avior, such as curling up into a fetal position, eating with one’s hands, and so forth. The symptoms of schizophrenia usually occur during adolescence or early adulthood, except for paranoid schizophrenia, which usually has a later onset. The process of schizophrenia is often slow, with the exception of catatonia, which may have an abrupt onset. As an adolescent, a person who later develops schizophrenia is often antisocial with others, lonely, and depressed. Plans for the future may appear to others as vague or unrealistic. It is possible that there may be a preschizophrenic phase a year or two before the disorder is diagnosed. This phase may include neurotic symptoms such as acute or chronic anxiety, phobias, obsessions, and compulsions or may reveal dissociative features. As anxiety mounts, indications of a thought disorder may appear. An adolescent may complain of difficulty with concentration and with the ability to complete school work or job-related work.. Complaints such as mind wandering and needing to devote more time to maintaining one’s thoughts are heard. Finally, the ability to keep out unwanted intrusions into one’s thoughts becomes impossible. As a result, the person finds that his or her mind becomes so confused and thoughts so distracted, that the ability to have ordinary conversations with others is lost. The person may initially feel that something strange or wrong is going on. He or she misinterprets things going on in the environment and may give mystical or symbolic meanings to ordinary events. The schizophrenic may think that certain colors hold special powers or a thunderstorm is a message from God. The person often mistakes other people’s actions or words as signs of hostility or evidence of harmful intent. As the disease progresses, the person suffers from strong feelings of rejection, lack of self-respect, loneliness, and feelings of worthlessness. Emotional and physical withdrawal inc...
