The Beautiful Mind: Illuminating the Challenges of Paranoid Schizophrenia

This content explores the challenges faced by individuals living with paranoid schizophrenia through The Beautiful Mind movie. It highlights the impact on their lives and loved ones and the importance of awareness and support programs. The content also discusses the discrimination and stigmatization faced by individuals with mental disabilities. Read more on Desklib.

Running head: MENTAL ILLNESS 1
Mental illness
Student’s name
Professor’s name
Institutional Affiliation
Date

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The Beautiful mind (Schizophrenia)
The movie by the name "Beautiful mind" is one of the best in illuminating the boggling
of the brain and a terrible journey of the main character known as John Nash. John Nash for
many years suffered from Paranoid Schizophrenia. The movie was aired in the year 2001 and
took the audience through an experience of John Nash, and all the challenges faced while coping
with the mental illness (Howard et al. 2002). John Nash was one of the mathematicians who
possessed an extraordinary intelligence in mathematics. The character in the movie was
diagnosed with the disease at the early ages of his adulthood. At a personal level, I believe the
film opened the minds and the brains of the audiences incredibly. Reading about the patient
diagnosed with such mental illness is very different from watching the way their family members
act on such occasions (Berkovitch, Lucie, Stanislas Dehaene & Raphaël Gaillard). It is very
accurate that hearing or reading about the schizophrenia can be one of the terrifying things.
Therefore, by watching the Beautiful mind movie, can be very terrible though depicts the real
physiological problems experienced by the individuals living with the mental disease. The
paranoid schizophrenia is one of those chronic cerebral infections that creates a lot of difficulties
to the directly affected individual in interpreting the real-life situations. This particular movie
has, therefore, been modified to adopt the social acceptance standards though it has strictly
majored on the challenges these people face in coping with life (Boyle, 2014).
The paranoid schizophrenia is among the many types of the mental illness. The individuals
suffering from this specific illness are not able to interpret the real situations reasonably hence
are known as to have suffered from the psychosis (Erk et al. 2017). About 40 percent of the
individuals from the mental disorder is associated with the paranoid schizophrenia (Corin ,2017).
The symptoms begin to manifest at the early ages 20 to 30 years of age. The signs of paranoia

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began to exhibit in John Nash at the old generations of his adulthood. The primary symptom
linked to the mental illness is the delusions and the hallucinations with no relationship to the
reality. The signs are as well regarded as positive since they are easy to detect (Amiaz,
Rubinstein, Czerniak, Karni & Weiser,2016). The capability of thinking and reasoning in the real
world is disrupted. However, the paranoid schizophrenia infection has a long life of the
ramification which can result to suicidal cases despite being mild (Frith, 2014). The onset of the
paranoid schizophrenia infection is usually marked by the presence of grandiosity detected at the
delusion occurrences. The wife of the Nash noted the epidemic of the disease to his husband
when he started to hallucinate with his room-mates (Howard et al. 2002). The starting of the
paranoid schizophrenia disease happen quickly in deterioration of the physiological processes.
This is the respect with the appropriate mental situations of the patient which can be very rapid.
The identification and recognition of the paranoid schizophrenia symptoms could be very
challenging for the individuals before experiencing the condition of the disease (Fromer, et al
2014). John Nash main character in the Beautiful mind movie started to experience the status of
the disease when he began to hallucinate with the roommate, Parcher, Charles the United State
officials and Mercee (Howard et al. 2002). This was the advanced point of the infection that
required the immediate treatment with frequent medication and therapy. The etiological aspect of
the disease is not known, but some researchers have explained it as abnormalities of the
neurodevelopmental. The psychosis problems experienced by John Nash marked by the distorted
view of the reality through the delusions and the hallucinations. The infection began by suffering
the torment from the wife and himself. That when he was put on medication, hence the events
were repeated when he failed to adhere to the drug (Fusar-Poli et al. 2015).

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The central part of John's therapy involved the recommendations of the insulin by Dr. Rosen
which is one of the conventional procedures in treating the mental infections though it's currently
outdated (Howard et al. 2002). The convulsive and the insulin treatment have been replaced with
the anti-psychotic medicines. These drugs are believed to have less adverse side effects. The
drugs are being used today to tranquil the individuals suffering from the schizophrenia disease.
The first antipsychotic drugs to be discovered were the clozapine which was in countering the
effects of the receptor locations of the neurotransmitter (Howard et al. 2002). And the dopamine.
Clozapine was a prescription medicine for the exceptional schizophrenia condition and was sold
in all markets of Fazaro and Clozaril. The prescription of the drug was to be sold as tablets. This
tablet was used in blocking the serotine and dopamine which facilitated in reducing the high
sensitivity (Goldman, 2017).
At first, John was provided with a voluntary hospital admission though he was convinced
that there was a very vital work ahead of him being a world peace movement leader. Therefore,
he declined the offer though he was detained for further examinations (Howard et al. 2002).
Later, he was found that he had Paranoid Schizophrenia based on the complexity of his
delusions. These were the days when many hospitals were using the psychoanalysis, electric and
the insulin shock as discussed above in treating the diseases. These methods were mainly used to
reduce the delusions and hallucinations which were experienced by the individuals suffering
from the schizophrenia disease. In future, John Nash has introduced to Thorazine the novel
pioneering drugs for the complications associated with the mind (Howard et al. 2002). John
Nash. The patient's health significantly improved but for a while. John Nash then hires the
lawyer who petitions his discharge, but his wife supported him in attending the outpatient. This
was not the final day for him to be in the hospital in the next about 20 years, Nash was frequently

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admitted in the hospital which depended on the level mental illness (Howard et al. 2002). As part
of the intervention, the patients needed behavior treatment like to train in social skills to help
John Nash within his daily activities. Awareness and support programs are essential for giving
the mental health practitioners to help them cope with the conditions and control the relapses.
Members of the family and other support groups should encourage individuals affected by
schizophrenia to adhere to their treatments and also visit the mental health services regularly.
The community in Princeton was very supportive to John Nash by employing him any time he
was available for work. John's wife was as well very supportive especially in ensuring Nash
attended the outpatient hospital (Howard et al. 2002).
The impact of the individuals living with the paranoid schizophrenia can be felt by the
patients and their members of the family as well (Galletly et al. 2016). The situation of John
Nash impacted his wife on several levels. The first challenge that faces her is the reduced ability
in managing the husband's condition. The condition of her husband makes her the primary
caregiver to their kids and to cater for John's situation. This created more difficulties for his wife
in managing the simple roles which included taking care of children and making a living for the
family. The status of John Nash started to negatively impact his marriage by the fact that their
love was fading away. The feeling of love was substituted by the family responsibilities and
other duties hence transforming their marriage (Green 2016). The challenges increased to an
extent there was no more reality in their love which transmitted into a big question of whether it
existed or not. John Nash being affected by the infection is an enormous challenge in the fact that
he does not understand his real life. For instance, the patients living with schizophrenia disease
believe they are right in what they are doing makes it very difficult to deal with these individuals.
The physical influence can be harming a person without knowing they did such things. These

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individuals created images in their heads and also mental problems that imagine people who are
not within (Kane et al. 2015). For example, John Nash used to hallucinate with his room-mates
where he is seeing some men who were stalking him. Thus, making the life of his life so difficult
in understanding him. Though the high degree of effects is on John Nash, it was such frustrating
incidence to the members of the family. The paranoid schizophrenia patient, there is little
awareness of what one sees or talk is real. Members of the families living with people suffering
from the mental illness face difficulties to witness one of the loved ones taking to imaginary
creatures without offering any help (Whitton, Treadway & Pizzagalli 2015).
Nash showed strange behaviors that made some of his friends and student leave him.
Some of these behaviors were like writing formulas on the panes of the windows and putting hat
every time. The occurrence of speaking to the unknown lady and the lady slapping John Nash
caused him to be a center of the jokes. There was one of the situations where a teacher was
disturbed by the performance of John Nash. Though the worry was transformed when Nash
showed a brilliance score in his projects. Individuals living with people who are suffering from
schizophrenia usually have the difficulties with the challenging situations experienced by their
loved ones (Weakland, Haley, Jackson & Bateson 2017). Cecilia, the wife of John Nash,
suffered a lot of difficulties that her husband was passing through his life. She often stood close
to him and proved to him he had hallucinations and the delusions but John Nash never believed
in her. One issue with the paranoid schizophrenia is that individual like John Nash sees things
the way ordinary mind would see them. That makes it too difficult to believe such things are not
real. John Nash is trying to stay away from her wife through Cecilia still is standing with him so
that she could help her to overcome the mental illness.

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John Nash was given the psychotic drugs by Dr. Rosen but ignored taking them which
caused initiated the hallucinations. The outcome of his negligence caused a lot of trouble in the
life of her wife. His life requests him to look after their kid to some point, but he continues with
his delusions and the hallucination claiming that Charles was looking after the kid. The wife
becomes very angry and asks John Nash to go back to the hospital. She even goes ahead to call
Doctor Rosen when Nash runs after her; she gets hurt by him. The members of the community
get humiliated by the individuals living with the mental illness by the fact that these people do
not recognize them in the real world (van Erp et al. 2016). John Nash tells her wife that Mercee
was never real since she was not getting old.
Individuals who have paranoid schizophrenia are usually identified as the stereotypes and
shown discrimination from other people. Their central perspective is based on the responsibility
to the change of the behavior is determined by the patient with no idea that its part of the signs
and the symptoms associated with the infection (Loh et al. 2015). The negative stereotype is
developed, and the individuals facing the paranoid schizophrenia are known to have some of the
aspects that are very difficult to control (Purcell et al. 2014). This has been clearly shown in the
film where John Nash where he is seen absent minded when he leaves his son to drown in the
water while he is completing his secret work. John Nash's frequent hallucinations and the
delusions make his friends, and the wife became distressed and lost their trust in him. Though in
the real sense he was telling stories out of his delusions and the hallucinations.
Assessing the main events in the film involves the facts on paranoid schizophrenia with
Nash thinking that the Soviet spies are probably in the audience of his negative talk and feels that
they have no authority of talking about his experiences with the mental illness (Pruessner,
Cullen, Aas & Walker 2017). The film has shown the extent to which the persons living with

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schizophrenia as a disability affects them and how other individuals do not acknowledge them.
When the individuals think more about the paranoid schizophrenia makes errors to believe that a
person has more than one person other than concentrating on the way, the patients view things
differently on imaginary and the real life (Ripke et al. 2014). In the movie about the Beautiful
Mind, John Nash's personality did not differ to a great extent, but his thinking process deviates as
the film progresses which facilitates the appropriateness of the way schizophrenia illness is
portrayed. However, there is an exaggeration of symptoms in the documentary linked to
paranoid schizophrenia. Many people who are suffering from the schizophrenia infection often
hear voices than seeing the hallucinations and these resulted in delusions (Stefansson et al.
2014). In the real sense, her wife John Nash never saw these voices which made him feel
frustrated. The hallucinations give the listeners on the kind of struggles the schizophrenia
individuals go through hence a need to avoid discriminating them.
People living with any disabilities are usually discriminated, and it becomes challenging for them
to feel accepted within the society (Sekar et al. 2016). These individuals are always devalued and
victimized by these experiences. A study conducted by (Searles 2018) has proven that the kids
and the adults mainly experience stigmatization of the mentally affected individuals with mental
disabilities. The finding from the research indicated that majority of the non-disabled individuals
living with the mental disability. On the other hand, individuals with schizophrenia were
discriminated which hindered them from the psychological health development. The perspective
around the mental illness has been surrounded by the stigma and discrimination instead of
reducing the bias and the stigmatization. For many years, different health institutions and the
individuals have been taking various measures to ensure the level of discrimination and the
stigmatization (Sekar et al. 2016).

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Medical researchers have suggested that mental illness like the schizophrenia is not a suicidal
condition and should be taken quickly (Steullet et al. 2017). The researchers indicated that the
community must show love and avoid isolating the people who are diagnosed with
schizophrenia. The mental health workforce should create the enabling environment by building
a sense of acceptance to boost the morale of the individuals affected by the mental health
condition (Vancampfort et al. 2015). The research conducted in one of the hospitals indicated
that many people living with the schizophrenia acknowledged that discrimination and the
stigmatization had adverse effects on their relationship with job opportunities. The mentally
challenged individuals claim that there is the need for the community to increase awareness
about the stigmatization within the mentally affected individuals.
In conclusion, reading about the patient diagnosed with Paranoid schizophrenia is very
important especially when watching the way their family members act on such occasions. It’s
very accurate that hearing or reading about the schizophrenia can be one of the terrifying things.
Therefore, watching the Beautiful mind movie can be very challenging due to real physiological
problems experienced by the individuals living with the mental disease. Main symptoms linked
to the mental illness is the delusions and the hallucinations with no relationship to the reality.
The signs are as well regarded as positive since they are easy to detect.
Creating awareness and support programs by the mental health practitioners are very
necessary for giving the mental health practitioners to help them cope with the conditions and
control the relapses. Members of the family and other support groups should encourage
individuals affected by schizophrenia to adhere to their treatments and also visit the mental
health services regularly Nurses play a crucial role in monitoring the impacts of the mental
illness. Among the tasks is educating the individuals who have schizophrenia and the family

MENTAL ILLNESS 10
members to equip them with the capability of coping with the stress associated with taking care
of individuals experiencing the mental illness. The health professionals should ensure that the
schizophrenia patient to adhere to medications. Nurses are very vital in controlling the
psychological conditions and make the notes to the patient’s doctor. Lastly, the community
should give support to mentally challenged individuals by showing love to the rather than
isolating them because they have the mental illness.

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