Schizophrenia is a serious mental health condition that affects how people think, feel and behave. It may result in a mix of hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized thinking and behavior. Hallucinations involve seeing things or hearing voices that aren’t observed by others. Delusions involve firm beliefs about things that are not true. People with schizophrenia can seem to lose touch with reality, which can make daily living very hard. Source: Mayo clinic 

In teenagers, before common symptoms like hallucinations, delusions and disorganization occur, they might manifest the following;

• Withdrawal from friends and family.
• Academic decline.
• Emotionally cold.
• Having trouble sleeping.
• Feeling irritable or depressed.
• Unrealistic beliefs or magical thinking.
• Lacking motivation to get things done

General Symptoms: 

Hallucinations: seeing or hearing things that aren’t true or real. But for them it’s real. 

Delusions: believing things that aren’t true. For example, someone with schizophrenia might believe they are being targeted or that someone is out to get them when that is not true. 

Disorganized thinking or speech: When having a conversation, the response they give might not be related to the topic of discussion or the questions they were asked. 

Extremely disorganized: People with schizophrenia find it hard to do tasks or follow instructions since their behaviour isn’t focused on achieving a goal. 

Lack of motivation: They may not be able to do things they were able to do before the illness, like having their bath, cleaning up after themselves, making and maintaining eye contact, showing emotions and engaging in day to day life. 

In the case of Debby, she started hearing voices telling her to hurt herself. Unable to keep this to herself, she told her mom. “Mom! I’m hearing voices, they told me to stab myself.” “Jesus! God forbid! Her mom exclaimed and promptly took her for deliverance at her church where Debby was made to fast for 3 days. 

Subsequently, each time she heard the voices she kept it to herself for fear her mom might do over the deliverance. Things came to a head when Debby heard and obeyed the voice that told her to stab herself. 

According to her mom, “She had been unable to sleep throughout that night, suddenly, she stood up, went to the kitchen and stabbed herself severally but thank God I was home.” Even though she sustained wounds, she was promptly taken to the hospital and given medical assistance and so she lived. 

That was when her mom then knew this was not a spiritual battle but a mental one and promptly got her the help she needed. 

Treatment

People with schizophrenia need lifelong treatment. Treatments includes medicine, talk therapy and help in learning how to manage daily life activities.

Most people with schizophrenia don’t know it’s a mental illness and if left untreated for long, the outcome is more-severe symptoms, more stays in a hospital, poorer thinking and processing skills and social outcomes, injuries, and sometimes death.

If you have any of these symptoms, please get the help you need. You are strong but even strong people need help sometimes. 

If your friend or family is displaying these symptoms, encourage them to get help. If treated early, the symptoms can be controlled before serious complications arise.