Disorganized behavior in schizophrenia negatively impacts goal-directed behavior. A person with disorganized schizophrenia is likely to have difficulty beginning a specific task (ex: cooking a meal) or difficulty finishing a task. Independent functioning is exceptionally difficult due to this gross disorganization.
Disorganized behavior can manifest in a variety of ways. It can include odd, bizarre behavior such as smiling, laughing, or talking to oneself or being preoccupied/responding to internal stimuli. It can include purposeless, ambivalent behavior or movements.
For example, a person may hear voices that seem real, even though they are not. Having “disorganized speech and thoughts” refers to an inability to form coherent or logical thoughts, and this leads to disorganized speech. During a conversation, a person with this symptom might leap from one topic to another.
A person with disorganized speech might make up a new word that's close enough to a real word for you to guess what they mean. For example, using “shoes” for “socks”. to make a new word. In other cases, they might use non-words that have no relation to the language that is typically used.
In some people, schizophrenia appears suddenly and without warning. But for most, it comes on slowly, with subtle warning signs and a gradual decline in functioning, long before the first severe episode. Often, friends or family members will know early on that something is wrong, without knowing exactly what.
Someone with disorganized schizophrenia might also experience delusions and hallucinations, and other symptoms of schizophrenia. Before schizophrenia is diagnosed, a health professional may want to rule out other potential explanations for the symptoms, such as: substance use. schizoaffective disorder.
Unfortunately, most people with schizophrenia are unaware that their symptoms are warning signs of a mental disorder. Their lives may be unraveling, yet they may believe that their experiences are normal. Or they may feel that they're blessed or cursed with special insights that others can't see.
Schizophrenia causes a person to appear to lose touch with reality. People with bipolar disorder may experience episodes of mania and depression, often with periods of relative stability occurring in between. Individuals with schizophrenia experience symptoms of psychosis, such as hallucinations or delusions.
For example, people may not dress according to the weather, (i.e., they may wear a heavy coat in the middle of summer), they may wear odd or inappropriate makeup, they may shout at people for no apparent reason, or they may mutter to themselves continuously, etc.
In schizophrenia, a type of inappropriate affect is sometimes called "flat affect" when it presents as a reduced expression of emotion.
People with disorganized schizophrenia exhibit flat affect, which means that they show little or no emotions in their facial expressions, voice tone, or mannerisms. At times they exhibit affect that is inappropriate to the situation, such as laughing at something sad.
The clients mood can shift from one extreme to another (such as from happiness to anger to depression) over short periods of time, for little or no understandable reason. Anger and Hostility. The client is angry and unpleasant to others, often because of delusions, the person has (such as persecutory delusions).
Background: People with schizophrenia often exhibit deficits in empathy, which plays a major role in social cognition and interpersonal relationship.
Disorganized symptoms: Confused and disordered thinking and speech, trouble with logical thinking and sometimes bizarre behavior or abnormal movements.
Grossly disorganized or abnormal motor behavior is a difficulty in sustaining goal-oriented behavior. This may manifest itself in a variety of ways, ranging from childlike “silliness” to unpredictable agitation. Negative symptoms include diminished emotional expression, avolition, alogia and anhedonia.
If you, or someone you know, are described as having “borderline schizophrenia”, it could point toward mild symptoms, unclear symptoms, or a combination of symptoms. The best thing you can do is to seek clarification from a licensed professional.
Schizophrenia tends to run in families, but no single gene is thought to be responsible. It's more likely that different combinations of genes make people more vulnerable to the condition.
Schizophrenia treatment includes medication, therapy, social and family support, and the use of social services. Treatment must be ongoing, as this is a chronic illness without a cure. When schizophrenia is treated and managed over the long-term, most people can live normal, productive, and fulfilling lives.