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Schizophrenia Symptoms

  Doctors classify the symptoms experienced by people with schizophrenia as positive and negative.

Positive symptoms

These include delusions, hallucinations and thought disorder, which together may be called "psychosis".

Delusions are false beliefs which are held despite evidence to the contrary. Some examples of delusions include believing "I am the reincarnation of Mary Queen of Scots" or "A microchip is controlling my fingers".

Hallucinations are typically of voices, which may speak directly to or about the person, without the experience of anyone being there. Visual hallucinations (seeing things that aren't there) occur less frequently.

Thought disorder describes the condition where the person's thinking patterns become disorganised, which can often make their speech difficult to follow.

Negative symptoms

These include a lack of energy, social withdrawal and lack of motivation. The person affected may say very little, find social contacts difficult and may have difficulty getting out of bed. Often, carers find negative symptoms frustrating, perceiving a person with schizophrenia as lazy. In fact, these symptoms are part of the illness.

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