Schizophrenia is a state of confused state of feeling in thinking, feeling and emotions.
The precise and accurate causes of schizophrenia are unknown.
But mostly it has biological and genetic roots. Individuals will have schizoid symptoms in families having this disorder.
Political and Religious thinking may go high when you have schizoid episodes.
Research shows that its a combination of factors that cause Schizophrenia. These include physical, genetic, psychological and environmental factors that can develop this condition. This has similarities with psychosis, but it is different. This can be mistaken for “madness” or other mental disorders.
Psychological Causes of Schizophrenia
- Negative emotional experiences
- High “expressed” emotion
- Rejection, Criticism and Anxious Over-involvement
- Frequent experience of a highly emotional environment
- Dopamine imbalance
- post-traumatic stress disorder
- great adversity for some
Biological causes of schizophrenia
- Glutamate, another brain chemical
- person inherits specific variants in a gene related to “synaptic pruning”
- the gene, complement component 4 (C4)
- chromosome 6, in a region of DNA
- Functional disturbances of the brain
- neurotransmitters such as noradrenaline, acetylcholine, GABA, and glutamate
Social Causes of Schizophrenia
- Lack of motivation (avolition)
- Poor expression of emotions
- Social withdrawal
- Unawareness of illness
- Migration from one country to another
- childhood exposure to social adversity
- risk associated with urban birth and (or) urban upbringing
- social defeat or social exclusion
Environmental Causes of Schizophrenia
- viral infections before you were born
- didn’t get proper nutrition from your mom
- mind-altering drugs called psychoactive or psychotropic drugs
- methamphetamines or LSD, can make schizophrenia more likely
- increased deprivation (which includes employment, income, education and crime)
- increased population density
- increase in inequality (the gap between the rich and poor)
- poverty
- racial discrimination
- family dysfunction
- poor housing conditions
Genetic Causes of Schizophrenia
- neurotransmitters GABA and glutamate
- areas of specific genes
- gene mutations
- certain sets of genes
- prenatal difficulties
- viral infections
- perinatal complications
- malfunction of dopamine
- imbalance of the complex, interrelated chemical systems of the brain
- abnormalities in brain structure
Ayurvedic Causes of Schizophrenia and its Understanding
According to DSM-V, schizophrenia is described as “ a disturbance that lasts for at least six months and includes at least one month of active-phase symptoms (i.e., two (or more) of the following: delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior, negative symptoms)”.
As per ancient Ayurveda wisdom, the mental disorders are classified under as “Unmada”. Ayurveda doctors classify Schizophrenia as disorder of the mind caused by the doshas (vata, kapha, and vata) . In this context, the wordings in Charaka Samhita (an ancient Hindu text) take relevance. The causes of Schizophrenia according to Ayurveda could be –
- unhealthy foods which area spoiled
- using foods and drinks in not proper manner
- weak mind due to several other reasons
Dr. David Frawley another esteemed physician says that (1989) ,
“mental disorders are caused by emotional stress, poor upbringing, repressive religion, coming under the influence of disturbed individuals, sexual abuse or perversion, and taking drugs”.
According to him, the reason for Schizophrenia attacks are due to –
- too much thinking
- strain in yogic or meditation practices
- abuse of sattva (i.e disturbance of deep-rooted clarity of mind)
- excess of rajas and tamas turbulence
- blankness of the mind
- doshas moving in the wrong path
As per the psychological states of Ayurveda, surplus of rajas causes anger, hatred and fear, excessive nervousness, worry, and anxiety. The same imbalance of tamas involves in excess sleep, dullness, apathy, inertia and absence of reality of things.
The inequality of psychic energies (Sattva, Raja, Tama) supported by imbalance of physical energies (vata, pitta, kapha) are a major deterrent in the complete recovery of Schizoid patient. It has also been explained that Schizophrenia is similar to “atatwabhinivesh” in Ayurveda.
Source : http://www.ayurvedacollege.com/articles/%E1%B9%A3tudents/schizophrenia
Homeopathic Causes of Schizophrenia
The types of schizophrenia according to homeopathy are – Paranoid schizophrenia, Disorganized schizophrenia, Residual schizophrenia, Catatonic schizophrenia and Schizoaffective disorder.
Patients having any of the above types will behave differently. A person can have blurred speech and thought, but not have delusions. In another case a person is moody, negative and may take unusual body positions.
A typical patient story with Schizophrenia could be like this –
The treatment for such kind of patient in homeopathy can be like this –
The causes of Schizophrenia could be –
- using psychotropic drugs
- positive family history
- stress/infection to the mother during foetal development
- exposure to toxins during foetal life
- autoimmune diseases
Introduction to the Causes of Schizophrenia
Tension headaches, Migraine and other headaches are also one of the causes of this syndrome. Whether it is a symptom or cause is to be ascertained. Agressive thinking in creative individuals like artists, scientists etc can also be a developmental cause.
Neurotransmitters are chemicals that carry messages between brain cells.
Subtle differences in the brain development and changes in the neurotransmitters can be one of the cause for this illness. An imbalance between dopamine and serotonin (two neurotransmitters) can also be a cause.
Change in culture, moving to a different place, seeing monotonous places and things can aggravate the situation. Talking to some people can increase the symptoms and others can reduce the symptoms.
Feeling of Schizophrenia
Patients may behave normally in certain situations while they can be different in another.
The reality and virtuality feel the same. You can feel happy about the disease and feel depressed at the same time. Generally it is associated with other disorders like psychosis and bi-polar disorder. The thoughts and speed are very disorganized and cannot be interpreted in a particular pattern. These patients can also show creativity in instants of life.
Symptoms of Schizophrenia
The main symptoms of a schizoid person are delusions, hallucinations, disorganized thinking, abnormal motor behavior and negative symptoms. Delusions are feelings that somebody is harming you, certain comments are directed at you, feeling in high fame and somebody is loving you etc. Hallucinations is hearing or seeing things that don’t exist.
People with these symptoms may not be able to give answers in a predictable manner and partially or completely unrelated. Meaningless words also may be put together called as “word salad”. Things like resistannce to instructions from people, unexplained postures, useless or excessive movement can also be seen.
Schizophrenic person may lose interest in daily activities and hygenie. He may be socially withdrawn and may show lack of emotion.
Ability to work actively like other aged people may become slow. Sometimes brain activity can rise to high levels and no clear thoughts can happen. The medication that is generally provided is to seduce the brain. This can slow down the hyper-activity and come down to conscious levels.
One of the causes of schizophrenia is oversensitiveness. Another important social cause is love failure. People who have faced serious emotional situation in their life, can also fall into this psychotic illness.
Other Disorders Associated with It
Some other disorders and symptoms can accompany this situation.
A few people lose concentration, memory loss, lack of energy, cognitive abilities, poor understanding, disorder speech, religious beliefs may become high, thinking too high of themselves, lack of normal social behaviour are some of the other symptoms.
Diabetes, blood pressure and thyroid can also be associated for chronic patients of this disease. Though this disease has a biological cause, any stressful events in their life can aggravate the patient’s situation.
Patients can experience extensive irritation, anger and mood swings, depression and anxiety, unable to do normal jobs and unable to explain their situation. This illness generally occurs in the age range of 20 to 40 years. In males it is predominant over the period of 18 to 30 years.
The Epidemiology of Schizophrenia
The most remarkable recent epidemiologic finding relates to migrants (to India) : Some fall ill with schizophrenia not only at higher rates than the compatriots they leave behind, but at higher rates than the natives of the countries to which they have come. Dark-skinned migrants to Europe, mostly from the Caribbean or sub-Saharan Africa, are at risk of developing schizophrenia at rates as much as 10 times higher than those of white Europeans.
Source : https://www.utne.com/mind-and-body/treatments-for-schizophrenia-zm0z13jfzwar
