Schizophrenia: Symptoms, Struggles and Support

Categories: Nervous System Room Schizophrenia

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The symptoms of schizophrenia are widely varied. According to the DSM-IV, for a diagnosis of schizophrenia, two or more symptoms must be present for at least one month’s duration. Symptoms of schizophrenia are broken down into positive symptoms and negative symptoms. Positive symptoms can be described as symptoms, which produce an excess or distortion of normal function. Negative symptoms are ones that show a loss of normal functions.

The typical positive symptoms are delusions, which are false beliefs that are very strongly held despite evidence to the contrary. Delusions can take many forms such as belief that people are out to get you or that television and radio is speaking directly to you. One of the most notable characteristics of schizophrenia is hallucination. They can be auditory such as hearing voices or visual such as seeing things that other people can’t see. Hallucinations can affect the other senses such as touch, taste and smell. A schizophrenic’s speech can be jumbled as well. They may appear to be speaking to himself or herself or someone who is not there.

Some of the negative symptoms are lack of emotion, low energy, lack of motivation, and social isolation. Some of these symptoms can be the result of medications that are used to treat the psychotic symptoms. That makes the presence of these symptoms insufficient for a diagnosis of schizophrenia.

The book The Quiet Room is the story of a young woman’s struggle with schizophrenia.

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Throughout the book we are given a look into the life of a woman who is being tormented by voices that only she can hear. The opinions and reflections of her family and are told through their first hand accounts. It is an unusual account of what schizophrenia feels like from the inside.

This book is an amazing journey through the eyes of a schizophrenic. It left me astounded by the intense feelings and horror that this woman endured. The tragedy of a life full of promise cut short at the very brink of adulthood is heart wrenching.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand the life of people suffering from schizophrenia. Your perceptions of the mentally ill will be forever changed when you read the true account of a perfectly normal young woman struck down with an incomprehensible illness.

Lori’s father was hesitant to acknowledge his daughter’s illness because he felt that the blame rested with him. Marvin Schiller was trained as a psychologist and psychology at the time taught that mental health problems could be traced to how children were raised. If Marvin could deny his daughter’s illness then he could deny that he had done anything wrong in her upbringing.

Marvin Schiller was also a very career oriented man. He worked and socialized with people that he felt would not understand his daughter’s problems. He felt that his entire family including Lori would be stigmatized by her mental illness. It was this reason that he gave for perpetrating the lie that his daughter was under stress but otherwise fine.

There is no definitive explanation of why schizophrenia occurs; however biology may play a role. Scientists have shown that there is a genetic factor in schizophrenia. While “about 1% of the general population develops schizophrenia compared with 10% of those with a close family relative who has the disease.”(Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research 1998-2007) Scientists also believe there is a structure problem with the brain that has not been identified yet. Another possibility in the cause of schizophrenia may be an over production of dopamine. This theory is controversial, however, with many scientists disagreeing with the theory.

Lori’s battle with schizophrenia began at a time in her life when she was undergoing great change. She was about to embark on her last year of high school and leave behind her childhood when she first heard the voices. Her mother’s family history may have predisposed her to the illness but it seems to have taken hold and displayed episodes when she was under stress. Always a high performer she may have placed undue stress on her to please her parents.

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Her goals and aspirations were extremely high and it was through sheer will power that she accomplished all that she did in her early years of the disease.

Her cognitive abilities were significantly impaired during her illness. She had lost a great deal of her memory both during episodes and earlier happier times. When shown pictures of herself on vacation she had virtually no memory of having taken the trip. Lori was an A student throughout her high school career and obtained good grades while at Tufts, but during the course of the disease she became unable to concentrate or process information well enough to continue her education.

Initially in college Lori sought help for her problems through a traditional therapist. Weeks of seeing the therapist but not explaining the real problem she was having led to failure. Every combination of drug therapy was tried on Lori Schiller. They treated her psychotic treatments with drugs and gave her tranquilizers for anxiety. They increased doses and changed medications frequently. During her first hospitalization she was given twenty electroshock treatments, which did not help. She was subjected to restraint and cold wet packing, a treatment used to calm a patient down.

Drug therapy had not worked with Lori for very long. When a new drug or drug combination was tried there appeared to be some relief of symptoms, but over time the disease would take over stronger than ever. Electroshock therapy may have caused the impairment to Lori’s memory, but that will never be known for sure.

She is now being treated with Clozapine and other drugs that have alleviated her symptoms to the point where she is able to live a normal life. The disease will never be cured but she has learned to live with it and identify an episode before it gets out of control.

Lori’s childhood until adolescence seemed perfectly normal. She had appeared to complete the first four stages of Erikson’s stages of development. She was in a family that she described as happy and extremely close. The children were encouraged to succeed and praised for their accomplishments. There was perhaps too much stress to be an achiever during her early life to please her parents. During adolescence when she first encountered the voices that haunted her for many years she seems to have stopped progressing through the stages of development. She spent an inordinate amount of time and energy trying to hide what she was feeling and did not develop close intimate relationships.

The stress that she faced came from a combination of sources. She saw her parents as very successful and wanted to please them a great deal. She also may have placed stress on herself by her competitive nature. She stated that she wanted to be the best at everything she tried. Her choice of college placed her under even more stress when she was away from home.

Mr. and Mrs. Schiller were very caring and nurturing parents. However, they placed a high value on achievement and looking the part of the perfect family. This may have contributed to the stress that Lori faced growing up. They went through a very difficult struggle with their daughter and managed to keep their family together through it all. They are extremely committed to each other and their children. Lori’s relationship with her siblings is that of the typical older child. She excelled in everything and left a high standard for her brothers to reach. During her illness, her brothers may have become frightened of her and the illness itself, but through it all there appears to be a real love for the siblings.

Lori’s relationship with Dr. Fischer was very rocky in the beginning. Her inner voices attempted to keep her from developing a relationship with the doctor. Lori may have begun on the road to recognizing her illness and her fear of recovery may have been what caused her to fear Dr. Fischer in the beginning. She eventually developed a very close relationship with Dr. Fischer that gave her feelings of love. Her relationship with Dr. Rockland on the other hand, was not so beneficial to helping her disease. She never really divulged what was going on in her mind other than the existence of the voices. She didn’t seem to trust him enough to tell him what the voices were saying.

I believe the reason for the success of Dr. Fischer and the ineffectiveness of Dr. Rockland comes from Lori’s environment at the time of the therapy. When she was under Dr. Fischer’s care she was in a treatment program that allowed her to acknowledge her illness and learn ways to deal with it effectively. While she was with Dr. Rockland she was not in a place to admit the existence of her illness and thus unable to trust anyone with the inner workings of her mind.

The quiet room was supposed to be a place where a patient could go and calm down. It was kept with very little stimulation to help alleviate the symptoms of over stimulated patients. Lori saw the quiet room as punishment in her early days. She could not stand to be left in the company of only the voices. Later, when she learned to recognize when she needed help she began to use the quiet room as it was intended. She was able to go into the room and calm herself.

In the past I have seen people who I thought were schizophrenic. People who talked to themselves and seem disheveled and slovenly. I never understood the horror and fear that they have with things and people we all take for granted. I can never understand completely what it must be like to feel as though your mind is not your own, but I can now understand how truly tragic it can be. You may never know how a mentally ill person started out in life. They may have been very successful and normal for a time in their life, but now they are completely consumed by their illness. I believe this book has shown me that sometimes people who had all the promise in the world can be struck down with a horrible disease.
Moving to a new town during my high school years caused some small stress in my life. It cannot compare with the stress that Lori Schiller felt, but I felt isolated and different than everyone in my new school. Fortunately, I had my brothers who were going through exactly the same thing. Although I didn’t see them throughout my day in the big high school, I knew they would be there at the end of the day at home. We became very close during those first few months.

Bennett, Amanda, & Schiller, Lori. (1994). The Quiet Room New York, New York: Warner Books, Inc.
Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research (1998-2007) Schizophrenia. Retrieved 3, 30, 2008 from http://www.revolutionhealth.com/conditions/mental-behavioral-health/schizophrenia/schizophrenia?section=section_00