Schizophrenia is a brain disorder that affects the way the brain processes outside stimuli. Schizophrenia affects the way a person acts, thinks and sees the world. People with this disorder have an altered perception of reality and can make them withdraw from society. This disorder is thought to mainly affect the cognition, but it also usually contributes to chronic problems with behavior and emotions. A person who suffers with schizophrenia will not see things the same way as an unaffected person does.
Schizophrenia usually develops in early adulthood in men and in 20’s and 30’s in women. Childhood schizophrenia is rare but can occur. It occurs similarly in all ethnic groups. According to the Society for Neuroscience, about one in 100 adults has schizophrenia and roughly one in 40,000 people under the age of 18 suffer from this disease. A combination of genes passed down by both parents can lead to schizophrenia. If a parent has the disorder a child has an estimated 10 to 15 percent chance of developing it, if a sibling is a schizophrenic a child has an estimated 7 to 8 percent chance of developing the disease. The risk significantly increases if more than one family member has the disease. Children with early on-set schizophrenia tend to experience an extreme degree of fear that does not subside, extreme sensitivity to sounds and light, frequent self-talk, claims that someone or something is in their head talking to them telling them things to do, they are very closed off from people.
This often disabling disorder can often lead to the assumption that those suffering with schizophrenia are better off locked away in an institution rather than run the risk of them becoming a violent threat to society or another addition to the homeless factor in the United States. Despite the two million or more people in America who suffer with schizophrenia, society stills
