Symptoms of schizophrenia in adolescents are often not recognized by parents because of their similarity with the symptoms of mood swings resulting from hormonal changes experienced by adolescents and their similarity with many psychological diseases as well, so to help them distinguish the symptoms of schizophrenia from the rest of the other symptoms we show them in this article The reference site has crossed all the causes and symptoms related to schizophrenia, and we show them how to diagnose it based on sound scientific rules.
An overview of schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is considered a mental illness, not psychological, as it leads to a disorder of the mind of the person affected by it and makes him unable to perceive the things surrounding him correctly due to a large number of hallucinations and delusions inside his head, which leads to the obstruction of the patient from practicing his usual life properly and from dealing with the people around him properly.
Causes of schizophrenia
Unfortunately, until now, scientists have not been able to know the cause of schizophrenia with certainty, but the prevailing belief in the scientific community is that schizophrenia is often the result of the combination of many factors in the patient, and these factors are:
- Environmental factor: Environmental factors such as difficult living conditions and exposure to trauma from close people can lead to schizophrenia if one of the other predisposing factors is present.
- Genetic factor: If a person has schizophrenia in his family, he is more likely to develop it than others.
- Chemical factor: If a person suffers from an imbalance in his brain chemistry or takes a drug, cannabis, or alcohol, he will most likely be more likely than others to develop schizophrenia.
Symptoms of schizophrenia in adolescents
Many symptoms indicate that a teenager has schizophrenia, and these symptoms are:
- Hallucinations and delusions: Schizophrenia usually appears in the form of auditory and visual hallucinations that the patient feels as if they are real, and also in the form of delusions that are strange and illogical thoughts.
- Isolation from society: People with schizophrenia are often isolated from society because they feel constantly persecuted and targeted.
- Low academic level: People with schizophrenia are unable to focus on anything in general, whether it is study or work.
- Sleep disturbance: Most patients with schizophrenia suffer from severe sleep disturbances. Sometimes they sleep most hours of the day and sometimes they are unable to sleep completely.
- Behavior changes: The behavior of schizophrenics often changes to be disruptive and incomprehensible to the people around them.
- Disorganized thinking and speaking: People with schizophrenia are unable to arrange thoughts in their minds, and this leads to them speaking in a disorganized manner that makes them appear mentally unstable to those who are talking to them.
The difference between the symptoms of schizophrenia and the symptoms of drug use in adolescents
Although the symptoms of drug use are very similar to the symptoms of schizophrenia in adolescents, it is possible to distinguish between them by observing the way the adolescent thinks, although drugs cause auditory and visual hallucinations and isolation and the rest of the other symptoms are caused by schizophrenia, It does not lead to delusions or feelings of persecution like schizophrenia.
Complications of schizophrenia
Unfortunately, in many cases, patients with schizophrenia develop complications if they are not treated early, which we will mention in the following lines:
- The desire to commit suicide and the actual attempt to commit suicide.
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder and constant anxiety.
- Having severe depression.
- Alcohol or drug addiction.
- Complete isolation from society and inability to communicate with others in any way.
- Physical illness resulting from malnutrition, isolation, and repeated self-harm.
Schizophrenia and suicidal tendencies
Symptoms of schizophrenia often develop over time if it is not treated properly to reach the patient with suicidal thoughts and a feeling of wanting to die. In many cases, patients implement these thoughts in reality and kill themselves, so those who notice symptoms of suicidal thoughts should or one of those around them should immediately consult a psychiatrist before reaching the stage of actually committing suicide.
How is schizophrenia diagnosed in adolescents?
The diagnosis of schizophrenia is based on the physician's observation of the patient having the following signs:
- The appearance of unusual movements on the patient's body and face.
- The inability of the sick teenager to communicate with society or analyze things normally and suffer from delusions or a false sense of persecution.
- Thinking away from logic and confusing reality with novels or dreams.
- Distraction, inability to focus on one thing, and speaking incoherently.
- Disturbed reactions such as laughing when seeing a sad situation or vice versa.
- Frequent outbursts of anger for trivial reasons.
- Hallucinations and sleep disturbances.
In this article, we outlined the symptoms of schizophrenia in adolescents to help parents know the fact that their teenage children have schizophrenia early so that they can take them to a psychiatrist in time before the disease reaches them with suicidal tendencies and self-harm.