Anxiety vs. Schizophrenia
Anxiety and schizophrenia are two distinct psychological and physiological phenomena. Anxiety pertains to the unpleasant feeling often associated with apprehension, uneasiness, worry, or fear. Schizophrenia is much worse – it is a mental disorder characterized by distortions of reality and disturbances of thought and language, as well as withdrawal from social contact. Light anxiety is experienced by each of us from time to time, while the psychotic disorder schizophrenia is suffered by only a small percentage of the world’s population.
Anxiety has physical effects such as headaches, stomachaches, shortness of breath, chest pain, nausea, fatigue, muscle weakness and tension, or heart palpitations. Emotional effects are also seen in an anxious person and include feelings of dread or apprehension, trouble concentrating, feeling jumpy or tense, expecting the worst, restlessness, irritability, watching for danger, and feelings of having one’s mind gone blank. Anxiety also causes nightmares, déjà vu, and fears. Schizophrenics, on the other hand, are characterized by foolish mannerisms and senseless laughter along with delusions and regressive behavior. They are paranoid and disorganized in speech and thinking, which results in significant occupational or social dysfunction.
Both anxiety and schizophrenia may have some relation with past events or be a result of environmental factors, such as a traumatic experience or the intake of illegal drug. They can also be a result of the risks involved in pregnancy. However, as opposed to anxiety, schizophrenia can have genetic causes.
People who experience anxiety, especially those who suffer from a disorder, often ask if it’s possible that it will eventually turn into schizophrenia. The answer is no – the major cause of schizophrenia is the genetic condition of a person; the likelihood of having this psychotic disorder depends on the family history of the person. Anxiety is the not the cause of schizophrenia; rather, it is more of a behavioral response than a disease. Schizophrenia is biologically caused by overproduction of the neurotransmitter serotonin, which causes brain damage to the behavioral and social stimuli of a person.
Anxious people still belong in our world despite their struggle of constant fear, unlike schizophrenics who seem to have their own world where they talk to imaginary people. They both live in fear, but schizophrenics are always paranoid that somebody’s reading or manipulating their minds and plotting harm against them. Anxiety does not cause disorganized speech and behavior; schizophrenics are incomprehensible and even frightening if they intend to hurt the people around them without knowing it. They suffer from psychosis, schizophrenia’s hallmark symptom where mental impairment is marked by delusions, sensory perception disturbances, and hallucinations, which result from their inability to separate the real experiences from the unreal ones. Because of this, schizophrenia causes social anxiety or phobia.
Treatments for both anxiety and schizophrenia are available, but in the case of the latter, only one out of five individuals recover completely from their mental illness. Both can be treated with medications such as anxiety-reducing drugs and antipsychotic drugs. Anxiety can have an easy recovery compared with schizophrenia; the latter usually takes years to fully heal, and may never go away. Individuals suffering from severe schizophrenia episodes are required to be inside a mental institution in order to be observed and evaluated for progress in behavior. Intake of mental medications in both anxiety and schizophrenia is not an assurance of being healed; sometimes it only makes the condition of the patient much worse.
If you have a friend who has suddenly started behaving strangely in their interactions with other people, do not hesitate to seek professional help.
Summary:
- Anxiety is a kind of emotion, while schizophrenia is a mental disorder.
- Schizophrenia has worse effects on a person than anxiety.
- Anxiety and schizophrenia can both be caused by past traumatic events and intake of illegal drugs, but the latter’s major cause is a genetic predisposition
- Anxiety does not lead to schizophrenia, but schizophrenics are always anxious.
- Schizophrenics have trouble distinguishing the real from the imaginary, while people who suffer from anxiety do not.
- Medications and therapies are available for both.
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this article is the most ignorant load of bullshit i have ever heard. the person who wrote this is obviously not a doctor or psychiatrist and has obviously never met a real person with schizophrenia. people like you are the reason so many false “facts” (which are not facts at all!) and misconceptions about mental disorders perpetuate in the general public. it strengthens the stigma that goes along with mental illness in the first place. by writing such trash you are only socially and culturally isolating people more, when they already lead very difficult, often secluded lives. most schizophrenics you would never be able to guess were schizophrenic if they waited on you at a restaurant or chatted with you at a PTA meeting about your children. schizophrenics are not in psychosis all of the time. most of them would likely come off to most people as shy, possibly depressed or bored, or slightly socially awkward, but unless they are in the midst of psychosis they are not running around doing all of the crazy things you would see potrayed in a movie. many schizophrenics cannot hold a regular day job for various reasons, such as extreme stress being in public, around many different people, and in fast-paced environments. however lack of intelligence or being dangerous to others are typically NOT reasons for unemployment. in fact most schizophrenics have above average IQ scores and are extremely intelligent. they are rarely dangerous to others but many people might be frightened of them when they are in psychosis, due to their odd behavior and speech. you are correct in that schizophrenia is a much more severe mental condition than the level of emotionally-induced anxiety most people experience day to day. however you need to go read a few recent books on the topic to get the rest of your knowledge up to date. ignorant generalizations based off of accounts of schizophrenia in novels and movies is not sufficient to write an article that is supposed to be an unbiased, factual statement about the difference between anxiety and schixophrenia. you come off as someone who was raised in a very privilaged, sheltered environment and is trying to pass their unfounded fears of mental illness off on the next person who reads this article. thank you for reading.
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I was pleasantly surprised to read this comment, as I was thinking the same thing. The above is typically what you would find in a college level psychology textbook, and clearly not based upon personal experiences with actual cases and patients.
There are both “negative” and “positive” symptoms that manifest in various ways depending upon the individuals. The “author” here has only focused on the “positive” symptoms. This is a mistake, as given the two types, there is an infinite number of combinations in which both groups of symptoms combine and present themselves.
Anyone reading this should consult a medical professional first and foremost to know for sure whether they suffer from either Anxiety or Schizophrenia.
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Thank you for your post, this article had me worried.
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Yes! Little mean but.. Well Said!
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Actually, schizophrenia can be functional for some, at least during non-psychotic periods, and anxiety can be severe and dangerous. OCD and DID are anxiety disorders, and extreme anxiety can lead to reckless and self-destructive behavior. Schizophrenia, on the other hand, can sometimes just result in too much passivity to hold down a job. It really depends on the individual.
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Neither OCD nor DID are anxiety disorders. Obsessive compulsive disorders are their own section of the DSM-V. DID is a dissociative disorder.
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Hey I could really use some advice. I am completely aware of my reality but I took LSD and I already have a worrying type of personality. I just really want someone to tell me I’m just overthinking this. I want to know the clear difference between what I’m going through right now. School, money, finances, relationships all seem to be on hold almost. I had life all organized and then I just made some stressful decisions that really stressed me out. What can I do?
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