Schizophrenia is a disease that usually occurs in young people for no reason at all. The cause of the illness is unknown. It affects the person's thinking, feeling, movement and behavior. The brain regulates all these things. The brain functioning is disturbed in several ways. These three ways are through Positive Symptoms, Negative Symptoms and Cognitive Symptoms.

Positive Symptoms

A person's thought processes with this illness can be disrupted so that one does not directly relate their previous thoughts. Also there are delusions that are beliefs that are untrue. There are four types of delusions: paranoid delusions -- in that a person believes that people are trying to harm him even though it isn't true. A second delusion is a delusion of reference that occurs when things in the environment seem to be directly related to the person even though they aren't. Third, is a somatic delusion in which there are erroneous beliefs about the body, and the last delusion is a delusion of grandeur, which occurs when a person believes that he/she is very special or have special powers or abilities.

The next positive symptom is hallucinations. There are five of these. The first type is auditory in that the person hears things that other people do not hear. The second type is visual in that a person sees things that other people do not see. The third type is olfactory in which the person smells things that other people don't smell. Fourth is tactile in which the person feels like something is touching his skin even though there is nothing actually coming in touch with the skin. Fifth is gustatory in which the person tastes something that is really not there.

The person's behavior and movement is also affected. They may seem more agitated and hyper, or feel weighted down and sluggish.

Negative Symptoms

These symptoms include: inability to enjoy activity as much as before, low energy, a blank, blunted facial expression, or having less lively facial movements. Low motivation, difficulty initiating activities, and an inability to make friends, keep friends, or not caring if they have friends.

Cognitive Symptoms

These symptoms affect concentration or memory. They are as follows: disorganized thinking, slow thinking, difficulty understanding others, poor concentration, poor memory, difficulty expressing thoughts and difficulty integrating thoughts, feelings and behavior.

If a person has some or all of these symptoms they should contact their doctor. He/she can explain them the symptoms to the person affected, and how they may better control them.

Psychosis is a general term used to describe psychotic symptoms. Schizophrenia is a type of psychosis. The symptoms of psychosis include: confusion, inability to think clearly, difficulty putting thoughts together, rapid thoughts that are hard to follow, inability to pay attention or to concentrate, confused speech, as well as disorganized behavior, and auditory, olfactory, visual and tactile hallucinations.

There are four types of Schizophrenia. They are as follows: paranoid type-frequent hallucinations with delusions, disorganized type behavior and flat affect, catatonic type-inappropriate behavior, immobility and speech problems and undifferentiated type which meets criteria for general category, but doesn't fall into any of the other types.