Schizophrenia

> *"My entire framework to interpret the world has crumbled."*
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> - Schizophrenia (The Mad House)
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**Schizophrenia** is a kind of psychotic disorder. Two out of three major symptoms are represented, one being hallucinations, and delusions (It essentially means your mind doesn't agree with reality. It affects how you think and behave. ) these can be branched under "positive symptoms". In the background, you can see the room is disorganized and messy and he has holes in his shirt. This represents the disorganization symptoms. He is introduced in The Mad House.

## History

### Early Life

Schizophrenia developed schizophrenia at the age of 19. His first psychotic episode was extremely traumatic. At the time he had a partner and a job. He began hearing voices, stopped sleeping, and believing things that weren't true. His delusions led him to believe his friends and family were against him.

### The Mad House The Mental Illnesses 1 (Video)

The video begins with BPD inviting their new friend, Neurotypical, over to the mental illnesses' house. When BPD leaves to go 'freshen up', Neurotypical walks around the house attempting to have conversations with the other mental illnesses but fails due to his utter misunderstanding of their mental illnesses.

When Neurotypical mockingly asks what's Schizophrenia's problem, Schizophrenia talks about how his mental illness has ruined his life. Schizophrenia then begins to panic and fall into delusions due to thinking about them. This makes Neurotypical uncomfortable until PTSD butts in. Neurotypical then asks what PTSD's problem, causing PTSD to have a traumatic flashback.

A visibly uncomfortable Neurotypical backs away, looking for BPD. Schizophrenia then says, "Well, at least I still have you!", to a delusion. Schizophrenia hallucinates the delusion relpying with an unintelligible series of noises, to which he replies, "So true!".

Schizophrenia is also seen in the basement of the house when it's almost destroyed due to BPD's rage with PTSD. However, neither of the two seem to notice as Schizophrenia is in the middle of a delusion, and PTSD is suffering from a flashback.

## Mental Illness

Schizophrenia is a mental illness that impairs an individual's ability to accurately interpret reality. A Schizophrenic may experience sensory that isn't there, or firmly believe in things that are factually untrue.

Schizophrenia is composed of symptoms in the following three categories:

#### Positive Symptoms (also called Psychotic Symptoms)

These symptoms distort how an individual perceives the world around them, which can lead to abnormal thoughts and actions.

- Delusions (believing others want to harm you, that the government is out to get you, that you are being watched, that the world around you isn't real, etc.)

- Hallucinations (hearing voices, seeing things that aren't there, etc.)

#### Negative Symptoms

These symptoms subtract from the way the individual experiences life, often impairing them from doing things a neurotypical wouldn't struggle with.

- Diminished feelings

- Flat affect (reduced expression of emotions through expressions and tone of voice)

- Reduced speech

#### Cognitive Symptoms (also called Disorganized Symptoms)

- Difficulty processing information

- Difficulty with attention span

- Problems applying learned information

## Abilities

Schizophrenia can see beyond the fourth wall. He's the only one able to hear the show's laugh track and is able to sense he's in a virtual 2D medium. In "Laugh Track" he was able to grab the off-screen ring light and microphone and pull them on-screen, though Sociopathy and PTSD didn't seem to notice it, implying the two can't see it. Schizophrenia is proven to have knowledge about Centricide, calling it a "web series about political ideologies" and knowing it preceded The Mental Illnesses. He has no way to know his observations are true, as everyone around him writes it off as his delusions. In "Schizophrenia Explains Schizophrenia", he speaks to the voices in his head, simultaneously staring and speaking directly to the viewer. In the same video, he looks over to a microphone when saying "seeing things that aren't really there", implying he thinks his fourth wall observations are hallucinations.

He's able to use his powers to his advantage in "The Fountain of SSRI", where - in a fight with a neurotypical - he manipulates his "2D sheet" to dodge the neurotypical's attacks. Similar to what Schizophrenia showed PTSD in "Laugh Track".

## Physical Description

Schizophrenia has holes in his shirt and stays in a room that is a disaster. He has a crouched gait, wide eyes at all times, and is shown to be enshrouded in an aura of disturbing images, illustrating his paranoia.

## Personality

Schizophrenia is portrayed as delusional and occasionally incoherent. He is very open about what he perceives and doesn’t hold back from vocalizing his thoughts. His hallucinations can be heard and sometimes seen by the viewer. Many of his delusions are rooted in fourth-wall breaks. He appears to trust PTSD more than any of the other mental illnesses. Due to his condition, his personality seems rather inconsistent. He describes schizophrenia as one of the worst things that can happen to a person, and states that his condition took "everything away from him" at a young age.

## Quotes

* *"This disease has taken everything from me."*
* *"Hahaha! So true!"*
* *"Do you see? There was nothing funny about what you just said but... but they laugh. Why do they laugh?"*
* *"Just treat people like me like a human being, and cut us some slack if we act weird here and there."*
* *"If you break your leg you'll be surrounded by friends and family who are eager to nurse you back to health, but if you break your brain you'll find that people drop you and let you rot."*

## Annotations

1. ↑ https://www.webmd.com/schizophrenia/schizophrenia-paranoia
2. ↑ https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/schizophrenia/symptoms-causes/syc-20354443
3. ↑ https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/schizophrenia/what-is-schizophrenia
4. ↑ https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/schizophrenia/