What is a person with schizophrenia like?

Fact Checked

Under review

Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder that draws attention due to the peculiarity of its symptoms, but have you ever wondered what the personality of someone who suffers from it is like? We tell you what its most characteristic features are.

Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder that affects behavior, thinking and personality.. This leads the person to show symptoms such as delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech and altered motor characteristics, indicating a loss of contact with reality.

Around 1% of the world’s population suffers from schizophrenia and, although it is a widely researched disorder, the causes that cause it are not known with certainty. Nevertheless, There is evidence that it is caused by alterations in brain developmentsince people with schizophrenia present structural and functional differences.

Regarding the relationship between schizophrenia and personality, given that research usually occurs once the disease appears, It is complex to determine which predisposing traits, which are a result of the disorder, and which are inherent to the person..

In any case, it is common that before the disease appears, the person shows schizotypal or paranoid features. That is, they already have some strange ideas, there is some social isolation and lack of interest, school or work problems, etc.

Symptoms

It is evident that personality traits are bidirectionally related to schizophrenia symptoms.

Therefore, before explaining what a person with schizophrenia is like, their symptoms will be described. These can be divided into positive, negative, cognitive and disorganized symptoms.

Positives

Positive symptoms refer to the greater presence of delusional ideas and hallucinations. Generally, the delusional ideas that usually occur are:

Read Also: Millennial legend: the powerful connection between Buddha and cats

Persecution: the person believes that they are being followed, deceived or spied on.Reference: believe that songs, news, advertisements, etc. They are directed at her.Of theft or insertion of thoughts: You believe that others can read your mind, or that your thoughts can be transmitted to others or inserted by someone else.

For its part, hallucinations can be visual, olfactory, tactile or taste, but auditory ones are the most frequent with difference. In this case, people with schizophrenia hear voices that comment on their behavior, talk to each other, or make critical comments.

Negatives

These symptoms involve a decrease in certain emotions or processes that are at normal levels in people without the disorder.

Flattened affection: His facial and emotional expression is scarce, as is eye contact.speech poverty: the person speaks little and gives poor answers.Anhedonia: there is a decrease or lack of pleasure in doing certain activities.Lack of sociability: shows no interest in maintaining social relationships.

Cognitive

This disorder leads to a impairment of different cognitive processes, such as attention, processing speed, memory, abstract thinking, problem solving or comprehension in social interactions. In addition, they tend to have less flexibility and learning capacity.

Disorganized

In this group are thought alterations and the display of strange behaviors. Thus, people with schizophrenia They usually have a scattered speech, without a specific objective or direction, constantly changing the topic. In addition, their speech may be incomprehensible and extravagant.

It is also common for them to have a untidy, childish appearance, with inappropriate hygiene and behaviors. Regarding motor aspects, it can range from catatonia, an alteration that causes the person to maintain a very rigid posture, to making disordered movements without any objective.

Read Also: Death drive or Thanatos: what is it?

Personality characteristics

In relation to schizophrenia, there is also a schizotypal personality disorder, but Little has been described about what the personality of a person with a schizophrenic psychotic disorder is like..

In this sense, it is important to take into account which traits are related to the disorder, how they develop throughout the disease and how they affect it.

Some studies have observed that people with schizophrenia They are more introverted, neurotic and peculiar than the general population. Thus, as they present lower levels of consciousness, that is, they have less self-control, organizational capacity and sense of duty.

On the other hand, schizophrenia associated with psychopathy has traditionally been studied. Although there is no evidence to support this, Yeah More antisocial traits and a higher level of psychopathic characteristics have been found in this population. than in the rest of the population.

Temper

What differentiates temperament from personality is that the former has more instinctive and biological dimensions, being more determined by the nervous and endocrine system. While personality is the set of emotions, thoughts and behaviors that determine a pattern of behavior including a more social or experiential influence.

In this way, people with schizophrenia usually present a temperament more characterized by a low search for novelty, greater indifference, pessimism and shyness. They also tend to be more inactive, unstable and less persistent people.