Let me share a real case: a graduate student at a prestigious university who curled up in his room at home for more than two years after graduation.
The bedroom curtains were tightly closed, the room was dirty and messy, I wore my hair all day, I didn't wash my face or take a shower, and I didn't communicate with anyone. If his family talks to him, he will be very irritable and even angry. What's going on?
In fact, she is a schizophrenic patient. These manifestations of her "isolation" are one of the symptoms of schizophrenia – emotional apathy.
The manifestations of schizophrenia are complex and diverse, mainly divided into positive symptoms and negative symptoms. Positive symptoms are hallucinations, delusional and strange behaviors, often accompanied by emotional incongruity and emotional instability.
Negative symptoms are manifested by emotional apathy, lack of will, introversion. Emotional indifference is mainly manifested as not caring at all about the people and things around you. It is like throwing a stone into a sea, which should have stirred up a splash, but there was no wave, and the stone sank into the sea. There is no relative response to the outside world.
Of course, this is only a more extreme situation, and not all people with this type of disease will be like this.
Such patients often in the disease is relatively mild, some of the symptoms are not easy to be found, we put those more hidden consciousness and behavior, called the negative symptoms of schizophrenia, there are three types of manifestations:
1. Lack of will.
The main manifestation is the gradual loss of behavioral activities, the whole person is very lazy, and there is insufficient motivation to do anything. For example, the facial expression is uncertain, does not speak, and can even reach the point of not eating or drinking, and being indifferent to external things.
There is no initiative and enthusiasm for study and work.
In terms of personal life, he becomes extremely lazy, behaves strangely, has a withdrawn personality, and will only withdraw when he encounters difficulties.
After the disease worsens, even the instinct of self-defense will disappear, and if it is not treated in time, it will develop into mental dementia.
2. Emotional indifference
Patients do not have any emotional performance, are reluctant to communicate with others, including family and friends, do not communicate with classmates, colleagues, friends, do not know how to care for others, or are indifferent to their parents' illness.
3. Obstacles to thinking
The main manifestation is that it is taciturn and has problems with normal answers. The main manifestation is that the patient's thinking is very poor, the lack of this active communication, the patient often feels that the brain is blank, there is nothing to say, even if it is to the question, it is rare to give a response.
For example, I ask you how do you feel? Is there anything uncomfortable about it? What about emotions? The other person may not answer, or just reply with a simple word, and there will be no more description.
In addition to negative manifestations, schizophrenia also has some of the more common symptoms, which are divided into these three categories:
1. Auditory hallucinations
This type of manifestation is common, mainly because the patient can hear someone in their head talking to them. For example, in a space, when there is no one around, you can hear the voice of the speaker, the content may be some evaluation or some instructions, such as let you hurt others or yourself, or even suicidal behavior.
2. All kinds of delusions
The specific manifestations are delusions of victimization, delusions of relationships, and so on. I've mentioned it many times in the cases I've shared before. Patients will imagine things that do not exist, or insist on things that have nothing to do with them, and it is useless for others to explain to him. Delusions that others are going to murder him, talking or satirizing himself, or delusional that someone wants to marry him, such as one of my severe schizophrenics, delusional that the prince of Belgium is going to marry him, and he already has three children.
3. Strange behavior is generally manifested as excessive behavior regardless of the occasion and regardless of the object. There are also those who behave in confusion, who do not answer what they ask, do not know what they are saying, and will say something very outrageous. For example, some patients will suddenly smash all the glass, thinking that it is a mirror that will illuminate their own prototype.
The above six aspects are only general symptoms, and some special cases will have other manifestations. If your family or people around you have trouble with this, you can leave your symptoms in the comment area, and I can help you dialectic from the perspective of Chinese medicine.