Can neurasthenia lead to schizophrenia. Pseudoneurotic (neurosis-like) schizophrenia

anonymous, Male, 26 years old

Hello Igor Evgenievich, I have already tried several times to ask you questions with a sensible description of the problem, but the moderators do not allow my requests to pass through. I hope it works this time. I will try to describe the problem as briefly and concisely as possible. A year ago I suffered from stress, physical discomfort began in the form of pressure in the ears and temples, sleep was disturbed, it became superficial, and frequent awakenings began. I went to see a therapist and a neurologist - I’m healthy everywhere. Then a long-term depersonalization began, gradually the old symptoms went away, new ones appeared - tingling in the arms, legs, etc. I am now working in the far north, there are few qualified specialists, I managed to find only one psychotherapist-psychiatrist. As a result, the doctor diagnosed neurosis and prescribed a course of antidepressants. I did not take them, deciding to deal with the problem myself through exercise and self-soothing. However, further symptoms appeared such as delirium in the head when falling asleep and waking up, for example, “hairy temperature” or when I woke up in the morning I almost called my wife and said that we needed a “northern stroller”. It also seems that a certain stiffness and illogicality of thinking has appeared, and a strong fear of schizophrenia has also appeared. Sometimes delirium or confusion of thoughts may occur briefly during the day. Since there is currently no opportunity to see another doctor, I will ask you whether such symptoms can occur within the framework of neurosis or am I already mentally ill? There were also several awakenings at night, when there was a very difficult to convey feeling - I didn’t understand who I was, where I was, a very restless feeling that you couldn’t formulate a single thought, as if you were deprived of the ability to think, analyze. I really want to visit your clinic when I’m in Moscow, but I can do this on vacation only in 3 months. My question is - is this the beginning of schizophrenia or not?

Hello! Of course, you are not the same as you were - neurotic anxiety changes the perception of reality according to the principle - “fear has big eyes.” But at the same time, you quite rightly noted that the main criterion of normality is your critical attitude to what is happening. You don’t need to be a psychiatrist or have special techniques at your disposal to distinguish a mentally ill (crazy) person from a normal, but suffering neurotic person - as you know, “God forbid we go crazy, it’s better to have a staff and a bag.” Even if you have not had close contact with mentally ill people, you can easily form a collective image of, say, a “city madman” or a typical patient in a psychiatric hospital. You are afraid of becoming like this, but nothing more. If something similar had happened to you, then I would now be answering questions not to you, but to your loved ones, who are concerned about your behavior. It would not bother you at all - you would be sure that everything is fine with you, but those around you form some kind of “conspiracy” against you.

anonymously

Igor Evgenievich, hello again! Thank you very much for your responses to the early consultations. I would like to ask one more clarifying question. I have been taking fluoxetine for a month now as prescribed by a psychotherapist, 1 tablet in the morning. Problems with sleep began and have not gone away to this day - shallow sleep, I sleep a maximum of 5 hours a day, very frequent awakenings. For complaints with sleep, the doctor prescribed half a tablet of Teraligen at night, I don’t feel much effect, frequent awakenings also bother me. Also disturbing is the mental delirium in the morning that I described earlier; when I wake up, the phrases “how to catch a pigeon in a red car”, “crying towel” begin to appear in my head. Once, upon awakening, the flow of such delirium was so strong that, not knowing how to stop it, I began to speak the emerging words out loud. Or yesterday, when waking up, there was an internal dialogue like this: “Am I going crazy? Yes, I'll go. And why? Because I'm special." I’m afraid that I may not understand the boundaries, the nature of these symptoms - it was like a voice in my head or just a drowsy state. Although I really understand that voices in my head are not normal. All this is not imposed by anyone or anything, it happens in my head and these are just my thoughts. This doesn't happen during the day. There are also thoughts that my mind is gradually fading and I am going crazy. Fear that I will soon cease to adequately perceive reality and will not notice it. I had a consultation with two psychiatrists and psychotherapists, they say neurosis, anxiety-neurotic disorder. Previously, he was tested twice by a psychologist for thinking, but no mental abnormalities were identified. Despite this, I’m still afraid that in my case everything is much worse. It seems that I don’t always think logically, even now when typing text I analyze whether I’m constructing sentences logically. There is also intrusive music in my head from time to time. I think I’m doing something wrong, because I take medications and go to doctors. I apologize for the possibly repeated questions, but I hope to receive an answer. Can I realize that I am mentally ill? Is this schizophrenia? In your opinion, is the treatment described above correct in my case? Can you help me?

Hello! You do not become mentally ill, but, unfortunately, you remain highly neurotic. Of course, you can help, but it’s unlikely to be done with fluoxetine, especially in the minimum dosage (20 mg), especially if it’s Russian-made fluoxetine (and not, say, Prozac). In case of severe anxiety, you should choose a selective serotonin with a pronounced anti-anxiety, sedative component of action, and this is not fluoxetine, but rather paroxetine, fluvoxamine, escitalopram, duloxetine.

anonymously

Igor Evgenievich, I wanted to say thank you very much for your answers! I will have two more clarifying questions. The first is at night during one of the awakenings around 4-5 o’clock in the morning, I wake up with a kind of “altered state”, which is difficult to describe. At this moment, fragments of phrases in your head and dialogues are possible. In principle, all my concerns about mental illness lie in this - I wake up, I begin to understand that such a mess is happening in my head, I think that I am really starting to experience signs of psychosis (an altered state, dialogues in my head, fragments of phrases). If you describe this feeling, it’s like suddenly starting to understand that this is it - it’s this uncontrollable feeling of impaired consciousness, as if the world around is starting to distort and you are unable to stop all these processes in your head. I repeat, this does not happen during the day. Is this psychosis? And the second question - on one of the Internet forums I read the story of a girl who was initially described as suffering from neurosis; doctors prescribed her to take antidepressants, which disrupted the “chemical metabolism” and subsequently led to a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Is this possible?

Any altered states of consciousness that occur only in waking states (on the border between sleep and wakefulness) do NOT indicate mental pathology: read, for example, about the so-called. hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations. Taking an antidepressant can NOT lead to schizophrenia. Have you ever heard, read somewhere, or can you imagine that one of the possible or at least probable causes or factors in the development of schizophrenia is “taking antidepressants”?

The neurosis-like form of schizophrenia is one of the most favorable types of the disease with pronounced periods of remission. It belongs to one of the types of sluggish schizophrenia, in 42% of cases it occurs in adolescence. Persistent remissions of the disease are observed in 37% of cases; they last on average from six months to several years. The symptoms of the pathology at the beginning of their development are similar to neurosis, so an important task for treatment is the early diagnosis of schizophrenia.

Differences and symptoms

The main difference between neurosis and psychosis is the fact that the first condition appears against the background of complete physical well-being, that is, the person does not complain of any other health problems. In the second case, the process is formed unnoticed and is a consequence of dysfunction of the endocrine and nervous system.

Neurosis is a somatic, autonomic disorder of the nervous system; psychosis largely affects the psyche and consciousness of the patient.

With neurosis, the patient is critical of himself and those around him, he does not lose touch with the real world and gives a full account of his actions. The patient is able to analyze his condition and admit to himself that he really needs medical help. Psychosis gives an absolutely opposite picture; a person speaks loudly about his own well-being and refuses a medical examination.

Neurosis preserves personality and is a reversible condition that can be treated. Psychosis suppresses one’s own “I” and is less treatable.

The clinical picture is also different. Symptoms of neurosis are psychological discomfort, irritability to the point of embitterment and rage, sudden mood swings, a large number of fears and worries without any good reason, tearfulness, chronic fatigue, accompanied by migraines, insomnia, fatigue under normal loads.

Psychoses are characterized by delusions, auditory or visual hallucinations, slurred speech and inexplicable behavior, and a fixation on certain incidents. The patient limits himself from society, lives in his own separate imaginary world.

As for the question: “Can neurosis turn into psychosis?”, opinions differ here. Some experts argue that these are two unrelated conditions that are not intertwined and give their own special complications. The latter say that neurosis, without proper diagnosis and therapy, exhausts the nervous system so much that in addition to it, the patient’s psyche is involved, as a result of which psychosis can develop.

Diagnosis and treatment

A neurologist, psychotherapist or psychiatrist must listen carefully to the patient, check his tendon reflexes, and observe his behavior and manner of speech. It is important to collect a complete anamnesis of the disease, life, to clarify the presence of concomitant pathologies, household and social living conditions.

Treatment is prescribed individually and consists of two components: taking medications and normalizing the psycho-emotional state.

The most preferred medications are antidepressants (Azafen, Imizin), psychostimulants (Provigil, Sidnocarp), tranquilizers (Tofisopam, Diazepam) and anti-anxiety drugs (Adaptol, Deprim). They improve sleep, eliminate anxiety and depression, reduce negative mood, and reduce tension in the nervous system. Prescribed exclusively by a specialist with the selection of the required dose and duration of medication.

The following social factors must be eliminated or minimized:

hard work;
informational and emotional stress;
violation of routine, sleep, lack of sleep;
problems with friends and close relatives;
absence of a loved one, personal life;
material and everyday problems;
failure to realize past dreams and goals.

If a person is not able to solve the listed issues on his own, psychologists and psychotherapists will come to his aid; they will model behavior and correct their view of a particular situation.

Additional methods for restoring moral and physical well-being are water procedures, bathing with essential oils, physical therapy, relaxing massage, physiotherapy with sedatives, acupuncture, darsonvalization.

Neuroses, as well as many other endogenous mental pathologies, which can also include low-grade schizophrenia, are called diametrically opposed diseases by psychiatrists. They have their similarities, but there are also differences. The treatment of neuroses is carried out by a psychotherapist, without the help of a psychiatrist, while the treatment of endogenous mental pathologies is the prerogative of psychiatrists. Determining neurosis or schizophrenia is not always very simple, since patients can deliberately imitate the clinical picture of the disease.

It should be noted that what distinguishes schizophrenia is that this disease does not have a so-called starting point or cause. This is a chronic genetic pathology, which in extremely rare cases can develop against the background of prolonged stress, alcohol abuse, after childbirth, and these are considered only trigger factors.

Neurosis is often caused by some situation that has affected the human psyche. It could be severe stress or fear, fatigue. It is important to understand that such a pathology is unlikely to be chronic and continuous with rare attacks of exacerbation. It is also necessary to understand that the fear of transformation of one disease into another has no basis.

Prognosis and treatment

Neurosis-like schizophrenia has a relatively good prognosis with correctly prescribed and effective treatment. The personality defect does not reach a pronounced state. But the problem may be different; without proper therapy, schizophrenia can develop into another, more complex form, for example, simple or paranoid.

As a rule, such patients avoid society, despite this, adolescents mostly manage to graduate from high school. Such patients work inconsistently, often in easier conditions and under the supervision of relatives. Over the years, the pathology progresses, the symptoms become thicker, and the patient develops schizoid and hysterical features.

According to statistics, about 14% of patients receive the second disability group. A long-term stationary condition with little changing clinical picture in any direction is diagnosed in approximately 23% of patients. Committing life by suicide within five years after the first period of manifestation occurs in 2% of patients. Long-term remission occurs in about 37% of cases.

Treatment for such conditions depends on which of the clinical manifestations of schizophrenia come to the fore. For example, hypochondriacal syndrome is difficult to treat; it is advisable to use various combinations of psychotropic drugs in combination with ganglion-blocking, thymoleptic or psychotonic medications. Antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs are often prescribed. In addition, group and individual sessions with a psychotherapist, support from loved ones and relatives, rehabilitation in sanatoriums and positive emotions are important. When remission is achieved, the clinical manifestations are mild and the patient can be in society without harm to others.

Reading strengthens neural connections:

doctor website
Mental illnesses such as schizophrenia raise more questions among specialists than answers. Sluggish schizophrenia is one of many types of disorder, the etiology of which is still unclear. It is considered a disease of dissident people: philosophers, esotericists, people of a creative mind.

Fundamental difference

The main difference between neurosis and schizophrenia is that the first condition remains critical of itself. A person may realize that he has problems and fear. As a result, the patient tries to understand what is happening to him, can seek help from specialists, and undergo diagnostics. If there are no signs of somatic pathology, which should correspond to the complaints, the best decision would be to refer you for treatment to a psychotherapist.

Psychoses are characterized by completely different behavioral signs. Patients can hardly name today's date or day of the week, are confused about their location, and can sometimes call themselves another person or identify with them. Healthy mental functions familiar to all people, such as thinking, emotions and will, are significantly split. Even when the period of psychosis ends, it is difficult to say that this patient is normal. This is due to the fact that he has a significantly reduced criticism of the events around him, of himself, he can say ridiculous phrases and sentences, and the manner in which his emotions manifest themselves will only cause bewilderment in a healthy person. It is worth noting that not understanding oneself becomes painful. At the same time, such a patient will not go to a doctor for help, trying to hide the problems he has encountered from others.

Sluggish schizophrenia

The gender of patients is not a factor that significantly influences the typology of the course of the schizophrenic process. The risk of the disease is approximately the same in men and women, but women tend to have a later onset of the disease and a faster recovery than men. The main difference between schizophrenia in women and schizophrenia in men is that in women the paroxysmal form is more common, and men are more prone to the continuous form. Typically, the symptoms in men are more pronounced, and the external signs of the disease are more noticeable: an unkempt appearance, a reluctance to take care of oneself. At the same time, if such signs appear in women, those around them immediately notice them, although it is impossible to say at what stage of the disease these manifestations of the disease become noticeable.

Neurosis-like schizophrenia This form of schizophrenia is considered the most favorable, as it has a large number of persistent remissions. It includes a wide range of anxious-phobic obsessions and usually begins in adolescence, with the formation of a shallow personality defect such as mental infantilism. It was noticed that the later the process begins, the smoother it proceeds. panic attacks The most pronounced symptoms are dysmorphomania, panic attacks, derealization, depersonalization; obsessions may be present, which differ from neurotic disorders by being more irresistible. If, with neuroses, patients hide their rituals from others, then with neurosis-like schizophrenia, rituals are performed openly, and patients can even involve others in them. These rituals are protective in nature, relieve nervous tension and, according to the patient, prevent trouble. They can be very complex, sometimes last for hours and gradually take a leading position in the clinical picture, completely displacing other human actions, that is, he cannot take a step until he performs a lot of rituals, which can sometimes lead to complete isolation from society.

Phobias, which can be especially strange, are colored with less emotionality, but, nevertheless, can lead to suicide. The patient spends all his time at home, and even there he does not feel completely safe.

Hypochondriacal sluggish schizophrenia Hypochondriacal sluggish schizophrenia is expressed by an obsessive fear of having some kind of disease (most often cancer), with an exaggerated assessment of its consequences, despite the negative results of a medical examination. Its main core consists of ideas and thoughts associated with pathological, unusual sensations that arise in one’s own body. The patient may feel certain somatic ailments in the body, or claim that there is some kind of creature in his body, for example, a worm, and colorfully describe the movements of the animal within himself. The queues at clinics are 60% made up of just such people. They believe that doctors made a mistake in diagnosis, and are firmly convinced that they have a serious, incurable disease, although they cannot accurately convey in words their painful sensations. Such patients, as a rule, use metaphorical comparisons: “the heart burns,” “there is a fire in the stomach,” “pus fills the whole body,” etc.

Latent schizophrenia A number of researchers classify latent schizophrenia, expressed by mild disturbances, as a latent form of sluggish schizophrenia; its existence is not recognized by all authors and is actively disputed by them. Psychotic symptoms are usually not observed with it, but over time they can appear under the influence of various unfavorable factors. Personality changes are mild, the behavior and priorities of patients do not change much, and mental disorders are minimal.

Signs of low-grade schizophrenia Low-grade schizophrenia has various signs, one of them is alienation. The patient is completely immersed in himself and constantly listens to the processes occurring in his body and engages in soul-searching. At the same time, his mental abilities become impoverished, activity and initiative disappear, and there is a detached perception of reality. The patient has an increased interest in abstract, abstract problems (magic, religion, problems of the universe); he often studies a lot of philosophical literature (philosophical intoxication). The volitional sphere also suffers; a person rushes between opposing decisions and ultimately refuses to make any choice at all. The attitude towards relatives changes noticeably, a person becomes indifferent to their needs, and the ability to empathize disappears. Previously unusual demonstrativeness, coquetry, affectation and hysterical notes may appear. Gradually, his appearance takes on eccentric features, sloppiness appears, which causes ridicule and rejection from others. His speech becomes pompous, meaningful, but at the same time poor in intonation.

The main symptoms (obsessions, phobias, overvalued ideas) dominate throughout the disease. The course of the disease is uneven, at first the symptoms develop quite quickly, then the course slows down and is accompanied by ups and downs of mental disorders. Occasionally, fragmentary delusional ideas, hallucinations and individual mental automatisms may occur. Patients are most often socially adapted and may have families and friendships, although their mental disorders are noticeable even to a non-specialist. To relieve symptoms, such people may begin to use alcohol and drugs, in which case an almost irreversible personality defect quickly sets in.

Treatment of sluggish schizophrenia Treatment of patients diagnosed with low-progressive schizophrenia, especially with a predominance of hysterical and neurosis-like disorders, should include a course of psychotherapy, which involves targeted and sometimes painful work on oneself. A person needs to learn to take responsibility for his life and understand that he has the opportunity to choose, that he is not a helpless victim of an illness, his future depends only on himself and positive changes are possible. You cannot convince a person that he must learn to live with his symptoms, that his illness is chronic and focus his attention on this. Recovery can take a long time, since change and self-knowledge is an internal process, and it cannot be artificially accelerated, because acquired painful manifestations are firmly held in the structure of the personality.

In some cases, psychotropic drugs are used. Treatment of sluggish schizophrenia with this technique is determined by the course of the disease process, and the use of medications reduces emotional stress and eliminates hysterical and phobic reactions. After several years of active therapy, complete disappearance of psychopathological manifestations is possible.

Patients with schizophrenia who are undergoing successful treatment may sometimes experience emotional complications that cause a relapse of the disease. To prevent a relapse, it is important to promptly recognize signs that portend danger (for example, nightmares) and stop them in a timely manner, which does not require harsh measures. The patient's consciousness must be moved away from the unconscious by simple therapeutic methods. You can invite the patient to draw a picture of his internal state, as a result of which all the chaos is objectified and can already be viewed from a distance. Such a picture reduces the significance of the horror, makes it tame, ordinary, removes reminders of the original experience and allows the patient to explore and interpret it consciously.

Often relatives are interested in how to behave with a patient with schizophrenia. First, the healthy parts of the personality must be addressed and supported. You should not treat the patient as a dangerous person who does not control his actions, because he needs increased attention, care and patience, and a favorable climate at home has a very positive effect on the treatment being carried out.

Hallucinations

One of the most reliable signs that distinguish neurosis and schizophrenia is hallucinations. At its core, this is a deception of perception, which can be delusional in nature. They usually occur during the onset of psychosis in people suffering from schizophrenia. They can occur extremely rarely in neuroses, but their distinctive feature is their short duration, simplicity, and also the fact that they have a close connection with sleep, that is, they occur during falling asleep or waking up. In neurotics, they can occur as repeatedly repeated thoughts, images, such as spots, pictures.

In patients with schizophrenia, hallucinations are often of a different nature, which may not even have an image, but be in the form of voices. They argue, swear, criticize the patient, make him afraid, thereby provoking feelings of influence on the person. That is, someone invisible forces him to perform some action. Sometimes schizophrenics say that they are subject to some kind of influence, for example, hardware influence. A distinctive feature of such hallucinations is the fact that voices or devices are visible only to the patient who is 100% sure of it.

How to diagnose

Schizophrenia differs from neurosis in that neurotics retain their personality. In other words, all the personal qualities that characterized a person before the disease - determination, emotionality - remain with the development of neuroses. It is also important to note that neurosis is reversible. The patient receives a course of treatment from a psychotherapist, after which he simply returns to his normal, familiar life, only he already acquires some new skills of self-control and reaction to various stimuli, which led him to neurosis.

Schizophrenia eventually leads to the development of apatoabulic syndrome. It is a condition in which a personality defect develops over the years. Patients are very lethargic, apathetic, emotions are manifested very weakly due to a decrease in the ability to do so. And the clinical picture is growing, voices and delusional ideas are becoming stronger. You shouldn’t expect any initiative from such a person; he closes himself off in himself, his world, and is less and less interested in reality. This provokes disability; there are cases where patients have lost the ability to independently take care of themselves and care for themselves.

You can distinguish neurosis from schizophrenia without outside help using online tests for neurosis, which are freely available on the Internet. It is important to read the instructions carefully to avoid misinterpretation of the results. If you cannot do this yourself, then you need to consult a doctor who knows exactly how to distinguish between these two diseases.

One form of schizophrenia is pseudoneurotic schizophrenia. It is not considered classical, which can be seen in all classifications of diseases. This is a state that can be quite comfortable for a person’s life, since he can remain in it for a very long period of time - up to 30 years.

At this time, psychopathic-like, neurosis-like and other disorders that occur in schizophrenia may develop. But most of all the patient suffers from fear and neurotic attacks. The difference is that there is no progression of the personality defect, and there are no hallucinations or delusions. Other manifestations of this disease may include:

Unfounded fears;
Emotional lability;
A craving for studying subjects that are boring for an ordinary person - philosophy, mysticism;
Decreased productivity in daily life;
A person stops taking care of his appearance.

Such people remain socially active, but they rarely complete their education. Sometimes such patients even work, but this work is very unstable, since they give preference to those places of work where they do not need to be active, experience stress, or strain. They rarely have a family, which is due to constant fear with a tendency towards progress, as well as pathological lability of emotions. For example, if a person is afraid of any public transport, then over time he will simply completely stop using it. Sometimes these fears reach the point of absurdity.

How to distinguish neurosis from sluggish schizophrenia?

The diagnosis of schizophrenia is often questioned by psychiatrists. A carefully collected anamnesis and observation do not always confirm the presence of the disease. Depressive, neurotic and personality disorders in some manifestations are similar to the symptoms of low-progressive schizophrenia, so diagnosis is difficult. The difference between sluggish schizophrenia and neurosis is that the personality of neurotic disorders is preserved. There are other differences:

Neurosis is based on a specific psychotraumatic situation as a starting point that worsens over time (prolonged stress). Schizophrenia is genetically determined.
With neurosis, a person retains the state of what happens to him. In schizophrenia there is no criticality.
Over time, the symptoms of sluggish schizophrenia worsen, the personality defect increases: emotions become scarce, painful fantasies intensify, will disappears. Neurosis is a condition that can be corrected and reversible.

The first signs of the disorder are observed in adolescence. The onset of sluggish schizophrenia can be provoked by the use of psychoactive substances, alcohol, or a severe stressful situation. Making a diagnosis is difficult, since the symptoms become clear only at the peak of the disease. At an early stage, all manifestations are similar to many mental disorders. Sluggish schizophrenia - symptoms:

decreased activity;
narrowing your circle of interests and friends;
strangeness and eccentricity are noted in behavior;
fears;
obsessive thoughts, ideas;
depersonalization (a person hears and sees himself as if from the outside);
episodic hallucinations;
emotional impoverishment, coldness.

Symptoms also depend on the predominant type of sluggish schizophrenia:

Psychopathic-like schizophrenia
. Characterized by the loss of “I”: when looking in the mirror, they perceive themselves as an outsider. Pretentiousness and mannerism predominate in behavior, the person is prone to hysterics. Deceitfulness and tendency to vagrancy are increasing.
Neurosis-like sluggish schizophrenia
. Characterized by the presence of various kinds of phobias, a person over time acquires various kinds of fears:

agoraphobia;
mysophobia;
cancerophobia.

Signs of low-grade schizophrenia in men

The development of the disease, its course and symptoms depend little on the patient's character and individual characteristics, but according to average statistical data, low-grade schizophrenia in men begins at an earlier age, progresses faster, and treatment requires a more comprehensive and lengthy treatment. The peak of the disease occurs between 19 and 28 years of age. Signs of the disorder typical for men:

rapid impoverishment of the emotional sphere;
in conversation: incoherent speech with pretentious fragments of phrases;
severe apathy;
delusions and hallucinations;

Signs of low-grade schizophrenia in women

Sluggish schizophrenia in women has the same symptoms as in men, but in a less pronounced form. The disease debuts later, does not develop so rapidly, and the personality defect is slightly expressed. Treatment is more successful. Symptoms of low-grade schizophrenia in women:

Appearance: hairstyle, clothes, makeup undergo changes. The woman becomes sloppy, rarely washes, begins to put on vulgar make-up and dress, or completely neglects herself.
Household chores cease to interest the woman; she may begin to bring various rubbish home and store it away.
Mood swings throughout the day: hysterics (laughter, sobs), aggression or sadness, tearfulness.
Paroxysmal course of the disease.

In the modern world, it often happens that a person has to deal with neurotic and mental disorders. This is due to the fast pace of life, constant stress and problems, and an unstable emotional state.

Neurosis-like schizophrenia is a mild form of schizotypal personality disorder, which is similar to neurotic in some symptoms. This disease is quite rare, not more than 0.5% of all cases. As a rule, it is easily treatable and does not require isolating the sick person from society, but it is not completely curable and requires monitoring by specialists for the rest of his life.

Yes, these two diseases have similarities, such as:

hypochondria;
depression;
obsessive states;
the presence of fears in a person.

Many people believe that neurosis can develop into a schizotypal disorder, but this is not the case. Neuroses arise as a consequence of previous psychological trauma, as well as complex internal and external conflict, due to severe stress, chronic fatigue, and after childbirth.

Such a pathology, most likely, will not be chronic continuously and will remind itself of itself with infrequent exacerbations. People around may not notice that a person is experiencing neurotic disorders. The patient remains critical of both himself and the circumstances around him. He notices changes in himself, worries about this, turns to specialists and experiences hypochondria, thoroughly studying the symptoms of various diseases and trying them on himself, just like a schizophrenic.

A person with pseudoneurotic schizophrenia can live without noticing serious changes in himself for quite a long time, up to three decades. However, during the course of the disease, all kinds of neurotic and mental personality disorders progress. People with this disease rarely complete their education, work in the same place for a short time, and it often happens that they cannot start a family. The disease forces you to take medications for a very long time, and sometimes throughout your life.

The patient has no desire to take care of himself, he looks unkempt, as a rule, everyday life does not bring productivity, the person experiences various fears that are absolutely groundless, and sometimes there is a craving for studying subjects that are boring for other people, for example, philosophy. Often, a patient’s phobias become simply absurd and progress; if, for example, a person is afraid of buses for some reason, he will soon stop using this type of public transport altogether.

Schizotypal disorder, unlike neurosis, occurs in a person regardless of whether he has experienced any stress that traumatized his psyche and regardless of his character. Patients may become confused about time and location, or confuse themselves with another person. Even when the period of psychosis ends, one cannot say with certainty that the person is absolutely normal.

Treatment

Treatment of neurosis-like schizophrenia consists of psychotherapy sessions, sometimes it is possible to prescribe mild tranquilizers or sedatives.

Typical neurosis can also be treated by visiting psychotherapists; the need for psychotropics rarely arises. Usually these are short-term courses.

Schizophrenia requires constant, sometimes even lifelong, use of medications.

Schizophrenia and neurosis are two diseases that can often be very similar in their external signs. An experienced doctor can correctly carry out a differential diagnosis, but primary screening can also be done at home through online testing.

In our age of overabundance of information, stress and crazy speeds, the problem of mental health, or more precisely, ill-health, is becoming almost the most important.

As you know, mental health, the same “healthy spirit” that ancient healers loved to talk about, is an integral component of health in general. Alas, the features of modern life make us extremely vulnerable to various mental disorders. And the disease does not distinguish whether the person in front of it is young or old, man or woman.

In terms of prevalence, mental health disorders are now among the leaders after cardiovascular diseases and cancer. According to WHO, more than 560 million people on the planet already suffer from various mental illnesses. And almost every second person is in danger of contracting a mental illness during their lifetime.

Very often, serious psychoneurological diseases such as neurosis

and
psychosis
.

Can neurosis turn into schizophrenia?

Nervous disorders are different from mental illnesses, hence they are two completely different branches of psychiatry. A psychiatrist treats schizophrenia, and a psychotherapist treats neuroses . When prescribing treatment, the psychotherapist extremely rarely resorts to psychotropic medications. If such a need still exists, they are taken for a short time, as an additional remedy. With schizophrenia, the situation is completely opposite: drug treatment must be prescribed immediately, it lasts quite a long time, in some cases a lifetime.

Worth seeing: Neurosis according to ICD 10

As for the causes of its occurrence, neurosis is preceded by severe nervous shock, stress, excessive stress or a protracted illness. Schizophrenia does not depend on external factors; it is mostly a genetic disease. Alcohol abuse, difficult childbirth or various types of stress contribute to its exacerbation.

Alcohol abuse may exacerbate schizophrenia

What lies behind the terms neurosis and psychosis?

We are so used to throwing around the words “hysterical”, “neurasthenic”, “psychopath” that we often forget that we use medical terms as curses or even ridicule. Meanwhile, there is nothing funny in these words.

Neurosis

Neurosis can be briefly described as follows:

This is nervous exhaustion, a long-term chronic disorder that can develop in a person against the background of stress or a traumatic event.
The personality of a patient suffering from neurosis usually does not undergo major changes. The person maintains a critical attitude towards the disease; he can control his behavior.
As a rule, neurosis is manifested by vegetative, somatic and affective disorders.
This is a reversible (curable) disease.

The most common types of this disease are:

neurasthenia (asthenic neurosis, fatigue syndrome);
hysteria (hysterical neurosis);
various phobias (fears, panic attacks) and obsessive states (obsessive neurosis).

One of the main reasons for the formation of neurosis is stress in the broadest sense of the word, be it a childhood trauma, an unfavorable climate in the family, a crisis at work, nervous strain, interpersonal conflict or emotional shock.

According to medical statistics, the state of neurosis is familiar firsthand to 10-20% of the population of our planet, and approximately 5% of the world's inhabitants suffer from various types of psychosis.

Psychosis

Speaking about psychosis, it is necessary to note the following:

This is a mental disorder characterized by inappropriate human behavior and an atypical reaction to events and phenomena.
It manifests itself as mental disorders, in particular, disturbances in the perception of reality (hallucinations, delusions).
It develops unnoticed by the patient and may be a consequence of pathologies of the endocrine and nervous systems.
Capable of completely changing the patient's personality.
This is a difficult to cure disease.

Psychoses according to their origin are usually divided into:

Endogenous
, that is, associated with internal causes (somatic diseases, hereditary mental disorders, age);
Exoorganic
, caused by external factors (infections, intoxication, etc.) or associated directly with a violation of the structure of the brain (trauma, hemorrhage, neoplasms, etc.).

The first group includes:

affective insanity;
senile (senile);
affective;
schizophrenic;
epileptic;
symptomatic psychosis, etc.

The exogenous group includes:

reactive acute psychosis;
intoxication;
infectious;
alcoholic psychosis, etc.

Signs of psychosis and neurosis

Symptoms of psychosis

Recognizing warning signs is sometimes not easy, but you should pay close attention to any changes that appear in the character and habits of a loved one.

Characteristic symptoms of psychosis are:

decreased performance or febrile activity;
mood swings;
irritability, suspicion;
desire for self-isolation;
unexplained change of interests;
sleep disturbances, decreased appetite;
careless attitude towards one's appearance;
increased vulnerability and other atypical reactions to events and phenomena;
impaired coordination of movements;
incoherent speech;
hallucinations, delusions.

Symptoms of neurosis

It is quite difficult for a non-specialist to identify a nervous disorder. And yet the clinic of neurosis has characteristic features.

Neurosis may be indicated by:

decreased cognitive abilities;
depressed mood, tearfulness;
self-doubt, low self-esteem;
irritability, dissatisfaction;
frequent changes of mood;
obsessive thoughts;
fixation on bad news and events;
unmotivated anxiety states;
poor appetite ;/li>
violations in the sexual sphere;
increased sensitivity to noise, light, vibrations, etc.

Children's fears and facial tics are also symptoms of neurosis.

Very often in everyday life people confuse the concepts of “neurosis” and “neurasthenia”. Let us repeat once again: neurasthenia is a type of neurosis, one of its most common forms.

Characteristic symptoms of neurasthenia are:

decreased intellectual abilities;
dizziness (the so-called neurasthenic helmet);
increased fatigue;
chest pain;
mood swings;
low self-esteem;

Treatment of neuroses and psychoses

Only a (psychoneurologist, psychotherapist, psychiatrist) who has undergone appropriate training and has sufficient practical experience in helping patients with neurological and mental disorders can conduct a competent diagnosis of the disease, identify its causes and offer adequate treatment.

Treatment of psychoses and neuroses (including treatment of neurasthenia) is, as a rule, a whole complex of measures that includes many stages.

So, a combination of the following methods helps to achieve a good result:

drug therapy;
phytotherapy;
psychotherapy;
hardware treatment;
water procedures;
special gymnastics;
therapeutic diet, etc.

The main purpose of psychiatry is the treatment of neuroses and psychoses. These pathologies are increasingly common in the modern world, and the terms have become very common in the practice of psychologists. The human nervous system is susceptible to such negative factors as genetic predisposition and negative environmental influences. At first glance, the symptoms of these diseases are similar to each other. The main difference between neurosis and psychosis is the nature of the damage to the nervous system. Neurosis is considered a mild stage of the disorder. Psychosis is characterized by a severe degree of the disease.

Difference between schizophrenia and depression

Depressive disorders are a widespread disease in the modern world. But despite this, diagnosing it is quite problematic. For example, schizophrenia, in the initial stages, has similar symptoms. In this case, depression itself can be long-lasting, clearly expressed, or, on the contrary, hidden behind a whole list of other symptoms.

Only a qualified doctor can clearly establish a diagnosis and distinguish where one disease is and where another.

It is worth noting that for those suffering from schizophrenia, this particular illness is a precursor to visions and delusional states. In a complex clinical picture, timely establishment of the correct diagnosis is very important, and it is better to identify schizophrenia earlier. The whole problem lies in the appearance of hallucinations and delusions. After some time, they become stable and it becomes much more difficult to treat the patient.

The initial stages of schizophrenia and depression are similar

It has been established that schizophrenia begins with a vivid manifestation of emotions. There are many of them and they are often completely different. Most often, these are experiences associated with the fact that the patient’s perception of the world around him changes. It happens that due to a depressive state it is difficult to immediately establish the correct diagnosis. In addition, a person may periodically be in euphoria, he develops a feeling of calm and tranquility. As for the symptoms of depression in schizophrenia, they disappear fairly quickly. The environment and circumstances in it change quickly, and a person tries in vain to adapt to them.

Worth seeing: How long does neurosis last?

To be able to timely separate these two diseases, it is necessary to study them carefully and deeply. For example, know psychotherapy, understand that with schizophrenia the patient is tormented by various experiences that do not have a clear basis. The patient is constantly in fear and is tormented by a feeling of guilt. The doctor should consider all these symptoms not as separate, but as a whole. It is worth remembering that schizophrenia differs from depressive disorder in the presence of delusional states that are meaningless in their content. The patient may have hallucinations, most often auditory. A person hears certain voices.

As for depression, it is characterized by a bad mood, loss of feelings of joy and some disturbances in thinking. The disease forces you to think badly about everything, not to see joy in the future, and it also reduces physical activity. Doctors know very well how not to confuse depression and schizophrenia and prescribe the most effective treatment. If we talk about depressive disorders, people suffering from them have low self-esteem and do not see interest in previously exciting activities.

Such symptoms can indeed be confused with the initial stages of other mental disorders, so it is necessary to examine and prescribe treatment carefully. If depression is prolonged, then it is generally considered not a disorder, but a rather serious mental disorder. But unlike schizophrenia, it is easily eliminated and the patient returns to a normal, familiar way of life.

Depression is much easier to deal with than schizophrenia

Symptoms and forms of neurosis

Neurosis is a human condition caused by psychological trauma or a prolonged stressful situation. Neurotic disorders deplete the nervous system and are accompanied by autonomic disorders (increased heartbeat, increased sweating, stomach upsets). This condition is characterized by irritability, fatigue, anxious feelings, tearfulness and touchiness, despair and aggressive manifestations, and sleep disorders. With neurosis, a person is able to think clearly, be aware of his actions and independently try to cope with the disease.

Frequent causes of neurosis are traumatic events, prolonged overstrain of the nervous system, internal and external conflicts. The occurrence of the disease is also facilitated by biological and hereditary factors, personality traits, conditions and lifestyle, and improper upbringing. Disturbances in the nervous system occur from continuous emotional and physical stress, which lead to chronic stress. The causes of neurosis also include diseases that deplete the body.

When diagnosing neurotic disorders, there are several main forms:

Neurasthenia, or chronic fatigue syndrome, in a person, accompanied by irritability, headache, fatigue, and sleep disturbances.
Hysteria is expressed in a disorder of the motor system (convulsive seizures), in sensory and speech disturbances, as well as in emotional reactions (laughter, screaming, crying).
Fear is an overwhelming syndrome that is characterized by a general state of anxiety or phobia.
An obsessive state manifests itself in people with suspicious and anxious characteristics. The main signs for this form of neurosis are obsessive actions, thoughts and memories.

Psychosis and its manifestations

Psychosis occurs against the background of sudden negative events that entail serious mental disorders and loss of a sense of reality.
In psychotic disorders, significant changes are observed in a person's behavior and appearance. This disease is characterized by the occurrence of hallucinations and delusions. The patient becomes depressed and indifferent to the world around him, he is inadequate, inhibited, and his facial expressions are disturbed.
Psychoses are classified depending on the causes of their occurrence:
endogenous disorders arise against the background of internal neuroendocrine factors; This type includes manic-depressive psychosis and schizophrenia;
exogenous psychoses manifest themselves as a result of the influence of external factors: severe mental trauma, infectious diseases, alcohol and drug addiction;
organic psychoses are caused by brain disorders (congenital pathology, tumor, traumatic brain injury, etc.).
The symptoms of psychosis are quite broad. In addition to hallucinations and delusions, this disease is accompanied by disturbances of perception and sensation, emotional instability and mood swings. The patient moves chaotically, speaks indistinctly and abruptly, and is in a sleep-like state. All these symptoms do not occur at once in one patient. Based on the manifestation of certain symptoms, the form of psychosis is determined: depressive, hypochondriacal, affective, and others.

Neurosis-like schizophrenia or neurosis?

Consultation

Hello.

I will try to cover the topic as much as possible.

Since childhood, I have always been anxious, whiny, tender, amorous, suspicious, impressionable. In the 6th-7th grade I faced bullying from my classmates, they beat me and laughed at me. Although I fought back at times or cried, in general I did not remain silent. But he didn’t tell anyone anything, he kept it to himself. At the same time, I didn’t really communicate with the class, but I always had friends; I talked and made friends with 2-3. I was afraid to perform, to somehow express myself. In 8th grade, the bullying stopped, I began to communicate with some of the offenders, and became friends with them. But, in the 10-11th grade, I was very anxious about society, I did not show myself in any way, I still talked with 4-5 classmates, sat in the back desk. I had friends on the street, walked every day, talked, had fun. He always maintained good relations with his relatives, although he was withdrawn. My relationship with my father was not very good. He often drank and took it out on me, but at the same time he sometimes showed love, gave gifts, and did not refuse. I don’t remember normal communication with him. In general, I don’t remember much good about him, mainly how he, while drunk, attacked me with threats, then apologized. When he was sober, they just communicated normally, he talked to me sober less often than with other relatives, but there were also good times with him. My mother is also anxious, she kept telling me - tell everyone that everything is fine with us, don’t express your opinion to anyone, be patient, etc. She worried about me, caressed me, showed love often. Maybe that’s why I was not particularly sociable, I was afraid to show emotions in people, which is why from the age of 16 I was called strange, but interesting, by those who did not know me well. Although he always found someone to communicate with everywhere, he was not left alone. I started studying after 8th grade at 3rd grade, I was afraid to perform. Sometimes I started playing truant with thoughts (it’s easier to go home than to embarrass myself in front of the whole class because I again didn’t learn, but I was still worried about it). I greatly depend on other people's opinions. I wake up before the alarm clock. Prone to self-accusation. I am terribly unsure of myself; I was often interested in people’s opinions about myself. I have a hard time with criticism.

6 years ago I tried spice, quite a lot for the first time. During the action of the spice, there were panic attacks (rapid heartbeat, fear of death, colic throughout the body), derealization (it seemed as if I was in a dream), and possibly depersonalization. All this happened for about two hours, then it went away. A month later I felt a panic attack again, after which for a day or two there was slight derealization at times. All this was repeated for two months. There was anxiety about the Unified State Exam, because the teachers said that I would not pass and that it would be better to go to a vocational school to study. There were also problems with my father, he drank and there were frequent quarrels because he could just shout at me for hours or start fighting. I hid my condition from everyone, I Googled everything, studied what was wrong with me, searched all the sites, videos on YouTube. Around this period, my grandmother died of cancer, right before my eyes. In the end, when it was really bad, I told my friends and my mother. Friends said that it was all bullshit, I just needed to smoke again and everything would go away (I didn’t smoke, although they did it with me almost every day), my mother took me to a free psychologist, who could not help. Once my father left and I passed the Unified State Exam, everything went away. Although I still couldn’t get into the budget program, I decided to retake it not next year. I always drank sedatives valerian, validol, and motherwort before bed. I played online games, where I often spent time and communicated.

I found a girl, everything was fine with my friends, and I entered a more or less good university. I dated a girl for 2 years, in the end she left me with the words “you’re a wuss, not a man, smart, thin and hairy.” Problems began with my friends, they began to irritate me - they smoked spice in the entrance and slept right on the stairs, I stopped communicating with them, although it was very difficult for me, I had been friends with them for a long time. I started having problems with my studies, couldn’t cope with the workload, fell into grades, lost interest in the profession, and ended up giving up my studies after 2 months of deliberation. I fell into depression, did nothing, everything seemed dull, meaningless, cried and was irritated. Sometimes I walked with a friend, with whom I continued to communicate, since he was normal, and went to visit my aunt. He started whining to them about how bad everything was: his girlfriend dropped out, he didn’t finish his studies, his friends turned out to be drug addicts. My father arrived (he worked in the north and came home on vacation for 2.5 months). He began to spread rot on me, yelling every night that I don’t work, I’m an idiot, I missed a good girl, that I’m crazy and I need to be locked up. As for my attitude towards my father, I don’t like him, his actions were terrible, but I understand that he has the second stage of alcoholism and I even feel sorry for him. My father has treated me quite harshly for the last 5 years. Thoughts about death began, like I’m going to die and then talk about it, and I would like to look at the events after my death from the outside. I wanted to die in front of these people. All this lasted about 6 months. Then I was drawn to meet girls, talked to them, went for walks, went to see some in another city, but there was only sex, 2-3 times, no more, or they didn’t suit me in some things, or I them. The depression passed, again, this time I didn’t turn to anyone, I didn’t take pills, just regular sedatives.

It was time to enter another university, I chose a city further away, 1000 km away. I liked the faculty and enrolled. I’ve been studying for 3 years now, I like everything, the staff, the teachers, the city, the university itself. I made new good friends and girlfriends, I also communicate with an old friend, but we rarely see each other. Everything seems to be fine, a year after admission I find out that the faculty does not have accreditation, and for several years now the military registration and enlistment office has been bothering me and sending me summonses. Since the age of 18, I have not been to the military registration and enlistment office, ignored the summons, anxiety, tension, panic arose again, what to do and what to do, again severe anxiety, depression. If I go to serve, I’ll lose my studies, time, and whether I’ll even be able to do it there. In the end I decided to mow, my mother supported me. I went to private psychiatrists and described the feelings that I experienced then at the age of 17. Some said that I have anxiety neurosis, some GAD, someone said that it is a mixed depressive and anxiety disorder. I didn’t know what to do, I collected information and recipes. The money ran out, I went to the PND. There the doctor simply gave out prescriptions, said that he did not make diagnoses, and suggested that we think about an examination in a hospital. I decided to go to the hospital after a month of running around to psychiatrists. Before the hospital, I was worried about my baldness, my mood was already low due to the fact that a couple of people said that I had less and less hair on my head, and if you look at my father and grandfather, they both went bald by the age of 27.

How was the examination carried out? They immediately said that none of the relatives had any mental illness or disorder. I described everything that I experienced at the age of 17, added to this that I was interested in philosophy, had no friends, panic attacks just happened - I don’t remember the rest of what I said. Well, I added that I read it from the Internet when I was trying to understand what was wrong with me. He spoke with the thought “I’ll embellish it a little, just to be sure,” a habit since childhood. The doctor interviewed me once, then the student interviewed me and the psychologist conducted a couple of tests on me for thinking, I remember there was one for logic and the meaning of proverbs. At the end of the examination, the professor of the Department of Psychiatry of the Belarusian State Medical University looked at my chart and after 5-7 minutes of conversation with me he confirmed the diagnosis. I kept taking pills because I had anxiety and low mood and couldn’t sleep peacefully. Mom didn’t recognize me a week later, she says that she became pale, uncommunicative, and lethargic. He stayed for 18 days and was discharged. They didn’t tell me the diagnosis, then only my mother said that I had F 21.3. After the examination, pills were prescribed. I drank them, always on time. Problems with memory and attention began, he became absent-minded and withdrawn. Everyone around me told me not to drink, otherwise I would become like a zombie, but I continued because I had anxiety and low mood. Stopped taking pills. Mom often came to see my attending physician, who often asked if we were from the military registration and enlistment office. He told his mother: “this looks like Neurosis-like schizophrenia,” “he’s studying to become a psychologist with you, he’s read all sorts of stuff and now he thinks that the same thing is happening to him” (at that time I had not yet studied subjects related to medicine).

I went to the military registration and enlistment office. They wrote me off there. They didn’t believe me, they shouted, they put pressure on me, they threatened me, but they wrote me off. In a week I will go to get VB. My condition improved and everything went away as if by chance, after the news that I was not going into the army.

I don't take pills. Head The department began to praise that I had become better at speaking and telling stories. I noticed my energy and determination, and I began to study better. There are no problems with my father either; my mother divorced him.

And everything seems to be fine, but the thought is still gnawing: “what if the diagnosis is correct? " I went with friends to Moscow. They started renting an apartment together. I told them about the diagnosis and told them to keep an eye on me to see if there were any strange things in my behavior. We already had the subject of psychiatry. I began to ask their opinion about me. Mom, dad, friends, girls, everyone always said that I am very kind, tolerant, because I try to find an explanation for everything, I justify everyone, I share what I have, I sacrifice at a loss to myself. There was also the following situation: a friend with whom I lived began to irritate me greatly, because his jokes were offensive, another friend also noticed this. I thought, well, he’s just stupid, he doesn’t know how to joke, because it was clear that he was not particularly socialized, childish. I asked him not to do that - he didn’t understand, I asked him again urgently - he still didn’t understand. As a result, he lost his temper and responded to his next attack in a very rude manner, it became easier, but I still had thoughts “maybe I’m too harsh with him.” They say they don't find anything strange in me. When you are at school or at work, everything is fine. But when I’m left alone with myself for a long time, more than a week, I start to think. I asked my relatives if there were any strange people among our relatives or who had been examined/was in a psychiatric hospital. They say no, only my great-uncle was imprisoned for murder and my father suffers from alcoholism.

I have tattoos, I recently bleached my hair, I carefully match the colors of my clothes and the clothes themselves, I am slow, uncertain, have little emotion in front of a large number of people (now I try not to hide my emotions), although I enjoy performing, I am still scared, I feel anxious when I express my opinion in public. During sessions before, my body twitched slightly before going to bed, and a couple of times in the morning I could not get out of bed, there was a buzzing in my ears, panic, and I saw someone’s silhouette in my peripheral vision. I'm also prone to wild introspection. I fantasize about how I express myself (in creativity) and some of my friends hear me, see me, evaluate me - mostly before bed, it helps with stress. I’m a little demonstrative, although sometimes I’m embarrassed by my appearance. I take care of myself, but there is a little dirt around, when it accumulates in a day or two, then I clean it up. When I'm inactive for a long time, laziness overwhelms me, I start to sleep for a long time, and my biorhythm gets lost. I really became interested in philosophy, I read “The Stranger” by Camus, I understood something about death, I was impressed by Tolstoy’s “Thou shalt not kill”, I also found out something for myself, I tried to read Nietzsche - I didn’t understand a lot, I didn’t agree with some, but something was really interesting. We had a philosophy subject, the teacher advised us to read it. Now I'm not interested in that anymore. I take photographs (I have a camera), am interested in modern technology (gadgets, tablets, phones), online games (I am a member of a gaming community), a little films, music (I listen to a lot of different things: sometimes classics, rock of the 80-90s, pop music of the same times and modern, recently rap (often Oxymiron, but his lyrics are quite abstract)). It seems to me that I was always a little different from my peers, but I understood them. Some thoughts are scary. With all this, there is a goal - to move to a bigger city, to St. Petersburg, to work, live there, and finally find a girl already, I dream of making music, for myself, maybe working in front of the public (a teacher, for example, my profession allows it). If I am criticized in any way, then I begin to wonder what is wrong, but if I am praised, it puts me in a good mood for the whole day.

Now I don’t take medicine, I don’t have money, dear ones, and I don’t want to, they make me feel bad. I’m waiting for rituals, voices, illusions, obsessive fears, etc. to begin. I want to understand whether there is schizophrenia or not, so that I can definitely drink them. I found a lot of information about my diagnosis on the Internet. Tired of thinking “is this a manifestation of schizophrenia? And this? What if this is due to schizophrenia? What if I’m in such a long remission? ", etc. The very fact of the diagnosis does not give peace. It seems like now there is nothing at all like it was before (panic attacks, derealization, depersonalization and everything above), there is anxiety and mild depression.

I realized that I couldn’t evaluate myself objectively. Maybe I, like a typical schizophrenic patient, deny my diagnosis. That's why I asked for help here. I don’t know what to think anymore.

1. What can you say about my condition? (what does it look like)

2. What can you recommend? (take medicine, get treatment or go to the hospital and tell everything in more detail)

3. History of spice use. Why did this affect me so much, why didn’t my psyche (seemingly) fall apart?

With these thoughts, I lost the line between what is a character trait and what is a symptom of a disease.

Thank you for your attention.

Is this normal?

Treatment of psychoses and neuroses

Psychoses and neuroses can and should be treated. To avoid succumbing to neurotic and psychotic disorders, you should lead an active and healthy lifestyle, exercise, do not overwork, avoid stressful situations and undergo regular medical examinations. Any neuroses and reactive psychoses can be cured if you consult a specialist in a timely manner.

Treatment of neurosis of any form is carried out on an individual basis. For therapy to be effective, it is necessary to immediately determine the factors contributing to the development of the disease. Neurosis is treated with medications and psychotherapy. Depending on the type of neurotic disorder, the doctor may prescribe antidepressants, vitamins, and drugs that affect the brain. To completely eliminate neurosis, you need to eliminate the cause of its occurrence or change your view of the situation that led to the disorder.

Regardless of the form of psychosis, the patient is hospitalized because he is in an inadequate state and can unknowingly cause harm to both the people around him and himself. While in the hospital, the patient is treated with psychotropic drugs under the constant supervision of doctors. It is very difficult to cure psychotic disorders, but it is still possible. Any changes and disorders that arise against the background of psychosis have varying stability. Some may disappear without a trace in a short period of time, others last longer and may be resistant to treatment.

Yes, these two diseases have similarities, such as:

hypochondria;
depression;
obsessive states;
the presence of fears in a person.

Such a pathology, most likely, will not be chronic continuously and will remind itself of itself with infrequent exacerbations. People around may not notice that a person is experiencing neurotic disorders. The patient remains critical of both himself and the circumstances around him. He notices changes in himself, worries about this, turns to specialists and experiences hypochondria, thoroughly studying the symptoms of various diseases and trying them on himself, just like a schizophrenic.

How does low-grade schizophrenia differ from neurosis?

Neurosis-like schizophrenia has symptoms that resemble obsessive-compulsive neurosis, sometimes neurotic depersonalization or hypochondriacal neurosis. In adolescent patients, disorders such as anorexia nervosa and dysmorphomania may appear.

Unlike ordinary phobias and obsessions, with this form of schizophrenia there is a significant severity and insurmountability of neurosis-like symptoms. Patients with neurotic disorders usually try their best to hide their problems. A person with neurosis-like sluggish schizophrenia can sometimes publicly perform absolutely ridiculous and absurd rituals.

When diagnosing schizophrenia, our psychiatrist of the highest category, Ivanov, takes into account the presence of such symptoms as the special absurdity of phobias, which is combined with the absence of an emotional component, as well as the presence of hypochondriacal experiences with strange, fanciful or unusual complaints (“the head is filled with blood”, “there is something crawling in the bones” something" and so on).

Dysmorphomania and anorexia in low-grade schizophrenia also manifest themselves in a unique way. The patient, instead of refusing to eat, can choose frankly ridiculous, completely strange diets. A person with dysmorphomania makes pretentious and unusual claims to his own body, while “defects” can alternate: either the bust is unusually ugly, then the eyes are set ugly too close, then the hands are completely ugly, and so on.

So, what are the differences?

Neurosis-like schizophrenia

Occurs after severe stress experienced that affected the patient’s mental state
Occurs regardless of the circumstances and character of the person, may occur due to genetic predisposition
The life values and character of a neurasthenic do not change
The disease radically changes a person’s personality
The patient remains critical of himself and the circumstances surrounding him, and worries about his mental health
A schizophrenic does not understand that he is sick, the ability to criticize is lost
A person turns to specialists and wants to be cured
The patient will not go to the doctor on his own, this happens at the insistence of people close to him
A neurasthenic person in any serious situation is able to pull himself together and pull himself together
A schizophrenic, even in a life-threatening situation, will not pull himself together
Can continue to remain a social person, communicate with others, work, engage in education and build a family
Antisocial, apathetic, avoids society, does not stay in the same job for long, is unable to build relationships
A complete cure is possible
A person is almost always doomed to lifelong medication and medical supervision

Sluggish schizophrenia is different from neurosis.

This disease has three types:

psychopathic;
simple;
neurosis-like schizophrenia.

It is considered a transitional form, since the symptoms of the disease are superficial. While the classic type leads to rapid degradation of the personality, the sluggish one changes the personality slowly, affecting his behavior, manners and socialization, as described above. The differences between sluggish schizophrenia and neurasthenia are the same as mentioned above. These are absolutely two different ailments, similar only in some symptoms.

Therapy.

Schizotypal disorders, as a rule, do not pose a threat to life and health, both for the patient and for the people around him, so the use of a large number of potent drugs is excluded. Often the patient is prescribed antipsychotics or simple tranquilizers.

If the disease becomes latent, the doctor prescribes antidepressants to the patient to suppress the surging depression. During treatment, psychotherapists use individual and group techniques to achieve healing. To achieve positive dynamics, the support of family and their constant presence is important.

In the treatment of neurotic disorders, various sedatives, tranquilizers and antidepressants are also used. There are many different non-drug methods that are used depending on the nature and course of the disease. The following methods exist:

hypnosis;
breathing exercises;
music therapy;
color therapy;
phototherapy and others.

Hypnagogic hallucinations in neurosis

Hypnagogic hallucinations are hallucinations that occur before going to bed. The causes of such phenomena are stressful situations, depression, anxiety, excessive emotionality, as well as alcohol and drug abuse.

Auditory hallucinations before sleep often accompany neurotics, but they have nothing to do with the various visions that arise in schizotypal, manic states and psychoses.

Hypnagogic hallucinations are different from pseudohallucinations and visual illusions. Hypnagogic hallucinations occur only in a state of drowsiness; many experts claim that every person sees and hears them, but simply does not remember them, because afterwards they fall asleep. But pseudohallucinations are familiar to schizophrenics and people with acute psychosis.

You should not be afraid or worry too much about hearing voices before bed; for people suffering from neurasthenic disorders, this is considered normal. You should consult a psychotherapist in order to get rid of the neurosis, along with which the hallucinations will disappear.

When can a diagnosis of schizophrenia be made for symptoms of psychopathy?

Sluggish schizophrenia is sometimes very similar to classic psychopathy. The hallmark characteristic of a diagnosis of schizophrenia is bizarre, inexplicable or inappropriate behavior that occurs in adulthood or adolescence.

In addition, with sluggish psychopathic schizophrenia, unmotivated anger, leaving home, strange fantasies, sloppiness, pronounced pathological hobbies and increasing rejection of other people may be noted. The patient’s worldview and fantasies are so unusual and absurd that they cannot “take root” even in an asocial company, a religious sect or an occult society.

In psychopathic-like sluggish schizophrenia, metaphorical, pretentious speech, stereotypical, amorphous or excessively detailed thinking is noted. Strange sexual desires, increased aggressiveness and delusional short-term states may appear, which are combined with auditory hallucinations.

Timely diagnosis and treatment can reduce the symptoms of the disease, allowing a person to live an almost normal life. Our clinic employs experienced specialists who will help you overcome the manifestations of the disease that are destroying your life.

You can make an appointment with a psychiatrist by phone
(812) 407-24-26