What is schizophrenia?

A severe mental illness where the process of thinking is impaired, and there is a loss of contact with reality and disintegration of emotional responsiveness. Positive symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations are common. These are referred to as “positive symptoms” - things that don’t normally occur. “Negative symptoms” are the loss of normal behaviours and thinking processes and include social withdrawal, loss of ego and loss of energy. Symptoms persist for at least a month. The illness can then spontaneously remit, relapse, or become chronic.