MENTAL HEALTH BASICS

The symptoms of schizophrenia are generally divided into three
categories, including positive, disorganized and negative symptoms.


* Positive Symptoms, or "psychotic" symptoms, include delusions
and hallucinations because the patient has lost touch with reality in
certain important ways. "Positive" as used here refers to having overt
symptoms that should not be there. Delusions cause the patient to
believe that people are reading their thoughts or plotting against them,
that others are secretly monitoring and threatening them, or that they
can control other people's minds. Hallucinations cause people to hear or
see things that are not there.


* Disorganized Symptoms include confused thinking and speech, and
behavior that does not make sense. For example, people with
schizophrenia sometimes have trouble communicating in coherent sentences
or carrying on conversations with others; move more slowly, repeat
rhythmic gestures or make movements such as walking in circles or
pacing; and have difficulty making sense of everyday sights, sounds and
feelings.


* Negative Symptoms include emotional flatness or lack of
expression, an inability to start and follow through with activities,
speech that is brief and lacks content, and a lack of pleasure or
interest in life. "Negative" does not, therefore, refer to a person's
attitude, but to a lack of certain characteristics that should be there.