Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a commonly-misunderstood condition affecting approximately 3.5 million Americans (source: sardaa.org). Common symptoms of schizophrenia include delusions (for example, being spied on), psychosis (hearing, seeing, or feeling things that aren’t there), as well as disorganized thinking, lack of social skills, and poor self-care. Many people think that medication is the most important part of therapy for the disorder, but it turns out that talk therapy can also be of huge benefit to those with the disorder as well as his/her family and loved ones.


How Can Therapy Help?


In other countries, pioneering work has shown that supportive talk therapy treatment can have a huge impact on successful outcomes for people with this often-debilitating mental illness. This is because while some symptoms do often improve with medication (hallucinations, agitation), others like a tendency toward social isolation and lack of motivation do not resolve on their own. One way that therapists can help people with this disorder is by working with the person to identify and carry out goals that will help with socialization, organization, or other barriers that may be negatively affecting the schizophrenic’s quality of life.