Schizophrenia is a malfunction of the mental faculties that basically impairs the ability of the mind to differentiate between what is imaginary, and what is real. A schizophrenic is so different from a normal person, in that the patient has neither bearing of the basic rules of decency, nor the elementary faculties of learning and adaptation that set the human race apart from the animals. Beholding a schizophrenic is a truly heartbreaking spectacle.

For unclear reasons, Schizophrenia is more common in males than it is in females and the symptoms in females are less adverse. There is no exact explanation as to why schizophrenia occurs, but it is thought to have a genetic edge. It is a theory that schizophrenia may be caused by the occurrence of traumatic events that from a dormant hereditary aspect may snowball into a fully fledged mental state.
There are some common symptoms that signal the offset of this problem; it may begin with mild insomnia, a lack of the expected emotional responses, depression and shunning social exposure. This generally develops into even worse symptoms. The person begins to have delusions; thought patterns that are based on fantasy. They may begin to encounter things, sounds and sights in their reality that do not actually exist and have some sort of emotionless personality. Eventually, their thoughts become incoherent and it may become hard to actually follow what they are talking about.

From this point on, the symptoms are more or less random, dependent on the level of the illness the person is suffering, but ideally, they cannot take care of themselves, and require constant supervision, because they are likely to harm themselves and others.
Schizophrenia may seem like seem like a death sentence, but it actually is not. It is a treatable illness, and the support the patient receives from family, friends and society altogether make the situation so much more tolerable. Experts in fact have observed that patients with this kind of support had a very high chance of getting better.

Aside from that factor, psychotherapy and medication are vital ways of treatment. Of course it is important to have the patient taken to hospital for his safety and the safety of those around him and it is from there that doctors treat the illness. The patient is treated with medication that is referred to in medical language as anti-psychotics, to keep at bay the adverse effects. Anti-psychotics in essence are meant to do in the brain what can no longer be accomplished; to create a chemical balance. Common medicines include Haldol, and Clozapine, and although they may cause some adverse side effects like oversleeping and drowsiness, they are a small price to pay for relief from such a debilitating illness.