What is Schizophrenia?
Taking a quote from Rethink.org

Schizophrenia is a mental illness which affects the way you think. The symptoms may affect how you cope with day to day life.
You could be diagnosed with schizophrenia if you experience some of the following symptoms:

• Hallucinations
• Delusions
• Disorganised thinking
• lack of motivation
• slow movement
• change in sleep patterns
• poor grooming or hygiene
• changes in body language and emotions
• less interest in social activities
• low sex drive.

Everyone is different. Not everyone with schizophrenia will get all of these symptoms.

Schizophrenia is a common illness. About one in a hundred people will develop schizophrenia. It can develop during young adulthood. The early stage of the illness is called ‘the prodromal phase’. During this phase your sleep, emotions, motivation, communication and ability to think clearly may change.

If you become unwell this is called an ‘acute episode’. You may feel panic, anger or depression during an acute episode. Your first acute episode can be a shocking experience because you are not expecting it or prepared for it.

There are thought to be many people un-diagnosed with this Illness due to the nature of it. It makes people feel alienated and distanced from society and friends. Many believe they have no-one to turn to due to the kind of symptoms that this illness makes their person suffer from.

However, Schizophrenia can be controlled with drugs and therapy. Seeing a health care professional quickly after suffering suspected symptoms of Schizophrenia can really aid your recovery progress, its more easily treatable the quicker it is found. Uncontrolled Schizophrenia can develop slowly over time, meaning new and scarier symptoms can start to take place such as Tactile and/or Visual Hallucinations. Best course of action is to seek Professional help if you're uncertain.

Common Myths of Schizophrenia
The media is known for altering the public view of certain issues or people. This is one of the many reasons that Schizophrenia is seen with stigma and makes the general public weary and scared. This means more people are less likely to help in raising awareness or helping those with Schizophrenia.

"Schizophrenia means a Split Personality"
Many believe that having Schizophrenia means you also suffer from a Split personality disorder such as Bi-Polar. There is no proven or common link between these two mental health issues and do not correlate the same symptoms. The first believed cause for this common misconception originates to the words origin. The word Schizophrenia originates from two Greek words meaning 'Split' and 'Mind'.

This is the most common misconception, and whenever portrayed it is normally shown as a very violent Mental illness which is simply not true. Studies show it is only a very minor number of sufferers may turn violent, but it is a similar percentage to the amount of Violent people in the general population. People with Schizophrenia are much more likely to be a danger to themselves rather than others due to the nature of symptoms many suffer from.