Schizophrenia is a brain disorder with many different symptoms. It is a medical illness which can be treated. The symptoms vary from person to person.

Symptoms can happen suddenly or take years to develop.

What are the signs?

• Jumbled or confused thoughts
• Trouble deciding what is real and what is not, such as thinking you are God
• Hallucinations -seeing or hearing things that are not there•Unable to think clearly or focus your thoughts
• The world seems unreal; you may not be able to react to what is going on around you
• Thinking that people want to harm you
• Having trouble trusting people
• Feeling alone or cut off from other people, such as family or friends
• Not able to work or care for yourself

How is it treated?

Treatment is most effective when it is started early. Medicine helps the symptoms and is an important part of treatment.

• If you stop taking the medicine, your symptoms will come back
• It is important to take the medicine as written on the bottle
• Along with medicine, counseling can help you cope with the symptoms

Here are some things you can do to help yourself:

• See your health care provider
• Keep all of your appointments
• Don’t use street drugs or alcohol
• Exercise
• Find things to do with and around other people