Larry’s Schizophrenia
Unlike depression, Schizophrenia does not entail full depressive syndromes. But its patients experience both positive and negative symptoms that may severely interfere with their social functioning. In Larry’s case, he was experiencing both positive and negative symptoms of Schizophrenia. The positive symptoms include hallucinations followed by the delusional belief of being gossiped by his fellow soldiers and that they were plotting against him. On the other hand, the negative symptoms included his reduced emotion and lack of drive in life when he thought that people disliked him. He even heard voices speaking to him some accusing him of his uncle’s death. He even became impulsive leading to suicidal behaviors. These symptoms are common for patients with chronic paranoid schizophrenia. However, there is still no cure for schizophrenia, it can be managed and treated with medication and therapy.
The difference between fictional and non- fictional friends is that there were some of his friends that were real while he was only imagining the fictional ones. His brain could not differentiate reality from fiction that is why he could hear voices from fictional and non-fictional friends and could not even tell the difference. These two groups are a telling indicator of the manifestation of schizophrenia because the brain could no longer know the difference between reality and fantasy leading to the existence of both fictional friends and non-fictional friends.
Larry’s onset of his symptoms of schizophrenia does not fit the typical developmental course because he began showing the features of schizophrenia earlier in his life. He blamed himself of his uncle’s death and even experienced dreams about his aunt when he was around 15 years. Almost his entire life he was paranoid and experienced nervous breakdowns and finally committed suicide at the age of 37.
