotion and difficulty with eye contact, often accompanied by a monotone voice.
2. Anhedonia: Feeling little to no pleasure from typically pleasurable activities
3. Avolition: Little to no motivation or initiation of goal-directed behaviors

These symptoms may seem less harmful than the positive ones, but they present as a total loss of quality of life. Avolition brings one’s life to a screeching halt and a blunted affect can lead to disconnection and loneliness. Anhedonia is where almost nothing feels good to do or experience. These symptoms result in isolation and a lack of pleasure in almost anything they do. This pain is happening on a grand scale, and statistics can assist us in seeing exactly how much this diagnosis hurts. Looking at these numbers is another step in increasing empathy and fighting the stigma against people with schizophrenia.

Statistics

• Schizophrenia affects approximately 1% of the world’s population
• People with schizophrenia live an average of 25 years shorter than those without the disorder, with the highest cause of mortality being suicide [1] [2]
• Up to 90% of people with schizophrenia never show any violent behavior [3]
• People with schizophrenia are 14 times more likely to be a victim of violence rather than a perpetrator [4]
• Of all severe mental health disorders, schizophrenia is the most connected with poverty due to the severity of symptoms and social stigma [5]

If we simply apply these statistics, we have a pretty grim image of living with schizophrenia. Not only is schizophrenia NOT an indicator of violent behaviors, but those diagnosed with it are more likely to be victims of violence. This diagnosis often leads to suffering at home, less access to resources, and the pain of poverty. Additionally, people with schizophrenia are often judged and stigmatized to the point of becoming social outcasts. Most importantly, they are only going to live a fraction of the life they deserve. People with schizophrenia not only suffer from their disorder, they often suffer as victims of violence, and they suffer as victims of a social stigma that labels them as responsible for all their pain.

Fight the Stigma

Hopefully by reading this article you can see that people with schizophrenia are hurting. They are not to be isolated from society but cared for and considered. Most of all, they just inherited this disorder and it makes them a victim to the unfairness of life. A victim to a devastating reality they did not choose and for which there is no cure. There are some treatments that exist to reduce symptoms and allow for work. However, science still has a long way to go. Until a solution is discovered, those diagnosed with schizophrenia need support and compassion. Yes, schizophrenia is a scary diagnosis, but ONLY for those diagnosed with it.

For World Schizophrenia Awareness Day, please take a moment to empathize with people with schizophrenia and their families. Imagine having a best friend or a loved one diagnosed with this disorder, knowing the agony it will bring. Again, this impacts 1% of the world population, tens of millions of people worldwide. It might sound strange that so many people have schizophrenia yet you might not know someone who has it. Unfortunately, due to the isolating nature of schizophrenia and social stigma, these individuals are often your neighbors who never leave the home. However, just because they are not in your workplace or in your social gatherings does not mean that they or their pain do not exist. Schizophrenia does not make one dangerous, but the stigma is dangerous to those suffering an already painful existence.

Want to Know More?

Click here if you would like to know more about the signs and symptoms of schizophrenia.

If you’re interested in mental health or are looking to embark on a therapy journey of your own, please visit our website to learn more!