- Schizophrenia is a disease of the brain.
There's enormous amounts of evidence to back this up.
So why does it still feel
like there's a difference in public perception
of the illness as being different from other brain diseases
like Parkinson's, Alzheimer's or multiple sclerosis,
and why is there stigma around schizophrenia
but not other brain-related diseases?
That's what we're going to be talking
about in today's video.
(bright music)
Hi, everyone, and welcome back
to the Living Well With Schizophrenia channel.
If you're new here, my name is Lauren,
and I make videos about what it's like to live
with schizoaffective disorder or schizophrenia.
If you would like to see more videos like this one,
make sure to subscribe
so as not to miss any new content,
and also if you would like to help support the creation
of future videos like this one
please make sure to check out the link to our Patreon page.
It's in the description below.
Any support is really, really appreciated. Thank you.
So the first thing you need to know
is that schizophrenia is a disease of the brain.
We'll be talking more about this in future videos
because this is a big topic
and maybe the most important topic to be focusing on
in terms of reducing stigma.
What scientists know
is that there are structural differences
between healthy brains and people who have schizophrenia
observable on CT and MRI brain scans.
People with schizophrenia have up to 25% less volume
of gray matter within their brains
particularly in the temporal and frontal lobes
which are known to be vital
for coordination of thinking and judgment.
The brains of people with schizophrenia
also show neurochemical differences
when compared to normal brains.
They produce and process neurotransmitters
such as dopamine and serotonin differently.
We also know that genetics are at play
with the development of schizophrenia.
Now the difficulty is that
there is no specific identifiable region
that is responsible for schizophrenia,
or none that we know of yet.
Instead schizophrenia is likely the result
of many different areas of the brain
and connections within the brain
not working as they typically would.
I think because of the fact that less is known
about the mechanisms behind schizophrenia
that it somehow makes it less publicly accepted
as a brain disease.
And perhaps when the symptoms of a disease
manifest as more physical
such as tremors or difficulty with movement,
it's kind of easier to accept it as a disease.
With schizophrenia, the symptoms are more observed
as psychiatric as opposed to physical disabilities.
And maybe because we can't see physical ailments
with schizophrenia, there's more of a susceptibility
to attribute the problem and symptoms, not to the brain,
but to the person and their character.
This is an issue with the designation
of mental illness in general.
It is kind of seen as more of a loose, unscientific idea
rather than as a tangible physical illness.
Now within this, I think that illnesses such as depression
and anxiety are becoming a lot more widely accepted
and understood as mental illnesses.
However, there is still a lot of ambiguity
and misunderstanding when it comes to the public perception
of illnesses such as schizophrenia.
So while it's widely accepted by the scientific community
that schizophrenia is a brain disease,
there hasn't been the same level of acceptance
from the wider public,
and while dialogue around mental health in general
has improved a lot over the years,
it's mostly been around illnesses
such as depression and anxiety
instead of on neuro-diversity.
And that's a problem.
People with schizophrenia already struggle
with acceptance of their illness,
which can actually be a symptom of their illness,
anosognosia, and being part of a society
where there is stigma about having schizophrenia
means that people don't understand it for what it is,
and it makes self-acceptance even more challenging.
People with schizophrenia are not contagious.
They're not bad people.
They're living with a biological disease of their brain.
And while you may not see a physical disability,
it's worth remembering
that they are living with and managing a chronic illness
which observably manifests more as a disruption
in behavior, thought and functioning.
It's easy to lose sight of this
with the current categorization of schizophrenia
as a misunderstood mental illness
instead of the biological brain disease that it is.
If we're able to kind of shift public understanding
and awareness, I think,
there will be more opportunities to open up
for how to better support neuro-diverse people
within our community.
More public understanding will lead to more funding
and better research
and hopefully better treatment medication.
Now an important point to make here
is that we're not advocating
to eliminate the psychosocial supports
for people with schizophrenia,
just because it's a brain disease.
First of all, psychosocial supports
are important for any disease,
but they are especially vital for those people
whose symptoms are psychiatric in nature.
Like I mentioned before, this is a topic
we're going to be exploring more on the channel.
Hopefully this video helps you
to open up more conversations in your own life
and to think about schizophrenia
from a different perspective.
So maybe this video helped you to think about schizophrenia
in a bit of a different light and as more of, you know,
a physical ailment and a brain disease.
So I would love to know your opinions.
Is this something that you already considered,
schizophrenia as a brain disease?
Are you comfortable with the designation of schizophrenia
as more of a mental illness,
or where do you stand within this discussion?
Let me know in the comments below.
So thank you so much again for watching.
Just a reminder
that if you would like to support the creation
of videos like this one,
please make sure to check out the link to our Patreon page.
Also make sure to hit subscribe
so as not to miss any future videos that we put out.
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.