Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder that displays a disrupted state of consciousness. Most symptoms of schizophrenia have similarities with the symptoms of psychosis but not all psychotic patients have schizophrenia. The symptoms of schizophrenia are classified into three different categories, namely: the positive symptoms of schizophrenia, the negative symptoms of schizophrenia, and the cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia.
The Positive Symptoms of Schizophrenia
The positive symptoms of schizophrenia are not really in a sense of being positive or as an affirmative side of the disorder, but positive in a way that it has a sense of being present rather than being deficient. In other words, these symptoms are taken as additions to a person’s normal function. These symptoms are:
• Hallucinations
To simply understand hallucination is to imagine yourself dreaming. In our dreams, we create our own world, we hear and see people, and do things and see things that are not actually there. But this is for normal people; but for those with schizophrenia, even if they’re wide awake they tend to see, hear, and feel things that are not actually real. This is what we call hallucinating. A person experiencing this feels that these hallucinations are very much real. The most common type of hallucination is the auditory (i.e. hearing voices); next is the visual, such as seeing people or things. Other senses may also be affected by hallucinations, including touch, smell and taste. Of which the last type rarely occurs.
• Delusions
Delusions are false beliefs that are not based on reality, but these beliefs have great significance to the schizophrenic patient that even after being proven wrong or unreal, he/she still has this abnormal, obsessive belief that such thoughts or feelings are true. An example of delusion is the belief of being famous, a superhero, feeling that he/she is terribly sick, false assumptions that his/her wife/husband is cheating even without evidence, and feeling that someone is trying to harm or hurt him/her.
• Disorganized Behaviors
One of the psychotic behaviors of a schizophrenic patient is having disorganized behaviors. These behaviors don’t make sense and are of course not normal. An example is laughing hard at unsuitable times or taking off one’s clothes in inappropriate places.
• Movement Disorder
A person with movement disorder may tend to repeat certain actions or motions over and over again. And for extreme cases they become catatonic. Catatonic is being in a state where a person adopts strange postures or does not respond or move.
• Thought Disorder
A person with thought disorder appears to have reasoning or observations that are illogically insignificant or unorganized, thus, making them very difficult to understand. They tend to change topics very rapidly or often abruptly stop speaking as if their thoughts are blocked.
These positive symptoms of Schizophrenia are psychotic behaviors or experiences that an otherwise healthy person will not do. Individuals manifesting these symptoms may often lose contact with reality. These symptoms just come and go. Some may be severe and some can hardly be noticed depending on how the patient responds to the treatment.
You may also read about the negative symptoms of schizophrenia
