All mental health disorders are challenging and can be debilitating, but none cause the severe symptoms faced by individuals with schizophrenia. As specialists in complex conditions, The Prescribing and Clinical Team, at Dare To Care Too in Largo, Maryland, have extensive experience treating schizophrenia, whether you haven’t been diagnosed and need an evaluation or have a long history of hospitalizations and difficulty adhering to medications. Call Dare To Care Too today or request an appointment online to learn more about their medication management and therapy services for schizophrenia.
request an appointmentWhat is schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia is a mental health disorder that affects the way you think, changes your perceptions, and alters your ability to interact with others. The primary symptom of schizophrenia, psychosis, changes your sense of reality and makes it impossible to function in everyday life.
What schizophrenia symptoms occur during psychosis?
Psychotic episodes typically come and go, causing four major symptoms:
Delusions
A delusion means you believe something that’s not real. Even if someone shows you evidence you’re wrong, you don’t believe it and stick with your delusion. Two examples are believing that someone controls your thoughts or you are a famous person.
Hallucinations
If you have hallucinations, you feel, smell, see, taste, or hear something that doesn’t really exist. The most common hallucination is hearing voices.
Disorganized thoughts and speech
Psychosis causes chaotic, disjointed, illogical, and racing thoughts. These disorganized thoughts are reflected in the way you speak. You may say things that don’t make sense, jump from one topic to another, mix up words, or stop talking in the middle of a sentence.
Disorganized behavior
This group of symptoms includes senseless, bizarre, repetitive, and sometimes dangerous behaviors or the opposite, catatonia. Walking in circles is an example of a repetitive, bizarre behavior, while aggression is one possible type of dangerous behavior. You could become catatonic and stop speaking or moving.
Does schizophrenia cause other symptoms?
Beyond psychotic symptoms, schizophrenia also causes negative symptoms. Negative symptoms include having no emotion, lacking motivation, isolating yourself, and neglecting your personal hygiene.
How is schizophrenia treated?
Schizophrenia is treated with antipsychotic medications that reduce psychotic episodes. When taken consistently, medication may put psychosis into remission.
The Dare To Care Too team specializes in long-acting injectables (LAIs) that make it easier to stick with your medication regimen. They give you an injection once every few weeks or months (depending on the medication), then the medication slowly releases into your system.
LAIs give you a consistent dose of medication without worrying about taking a daily pill. When the medication runs out, you simply get another injection.
Your provider may also recommend individual or group counseling. Counseling can help you learn to recognize early signs of a psychotic episode and how to prevent it. You can also learn skills for managing the personal, social, and work-related challenges caused by schizophrenia.
Call Dare To Care Too today or use online booking to request an appointment and begin treatment for schizophrenia.
