Schizophrenia is a relatively rare mental disorder, but also one of the most severe ones. A person with schizophrenia experiences two primary symptoms — delusions and hallucinations. Delusions are a set of false beliefs, like that someone is out to kill a person. Hallucinations are typically experienced as seeing things or hearing things that are not really there.

These symptoms aren’t just a fleeting sense of something — they haunt the person every day of their lives, making it nearly impossible for most people with schizophrenia to attend school, go to work, or live their lives as they normally would — unless they are in treatment.

Treatment for schizophrenia typically entails a combination of medication and psychotherapy. Most people with schizophrenia can be successfully treated and can live a fairly typical life. However, some people with schizophrenia seem to suffer from remission and may have more difficulty in staying in recovery.

Schizophrenia Resources

There’s a lot of good information out there about schizophrenia. Here are a few of the sites I’ve come across that I’d recommend checking out:

• National Institute of Mental Health’s page on Schizophrenia/a>
• Schizophrenia Symptoms
• Mental Health America’s Schizophrenia Page
• Schizophrenia
• Schizophrenia.com
• Schizophrenia Quiz
• Mayo Clinic on Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia isn’t all that common, but when it does hit, it hits most people in their early to mid 20s. If you’re 30 years or older, it is unlikely for you to be diagnosed with schizophrenia.