8 REAL CASES OF SCHIZOPHRENIA - ECONOMÍA - 2025

Knowing the cases of schizophrenia that I will show you in this article will help you better understand this mental illness; its symptoms, characteristics and the people who have it.

Schizophrenia is a chronic mental disorder that affects approximately 1% of the population. When it appears it is characterized by hallucinations, delusions, disorganized thinking, altered language, attention problems, lack of motivation and emotional distress (American Psychiatric Association).

The tendency to develop schizophrenia is inherited genetically and may or may not arise depending on many other factors, such as lifestyle, personality or experiences.

Currently there is no cure for this condition, but it can improve a lot if the right therapy is found for each person, always including pharmacological treatment (antipsychotics or neuroleptics generally).

For a better understanding of the symptoms of this disease, I recommend you read these 8 real cases:

1. The Stuart case

It all started in 1991, when Stuart traveled to Moscow to attend a march against communism. It was quite a tense moment in history, as the Communists were attempting to stage a coup against Mikhail Gorbachev, the president of the Soviet Union at the time.

Stuart claims that early that night a very angry Russian man called him on the phone. This unknown man was cursing him and yelling, asking him why he had meddled in his affairs. Stuart, very scared, hung up the phone.

From that moment on, he began to feel fear as he could not stop thinking that they were investigating him. When he returned to London, he was always stressed because he felt that he was being persecuted, eventually developing a depression.

Stuart lost his job shortly before his first psychotic break, which he describes as: “It was horrible, I think it came out of sheer stress and anxiety. I was lying in bed when suddenly I felt pressure on top of my head, and then total darkness. It was as if my own mind had sucked me in, losing all sense of reality. I screamed, and suddenly I came back to my room with that strange feeling in my head. "

Later he moved a couple of times, with the aim of fleeing from those who were supposedly pursuing them. Desperate, one day he went to the GP, who did not hesitate to quickly send him to a psychiatric team.

They diagnosed him with schizophrenia, and after trying various treatments, they found a drug that managed to help him. Stuart stopped experiencing the symptoms: he discovered that no one was chasing him, it was only the result of his illness. He was feeling much better, with new life plans and goals, like climbing Everest.

He wants to convey to the world that despite what they say, recovering from schizophrenia is possible.

2. The man who feared being homosexual

The origin of this story can be traced back to 1972, when a patient aged 23 came to the consultation for fear of being homosexual. It indicated that he was very scared since he heard voices that spoke to him about the subject.

He was diagnosed with homosexual panic and paranoid schizophrenia, and a treatment was started to eliminate his fears and hallucinations. After time, he managed to accept his homosexuality, presenting a double identity: male and female, which fluctuates according to the time in which he is. Sometimes she dressed in women's clothing or wore women's underwear, wondering why people did not look at her on the street.

Subsequently, he began to have promiscuous relationships with homosexuals, drug addicts, thieves and exploiters. One day, while he was drunk, he pushed one of these from his house into the void, dying on the spot. They detained him for 6 months. However, they declared him unimpeachable.

This patient had problems with alcohol, and although he received financial aid, he had numerous debts because he was spending much more than he was receiving.

Most of the time he was dedicated to writing about the “Principality of Bahía Naranjo”, a place that he claimed existed. He made a daily record of what was happening in the principality and gave it to the doctor after each consultation to keep it in the library of the Psychiatric Institute. This patient's goal was to show that psychiatrists read it 100 years from now and confirm that he does not have schizophrenia.

The curious thing about this case that surprised the psychiatrists was the absence of hallucinations and the predominance of inventions, fantasies and delusions. In addition, she reasoned adequately on any subject not related to her delusions. This is why many classified it as a rare form of schizophrenia called paraphrenized schizophrenia or paraphrenia.

It appears that this man remained in treatment, with stable results.

3. Antonio, the boy who thinks he is an alien

At the age of 14, Antonio appeared in consultation accompanied by his parents. They said that the beginning was when Antonio, at the age of 12, began talking to his friends about aliens.

Since then they began to see him sad, scared and distrustful; and before long, he was totally convinced that both he and his family were aliens. For this reason, he received medication, although his obsession with UFOs remained.

He presented a rather strange way of speaking, which is associated with schizophrenia: poorly organized language, jumping from one topic to another that has nothing to do with, difficulty finding the word he wants to say, or not responding specifically to what was asked. question.

In addition, he is not very expressive, does not usually look at the face, and has very low self-esteem.

Coupled with this, Antonio began to develop obsessive compulsive disorder, which can be identified through “manias” and rituals. For example, washing your hands continuously, observing your body a lot, thinking that something terrible is going to happen if you don't turn off the lights or close the door of your room… which sometimes doesn't even let you sleep.

Disorganized schizophrenia was diagnosed, establishing a treatment with his family to strengthen ties, cognitive therapy, training in social skills, techniques to avoid relapses, neuroleptic drugs and antidepressants, among others.

4. Jack's case

Jack graduated from high school and got a job at a video store. Within 6 months of being there, he began to hear voices telling him that he was not doing things well.

In addition, he began to think that his boss was placing small cameras on the films that customers were returning to check if he was doing his job well. Thus, Jack became more and more worried and anxious in his work, especially on days when the store was more crowded.

Little by little the clients began to speak strangely to him, he even told one of them that he could not reserve the movie he wanted because he had photos of him that the CIA was reviewing.

A year later Jack couldn't take it anymore and quit his job, yelling at his boss that he was sick of being watched on all the screens in the store and even in his own home.

He returned to live in his parents' house, and was later admitted to the hospital. They tried to treat him with various drugs, but it was not persistent as they had many side effects.

During the next 7 years he was hospitalized 5 times, until he found a treatment that managed to help him.

Finally, he started going to a club for people with mental illness 3 times a week, answering the phone and participating in the local newspaper. Additionally, you feel fully empowered and motivated to seek a film-related job.

5. Susana, the robot girl

Susana is a 15-year-old girl who her teachers describe as difficult, violent, underperforming in school, and who often interrupts in class by telling stories and making animal sounds.

It seems that the problem manifested itself from the age of 12, having been something different from the others since I was a child. Ever since he went to the movies to see Star Wars, he has had a great obsession with robots, so he spends the day talking about related topics and drawing spaceships and futuristic inventions.

Susana explains that she has an incredible gift that no one has discovered yet. She says she makes robots out of computer parts, and that she once almost caused a catastrophe with one of them, though she managed to stop it in time.

However, when asked how it works or how he built it, he cannot answer exactly. She begins to relate random mathematical procedures that do not make sense, considering herself a genius. In psychology, this is called delusion.

In addition, he boasts of having the gift of hearing voices that no one hears and speaking with beings from another world. Experts classify this as auditory hallucinations.

However, the family did not clearly appreciate the problem and thought they were unimportant children's stories.

A pharmacological intervention, cognitive therapy, psychoeducation, family intervention, and social skills training surely improved Susana's condition.

6. Eva, a girl with paranoid schizophrenia

Eva was 10 years old when she claimed to be able to hear voices. The voices told her that she was going to die soon because other people have committed crimes because of her.

And it is that he also thinks that, through his breathing, he is capable of handling other people. On the other hand, he believes they are continuously videotaping it with the aim of putting them up for sale.

As if that were not enough, she is convinced that others can read her mind, that they look at her and chase her. This makes you feel discouraged and sad.

Eva had problems since she was two years old, more specifically, developmental delay and communication disorder.

As for her family, her mother apparently had schizophrenia, and when Eva was five years old, her parents separated and she was taken in by a new family. At this age she developed many phobias, problems relating to others, delayed development and hypersexual behaviors for her age. Surely that way of parenting was not healthy for the little girl.

After she was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, she underwent a very comprehensive treatment that probably made her improve in all respects.

7. Schizophrenia is discovered in a boy who demanded therapy for shoulder pain

A 19-year-old was referred to physical therapy due to chronic pain in his shoulder, elbow, and wrist. It seems that he had bruises since in his spare time he used to skate, snowboard, and break dance, in addition to doing weights.

In the past, he had been to the same sports medicine clinic more than 10 times, diagnosed with a large number of physical conditions caused by sports.

The pain was real, however, it indicated that the discomfort was due to an electronic device that the United States government had implanted two years ago to control him. He was convinced that the electromagnetic impulses emitted by the device had caused his falls and injuries.

In addition, he said that when he was doing something that the government did not like (according to the patient, his sports activities), his joints would get cold or start to hurt. On the other hand, he began to hear voices that ordered him to harm his friends or family, but blamed it on the electrical device.

He also thought that other people around him had implants similar to his to be controlled. He indicated that these people were emotionally abusing him, making gestures to make him understand that they were watching him.

The therapist was able to identify that it was a mental illness and immediately sent him to the psychiatrist. He diagnosed him with schizophrenia and prescribed Risperdal, a well-known antipsychotic medication.

Through this case, Shah and Nakamura (2010) insist on the importance of all health professionals knowing the signs and symptoms of schizophrenia and other mental health problems. And of course, they highlight the importance of conducting in-depth interviews with patients with musculoskeletal discomfort.

8. Álvaro, a young man with behavior problems

Did you know that schizophrenia also alters the way of speaking, gestures and movements?

These are the main symptoms of schizophrenia presented by Álvaro, a 17-year-old boy who came to Mental Health for behavioral changes. For example, he was so aggressive towards his mother that she had to call the police several times.

Álvaro dropped out of school and seems to be a withdrawn, distrustful young man with a blank look.

What draws the attention of the psychiatrist are his gestures: he presents stereotyped movements (repetitive movements that are useless, such as touching clothes, or any part of the body, or swinging). In addition to involuntarily imitating the movements of the people around her (echopraxia) and making strange faces.

Other symptoms of schizophrenia that he presents are reduced language, with set phrases and, above all, repeating what the examiner says (what is called echolalia).

References

1. Escobar M, Enrique, & Barra C, Bernardo. (2011). History of a case with paraphrenized schizophrenia or fantastic and systematized paraphrenia. Chilean journal of neuro-psychiatry, 49 (2), 177-181.
2. Childhood schizophrenia. Clinical cases. (sf). Retrieved on October 28, 2016, from Portal de paidopsiquiatria.
3. Rose, M. (nd). Schizophrenia: Case study. Retrieved on October 28, 2016, from Collin College.
4. Schizophrenia - Stuart's story. (sf). Retrieved on October 28, 2016, from NHS Choices.
5. Shah, N., & Nakamura, Y. (2010). Case Report: Schizophrenia Discovered during the Patient Interview in a Man with Shoulder Pain Referred for Physical Therapy. Physiotherapy Canada, 62 (4), 308–315.
6. What is Schizophrenia? (sf). Retrieved on October 28, 2016, from the American Psychiatric Association.