Imagine not being in control of your own thoughts or actions; Being at the mercy of a spectre that only you can see or hear. Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe mental disorder that obfuscates a person thoughts, perceptions, language, and behaviour.  Schizophrenia chronic condition that affects normal brain functions, compounded by hallucinations that make an individual see and hear things that's not real. It's a disease encumbered with social stigmas. To raise awareness about the disorder and create an open dialogue devoid of shame or judgement, World Schizophrenia Day is celebrated on May 24th.

Significance

There are an estimated 20 million people across the world living with schizophrenia. The disease usually affects people between the ages of 15-25. The symptoms could be lying dormant as early as 5 years old.  However, the symptoms are hard to diagnose in an adolescent as they can be misconstrued as growing pains - struggles of a moody teenager. The symptoms of schizophrenia may include.

  • hallucination: hearing, seeing or feeling things that are not there;

  • delusion: fixed false beliefs or suspicions not shared by others in the person’s culture and that are firmly held even when there is evidence to the contrary;

  • abnormal behaviour: disorganised behaviour such as wandering, mumbling or laughing to self, strange appearance, self-neglect or appearing unkempt;

  • disorganised speech: incoherent or irrelevant speech; and/or

  • disturbances of emotions: marked apathy or disconnect between reported emotion and what is observed such as a facial expression or body language.

History

Schizophrenia Day has been observed since 1968. National Schizophrenia Foundation declared May 24 as World Schizophrenia Day to honour Dr Phillippe Pinel a french physician from France, who was instrumental in providing humane psychological treatment for those plagued by mental illness.

On this day,  various campaigns and awareness programs are held to help schizophrenia patients and also increase sensitivity towards them.  There is no cure for this illness, but it can be managed with medication.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 21, 2021 06:09 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).