Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that involves a variety of complex symptoms that are tough to manage. It seriously damages the patient’s ability to live a normal life and participate in daily activities like regular people. The feelings, behaviours, and thinking processes are all affected by this mental disorder.
Owing to being a complex psychological disorder, people associate a variety of myths with it. Also, as there is not enough knowledge or public information related to schizophrenia available to the Pakistani public, believing in myths becomes the only possible way to know about this psychological issue.
In this article, we shall talk about the myths of schizophrenia and the realities associated with it, especially in the Pakistani context.
Knowing the Disease
Let’s start with understanding this mental health condition in the simplest possible manner! It is a chronic disorder that can arise owing to a combination of genetic and biological factors. A lot of times, the environment also plays a crucial role in aggravating it.
What makes this disease disturbing is the fact that the patients dealing with it tend to create a sense of reality that is completely different from real life. This disease is also characterised by hallucinations and delusions, in which they don’t only act but also react differently from others. Resultantly, they find it tough to differentiate reality from an unreal or assumed world they have made in their heads. In extreme conditions, the sufferers may showcase extremely shocking behaviours owing to the distorted realities they have in their heads.
Myths Associated With Schizophrenia And The Realities
The knowledge regarding this Psychological illness is pretty limited in Pakistan. This is the main reason why a lot of people end up believing in myths without getting them confirmed. Let’s bust these myths and talk about the realities associated with schizophrenia.
-
Multiple Personality Disorder And Schizophrenia Are the Same.
A very common myth that the people in the sub-continent believe is that schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder are the same. In reality, that’s not true. These two are very different from each other and contain distinct symptoms. Where schizophrenia involves hallucinations and delusions, the multiple personality disorder actually showcases the presence of two different personalities in a single person. The latter doesn’t get any kind of hallucinations.
Another way to differentiate these two is by the fact that multiple personality disorder is a dissociative disorder that arises from a childhood abusive episode or a trauma. Comparatively, schizophrenia doesn’t involve the presence of multiple personalities in a person and just showcases distorted thinking patterns and made-up realities.
-
Severe Depression Leads To Schizophrenia.
As the most commonly talked about mental disorder in Pakistan is depression, people tend to associate every psychological disorder with it. Even when it comes to schizophrenia, it’s a common myth that it is a consequence of a severe form of depression. However, that’s not true at all!
A consistent feeling of hopelessness and sadness characterises depression. At times, it also showcases its presence in some physical manners by loss of appetite and lack of sleep. However, there is no proof that its extreme condition can lead to schizophrenia. These two problems are some of the biggest mental health challenges that people have to deal with and are completely distinct from each other and shouldn’t be co-related.
-
An Evil Curse Causes Schizophrenia
A very common belief and misconception amongst the general public in Pakistan, especially in rural areas, is that schizophrenia is a result of some evil curse and leads to a person’s death. This is actually not true! It arises from the genetic, environmental, and biological factors. There are proper scientific reasons that explain this disease, and associating it with a curse is simply a myth. A supernatural power cannot bring delusional thoughts in a person or make him hallucinate.
In the same manner, it is also not true that this disease can be treated through faith healing; religious scholars can’t help a person get rid of this mental disorder. Hence, rather than wasting time on them, it’s better to look for the best psychologist in Pakistan and get the treatment started as soon as possible. To bring a change in this mindset, educational accessibility at a wide level would work.
-
Only Medication Can Help A Schizophrenic Patient
A lot of people believe that only medication that includes pills and tablets can be prescribed to a patient with this mental disorder. This, once again, is not true at all. Dealing with the sufferer of schizophrenia is tricky and includes a combination of treatments. These treatments include therapy sessions, motivational talks, and even extensive counseling on top of medication. These treatment options, together, result in the management of the symptoms of this psychological problem.
How To Burst These Myths?
The development of Pakistani society must bust the myths associated with psychological disorders. Here is how this can be done:
- It is crucial at this stage to teach information regarding mental health issues in the Pakistan education system. An overhaul of the science syllabus is a need of the time.
- Spread knowledge regarding disability rights in Pakistan, as it would help people differentiate between distinct diseases and learn more about them.
- Getting help from an online psychiatrist in Pakistan through Sehatyab also aids in getting to know about the
Final Thoughts
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that requires constant care and treatment for its management. It is time to spread awareness of it and bust all the myths associated with it. Sehatyab’s mission is to let the Pakistani community know the ins and outs of such psychological disorders to deal with them properly!
For more queries, let’s Contact Sehtayab or Call us at +92–300-1003140
You can watch Sehatyab’s live session with Dr. Zaidan Idrees about Schizophrenia.