Myth Or Fact: Schizophrenics Always KILL?

There was a murder case by a man called Julian Cuddihy in Dublin on October 22nd, 2014. He was accused of murdering his mother and father at their home in Churchtown, Carndonagh, Co Donegal. He believed that by killing his parents he was sending them to heaven. Cuddihy believed that his Mom was trying to poison him. At the end, he was pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. He was admitted to the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum. It turns out that Mr.Cuddihy suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. That is scary and makes people raise a question: is it myth or fact that schizophrenics always kill?

 

Myth Or Fact: Schizophrenics Always Kill? – What To Do If You Hear Voices That Tell You To Kill?

In many films and world literature, schizophrenia is often described as madness; a sadistic criminal who likes to torture and kill helpless victims. Is there a little of truth about this terrible stereotype?

 

What is schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe mental disorder that affects how a person thinks, feels (empathizes), and behaves. People with schizophrenia may appear to have lost touch with reality.

People with schizophrenia will find it difficult to distinguish between the real world and the imaginary world. This is because the symptoms of schizophrenia often include psychotic experiences, such as hearing sounds or whispers, hallucinations, or delusions.

 

How common is schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia usually begins at the end of adolescence or early adulthood, between the ages of 16 to 30 years.

Everyone is at risk for schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is the most common mental disorder found globally. According to WHO, schizophrenia is infected by more than 21 million people from various parts of the world.

One in two people living with schizophrenia do not receive adequate care for their condition. Schizophrenic patients are often regarded as “crazy people” because they often hallucinate.

It is important to understand which myths are misleading and which are facts about schizophrenia, or in ordinary language “crazy”, to provide opportunities for these people to live productive lives and be fully involved in society.

The myths about schizophrenia that turned out to be wrong

1. Schizophrenia cannot be cured

Schizophrenia, like many other mental disorders, can be treated. Although no cure for schizophrenia has yet been found, effective therapy in the form of psychosocial treatment or rehabilitation enables schizophrenic patients to have productive, successful, and independent lives. With the right medicine and therapy, about 25% of people with this disease will recover completely.

Some psychosocial therapies that can benefit schizophrenic patients include family therapy, assertive community treatment, job support, cognitive remediation, skills training, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), behavior modification interventions, and psychosocial interventions for substance use, and weight management.

2. Hallucinations are the only symptoms of schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a disease that affects several brain functions, such as the ability to think clearly, manage emotions, make decisions, or relate to others. In fact, often, schizophrenics will have difficulty organizing their thoughts or making logical connections.

But hallucinations are not the only symptom of schizophrenia. Another symptom that can arise from schizophrenia is a delusion, a.k.a misunderstanding, which can be interpreted as holding fast to wrong beliefs.

3. People with schizophrenia are dangerous for the community

The large number of schizophrenic patients who have been exiled or even confined is due to the notion that schizophrenia is dangerous. In fact, a study shows that schizophrenic patients who get adequate medical treatment will not be dangerous unless the patient is restricted access to health or actually abandoned.

4. Schizophrenia is the same as multiple personalities

Not true. Schizophrenia is totally different from multiple personalities, aka dissociative disorders. What happens, schizophrenic patients often have false ideas that are not related to reality; sufferers find it difficult to distinguish between the real world and the imaginary world.

Meanwhile, people with multiple personalities have two or more different personalities, and each of them can take turns taking over the awareness of the individual “host”.

5. Schizophrenia is caused by parental violence on children

Schizophrenia is a mental illness caused by various factors: genetic, trauma, and / or drug abuse. Mistakes that you make as a parent will not cause your child to experience schizophrenia.

6. Schizophrenia is a genetic disease

Although genetics has a role in determining a person’s risk factors for developing schizophrenia. But if only one of your parents has this mental illness, it doesn’t mean you will be destined to get it.

And even if one of your parents has schizophrenia, your risk of getting this condition is only around 10%. The risk will increase if there are more and more members of your family who have schizophrenia.

7. Schizophrenia makes you unable to do anything

There are so many assumptions that underestimate schizophrenia, including schizophrenic patients who are certainly not smart, will not get a job, and so on. In fact, this opinion is clearly wrong.

Even though the patient has difficulty thinking, it does not mean he is not smart. Or, even though schizophrenia can make it difficult for you to find work and work, it doesn’t mean that ODS won’t work. With the right treatment, many schizophrenics can find jobs according to their abilities and skills.

 

Here are 5 important facts about schizophrenia that are still misunderstood

1. Schizophrenics do not commit violence or other crimes

Most of the role of crazy people in movies, soap operas, and TV shows, portrayed as evil figures who often commit violence and other criminal acts. In fact, schizophrenics who are usually labeled “crazy” are not like that.

Indeed, they can suddenly take unexpected actions in certain conditions. However, these actions are usually not violence, crime, or other negative smells. A study published in Law and Human Behavior in 2014 found important facts about schizophrenia.

The results of the study include that of the approximately 429 criminal and non-criminal acts committed by people with any psychiatric illness, only 4 percent or about 17 cases were caused by people with schizophrenia.

Regardless of one’s mental condition, the majority of criminal cases are generally caused by drug use, poverty, unemployment, etc. which are rarely related to psychiatry. In short, having schizophrenia does not necessarily make a person dangerous and must be shunned.

 

2. Although there is no cure, schizophrenia can be controlled

Until now, there is indeed no effective medicine to treat schizophrenia until complete recovery. But at least, there are still therapies and routine treatments to prevent schizophrenia from recurring.

Consumption of antipsychotic drugs and doing psychotherapy can help manage the condition of schizophrenia.

Psychotherapy can be regarded as one of the main components in the treatment of schizophrenia. This therapy will train the ability of people with schizophrenia, so they can continue to have productive and independent lives. In addition, support from the people around contributes positive energy to manage the health condition of people with schizophrenia.

 

3. Schizophrenia is more experienced by men than women

Data from WHO shows that there are around 23 million people worldwide who have schizophrenia. Of the total, 12 million sufferers are men, while the remaining 9 million are women. Health experts are still unable to provide a more in-depth explanation of this matter.

Even so, there is one theory that explains the facts about this schizophrenia. Apparently, high levels of the hormone estrogen in a woman’s body are involved in helping prevent an imbalance of neurotransmitters (chemicals in the brain). For example, dopamine and glutamate involved in schizophrenia.

 

4. In contrast to multiple personalities, people with schizophrenia only have 1 personality

Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder that makes the sufferer unable to distinguish between reality and imagination or imagination. Even so, schizophrenia is not the same as multiple personalities and multiple personalities.

Again, schizophrenia will only cause the sufferer to experience hallucinations and delusions due to interference with the process of thinking, communicating, and behaving. Whereas people who have two or more personalities will usually show different attitudes alternately.

 

5. Not all people with schizophrenia experience the same symptoms

Most of you might think that the symptoms of schizophrenia experienced by all sufferers are always the same. In fact, all people with schizophrenia are actually unique. Why?

Because there are sufferers who can experience an acute psychosis, while others may only experience hallucinations or delusions. This is because schizophrenia is a psychiatric problem that allows conditions to develop differently in each sufferer.

In essence, of the many signs and symptoms of schizophrenia, not all are experienced by sufferers. Conversely, there are also schizophrenics who experience almost or even all the symptoms.

 

What if I hear voices that tell me to kill?

If you hear voices or whispers that tell you to kill and you feel your hatred is getting worse on someone, those are symptoms of auditory hallucinations. Those symptoms often occur due to a psychotic disorder. It is a mental disorder in which your thoughts, emotional response, and ability to recognize reality are impaired. If the symptom is accompanied by a change in mindset and only takes place less than 1 month then it is called acute psychosis, if it is more than that, then it is considered paranoid schizophrenia.

If you keep hearing those voices, I suggest you fight it by keeping yourself busy to do hobbies, exercise, and other fun activities you enjoy doing. Also, try to have some fish oil and vitamin E. Those are good to fight schizophrenia. Scientists believe that omega-3 fatty acids contained in fish oil can change signals in the brain so that it has a beneficial effect.

 

To Sum Up

It is important to raise our awareness of what schizophrenia is before making any assumptions. We have to educate ourselves first.

Schizophrenia will not heal by itself. Therefore, you need to do an immediate examination if you find you have symptoms of schizophrenia in order to get the right treatment. Or, if you know someone who has symptoms of schizophrenia, you need to motivate that person to get the right treatment as soon as possible.

Stay safe, happy, and healthy! 🙂

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Thank you for reading today’s topic: Myth Or Fact: Schizophrenics Always KILL?