5 Shocking Misconceptions About Schizophrenia DebunkedPhoto byJacek DylagonUnsplash

Do you know that Schizophrenia Affects almost 1% of the total population in the world by 2024? Unfortunately, people with Schizophrenia do not get early treatment in life. This is a mental health disorder that remains unrecognized among many until it gets worse.

Lack of awareness about this mental health problem is the leading cause behind many people's misunderstood of other mental health problems; some people relate it with psychosis.

This post is about breaking the stigma, misconception and discrimination against people with mental health disorders.

#1 Schizophrenia = "Split Personality" or "Multiple Personalities"

But that is not the case with everyone. Schizophrenia only means talking in one head, losing touch with reality, having strong faith and sometimes, thinking, "I am God" or God speaks to me.

#2 All People with Schizophrenia Are Violent And Criminal Minded

Most people think that people with Schizophrenia are violent and criminal-minded, but that is wrong. Most of them are struggling to understand them, and they are not criminal-minded at all, but they do have strong false beliefs. People with Schizophrenia are more likely to hurt themselves, but they rarely attack others. In fact, they need our support, involvement in their life and care. Therefore, we should never hate and demean them.

#3 They All Hear Voices In Their Head

It is not always correct; yes, most of them hear voices in their head, but they do not always hear voices in their head. It happens sometimes, and sometimes it does not occur. These people feel different symptoms at different times in their lives. Some people can feel "I am God today", and after a few days, they can start hearing some noises, and after some days, they can feel hallucinations.

Therefore, it is not a constant, stable belief; their belief fluctuates with time.

#4 Schizophrenia is 100% Hereditary

Some of them get it due to stress, childhood trauma and emotional breakdown. I have met someone who has Schizophrenia due to his heavy workload in the office, but his mother also has Schizophrenia. It is a kind of part of their family.

But he was fine until he got his stressful job. So, I can conclude that it can be present in our genes, but it expresses and becomes prominent when we have some kind of emotional stress.

#5 People With Schizophrenia Cannot Be Productive

This is a very wrong perception. Yes, they do struggle a lot with their personal care and maintaining their lifestyle, as a typical person can do things easily. They can forget many things that need to be done on time.

But trust me, someone I know with Schizophrenia is a 55-year-old woman living in California and is a very productive woman. She works out on her fitness and is a prolific writer on Medium.

It is just a matter of belief if people demean them and lower their confidence. Then, any person who is the victim of bullying, harassment, discrimination, stigma and bad labelling can become unproductive. We all have a self-preserving instinct. If we do not feel safe around people, we try to cut them from our lives.

People with mental health disorders feel this kind of shame and discrimination every day in their lives. They cannot even get treated well in the medical facilities. This needs to be stopped.

As a human being, it is our responsbilities to respect other human being, this is the what I call humanity. Some people need much care; if we cannot help them, at least we should stop hating them.

You can read full well researched long blog post from here: Psychosis vs. Schizophrenia: 18 Key Differences

Reference:

https://embraceinnerchaos.com/mental-health/18-warning-signs-of-psychosis/