I was recently asked by someone for information on schizophrenia because they had a family member who was diagnosed and they wanted to better support them.

So as a result, I'm doing this episode

so that we can all be a little bit more educated on the topic.

Welcome back to savvy psychologist. I'm I'm your host Dr Monica Johnson. Every week on this

show I'll help you face life challenges with evidence-based approaches, a sympathetic ear,

and zero judgment.

Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe mental disorder

that affects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves.

It's characterized by a range of symptoms, including things like delusions, hallucinations,

disorganized speech, and behavior, as well as impairments and cognitive functioning.

So today we're going to be looking at our trustee DSM 5,

which provides the criteria for the diagnosis and understanding of schizophrenia.

And I'll review a few broad strokes with you today.

So to be diagnosed with schizophrenia,

a person must have at least two of the following symptoms for at least the majority

of time during a month.

At least one of these symptoms must be one of the first three that I'm going to mention. So the first one I'm going to

mention is delusions. Delusions are basically strongly held false beliefs that

aren't based in reality. So it can be things like believing you have

superpowers or that the government or others are plotting against you.

The next one I'll mention is hallucinations. So this is sensing things that aren't there.

This can be things like hearing voices or seeing things.

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