- One of the lesser discussed symptom types of schizophrenia
are the cognitive symptoms.
And in today's video,
I'm gonna be talking about what exactly these entail
and giving some examples of each of them.
(gentle tune)
Welcome back to the Living Well With Schizophrenia Channel.
My name is Lauren and I make videos about what it's like
living with schizoaffective disorder or schizophrenia.
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So like I mentioned before
cognitive symptoms are one of the lesser discussed
types of symptoms behind positive symptoms
and negative symptoms of schizophrenia.
And if I'm being honest,
I really didn't even know that much about them
before doing some research for this video
and so I learned a little bit too
about what my illness entails.
So the term cognitive is referring to brain functioning
and so it kind of makes sense
that since schizophrenia is a brain disease
that it would have an effect on the brain's functioning
and the cognitive abilities that an individual with it has.
Cognitive symptoms refer to how well your brain learns,
stores and uses information.
In addition the cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia
can make it hard for an individual
to organize their thoughts and to make decisions
and it can sometimes feel
like their brains are just jumping around
from one unrelated thought to another.
Sometimes they have thought withdrawal,
which is the feeling of
thoughts being removed from your mind for some reason
and sometimes they can have thought blocking
which is the feeling of having thoughts suddenly blocked
for some reason or another.
And we talk about this more in a video we recently posted
about thought broadcasting if you wanna check that one out.
All right, so moving on to the list
of what exactly cognitive symptoms entail.
The first one that I've already kind of touched on
being disorganized thinking,
and this one comes out a lot
for people who are living with schizophrenia
based on my experience and the people that I've talked to
who are living with schizophrenia.
It can be really difficult to keep
a coherent train of thought sometimes
because you have really disorganized thinking
where it feels like your brain is just kind of jumping
from one unrelated thought to the next.
When I'm experiencing this
it can be really difficult to do simple things
like have a conversation with someone or to read a book
because my thoughts are getting really jumbled up
and it's hard to keep a coherent train of thought.
Next cognitive symptom is slow thinking.
And so this is when
your thinking is just kind of slowed down
and this might be like a response
to the disorganized thinking
where your brain is just trying to slow things down
to really understand what's what.
An example of this would be
when I'm having a conversation with someone
and I can't really keep up with the flow of the conversation
because my thinking is impaired or is slower than usual.
The next cognitive symptom is poor executive functioning
which essentially means
the ability to understand information
and to use it to make a decision.
And so for me, this happens quite frequently.
So an example of this would be
noticing that parts of the house are in need of cleaning
and not really being able to make the connection in my brain
that I should go clean it.
I do know that like I should clean the house
but sometimes it's hard to make that that jump between
seeing something as being dirty or in need of cleaning
and actually acting upon that.
Another kind of comical one that just came up
when discussing this with Rob was that
he said he noticed that sometimes
I just don't get out of the way.
So when he is washing dishes or something
and his hands are wet and he turns around
to dry his hands on the towel and I'm in the way,
I just won't move.
And I didn't really notice that I did that
but apparently that is a thing.
And this is just another example of
seeing a bit of information, seeing that Rob's hands are wet
and not being able to make the connection
that I should move,
and so not really being able to respond appropriately
to information that is presenting itself.
The next cognitive symptom is difficulty understanding.
And this one plays out for me
especially when I'm stressed out.
So the first example that comes to mind
is when I'm in conflict with my partner Rob,
and things are escalating
in terms of what we're fighting about or whatnot
and it's really difficult sometimes for me to understand
what is going on in the moment
because I'm feeling really stressed out
and a little vulnerable and whatnot,
and my brain just kind of can't really keep up
and can't really understand what is happening sometimes.
The next cognitive symptom is trouble focusing
or paying attention or difficulty with concentration.
Now, this came up a lot for me when I was in school
and it was really, really hard to maintain focus
or maintain concentration for long periods of time
or even really short periods of time as well.
This played out in a lot of different ways
from studying to writing papers,
to trying to just get work done.
It was hard sometimes to really rally up
or muster enough concentration and focus
to get those tasks completed.
The next cognitive symptom is difficulty with working memory
or the ability to use information
immediately after learning it.
So someone with schizophrenia may have trouble
keeping different facts in their mind at the same time,
like remembering a phone number
as well as instructions at the same time.
And this kind of plays out for me
you probably won't believe this because this is what I do
and it comes across I think well,
but it's hard for me to see a script
or see what I wanna talk about,
maintain that or log that to memory
and then regurgitate it on camera
because not only am I trying to remember
what I'm trying to say but I'm also very aware
of all the filming equipment around me
and the act of presenting to the camera
and so this is actually a really difficult task for me.
If you go back to some of our earlier videos
you can see a little bit more clearly
how much I struggled with this,
but even so the magic of editing
helps to kind of camouflage that
but it has been a really difficult process
and a big learning curve for me.
Another potential cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia
is a lack of awareness of their illness.
And so we did a video on anosognosia,
which is basically the lack of insight into your illness
or the lack of awareness of your illness
but earlier you can check that out here.
But essentially it is a cognitive symptom
because your brain is not recognizing
that your illness is present and for whatever reason
someone with schizophrenia may be telling themselves
that they don't have the illness
or they may be believing that they don't have the illness.
And the last cognitive symptom that I wanna touch on
is difficulty expressing thoughts.
In this video, recording this video
I turned to Rob after saying difficulty expressing thoughts
and said, "I don't know what to say for this one."
And he said, "Just say that."
So that happens more regularly than you think as well
where I just don't really know
how to express the thoughts that are in my head
and I think this is a common symptom
for people with schizophrenia.
So these are some of the cognitive symptoms
that are involved with schizophrenia.
Like I mentioned, there are the different types of symptoms
of schizophrenia are positive symptoms, negative symptoms
and cognitive symptoms.
And so we wanted to touch on what the cognitive symptoms are
and give you some examples from my own life
about how they play out.
So if you enjoyed this video or found it helpful at all
please make sure to give us a thumbs up
and also make sure to subscribe
so as not to miss any future content that we put out.
Also just a reminder that if you wanna help support
the creation of future videos like this one,
please check out our Patreon page,
the link is in the description below.
If you wanna catch up on some other types of symptoms
of schizophrenia check out this video here
positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia.
Thank you so much again for watching
and as always wishing you and your loved ones good health.
See you in the next video, bye.