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Schizophrenia: A
Brain Disorder
Sharon Akers
Comm. 220 Research Writing
Instructor Roger Blanton
November 28, 2008
Schizophrenia is a crippling brain disorder that can affect anyone at any time
regardless of age, and no matter what form of schizophrenia a person might
have the disorder can be very mind controlling and devastating.
Approximately 1% of people will suffer from some form of schizophrenia in their
lifetime, and the disorder effects men, and women equally, but usually it appears in men
earlier (National Institute of Mental Health[NIMH], 2004). As the age of onset is usually
in the late teens or early twenties, an unacceptably high proportion of young people with
Schizophrenia remain undiagnosed for years while their erratic behavior, mood swings
and periods of withdrawal are attributed to growing pains, experimentation with alcohol
and/or drugs, relationship difficulties or other life stage events, rather than being
understood as symptoms of a potentially crippling mental illness Andersson,
Craig. "Schizophrenia. (Disease/Disorder overview). Early intervention is
linked to improved long-term outcomes, making prompt diagnosis and treatment
essential. Mental disorders are common in the United States and internationally. An
estimated 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older - about one in four adults -
suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year (National Institute of Mental
Health[NIMH], 2004). There are many misconceptions about the disorder, such as that all
people who have this disorder are violent; this statistic is not true. The fact is that the
Schizophrenic people who develop the disorder may have an acute psychotic episode the
first time, but most people are not violent. The second misconception is that the
schizophrenic person has many personalities, the reality of this is that the person here's
voices, not that they have many personalities. There...