In the book, Henry’s Demons by Patrick Cockburn, Patrick and his family explain the extensive, long term effects of schizophrenia on the people who are diagnosed, and their loved ones. Henry goes through his first psychotic breakdown in 2002, when he almost drowned trying to swim the Estuary at Newhaven. He spends several years at the mental hospital, attempting to escape more than 30 times, fighting with himself to recover. This book truly teaches about the disorder and explores the subjective experience of being diagnosed with this disorder and the effect on family and friends. The book also shows how the biological,psychological, and sociocultural perspectives that develop behind this disorder. There has been increasing evidence showing …show more content…
He first shows symptoms when Jan and Alex,his mother and his brother, come to visit him while he is away at school. They notice the early triggers such as his mistrust him clocks and technology, he takes his phone apart and explains how cell phones control society and he does not trust the use of them, along with clocks and telling time. He believes time is a false concept. Alex doesn’t see that his brother is not thinking clearly, and questions his logic with the clocks, explaining that they are just objects.Henry begins to get aggressive and confused. “Henry looked at them mushily, drawing his eyebrows together as if his mother and brother were in conspiracy not to understand him.”(Cockburn, page 17). Along with these triggers, he also heard voices from animals and trees telling him to do certain actions, Henry often felt forced to do things that he also didn’t want to do. Another example, the trees told him that he needs to strip down and jump down the Estuary, therefore he was actually never suicidal, but instead threatened by the inner voices in his head. Henry went through many episodes and was tormented by his symptoms and did many things wrong, even though he knew better. A number of factors have been linked to schizophrenia:genetics, psychological vulnerability, and poor environmental surroundings. The understanding the of this mental illness is called
Two Biological Explanations of Schizophrenia There are many biological explanations of schizophrenia. In this essay I will concentrate on the genetic explanation and biochemical explanation of the disorder. There are many studies that look in to genetics and the link to schizophrenia. This is dues to an original finding that schizophrenia runs in families and therefore suggests that genes are responsible for the disorder.
Biological, psychological, and sociocultural viewpoints have been developed in an attempt to explain schizophrenia. All three viewpoints point out various factors that may contribute to the development of the disorder.
No one really knows how schizophrenia is caused, but it can be seen that both environmental and genetic risks are factors in the development. The environment risks are the over use of marijuana, (add more thingy’s). The genetic risks of schizophrenia are the issues within growth during a pregnancy, brain chemistry and structure, passing of the schizophrenic gene from one generation to the next generation, (more thingy’s). As you can see in figure one both environmental and genetic factors work together in this unfortunate development.
This paper defines schizophrenia from a biological and psychological perspective and also provides treatment to help combat symptoms of schizophrenia. This paper has three important contributions. First, by defining and expanding on schizophrenia from a biological perspective, I can identify the nature related predispositions. After expanding from a biological approach, secondly, I will analyze schizophrenia from a psychological aspect by determining if there is any environment or nurturing externals that can result to schizophrenia. Lastly, I will provide treatment details and also reveal early signs to schizophrenia. This paper is important because schizophrenia is an epic mental disease and it is crucially important to bring awareness to the public of how we can limit the illness. It is unclear whether schizophrenia have only a biological background or psychological background, but what was discovered is that both contribute to schizophrenia. Positive and negative treatment can be combatted undergoing pharmaceutical and psychotherapy,
Though the diathesis stress model of schizophrenia is just one of the theories about the origins of schizophrenia, there are scientific evidences which are supporting this theory. Studies show that that this brain disorder is consisting of hereditary or genetic components. Furthermore, the absence or the presence of specific life stressors could be the best explanation why there are other people who are not genetically vulnerable of developing the brain disorder which is
Schizophrenia is a very serious, long-term disorder that affects about 1% of the world’s population. It affects people anywhere from twenty years old, to forty-five years old. It is known to be one of the most disabling diseases in this age group. Schizophrenia can break down a person’s behaviors, emotions, and thoughts. People who suffer from schizophrenia usually show very inappropriate displays of their actions and feelings. Sufferers have been known to hear voices, even when there is nobody around them. They have problems controlling their thoughts, and sometimes blurt out things that are very inappropriate. This paper will outline the biological, social, and psychological
Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder that is characterized by a variety of symptoms and the disorganization of feeling and thought. It is an incurable disease whose causes are unknown, yet whose effects are mind and body crippling. (Young, 1988, p.13-14) This topic was chosen because it is interesting to study a disorder that worldwide, is viewed as a classic example of madness and insanity. Another reason of interest is because unlike many illnesses, schizophrenia doesn't have a noticeable pattern and its difficulty to be diagnosed as a disease makes the collection of statistics difficult. It is important to learn more about schizophrenia because a significant numbr of people are affected everyday
In childhood-onset schizophrenia, researchers do hypothesize that the cause might be slightly different from the cause of adult-onset schizophrenia, as there must be a reason why children develop such a severe mental disorder before the age of thirteen. The question in relation to childhood-onset schizophrenia is whether it develops more from environmental factors or genetic factors. The aim of this paper is to discover how the development of schizophrenia in affected children is more nature-based than nurture-based. Although there are valid points for both sides of this argument this paper serves to argue how in affected children the genetic factors that result in the disorder influence the development much more than any environmental
2. A strong family history of mental disorders is considered as a highly probable cause of schizophrenia, while those who are much less genetically vulnerable are believed to catch the disorder through environment stressors during their lives.
This essay will discuss whether schizophrenia is genetically inherited disorder. There will be an understanding to what schizophrenia is with a brief description in the introduction. This essay will also talk about weather schizophrenia is genetically inherited or weather it is a biological (Inherited) disorder. It will also include weather schizophrenia is cause by other factors such as social factors, environmental, pre natal, childhood and neurobiology. The essay will also state weather schizophrenia is caused by a combination of the two.
Instead, schizophrenia genetics leave some people susceptible to the illness, which is triggered by environmental factors.
There are four kinds of schizophrenia, including paranoid schizophrenia, disorganized schizophrenia, catatonic schizophrenia, and undifferentiated schizophrenia. Causes are not clear, and biological, psychological and environment factors are being investigated. It is certain that there is a genetic component. (Passer and Smith, 2004)
Conclusions / Results: Conclusions suggest that the nature vs nurture dichotomy may not be as relevant as looking at the interaction between these two forces. It was discovered that while one’s genetic heritage creates a predisposition towards schizophrenia, other factors such as the home environment, the parental environment, dietary factors and others may determine whether the disease is manifested.
Even with all the criteria for Schizophrenia that I described above, still there is no apparent reason as to what the risk factor of Schizophrenia is. Which lead to my research to indentify certain certain Risk factors associated with with Schizophrenia. During my research, I was able to discover many risks factors, but I chose to only discuss the few that are very common through most
Schizophrenia is a mental illness that is diagnosed in 0.5%-1% of the population in their lifetime (van Os et al, 2010). Its literal translation is ‘split-brain’, though it does not refer to multiple personality disorder, but rather a split from reality characterized by its disturbed perceptions, disorganized thinking and inappropriate emotions (Myers, 2010). Much research has been carried out to gain a better understanding of the causes of this serious disorder. A popular theory is the diathesis-stress model. This theory of schizophrenia proposes that stress can elicit a pre-existing vulnerability to the disorder (Jones & Fernyhough, 2007). This model focuses on the interaction between genetic heritability of the disorder, and the environments interaction