Empowered Recovery Center provides comprehensive schizophrenia treatment in Kansas City. Our team of experienced professionals takes a holistic approach, focusing on treating both the physical and mental health issues associated with this disorder. Through outpatient personalized care plans and medication management, we help our clients find relief from symptoms. With an expert team dedicated to providing quality care for people living with schizophrenia, Empowered Recovery Center is committed to empowering those affected by this condition to live fuller lives.
What is Schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe mental disorder that affects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves. It is a highly complex condition that typically starts in the late teens or early adulthood. The symptoms of schizophrenia can be divided into three categories – positive, negative, and cognitive.
Positive symptoms refer to the presence of behaviors or thoughts that are not normally present. These can include hallucinations (sensory experiences of things that are not there), delusions (false beliefs that are not based on reality), and disordered thinking (difficulty in organizing thoughts or making logical connections).
Negative symptoms refer to the absence of behaviors or thoughts that are usually present. These can include reduced emotional expression, difficulty in experiencing pleasure, and reduced motivation to perform certain activities.
Finally, cognitive symptoms refer to problems with thinking processes and include difficulty in paying attention, processing information, and making decisions.
While the cause of schizophrenia is not fully understood, it is believed to involve a combination of genetic, environmental, and brain chemistry factors. Treatment for schizophrenia typically involves a combination of antipsychotic medications, psychotherapy, and support services. With the right treatment approach, many people with schizophrenia can lead productive, fulfilling lives.
Signs and Symptoms of Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is characterized by various symptoms that impact the individual’s ability to function in everyday activities. These symptoms can be extremely disabling, making it difficult for individuals to live normally. Symptoms may also vary in intensity and frequency over time.
Early detection and treatment of schizophrenia is important for successful management of the disorder. However, many people with schizophrenia do not receive adequate treatment due to a lack of knowledge or stigma surrounding mental illness. So, it is crucial to increase awareness about schizophrenia, reduce stigma, and promote access to effective treatments.
If someone is experiencing symptoms of schizophrenia, it is important to seek professional help. A qualified mental health professional can provide a thorough assessment and recommend appropriate treatment to manage symptoms and improve quality of life. With the right treatment and support, people with schizophrenia can lead fulfilling and meaningful lives.
Delusions
It is one of the most severe and disabling mental health conditions, with symptoms ranging from hallucinations and delusions to cognitive difficulties like difficulty concentrating. One of the most common symptoms of schizophrenia is delusions – false beliefs or ideas that persist despite evidence that they are not true.
Delusions of persecution: involve an irrational belief that others are out to get them, often in bizarre ways – such as believing a group of people is trying to poison them with radioactive particles delivered through their tap water.
Delusions of reference: occur when a person interprets neutral environmental events as having special personal meaning, like believing a billboard or someone on television is sending them a message specifically for them.
Delusions of grandeur: involve an unrealistic belief in importance or power – such as thinking they are Jesus Christ or Napoleon, or believing they have unusual powers like being able to fly.
Delusions of control: refer to a false belief that their thoughts and actions are being controlled by outside forces – such as thinking their private thoughts are being broadcasted to other people, that someone is inserting thoughts into their head, or that the CIA is stealing their thoughts away from them.
Hallucinations
Hallucinations are often one of the most disabling and distressing symptoms of schizophrenia. Auditory hallucinations, or hearing voices, are the most common type. These can range from a single voice to multiple voices speaking at once. These voices may be familiar or unfamiliar and may be critical, vulgar, or abusive in nature. Visual hallucinations are also relatively common among people with schizophrenia, including seeing people and objects that aren’t actually present. All types of hallucinations tend to become worse when the person is alone.
Disorganized Speech
Schizophrenia is a complex mental disorder that can have a significant impact on the ability to communicate. People with the condition may experience difficulty maintaining their train of thought, which may be reflected in their manner of speaking.
Symptoms of disorganized speech may include:
Loose associations: involve rapidly shifting from one topic to another, often with no logical connection between thoughts
Neologisms: words or phrases that have been invented by the individual but lack meaning for other people
Perseveration: refers to repeating words or statements multiple times
Clang: the use of rhyming words in an illogical or meaningless way
People with schizophrenia may also have trouble focusing on conversations or struggle to express themselves clearly due to the lack of cohesion between thoughts. They could respond to questions with an answer unrelated to the topic at hand, start sentences with one idea and end somewhere else entirely, speak incoherently, or make illogical statements. As a result of this disorganization in communication and cognition, it can be difficult for them to keep up with conversations or express themselves accurately.
Disorganized Behavior
Another symptom of schizophrenia is disorganized thinking and behavior, unpredictable or inappropriate emotional responses, bizarre behaviors that lack purpose, and a lack of inhibition or impulse control.
Individuals may find it difficult to sustain conversations with others, understand instructions or instructions given by others, focus on tasks such as school or work, organize themselves and their environment in appropriate ways, make decisions independently, remember details or events that occur in their lives, follow through on plans they make for themselves or others. They may also display an inability to recognize the emotions of other people or express their own.
In addition to these symptoms of disorganization and disruption of goal-directed activity, those with schizophrenia may display delusions (beliefs not based in reality), hallucinations (hearing voices or seeing things that are not real), social withdrawal from family and friends due to paranoia (an unfounded feeling of being persecuted) and confusion. The severity of these symptoms varies greatly from person to person; however, if left untreated the disorder can profoundly interfere with one’s ability to function day-to-day.
Negative Symptoms
Negative symptoms refer to deficits in normal emotional or motivational responses and/or the inability to initiate activities. These negative symptoms can include:
- A flat affect (expression of emotion is reduced)
- Poverty of speech (reduced amount of speech or dialogue)
- Apathy (lack of motivation)
- Social withdrawal
- Anhedonia (inability to experience pleasure)
- Difficulty in initiating goal-directed behavior
- Avolition (inability to maintain long-term plans)
- Cognitive deficits
- Impaired executive functioning
- Working memory impairment
- Difficulty abstracting and generalizing from information
- Attention deficits
Negative symptoms have been associated with decreased quality of life for individuals with schizophrenia as compared to those without the condition. These are symptoms that involve a lack of normal behaviors or emotions. A person with schizophrenia may have a flat affect, meaning they don’t show any emotions in their facial expressions or speech.
Medication Management for Schizophrenia
Medication management for schizophrenia is a critical component of any treatment plan. It is important to understand that no single drug or combination of drugs can completely cure schizophrenia, but rather manage the symptoms and potentially improve quality of life. The most common type of medication used in the treatment of schizophrenia are antipsychotic medications, which help to reduce delusions, hallucinations, thought disorganization, and other symptoms associated with the condition. These drugs block certain chemical signals in the brain that can interfere with normal functioning and manifest as psychotic symptoms.
In addition to antipsychotics, many people with schizophrenia may also benefit from mood stabilizers such as lithium or anticonvulsant medications. These drugs help to reduce feelings of agitation or depression that can accompany the condition and create an overall more stable emotional state. Other medications may be prescribed in order to treat any co-occurring conditions such as anxiety or depression, which can often accompany schizophrenia.
It’s important for people with schizophrenia to adhere strictly to their medication regimen in order to achieve maximum symptom control and optimal quality of life. This includes taking prescribed doses at regular intervals as well as avoiding missed doses or unintentional increases in dosage. Regular follow-up appointments with a mental health professional are essential for making sure that a person’s medication is still effective and not causing any adverse effects such as sleepiness or weight gain.
Medication management for schizophrenia requires a comprehensive approach involving professionals working together towards reducing symptoms and improving overall functioning. With proper schizophrenia treatment in Kansas City and close adherence to one’s treatment plan, individuals living with this condition can lead happy, healthy lives despite some limitations caused by their illness.
Schizophrenia & Addiction Treatment in Kansas City
Treatments for schizophrenia typically include antipsychotic medications, psychotherapy, and social support. At Empowered Recovery Center, we specialize in treating schizophrenia with individualized care plans tailored to meet each client’s unique needs. Ultimately, with the right treatments and supports in place individuals with schizophrenia can lead fulfilling lives and reduce the severity of symptoms over time.
Contact us today to learn more about our approach to schizophrenia treatment in Kansas City.
