For many, the worse thing than death is the loss of reason. In the modern world, especially in large cities, people are susceptible to neuroses and obsessive states. For compatriots whose childhood was in the 1990s, things are even sadder. Their parents, due to the political and economic situation in the country, were under constant stress. This was reflected in the attitude towards children. The result was problems with setting personal boundaries and low self-esteem.
Errors in brain activity threaten complete personality degradation. How do you know if you're going crazy? What are the first signs of a personality disorder? What does an abnormal person look like in modern reality?
Dream
How does a person go crazy? The first sign for a healthy person is loss of sleep. People suffering from mental disorders note the disappearance of sleep as the first and strangest thing. It does not decrease, become alarming or intermittent. It just disappears completely. At the same time, the person feels cheerful, as if everything is in order.
During sleep hours, the brain rests, erases unnecessary information, processes and remembers important information. Without rest, all processes in the brain slow down. A person loses the boundaries between dreams and reality. Deprivation begins. Please note: if you don’t feel like sleeping at all, but good health and vigor have not left you, there is something to think about.
Fear
Most real patients with schizophrenia have encountered this phenomenon. Fear comes in tides. This phenomenon is also called panic attacks. It is uncontrollable and all-consuming. Covers and keeps for several hours. Often a person cannot even explain what exactly he is afraid of, because he is afraid of everything.
How do you know if you're going crazy? It's scary to be alone or go into the dark. There may be a fear of leaving the apartment or getting out from under the blanket. Any sound causes panic and horror. This is a sign that “the roof has leaked,” and there is a good reason to consult a psychiatrist.
Changes in behavior and habits
Among the external signs of schizophrenia that indicate its onset, the first to be distinguished are strange behavior. The patient withdraws into himself and withdraws from people. Can sit for hours in a closed room and lie on the bed. Signs of apathy are growing. Stereotype of movements increases.
One of the pathognomonic symptoms at the dawn of schizophrenia is paragnomena. This is a discouraging, unexpected behavior of the patient that is not typical in the normal state. For example, he cuts all his clothes into small pieces, arguing that this way he can put them in his closet more compactly.
The patient seems to go with the flow, submitting to all life circumstances, does not try to improve his existence, does not strive for achievements, to realize his plans.
A typical, characteristic sign of schizophrenia at an early stage is loss of interest in previously significant interests and hobbies. For example, a person used to be fond of cycling and rode a bicycle for several hours almost every day. Perhaps he took part in competitions. And then abruptly, for no apparent reason, he abandoned what he loved, settled at home, and isolated himself.
But he develops new passions. A fascination with the supernatural and metaphysical becomes typical. Often the subject of interest for patients is psychology, philosophy, mysticism, even if previously he was not interested in these areas at all. But most often, patients begin to get involved in religion. Scientists attribute this to the whimsicality and inconsistency of religious images and paintings, which reject and question the generally accepted norms of development of the world around us. Subsequently, these images become the subject of delusional ideas and hallucinations.
A person stops caring about anything at all. He even stops performing basic hygiene procedures: brushing his teeth, washing himself, and becomes unkempt and sloppy. His clothes are dirty, his hair is disheveled, but he doesn’t care what he looks like.
In another case, he spends an unusually long time on water procedures. For example, patients are able to spend several hours in the shower.
Strange cravings appear. The patient can go to a landfill, collect garbage and bring it home, accumulating mountains of unnecessary trash there. There may be a craving for theft and arson. But there are also pleasant changes: patients delve deeper into reading. But this is also pathological in nature, since they tend to read everything that catches their eye.
They forget about food and are able to go without food for several days. Or they come up with fancy diets, or they prefer to eat only one specific product.
Body dysmorphic disorder is a symptom that is a manifestation of many mental disorders. Including schizophrenia. A person becomes convinced that some part of the body is deformed. Too big nose, thick legs, protruding ears. In fact, these organs do not bring any resonance to his appearance.
The patient can hide his concern or, conversely, tell others, use any means to hide the “flaw”. His fixation can be detected when he stands for hours near the mirror, looking for poses in which his “flaw” is not so noticeable. He refuses to be photographed and hides his photos from others. This distorted self-perception sometimes leads to suicide attempts. That is, the patient cannot tolerate his imaginary deficiency to such an extent that he is unable to exist with it.
In general, a person is isolated from society, withdraws into himself, becomes greedy with emotions and strange in behavior.
These signs of the disease are often ignored. Or such people cause resentment among loved ones, bewilderment and irritability among other people. As a rule, people consult a doctor only in cases when the symptoms begin to blossom and hallucinations and delusions appear in the arena.
All early symptoms of schizophrenia are characterized by incompleteness, vagueness and episodicity. This causes difficulties in making a diagnosis, confusing doctors. Therefore, they are in no hurry to issue a final conclusion until typical signs appear.
Although many patients are absolutely sure that they are healthy, there are also those who imply that something is happening to them. They study information about their mental state, eventually finding a rationale for it, and are even able to make the correct diagnosis for themselves.
This is how one young man describes his medical history. It started around age 25. At first it was a pathological fixation on the mistake. If he heard a word that sounded wrong to him, he began to repeat other words starting with that letter. This allowed him to relieve tension. For a while, such a ritual even brought pleasure.
In another case, an unpleasant event, for example, a broken cup, caused him to create a sequence in his thoughts, a sequence of reverse actions: from a negative result to the beginning of the event. It also brought him joy and relieved his anxiety for a while. But if something interrupted his thoughts, he had to start again.
Each time it seemed that it would end soon. But as soon as any incident happened, everything would repeat itself. It happened that, while composing his chains, he spent 20 hours in bed or walked around the room.
Soon voices appeared, whispering unpleasant thoughts. They were so obvious that the patient felt as if they were his own. Then the sounds around me intensified. We had to wear headphones because they really irritated our hero. It happened like this: a car passed by, and he looked at it with a different look. Then you had to look again, right. There was a fear that the car would drive away and he would not complete his ritual.
During this time, he repeatedly consulted doctors until, finally, a diagnosis was made and the correct treatment was prescribed.
Irritability
Sudden aggression is also a sign of possible insanity. Psychosis out of nowhere, outbursts at relatives over trifles or for no reason at all. At the same time, a person may not be aware of the inadequacy of his own behavior. How do you know if you're going crazy? It seems that these are ordinary domestic squabbles, “like everyone else.” Only aggressive attacks become more and more frequent and the reasons become more and more ridiculous. And the person begins to swear more and more sophisticatedly, using profanity. He is unable to control himself at these moments.
Causes of madness
Madness in life is a severe mental illness that is characterized by a distorted perception of reality. Scientists claim that mild insanity is caused by a disturbance occurring in the unity of the human soul and body. It is believed that the main factor provoking the onset of madness is the lack of possibility of adjustment and acceptance of reality. That is, insanity, in simple words, occurs when reality ceases to correspond to the stereotypes formed by the brain. Due to the fact that the varieties and forms of insanity are very diverse, today it is quite difficult to identify common causes that can lead an individual to loss of reason.
Most medieval psychiatrists, wondering what madness was, attributed to this concept such manifestations as banal deceit, lack of patriotism, as well as everything that made individuals different from the bulk of people. They were ready to recognize great artists, who are in a fit of creativity and inspiration on the verge of madness, as mentally ill.
In ancient times, there were two categories of causes of insanity: supernatural and physical. Our ancestors often associated madness with divine punishment for sins. In other words, by making a person mad, higher powers thus tried to punish him. However, divine madness often provided knowledge and therefore carried positive content.
Demonic possession was also considered a common supernatural cause of the condition at that time.
Often, problems of a moral and spiritual nature can cause symptoms of insanity. For example, loss of reason can be triggered by daily repetition of troubles, great grief, anger, and strong rage. Physical factors that cause insanity include head injuries.
The medicine of ancient Greece, based on the research of Hippocrates, explained insanity as an excess of “black bile”, the vapors of which settled in the brain, corroding it, which caused insanity. An excess of “yellow bile” led to an increase in activity, that is, choleric madness, mania and epilepsy. During the reign of the Renaissance and humanism, the described concept acquired a second life.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, the theory of positivism was firmly established, which stated that the soul is just a puppet of the brain, therefore all the symptoms of madness are of a physical nature and are completely curable. Due to the influence of this concept, the word “mentally ill” went out of use, since it meant that the human subject has a soul that has the ability to “get sick.” The definition of “madman” has finally become established in everyday life.
Today, all symptoms previously generalized by the term insanity are designated as mental disorders. After all, what does the word madness mean? It means without reason, that is, a complete loss of rationality in behavior. The actions of a madman become unpredictable, as in a number of mental pathologies.
Modern psychiatry is convinced that mental illnesses occur as a result of a disorder of the neurotransmitter balance, in other words: the structural and functional elements of the nervous system - neurons are not connected to each other, the distance between them is called the synaptic cleft, in which there are neurotransmitters that transmit impulses between neurons. Mental disorders occur precisely because of the imbalance described above.
Thoughts
Beginning mentally ill people are characterized by an uncontrollable flow of thoughts. There are several development options here:
1. The brain clings to some thought and actively “thinks” it. A person is constantly focused on the same thing. For example, on a carpet on the wall. He thinks about what patterns are on it, what color it is, and so on. The brain can cling to a specific person and think about him constantly. With a mental disorder, a person forgets at this moment about what he was doing before the sudden thoughtfulness appeared. Being fixated on the same subject for a long time and the inability to switch attention is another bell and a reason to think about your own adequacy.
2. Absence of any thoughts. Absolute emptiness. I don’t want to remember anything, do anything, dream about anything. Time seems to stop and flow very slowly. A person is in a vacuum of his own consciousness.
3. No focus. The thought does not linger in the head. Consciousness jumps from one object to another, which makes a person very tired. It is impossible to control the process and concentrate too.
Types of madness
There are several classifications of deviations, which in everyday life are called insanity. If we talk about how it affects others, we can distinguish the following types:
- positive : admiration, unprecedented emotional upsurge, creative inspiration;
- threatening : hysteria, anger, mania and other signs of madness, under the influence of which a person can cause psychological or physical harm to people.
Depending on the characteristics of the course, the following types of madness are distinguished:
- melancholy - a prolonged depressed state characterized by indifference or mental anguish;
- mania is a deviation characterized by pronounced mental arousal, groundless delight, admiration, and increased physical activity;
- Hysteria is an abnormal reaction involving intense agitation and anger.
Insanity is also divided according to the severity of symptoms:
- weak, in which pathological signs make themselves felt relatively rarely and are not noticeable;
- severe, in which powerful attacks often occur and the person cannot control them;
- acute, accompanied by severe and persistent mental disorders.
Physical state
At the moment a person is immersed in one of the states described above, sweating is observed. My hands are getting cold, my temples are pounding. Symptoms are also observed in those who have a tendency towards manic attachment to something. So, when performing some action, for example, while playing a computer game, you begin to shake or your hands shake and cold sweat appears. Everything inside freezes, and the surrounding reality disappears - this is a symptom of an obvious psychological crisis. The help of a psychiatrist is needed.
Gestures in schizophrenia
The third group of studies, which is worth highlighting in the article, is not related to the eyes, but also concerns the diagnosis of schizophrenia by external parameters, that is, by the patient’s gestures. It turned out that in the presence of delusional disorders there are more gestures of withdrawal, disgust, anxiety and demonstration. This is called aggressive-preventive behavior.
Depressive and paranoid positive symptoms are accompanied by gestures of reversal, anxiety, brooding, completion and clapping. With negative symptoms and catatonia, the patient often makes gestures indicating embarrassment and submission.
As a result, scientists created a classification of syndromes based on gestures:
- affective (agonistic behavior);
- productive (gestures of empathy);
- negative (escape from contact).
Also in the diagnosis, observations of specific parts of the body can be made. Thus, nodding and throwing back the head in healthy people and schizophrenics are observed with the same frequency, but are almost not detected in patients with deficiency and catatonic syndromes. They are also more likely to have shoulder reactions when talking to a doctor. With paranoid symptoms, they go up, especially during a conversation with men about the causes of the pathology, which many patients try to hide.
With affective syndromes, the shoulders tremble, but under the influence of a strong sound or a change in body position by a psychiatrist. With catatonia, this is observed even when exposed to minor stimuli - the rustling of paper, raising a hand, etc.
Research is not limited to observing eyes and body position. Facial expressions, the ability to be surprised and other aspects are also studied.
The motor skills of grooming are quite interesting - shaking off dirt, tidying up clothes and hair, etc. With depressive and hypochondriacal symptoms, allogrooming is detected, when they clean themselves directly, and mutual grooming (cleaning a neighbor). In all cases, the movements are stereotypical, that is, the same, which do not depend on external factors.
Control
The main thing that distinguishes, for example, a psychic and a madman is the ability to influence their state. How do you know if you're going crazy? If a person with psychic abilities deliberately puts himself into a state of hypnosis or trance, then the madman has no power over his behavior.
A person with superpowers is able to both enter and exit a trance. At the same time, he retains the ability to think during the process and not give in to panic after leaving hypnosis. A person with an early stage of mental disorder does not control his own behavior. Often attacks take him by surprise, and he can cause damage to those around him. It comes out of a crisis as suddenly as it fell into it. In this case, emotional consequences of attacks are likely. A person panics over what happened to him and does not understand what to do next.
Diagnostics
Various techniques are used in the diagnosis of schizophrenia. At the first stage, information is collected from the words of the patient and his relatives, medical histories are studied, and tests are collected. On the second, the patient undergoes MRI, CT, EEG and other studies. Then specialists join in and conduct various tests.
There are tests on the Internet that allow you to test yourself for schizophrenia online. But doctors do not recommend making such diagnoses yourself.
This amount of work is explained by the need to accurately identify the form, type and stage of schizophrenia. However, a doctor can suspect it or make a preliminary diagnosis after an initial examination and conversation. One of the simplest and most accurate methods of this kind are tests that help identify schizophrenia by the movement of the eyeballs.
Hallucinations
This symptom is the surest way to determine that it is time to see a doctor. Hallucinations come in different types of perception:
1. Auditory. Almost all patients in a psychiatric clinic hear extraneous voices in their heads. It can be absolutely anyone. In a normal person, only the inner self sounds in his head. This is a common phenomenon; while thinking, we talk to ourselves. There is no pathology in this.
How do you know if you're going crazy? It's sad when an outside voice starts giving advice or conducting dialogue. It happens that animals or objects begin to talk. Here you should be wary and urgently undergo an examination.
2. Visual. People with mental disorders are more likely to experience creepy hallucinations. The appearance of devils and living creatures from walls and windows is a standard phenomenon for this type of disease. Naturally, this is terrifying, but there are also beautiful hallucinations. Colorful trees, flying animals. You should also not get carried away with the spectacular spectacle; the doctor will help you get rid of them.
3. Tactile. The sick person feels as if someone is touching him. Pulling hair or limbs. It is common for a person with a mental disorder to feel dirty or dirty. How can you tell if a person is going crazy? Endless hand washing, rubbing the skin until it bleeds, or scratching the skin are clear signs of an incipient nervous system disease.
What is madness?
Previously, before the twentieth century, this term was applied to almost all mental illnesses. People with epilepsy, hallucinations, depression, confusion, and suicidal tendencies were considered crazy. Any person who was somehow different from the vast majority of normal people was declared insane.
Currently, the term “madness” is not used in medical practice. This is only said by people who are far from medicine, who do not know that every mental disorder today has its own name. However, this term still has a right to exist.
Apathy
Everyone feels sad sometimes; a crisis may occur due to life circumstances. How do you know when you're starting to go crazy? If you become self-absorbed and don’t leave the house, eat or drink water, this is a symptom of a personality disorder. The condition is provoked by global changes in life: the death of a loved one, divorce, collapse of hopes. As a rule, apathy is followed by loss of sleep. If this is exactly what happened, there is a reason to visit a specialist.
Sometimes depression comes out of nowhere. Everything is fine in the family, and life is smooth, but the state of sadness and melancholy does not go away. A person cannot cope with it on his own; loved ones can help.
Mania
The state of manic disorder is fraught with danger to others. Delusions of grandeur: safe, there are inflated demands on others in relation to oneself. The demand for worship or the indisputability of one's own genius. Considering modern realities, this feeling is common to many. The costs of post-Soviet upbringing, when children's permissiveness and impunity grew into a sense of their own exclusivity and excessive importance. The border between adequate and manic states is very weak. How do you know if you're crazy? It is important to control self-esteem and not transfer it to an inadequate state.
The phenomenon of persecution mania is widespread. A person with the initial stage of the disease feels like he is being watched. He tries to hide from prying eyes, hides and avoids society. At home, he feels like someone is watching him.
It also appears in relation to other people. The person himself becomes a persecutor. “Catches” another on the street, watches from the side and interferes in private life. Pursues people with certain common traits. This is how classic maniacs behave, there is an urgent reason to consult a psychiatrist.
Schizophrenia in the elderly
Schizophrenia in old age is also a very rare phenomenon.
The problem is that its symptoms are mistaken for senile dementia until persistent delusions and hallucinations appear. Schizophrenia in an elderly person begins to manifest itself with suspicion and fears that they want to harm him, they want to offend him. Such a patient is wary of people, usually with aggression. Assuming danger from every stranger, a person isolates himself from society, withdraws into himself and hides from the whole world. He becomes what is called a “nasty old man.”
The emotions of old people with schizophrenia are inadequate. They laugh or cry inappropriately, and their mood changes quickly. In another case, their behavior is characterized by shyness and excessive modesty. Or there is emotional dullness, lack of emotion. Speech is distorted, it is characterized by paucity of statements and confusion. Often people simply remain silent.
Episodic derealization is observed when the patient does not understand where he is, what era he lives in, and does not recognize his loved ones. Depersonalization is expressed in a lack of understanding of who one is.
A characteristic symptom is the appearance of deceased relatives, friends, and acquaintances to the patient.
In old age, the paranoid form of the disease develops more often than others.
Recommendations
To avoid the manifestation of inadequate brain reactions to what is happening around you, you need to train it. Periodic changes in activity, rest and new experiences are a lifeline for a workaholic.
If a person, due to circumstances, does not work or is lonely, he needs to find a hobby. Get a pet or do charity work. Helping others will distract you from focusing on your own personality and relieve brain activity. If there is a sudden manifestation of “extrasensory” abilities or uncontrollable conditions, you must immediately consult a doctor.
