Hannah V (Year 13) reports

This term the two Year 13 Psychology classes have been working through the A-Level topic about schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is a severe psychosis, with patients experiencing symptoms of delusions, hallucinations, lack of energy and poor speech frequency. Those with schizophrenia often face great disruption to their lives. It is hard to imagine the difficulty of continuing everyday activities when you are hearing voices or believing you are a celebrity.

Schizophrenia is not the only mental illness that we study within the course; we also look at OCD, depression and phobias. We have all found these topics fascinating because they provide an insight into the lived experience of those suffering from these disorders as well as their families and help us understand what treatments can help reduce the severity of their symptoms.

It has also been interesting to see the various approaches to schizophrenia, for example taking a purely biological or psychological approach. We have concluded that a more holistic view of the illness is most effective; combining both psychological treatments like CBT and biological treatments like drug therapy has produced the most effective outcomes.

I think it is so important that these mental illnesses are understood, and I would like to see them discussed more widely. There is still a large amount of stigma surrounding mental illness, including schizophrenia. Media portrayals of these illnesses often only display the most extreme cases, if they are even accurate at all. This can be so damaging because society can collectively form a misconception of not only the disorders themselves, but also of those victims suffering from them. This can have some awful consequences, such as people being unwilling to ask for help when they are suffering as well as mistreatment by families and in workplaces.

These consequences can also intensify symptoms for those diagnosed with these conditions. I hope to see society progress beyond these stereotypical understandings of mental illnesses as we begin to talk about them more and more. I urge you to research some mental illnesses so that you know better how to help people who are suffering.

Some useful links:

Mind charity - https://www.mind.org.uk/
Mind page on various mental health problems - https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/
Mind page on schizophrenia - https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/schizophrenia/about-schizophrenia/
NHS page on schizophrenia - https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/schizophrenia/
Time to Change campaign - https://www.time-to-change.org.uk/
Royal College of Psychiatrists - https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/

Other useful videos:

VICE interview with paranoid schizophrenia sufferer Allie Burke
TED Ed video ‘What is schizophrenia?’