Topic Tuesday// Living a Meaningful and Fulfilling Life with Schizophrenia// Tues 31st May, 2022 7-8:30PM AEST

To kick things off with our first question for @RiverSeal:

So that we can all have the same understanding for this discussion,

What is schizophrenia?

& for the community: What are your experiences with schizophrenia?

Thanks for joining in @maddison

I have an interest in this topic, as I am a carer/ support person for someone with diagnosis of schizophrenia. I am mid 40s and I think mostly identify as her she / sometimes I don't feel that gender is identity?!

Schizophrenia:

Schizophrenia is a syndrome which may include a range of symptoms in individuals including positive, negative, and cognitive.

Positive: psychotic symptoms are added to someone, that don’t usually exist

• Hallucinations
• Delusions
• Disorganised behaviour
• Disorganised speech
• Catatonic behaviour

Negative mental symptoms are taken from someone

• a seeming lack of interest in the world
• not wanting to interact with other people (social withdrawal)
• an inability to feel or express pleasure (anhedonia)
• an inability to act spontaneously
• decreased sense of purpose
• lack of motivation (avolition)
• not talking much
• difficulty speaking due to disorganized thinking (alogia)

Negative physical symptoms are taken from someone

• an inexpressive or blank face (flat affect)
• monotone or monosyllabic speech
• lack of gesturing when communicating
• lack of eye contact
• physical inactivity

Cognitive: are changes in the way your mind functions

• disorganized thinking
• slow thinking
• difficulty understanding
• poor concentration
• poor memory
• difficulty expressing thoughts
• difficulty integrating thoughts, feelings and behaviour

Schizoaffective Disorder:

Schizoaffective disorder is having a combination of schizophrenia (cognitive disorder) and bipolar or depression (mood disorders)

Schizophrenia - causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment & pathology

Healthline - Schizophrenia

What is Schizoaffective Disorder?

I think you are in @Millielulu , can you see these messages?

Hi @Millielulu, it looks like you are logged in 😊 You are in the right place - for the event, just continue to 'refresh' the page and you will see new the responses that come through 🙂

@Millielulu it looks like you are already logged in. this thread is the special event so welcome!

@TideisTurning and @RiverSeal I have had some of the positive, negative and cognitive symptoms. I find the hallucinations and delusion can be very distressing. The negative symptoms make life hard to tolerate sometimes.