Skip Navigation Link

Northern Wyoming Mental Health Center Inc.

Looking for Help?
Click Here for the Office Location Nearest You

What Schizophrenia Is Not

Rashmi Nemade, Ph.D. & Mark Dombeck, Ph.D., edited by Kathryn Patricelli, MA

There is still a lot we don't completely understand about schizophrenia's causes. We can say that schizophrenia is without question a biologically based disease of the brain. It is not: something caused by evil spirits, witchcraft, or being possessed by demons as was once widely believed. It is also not caused by poor parenting or by brain damage. It is not a form of an intellectual disability, dementia, delirium, or intoxication. It is not a form of multiple personality disorder. It has little to do with the tendency to be aggressive or violent.

There are many other common misconceptions about schizophrenia as well. The following statements are all false:

    • People never recover from schizophrenia
    • Schizophrenia is contagious
    • Most people with schizophrenia need to be institutionalized
    • People with schizophrenia are not able to make decisions about their own treatment
    • People with schizophrenia are likely to be violent
    • Most people with schizophrenia can't work
    • Jail is an appropriate place for people with schizophrenia

Perhaps the most important thing to understand about schizophrenia is that it is not anyone's fault. It is simply a disease of the brain that some people develop. If you have schizophrenia, you should know that you did not do anything to cause your illness. Similarly, if you care about someone with the condition, know that nothing you did or didn't do caused that person to become affected.

 

Share This

Resources

  • Articles

  • Questions and Answers

    • Mentally ill Daughter
    • Am I Crazy?
    • I See and Hear Things, What's Wrong With Me?
    • I Think I Have a Mental Illness
    • How to Handle my Mothers State of Mind?
    • Schizophrenia
    • Schizophrenic Relapse !
    • My Little Girl
    • What To Do?
    • Paranoid Schizophrenia Diagnosis
    • 23 more
      • Pregnant with A Mental Illness
      • Help
      • Am I Schizophrenic?
      • Extreme Psychopathy/sociopathy?
      • voices
      • Am i schizophrenic?
      • What Are Some Coping Skills for Paranoia?
      • hearing voices, uncertain and scared
      • A very low threshold for stress tolerance
      • Am I going to do this?
      • Hearing Voices
      • night fears
      • Is this Schizophrenia?
      • losing personality wholness
      • Pregnant and Possibly Schizophrenic
      • Medication problem
      • My Schizophrenic sister refuses treatment
      • My Nephew Sees Angels
      • Two cases of likely paranoia ...
      • i have always believed someone was watching me
      • A Librarian in Illinois asks:
      • Am I Schizophrenic?
      • Is Paranoia A Destiny?
  • Book & Media Reviews

    • 10% Happier
    • A Beautiful Mind
    • A Beautiful Mind
    • A Beautiful Mind
    • A Colorful History of Popular Delusions
    • Angelhead
    • Beyond Madness
    • Clues
    • Cognitive Theories of Mental Illness
    • Daddy's Girls
    • 38 more
      • Dante's Cure
      • Defeating the Voices
      • Diagnosis: Schizophrenia
      • Diagnosis: Schizophrenia
      • How to Become a Schizophrenic
      • I am Not Sick I Don't Need Help!
      • I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
      • Imagining Robert
      • Julien Donkey-Boy
      • Juvenile-Onset Schizophrenia
      • Living Outside Mental Illness
      • Living With Schizophrenia
      • Living with Schizophrenia
      • Mad in America
      • No One Cares About Crazy People
      • Phenomology & Lacan on Schizophrenia, After the Decade of the Brain
      • Recovery from Schizophrenia
      • Saints, Scholars, and Schizophrenics: Mental Illness in Rural Ireland
      • Schizophrenia
      • Schizophrenia
      • Schizophrenia Revealed
      • Schizophrenia: A Scientific Delusion?
      • Social Cognition and Schizophrenia
      • Street Crazy
      • Surviving Schizophrenia
      • Surviving Schizophrenia
      • The Art of Adolf Wolfli
      • The Collected Schizophrenias
      • The Early Stages of Schizophrenia
      • The Eden Express
      • The Epidemiology of Schizophrenia
      • The Invisible Plague
      • The Madness of Adam and Eve
      • The Outsider
      • The Quiet Room
      • Toxic Psychiatry
      • Transforming Madness
      • Wrestling with the Angel
  • Videos

    • Raquea's Story: Finding What Works
    • Treating First Episode Psychosis
    • What is Schizophrenia?
    • Corey's Story: One Door Closes, Another Opens
    • Treatment of Schizophrenia
    • Tell Me About Schizophrenia
    • NAMI's Ask the Doctor Calls--Successful Aging with Schizophrenia
    • Implementing Early Treatment of Psychosis -- RAISE Connection
    • Schizophrenia & Dissociative Disorders
    • What is Schizophrenia?
    • 2 more
      • Living With Schizophrenia
      • Schizophrenia - A Quick Intro