What is Childhood Schizophrenia?

Child Schizophrenics and Symptoms of a Schizophrenic Child

Oct 9, 2009

Schizophrenia symptoms are often very difficult to deal with. It's a mental illness that can sometimes start out as childhood schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia symptoms are often severe and extremely difficult to ignore. The disease is a chronic mental illness that can often start as childhood schizophrenia. Unfortunately there is no cure for people with schizophrenia, although there are medications that can help relief patients' symptoms, lessening the devastating effects of schizophrenia symptoms.

People with Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness that affects the brain. The mental illness can trigger hallucinations, depression and paranoia. Without medication, patients are often unable to process information correctly and they commonly have a severe distortion of reality. Schizophrenia symptoms can be devastating and sometimes quite frightening, especially for children, as patients with childhood schizophrenia are often too young to understand where their symptoms are coming from.

There are several different types of schizophrenia, although the most common type is called paranoid schizophrenia. Paranoid Schizophrenia causes individuals to have many disrupting thoughts that are fearful, as well as voices that are often threatening in nature.

Some laypeople misinterpret schizophrenia symptoms as those of multiple personality disorder, although these are two separate and very different disorders. People with schizophrenia do not have multiple personalities (split personality).

Causes of Schizophrenia

There are many different medical opinions on the causes of schizophrenia, although none have officially been proven. It is possible that the mental illness is rooted in genetics, since one's chances of developing schizophrenia are significantly higher if individuals have a sibling or parent with the condition.

Some also believe that the illness may be related to problems during pregnancy, such as malnutrition or being exposed to a viral infection. Problems during pregnancy can cause damage to an unborn child’s nervous system, which is why some think the mental illness is developed during pregnancy.

Childhood Schizophrenia

Childhood schizophrenia is essentially the same as adulthood schizophrenia, although it’s often overlooked for quite some time. The schizophrenia symptoms in a child cause the youth to have a distorted view of reality, though parents and caregivers may misinterpret some symptoms as the product of a child's imagination or the child may have a difficult time verbalizing his (or her) experiences or thoughts.

The mental illness can often be dangerous, as children have a much harder time understanding their disease. Since childhood schizophrenia causes threatening voices, hallucinations and fearful thoughts, this can be extremely disturbing for the child.

Sometimes childhood schizophrenia is called childhood onset schizophrenia. The early symptoms of childhood schizophrenia may include imaginary friends with unique names and voices that tell the child to do naughty things.

The The North America Society for Childhood Onset Schizophrenia understands how people with schizophrenia, or parents dealing with childhood schizophrenia, often feel alone. According to NASCOS's website, they believe it may be helpful to bring patients and loved ones together, in order to help each other understand the different ways of dealing with this chronic mental illness.

Schizophrenia Symptoms

Cure for Schizophrenia

Since schizophrenia is a mental illness that affects the brain, there is no cure for people with schizophrenia. However, it is possible to eliminate schizophrenia symptoms by taking a psychosis medication. By taking a medication such as seroquel, individuals may feel as though they have reached a cure for schizophrenia.

If an individual suffering from schizophrenia symptoms chooses to stop the use of their daily medication, the symptoms will return back to normal. This is why it’s very important that individuals suffering from this kind of mental illness are monitored by their doctor regularly.

People with schizophrenia suffer from very devastating symptoms and the mental illness often affects friends and family, as well. It can be very helpful to diagnose childhood schizophrenia in it’s early stages, as the mental illness can be very dangerous. Schizophrenia symptoms are very difficult to ignore and without medication, the disease is extremely disabling.

The copyright of the article What is Childhood Schizophrenia? in Child Psychology is owned by Emily Rogers. Permission to republish What is Childhood Schizophrenia? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.