Does Schizophrenia really exist?

Hello bzm,

Heavy drug and alcohol use can cause schizophrenia or symptoms of schizophrenia, including psychosis.

Schizophrenia is a real disease.

The term MICA, Mental Illness Chemical Abuse refers to a person with a dual diagnosis of someone who has a substance abuse problem and a mental illness.

It is never a good idea to do drugs or alcohol if you have schizophrenia, because chances are you won't recover from the schizophrenia if you continue to abuse drugs or alcohol.

The point is, it doesn't matter which came first: the drug use or the schizophrenia.  The fact is, the person has schizophrenia as well and needs to be treated for both disorders at once: the substance abuse and the schizophrenia.

Lastly, if you had schizophrenia, you would know all too well that it is a real condition.

The bottom line: the person has to accept responsibility for his actions, and stay in treatment for both of his conditions.  Drug-induced schizophrenia is no less serious or real than any other kind of schizophrenia.

Best regards,

cb

By coincidence I've just added a Sharepost with exactly the same question as you've just asked. The answer Christina has just provided is excellent and I wouldn't want to confuse the issue by appearing to suggest that symptoms and experiences of people diagnosed with schizophrenia aren't 'real'.

My more general question relates more to whether there are different ways to look at symptoms and possibly different ways to approach treatment as a result? Anyway, if you're interested, here's the article.