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Schizophrenia services offered in Houston, TX
Schizophrenia is a rare brain disorder that affects less than 1% of Americans today. If you’re living with schizophrenia or a schizoaffective disorder, you need psychiatric care experts to help you get the most from treatment — and at Lifespan Psychiatry & Wellness Center, Vivian Young, PMHNP, offers comprehensive medication management and supportive care in one place. Call the Houston, Texas, office or book your appointment online today.
Schizophrenia Q & A
What is schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia is a brain disorder that causes confusion about real vs. imagined sights, experiences, and sounds. People with schizophrenia may experience hallucinations, delusions, difficulty thinking clearly, and other problems that disrupt day-to-day life.
Although schizophrenia isn’t curable, treatment can significantly reduce symptom recurrence and vastly improve quality of life.
What are the signs of schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia can cause a wide array of symptoms during episodes. These symptoms include:
Behavior and thought changes
People with schizophrenia may have hallucinations in which they hear or see things that aren’t actually there. Distorted perceptions of reality and paranoia are both common, translating into unusual thoughts, beliefs, or behaviors.
Emotional and social changes
Schizophrenia may cause problems such as withdrawal from other people, a loss of interest in regular activities, and difficulty showing emotion (“flat” emotions).
Disorganization symptoms
People who have schizophrenia may experience disorganized thinking patterns, like trouble thinking logically, and difficulty speaking normally is also common. To others, this may show up in very strange behaviors and unusual movement patterns.
Are schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder the same thing?
No, they’re different disorders. Schizoaffective disorder does feature some schizophrenia symptoms, but it also includes mood disorder symptoms. The two main categories of schizoaffective disorder are bipolar schizoaffective disorder and depressive schizoaffective disorder.
Do people with schizophrenia have multiple personalities?
No, but that’s a common misconception. The word schizophrenia translates to fragmented or split mind — but that’s not the same thing as split personalities. People with dissociative identity disorder may have 2-100 alternate identity states, often called identity alters.
With schizophrenia, the split is more about a division from reality, not a division of your personality.
How is schizophrenia treated?
Lifespan Psychiatry & Wellness Center uses evidence-based methods of schizophrenia treatment. Antipsychotic medications are an excellent treatment path, as they can relieve intrusive symptoms during episodes while lessening the chances of future episodes and reducing their intensity.
Your provider really cares about your overall well-being, so they also provide supportive care that helps you better respond to episodes, develop new skills, and become more self-sufficient.
After your first in-office evaluation, medication management is available through telehealth.
Call Lifespan Psychiatry & Wellness Center or click the online scheduling feature for help now.