Mental health research

Schizophrenia-• Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by abnormal social

behaviour and failure to understand what is real.• Doctors often describe schizophrenia as a psychotic illness. This means

sometimes people may not be able to distinguish their own thoughts and ideas from reality.

• People with schizophrenia often have additional mental health problems such as anxiety disorders, major depressive illness, or substance use disorder. Symptoms typically come on gradually, begin in young adulthood, and last a long time.

• early stage is called ‘the prodromal phase’- during this phase your sleep, emotions, motivation, communication and ability to think clearly may change

• Schizophrenia does not cause people to be violent, they are more likely to be a danger to themselves than other people. some people may become violent because of delusional beliefs or the use of drugs and alcohol

• Because of these incidents the media often report them in a way which emphasises the mental health aspects. This can create fear and stigma in the general public.

• affects 1 in every 100 people• usually starts during early adulthood

Symptoms can be split into ‘Positive’ and ‘Negative’

Positive- experiencing things that are not real (hallucinations can affect all your senses), hearing voices or other sounds is the most common hallucination- the voice itself can be one you know or one you’ve never heard) and having unusual beliefs (delusions are fixed beliefs which do not match up to the way other people see the world)Disorganised thinking- might start talking quickly or slowly or not at all.

Negative- lack of motivation and becoming withdrawn- long lasting, most lightly to stay after positive symptoms fade away and can vary in severity-lack of motivation-slow movement-change in sleep patterns-poor grooming or hygiene-difficulty in planning and setting goals-not saying much-changes in body language-lack of eye contact-reduced range of emotions-less interest in socialising or hobbies and activities -low sex drive

Types of Schizophrenia-

• Paranoid Schizophrenia-common form of schizophrenia-prominent hallucinations and/or delusions-may develop at a later age than other types-speech and emotions may be unaffected• Hebephrenic Schizophrenia-behaviour is disorganised and without purpose-thoughts are disorganised-pranks, giggling, health complaints, grimacing and mannerisms are common-delusions and hallucinations are fleeting-usually develops between 15-25• Catatonic Schizophrenia-rarer than other types-unusual movements, switching between extremes of over activity and stillness-you may not talk at all

• Undifferentiated Schizophrenia -meets the general criteria for a diagnosis and may have some characteristics of paranoid, hebephrenic or catatonic schizophrenia, but does not obviously fit one of these types• Residual Schizophrenia-diagnosed if you have a history of psychosis but only negative symptoms• Simple Schizophrenia-rarely diagnosed in the UK-Negative symptoms are prominent early and get worse quickly-Positive symptoms are rare• Other: including Cenesthopathic Schizophrenia-schizophrenia which has traits not covered by other categories-people experience unusual bodily sensations-unspecified schizophrenia-symptoms meet general conditions for a diagnosis, but do not fit in to any of the above categories

• Nobody knows exactly what causes schizophrenia• Some people are more likely than others to develop the illness as a result of a stressful

event, such as bereavement or the loss of a job.• Research has examined which factors make people more vulnerable to developing the

illness. Brain chemistry, genetics, birth complications and social factors such as an urban upbringing, migration and adversity have been considered.

• Schizophrenia can be a hereditary illness, however researchers do not fully understand how this works. mental illness may be passed on in family members for different reasons, not just genes

• Environmental factors such as isolation or a stressful life event can trigger mental illness. So it is more common to develop a mental illness if you have a family history of mental illness.

• physical health• People with schizophrenia have an average life expectancy that is 10 to 15 years shorter

than people without the condition, they are at a higher risk of being overweight, having coronary heart disease and diabetes, among other health issues.

• suicide• risk of suicide is greatly increased • The increased risk is not usually because of psychotic symptoms. The risk is associated

more with negative symptoms and low mood.

http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/schizophrenia

https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/schizophrenia.html

Quotes we used

• “We children of schizophrenics are the great secret keepers, the ones who don't want you to think that anything is wrong.”

• “The truth is schizophrenic and has as many faces as there are people.”

• “Even as a child the glimpse of what a normal life would have been was always beyond my vision and my grasp. No matter what I glimpsed - whether hope or warning, happiness or sadness - it all led to the same present, to me being numb.”

• “I want to regress back to my childhood, back to where it all began, so that I might be able to start over and see where things went wrong.”

• “you’re losing it”• “we’re never going away”• “we control you”• “I’ve always wondered how…how much do you have to hate yourself

to want to wipe yourself out?”• “knowing that you’re crazy doesn’t stop the crazy things stop

happening”

When we started with the concept for our film we really wanted to keep true to how schizophrenia really is for the people that live with it, we didn’t want to give an unrealistic representation of the disease and so we did lengthy research into the specific details of schizophrenia,. This is why when we started writing the script and discussing how we wanted the films narrative to lay out, we wanted for Sam’s own narration to have specific quotes from people that actually have schizophrenia. This is when we found two websites that held these quotes, we searched through the quotes and chose 9 to use in our film.

We discussed this a lot with many people and found that in doing this people felt more empathy and understanding towards the main character, Sam's struggles.