Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, May 24

World Schizophrenia Day is celebrated every year on May 24. Schizophrenia is a mental illness in which a person develops confusion about the real world around him and distortions (problems) in his own imagination about those existing realities, which creates mental illness in his day-to-day behaviour.

Dr Rupesh Chaudhary, Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, said there was lack of awareness about this mental illness in the community. “Due to a delay in its diagnosis and treatment, the illness grows unattended and adversely affects the personal, social and familial lives of the patients and their caregivers,” he said.

“Some symptoms of Schizophrenia include talking to oneself and doing activities that the person did not usually does in his in his normal routine before. The usual age of onset for Schizophrenia is 18 to 35 years,” Dr Chaudhary added.

About its management and treatment, the doctor firmly asserts that Schizophrenia is treatable and requires family members to shed the stigma of acknowledging the illness and start treatment without any hesitation or delay from a certified and qualified mental health professional.

Most common symptoms

• Remaining aloof
• Loss of interest in life’s normal activities
• Feeling suspicious and distrustful towards the family members, friends and others
• Disturbance in thinking and perception in the form of false beliefs (delusions), hearing of voices or seeing of images (hallucinations) and unusual body sensations
• Making abnormal gestures when nobody is around
• Person may believe to have some superhuman powers and abilities, or that they are being talked about, stalked and followed, spied by some agencies
• Person may also develop irrelevant or incoherent speech