Assignment On Schizophrenia - Symptoms and causes

Running head: SCHIZOPHRENIA
SCHIZOPHRENIA
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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SCHIZOPHRENIA
Introduction:
The assignment is written in the form of an awareness speech that would focus on
helping people to be aware of the severe mental health disorder of schizophrenia with the
assistance of the film “A Beautiful Mind”.
Description of the psychological disorder:
Schizophrenia can be defined as a serious mental health disorder interfering with the
ability of an individual in thinking clearly, managing emotions, making decisions and similar
others. This disorder can affect individuals at any age. However, most studies have found the
average age of onset of the disorder starts in the late teens to that of the 20s for men as well as
the late 20s to that of the early 30s for women (Chen et al., 2016). Some of the common
symptoms of the disorder include hallucinations, delusions, negative symptoms, as well as
disorganized thinking.
Schizophrenia in the character of John Nash in the film “the Beautiful Mind”:
The central character is based on the famous Mathematician John Nash who had out
forward the famous Games theory that had contradicted the 150-year-old economic theory.
However, with the gradual advancement of his age towards the 30s, he was found to be affected
by the disorder of Schizophrenia. He had started developing hallucinations about his best friend
Charles who was his roommate. His hallucinations of his working with Agent Parcher from the
CIA made his life miserable as he was always under the fear that soviet spies had tracked him
and they were trying to capture him when in reality, representatives of psychiatric hospitals have
come to fetch him. Several such instances show that his symptoms of hallucinations were
gradually intensifying. This movie had portrayed efficiently the burden of the disorder faced by

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caregivers while caring for loved people. Alicia was John’s wife and she felt burdened while
caring for her husband and her newborn at the same time. She was despondent over the fact that
her husband was no more like the way when she married him (Sideras et al., 2015). The struggles
that the schizophrenic central character went through and his journey until recovery is
phenomenal as it portrayed the various difficulties faced by an affected patient.
Description of the biological and environmental causes of the disorder:
Studies are of the opinion that certain biological factors like improper brain chemistry
and genetics are intricately associated with the disorder of schizophrenia. Issues with different
chemicals of the brain like neurotransmitters called glutamate and dopamine have been found to
be contributing to schizophrenia. These neurotransmitters are found to allow brain cells in
communicating with each other and improper functioning of these substances are believed to
cause the disorder. Many other studies believe that schizophrenia might occur among individuals
who have family members already suffering from psychosis. Evidence also suggests that certain
environmental factors like that of viral infection as well as exposure towards toxins like
marijuana trigger the development of the disorder (Catts et al., 2016). Besides, stressful life
events like bereavement, losing of job or home, ending of a relationship, divorce as well as
physical, sexual and emotional abuse also increases the chance of an individual to develop
schizophrenia.
Impact of psychological disorders on the mental health and well-being:
When left untreated, this disorder might result in huge number of problems that would be
affecting every areas of life. Some of the impacts are suicidal thoughts and self-injury incidents.
Affected individuals also develop anxiety disorders as well as obsessive-compulsory disorders.