Schizophrenia

In the early stages, people with schizophrenia may find themselves losing the ability to relax, concentrate or sleep. They may gradually shut long-time friends out of their lives. Work or studies may begin to suffer and so may their personal appearance. During this time, there may be one or more episodes where they talk in ways that may be difficult to understand and/or they might start having unusual perceptions.

Once it has taken hold, schizophrenia tends to appear in cycles of remission and relapse.

When in remission, a person with schizophrenia may seem relatively unaffected and can more or less function in society. During a relapse, however, people with schizophrenia may experience one or all of these main symptoms:

• Delusions and/or hallucinations
• Lack of motivation
• Social withdrawal
• Thought disorders

Source: Canadian Association for Mental Health