MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS 1

Shanzay Abbasi (Fa18-bscs-0014)

Junaid Qayyum (Fa18-bscs-0020)
Haris Hassan (Fa17-bscs-0074)
Muhammad Kumail (Fa18-bscs-0008)
Younus Baig (Fa17-bscs-0066)

Muhammad Ali Jinnah University

Submitted to:
Mrs. Maryam Hanif Ghazi
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How Schizophrenia affects daily life.
Schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder in which it separates patient’s
minds from the real world. Schizophrenia may result in some combination of
hallucinations, delusions, and extremely disordered thinking and behavior that
impairs day-to-day functioning, and can be disabling. People having schizophrenia
require lifelong treatment. Early treatment may help get symptoms under control
before serious complications develop and may help improve the long-term attitude.
Schizophrenia most commonly strikes in late adolescence or early adulthood
(between ages of 16 and 30) and males tend to show symptoms at a slightly
younger age than females. In many cases, the disorder develops so slowly that the
individual does not know that they have had it for many years. However, in other
cases, it can strike suddenly and develop quickly. Characterized by delusions,
hallucinations, and other cognitive difficulties, schizophrenia can often be a
lifelong struggle and affects approximately 1 percent of all adults, globally. Experts
say schizophrenia is probably several illnesses masquerading as one.

Objective:
The objective of this experiment was to note the effect of the sounds, which
are similar to the ones schizophrenic patients hear, on the performance of the
individual whether he/she was able to solve these questions successfully or not
while hearing them.
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What causes schizophrenia?

Experts believe several reasons are generally involved in contributing
to the onset of schizophrenia. Evidence puts forward that genetic and
environmental factors act together to bring about schizophrenia. The
condition has an inherited component, but environmental triggers also
considerably influence it. Below is a list of the factors that are thought to
contribute towards the onset of schizophrenia:

 Genetic inheritance:

The chances of developing it are less than 1 percent, if there isn’t any
history of schizophrenia in a family. However, there’s a 10% chance if a
parent has previously been diagnosed with schizophrenia.

 Chemical imbalance in the brain:

According to the experts, an imbalance of neurotransmitters, such as
dopamine and serotonin, is involved in the onset of schizophrenia.

 Family relationship:
Some patients with the disease believe that family tension triggers
relapses, however there is no evidence to prove or predict that family
relationships might cause schizophrenia.

 Environmental factors:
According to evidences, certain environmental factors, such as a viral
infection, extensive exposure to toxins like marijuana, or highly stressful
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situations, are likely to trigger schizophrenia in people who have

inherited a tendency to develop the disorder. Schizophrenia more often
surfaces when the body is experiencing hormonal and physical changes,
such as those that occur during the teenage and young adult years.
Although there is no solid proof, many suspect trauma before birth and
viral infections may contribute to the growth of the disease.
Stressful experiences often precede the appearance of schizophrenia.
Before any severe symptoms are apparent, people with schizophrenia
habitually become bad-tempered, anxious, and distracted. This may be
the reason for triggered relationship problems, divorce, and
unemployment.
These factors are often blamed for the onset of the disease, when really
weren’t - the disease caused the crisis. Therefore it is very hard to know
if schizophrenia caused these stresses and strains or occurred as a result
of them

 Drug induced schizophrenia:

Drug-induced psychosis is characterized by hallucinations and delusions,
which are caused due to the effects the drugs have on the brain. The
hallucinations are usually visual, and the delusions cause a shift in the
individual’s consciousness that makes it hard to differentiate between
what is real and what isn’t.
Some individuals take certain substances solely because of their
hallucinogenic properties, while others experience hallucinations or
delusions as a negative side effect of a drug they used for a different
purpose.
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Marijuana and LSD are known to be the reasons that cause schizophrenia
relapses. Furthermore, for people with a predisposition to a psychotic
illness for e.g., schizophrenia, usage of cannabis may trigger the first
episode.

What it’s like living with schizophrenia?

Schizophrenics might hear voices in their heads any time of the day. It could
be one voice at a time or multiple speakers, and they may converse with those
voices or even follow their commands. And some of the times patients follow those
orders and inadvertently harm themselves.
If you have a schizophrenic individual in your life, it may not be easy for
you to communicate with him or her. In fact, that person might sit still, stay quiet
and not respond to you for hours at a time. At other times, the answers might not be
relevant to what you said to them. Also, you may need to help that person with
some of the basics of personal hygiene.
Daily life with schizophrenia can be very disturbing. Most of the time,
patients start believing that they are in some kind of danger or plans are being
made by certain people to harm them. Naturally, these misconceptions can lead to
ranting and raging, antisocial behaviors and increased levels of negative stress.

Methodology:
The following experiment was conducted on a sample of 12 individuals after

taking their consent. The sample size was kept small so that we may obtain

qualitative data. A group of 6 individuals was made to listen to an audio on

headphones while solving math sums which ranged from easy to a certain
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difficulty. The rest were allowed to solve these questions without having to hear

these disturbing sounds. Also, the participants who were made to listen to the

sounds were asked a few questions related to our experiment that were as under:

1. Were the sounds disturbing? If yes, how?

2. If you were told that these noises will disappear as soon as you

murder a person, will that compel you to do so?

3.

Result:

While wearing headphones: 55%-60% of the people stated having

difficulties while solving the questions.

Without headphones: 90%-98% people solved the questions without any

difficulty.

Conclusion:

After conducting the experiment, we concluded that it is not easy to perform

everyday tasks when you hear creepy disturbing sounds at any time of the day. It is

often hard to get your emotions under control and not attempt any task that is life-

threatening. Some people even reported to agree with the sounds if they were

asked to kill someone for the benefit of getting these sounds to end forever in case

of no other treatment available.