Symptoms of schizophrenia

When a person develops symptoms of schizophrenia, they are likely to experience distortions of reality, such as hallucinations and delusions. They may also experience less dramatic symptoms which are related to a ‘loss of experience’.
  • Hallucinations

Hallucinations are things that are heard, seen, felt or even smelled or tasted that don’t seem to come from anything ‘real’. Although hallucinations can occur in any sensory form, hearing voices that other people do not hear is the most common type of hallucination in schizophrenia. Voices are usually thoughts that are in the mind of the person and they can take different forms, perhaps loud and frightening or a commentary at normal volume. The thoughts can appear to be so loud that the person may believe that people nearby will also be able to hear them. In order to make sense of hearing these things, the mind will often make the person believe the voices are in fact coming from somewhere outside.

  • Delusions

Delusions are strange beliefs that are not based on reality, and are not explained by a person's usual cultural beliefs, such as religious. Delusions may take on different themes. For example, people suffering from paranoid-type symptoms (roughly 1/3 of people with schizophrenia) often have delusions that they are persecuted or plotted against, or false and irrational beliefs that they are being cheated, harassed, poisoned or conspired against. These people often believe that a member of their family or someone close to them is making them happen. Delusions of grandeur, in which a person believes he or she is a famous or important person, may also occur in schizophrenia.

Sometimes the delusions experienced by people with schizophrenia are quite bizarre; for instance, believing that a neighbour is controlling their behaviour with magnetic waves; that people on television are directing special messages to them; or that their thoughts are being broadcast aloud to others. A person experiencing delusions may try to keep them secret, knowing that others would not understand. Other individuals are gradually overwhelmed and begin to act strangely according to the content of the delusional explanations.

  • Behaviour change

In some cases, especially with hindsight, families may realise that their relative's behaviour has been changing over a period of time in subtle ways. They may for instance have become slower to think, talk and move, and may have become indifferent to social contact, their sleeping patterns may have changed so that they are happy to remain up all night and sleep all day. Body language may also be affected. These are the so-called 'negative symptoms' and they will affect the person in a different way from positive symptoms.

The overall result is a reduction of motivation, and the extent of this can vary from minor to severe. Negative symptoms are much less dramatic than positive, but they tend to be more persistent. Recognising these changes can be particularly difficult if the illness develops during teenage years when it is quite acceptable for changes in behaviour to occur, particularly where the young person is experimenting with new freedoms and lifestyles