Mental health articles

Other prominent features of schizophrenia are the effects on a person’s social and occupational functioning. The onset of schizophrenia is usually very slow(insidious), with small changes to personal circumstances, beginning with a gradual withdrawal from peers and friends. In a young person, it may be precipitated by a family event or crisis, for example divorce, leaving home or examination pressure at school or university.

The first symptoms could be viewed initially as a form of shyness, which becomes more pronounced to that of self-isolation or staying in bed during the day and rising at night when others are asleep. Families report changes in routine where the person stops joining them for meals and eats alone in their room. These symptoms impact on the person’s relationship with their family. Ultimately, social connections become disconnected and they fail to return calls to friends. Subsequently, their friends, especially young people, who have their own social pursuits in adolescence gradually drift away. It is understandable that problems in sustaining and forming new interpersonal and close relationships become more difficult. A younger person may have experienced employment; however, when a person is so debilitated at home they are very unlikely to secure or maintain their position.

Tags: functioning, occupational, schizophrenia, social