Positive thinking benefits us all, so why are we still so negative? According to Doreen Virtue, bestselling author of Assertiveness for Angels, pessimism is a natural – albeit misguided – way of shielding ourselves from future disappointments. If we don’t believe we can meet our aspirations, then we protect ourselves from failure. Of course, this is no way to live your life. Pessimism can hold you back from happiness, while the benefits of positive thinking extend to your physical health as well as your mental wellbeing.

The Effects of Positive Thinking

The effects of positive thinking on the brain are quite astounding. For years, scientists thought the brain was static. We now know that thinking can change not only the way the way the brain works but also its physical shape and structure. From a neuroscientific viewpoint, imagining an action and doing it require the same neurons and sensory pathways in the brain; practicing one actually influences the other.

What does this mean? It means that your mindset is inextricably linked to all other areas of your life: your skills, your physical health and your mental wellbeing. According to representatives from Nucleus Media, scientists have studied how certain brain areas affect mental health, and vice versa, finding that in those with depression and other mental health disorders, the brain is actually configured differently over time ("How to Develop a Positive Mental Attitude Despite Depression").

Could Positive Thinking Improve Your Mental Health?

While the exact causes of mental illness remain unknown, we do know that positive thinking can reduce stress, anxiety and feelings of depression. However, as Associate Professor, Anthony Grant, from the University of Sydney, warns positive thinking in place of other treatment can be harmful. He states:

"In difficult periods in your life, you need to allow yourself to grieve and have a whole range of emotions, because that's part of the natural healing process."

Positive thinking, though, isn’t about shutting out the negative and slapping a smile on when you don’t feel like it. Positive thinking benefits us because it relies on a calm, measured and optimistic view of life, and of ourselves. Like all things in life, positivity requires balance and moderation.

Psychologist Suzy Green, from The Positivity Institute, puts this into perspective:

"It's maintaining a realistic, optimistic, mindset in the face of challenges, whereby you're drawing on your strengths and capacities and working through the situation more optimistically than pessimistically.”

What Can Positive Thinking Do for You?

It’s normal to feel skeptical about the effects of positive thinking. After all, we are naturally wary of change, and poor mental health can make us reliant on our comfort zones ("How to Create and Keep a Positive Mindset Despite Mental Illness"). Before you dismiss the benefits of positive thinking, however, consider what positive thinking could do for you.

What would it be like if next time you attended a job interview, you felt confident of your abilities? What if you built a protective bubble around yourself so that you couldn’t let negative or toxic people bring you down? What if you didn’t give yourself a hard time or obsess over your failures next time something went wrong? If positive thinking could change just one aspect of your life for the better, surely it’s worth suspending your disbelief?

article references

What's going on at HealthyPlace this week?

• The Importance of Facing Your Feelings
• From the HealthyPlace Mental Health Blogs
• Can We Talk About the Holidays' Impact on Mental Health?
• Most Popular HealthyPlace Articles Shared by Facebook Fans
• Positive, Inspirational Quote for People with Depression

Everyone experiences a wide range of emotions every single day. For those living with any mental illness, personality disorder, or general mental health challenge, emotions can make daily life feel overwhelming and exhausting. It’s easy to feel at the mercy of rampant emotions, many of which are incredibly strong and downright unpleasant.

It’s natural to resist such life-disrupting emotions. If you find yourself hating your feelings—or, worse, being hard on yourself for having them, though, you might find that changing your relationship with yourself and your feelings is less exhausting and more liberating.

Concepts from mindfulness and acceptance and commitment therapy can help guide you in facing your feelings.

• Notice your feelings and name them to begin to tame them. When you’re aware, they are no longer bouncing around like wild but are now tangible concepts you can identify and deal with.
• Accept them. This doesn’t mean you have to like them. Instead, acceptance means you acknowledge that they exist and allow yourself to feel how you feel without judging them or yourself.
• Decide how you want to face them right now, in this moment. Maybe you want to take action to deal with their cause, or maybe you want to let them be and just feel them. Either way, you are in charge of your response to them.

Facing your feelings doesn’t automatically erase them. It gives you back your power over them so they no longer control you or have you on the run from them.

Recommended Video

Living with bipolar 2 disorder, I feel things very deeply. I’m a very emotionally driven person. Let me give you an example of what I mean by that. Some people make decisions based on what they know, their knowledge. I make a lot of decisions based on how I feel. While I realize that can lead to problems and that not everyone reacts based on their emotions, that’s me. However, I am working on finding balance.

Articles Related to Feelings and Emotions

• What Is Emotional Health? And How to Improve It?
• Masking Your Feelings Lowers Your Self-Esteem
• The Feelings Chart
• Manage Overwhelming Emotions with Healthy Perspectives
• Get Control of Your Emotions and Respond Wisely
• Transforming Your PTSD Emotions
• Understanding Your Negative Emotions
• The Music of My Emotions

Today's Question: When has facing difficult feelings been helpful for you? We invite you to participate by sharing your thoughts, experiences, and knowledge on the HealthyPlace Facebook page.

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From the HealthyPlace Mental Health Blogs

On all our blogs, your comments and observations are welcomed.

• Make Your Own Self-Harm Tracker
• Box Breathing Can Help You Deal with Symptoms of Verbal Abuse
• Pain Destroys My Ability to Think
• Surviving Mental Health Stigma Is a Literal Act of Survival
• How to Reduce Holiday Shopping Anxiety
• Knowing the Difference Between Anxiety and Fear
• Prioritizing Eating Disorder Recovery During Life Transitions
• Tips for Keeping a Self-Harm Diary
• I Haven't Heard Schizoaffective Voices in Over 4 Months
• Dealing with Survivor Burnout
• Surviving the Holidays with Postpartum Depression
• Fear of Bipolar Symptoms Coming Back
• Does Relatability Decrease Mental Health Stigma?
• Self-Harm Reduction Strategies to Begin Healing
• I Use the Verbal Abuse I Suffered to Better My Relationships

Feel free to share your thoughts and comments at the bottom of any blog post. And visit the mental health blogs homepage for the latest posts.

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From the HealthyPlace YouTube Channel

Wouldn't it be great to have a safe space to talk about the negative mental impacts of the holidays? Why can't we do that anywhere? Find out how not talking about the low parts of the holidays can affect you. Watch.

Subscribe to the HealthyPlace YouTube channel

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Most Popular HealthyPlace Articles Shared by Facebook Fans

Here are the top 3 mental health articles HealthyPlace Facebook fans are recommending you read:

1. The Holidays Negatively Impact My Mental Health
2. Learn to Spot Cognitive Distortions in Eating Disorder Recovery
3. Should You Bother Taking a Vacation When You Are Depressed?

If you haven't already, I hope you'll like us on Facebook too. There are a lot of wonderful, supportive people there.

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Positive, Inspirational Quote

“There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn’t.” ~ John Green

Read more positive, inspirational quotes for people with depression.

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That's it for now. If you know of anyone who can benefit from this newsletter or the HealthyPlace.com site, I hope you'll pass this onto them. Please share the newsletter on any social network you belong to. For updates throughout the week, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, subscribe to our YouTube channel, or follow us on Instagram.

Thank you,
Deborah

Community Partner Team
HealthyPlace.com - America's Mental Health Channel
"When you're at HealthyPlace.com, you're never alone."
http://www.healthyplace.com

These OCD articles provide a comprehensive look into obsessive-compulsive disorder. Get a detailed understanding of the illness by reading these OCD articles.

OCD-Related Disorders Table of Contents

• OCD
• Induced OCD
• Hoarding
• Body Dysmorphic Disorder
• Trichotillomania
• Excoriation / Skin-Picking Disorder
• Further OCD Related Information

OCD

• What is Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders in DSM-5?
• What is OCD? Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Definition
• Types of OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders)
• OCD Signs and Symptoms
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Test
• OCD Obsessions and Compulsions Can Make Life Difficult
• Obsessive Thoughts, Intrusive Thoughts: Have I Lost My Mind?
• Scrupulosity: Religious Obsessions and Compulsions
• OCD Diagnosis: OCD Criteria and Characteristics in DSM 5
• OCD Causes: Is OCD Genetic, Hereditary?
• Effects of OCD: Living with OCD
• OCD Treatment: Treatments for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
• OCD Therapy: Types of OCD Therapy and How They Help
• Is There A Cure for OCD?
• How to Stop OCD: Overcoming and Dealing with OCD
• OCD Support and OCD Support Groups
• OCD Help and OCD Self Help
• I Have OCD: People with OCD and OCD Celebrities
• OCD and Depression, OCD and Anxiety, OCD and ADHD
• OCD in Children: Signs, Symptoms, Causes, Treatments
• OCD Statistics and Facts

Induced OCD

• Substance, Medication Induced OCD and Related Disorders
• OCD and Related Disorders Due to Medical Condition

Hoarding

• Hoarding Disorder: Compulsive Hoarding is a Mental Illness
• What is Hoarding? Definition of Hoarding
• Hoarding Causes: Psychology of Hoarding
• Hoarding Symptoms: Signs of Hoarders
• Hoarding Treatment: Help for Hoarding

Body Dysmorphic Disorder

• What is Body Dysmorphic Disorder, BDD (DSM-5)?
• Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) Signs, Symptoms and Causes
• Body Dysmorphic Disorder Test. Do I Have BDD?
• Body Dysmorphic Disorder Treatment: Therapy, Medications
• How to Cure People with Body Dysmorphic Disorder
• What is Muscle Dysmorphia, Bigorexia, Reverse Anorexia?

Trichotillomania

• What is Trichotillomania (Hair-Pulling Disorder)
• Trichotillomania Symptoms: Signs of Hair Pulling Condition
• What Causes Trichotillomania, Compulsive Hair Pulling?
• Effects of Pulling Out Hair, Pulling Eyelashes Out
• Trichotillomania Treatment: How to Stop Pulling Out Hair
• Is There A Cure for Trichotillomania?
• Hair Pulling Help. Trichotillomania Support
• Hair Pulling in Children: Trichotillomania

Excoriation Skin-Picking Disorder

• What is Skin Picking, Excoriation Disorder?
• Dermatillomania: Symptoms, Causes, Treatments
• Skin Picking and OCD. Causes of Skin Picking
• Picking Scabs, Face Picking, Scalp Picking - Dermatillomania
• Effects of Compulsive Skin Picking, Chronic Skin Picking
• How to Stop Skin Picking: Treatment for Skin Picking

OCD Related Information

• OCD Books
• OCD Videos
• OCD Library - Additional Articles

Unfortunately, people who self-harm not only have psychological scars from their behavior but physical ones too, and explaining self-harm scars to others can seem almost like an impossible task. People with self-harm scars (also known as self-injury scars or self-mutilation scars) may be embarrassed and not want to talk about what was undoubtedly a painful point in their lives. (read: I Cut Myself: The Shame and Secrecy of Self-Harm) This is completely understandable but there will always come a time when self-injury scars will have to be explained to someone in your life. (That's why this article about how to tell someone you self-injure might be helpful.)

Self-harm scars may result from the different ways to self-harm, like burning or cutting, and self-mutilation scars most commonly appear on the:¹

• Arms
• Hands
• Wrists
• Thighs
• Stomach

Depending on their placement, it can be hard to hide self-mutilation scars so for some people, more explanation is needed than for others.

Isolation and Self-Harm Scars

Acts of self-harm, and to some extent the scars from self-harm, tend to keep people at a distance. Self-injury is something done in private and often with shame and guilt attached to the activity. These feelings may then also be associated with the self-injury scars. Many don't want to share the evidence of their shame and guilt.

This tends to bring about loneliness and isolation and may make a person believe that they are alone in their self-harm. This isn't true, however. Many people, of all ages, self-harm (yes, even adults self-harm) – the act is far more common than most people believe. But like you, most people don't want to talk about it. (See these self-injury stories.)

Opening up about self-mutilation scars can help break the isolation and help you to understand that you are not alone and people do love you in spite of what you have done in the past or even the self-injury in which you currently engage in.

Talking About Self-Injury Scars

It may seem like no one will be able to understand your self-injury or your self-injury scars, but this isn't true. Many people have experience with self-mutilation, and even those who don't can have understanding and empathy for what you have been through.

When talking about self-mutilation and self-mutilation scars:²

• Focus on your feelings – self-harm scars aren't about the physical, they are about the emotional. The details about what you physically did matter a lot less than the feelings that drove you to that place and people may be able to identify with your emotions more readily than your acts.
• Tell the person why you're talking to them about self-harm scars – you probably aren't talking about your self-mutilation scars for no reason. Likely, you want understanding, closeness and support and it's okay to tell someone that. When you tell someone what you need, you are much more likely to get it.
• Communicate in a way in which you feel comfortable – while it might always be ideal to have a face-to-face communication about self-mutilation scars, that might not be something you are comfortable with, so pick a method that makes sense for you. You might start the conversation in an email or letter, although you will still likely have to follow-up face-to-face. And remember, you don't have to share every detail – only share what you're comfortable with right now.
• Give the person time to process what you're telling them – what you're telling someone can be hard for them to immediately accept, so give them time to think about what you're saying. It's hard to hear that someone you love has been hurting his or herself and it's natural to act surprised at first. This doesn't mean the person won't understand, it just means they need some time to adjust to the news.
• Provide education about self-harm – if the person doesn't know about self-harm provide a way for him or her to learn about it. Provide a book on self-harm or give them the HealthyPlace.com Self-Injury website address where they can learn more, including self-harm statistics and facts. Knowledge dispels fear and creates understanding.

And remember, talking about self-injury scars may not go as well as you like sometimes, but that doesn't mean that everyone will react in the same way. Some people will be supportive.

(If you're on the other side, meaning someone is telling you they self-injure, your reactions to their self-injury disclosure are so important.)

article references

Definition of Self-injury

Self-injury, also known as self-harm or self-mutilation, is defined as an act wherein someone deliberately hurts or injures themselves. Self-injury is most often used as a coping mechanism and is not an attempt at suicide. The practice is not limited to teens. Self-harm in adults also takes place and is not unusual.

It's a perplexing phenomenon with many names: self-injury, self-harm, self-mutilation, self-inflicted violence, self-cutting, and self-abuse to name some. Those who come across it - family members, friends, supporters - even many professionals - struggle to understand why people self-harm, and find the behavior disturbing and puzzling. Recent reports imply that it is reaching 'epidemic proportions,' particularly among young people. Furthermore, research suggests that it is a frequent companion to eating disorders, alcohol abuse and drug abuse, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, borderline personality disorder, and dissociative disorders. Those caught in its clutches claim that self-injury is difficult to stop due to its highly addictive nature, or say they are reluctant to try because it helps them 'feel better,' 'more in control,' 'more real,' or simply 'it keeps them alive.'

- Jan Sutton, author "Healing the Hurt Within: Understand Self-Injury and Self-Harm, and Heal the Emotional Wounds"

What is Self-injury?

Self-injury is a way of dealing with very strong emotions. For some people, self-harm gives the relief that crying may provide for the rest of us. Some people who engage in self-mutilation feel they can't control highly angry and aggressive emotions. They become afraid that they may hurt someone, so they turn their aggression inwards to get relief.

People who self-harm may be defined as attention seekers. However, a person who engages in self-injury may believe this is the only way to communicate their distress. Attention-seeking may actually be their last motivation, as self-mutilation can be a hidden problem that goes on for years. Self-harming purely for attention is one of the big myths about self-injury.

Self-injury may start as a spur-of-the-moment outlet for anger and frustration (such as punching a wall) and then develop into a major way of coping with stress that, because it remains hidden, generates more stress. (read Cutting: Self-Mutilating to Release Emotional Stress)

The severity of self-harm doesn't necessarily relate to the severity of a person's underlying problems. Usually, as time passes, one of the effects of self-harm is that the person who is self-injuring becomes more accustomed to the pain they inflict on themselves and so they harm themselves more severely to get the same level of relief.

This spiral can lead to permanent injury and serious infections.

Self-Harm is Not Defined as Attempting Suicide

It's important to make a distinction between self-harm and attempted suicide, though people who self-mutilate often go on to attempt suicide.

In the case of attempted suicide, the harm caused is uncertain and possibly even invisible, such as in the case of ingesting pills. By contrast, in self-harm, the degree of harm is clear, predictable and often highly visible; such as in the case of cutting or burning.

Self-mutilation is also different than activities that happen to harm. Many people indulge in behavior that's harmful to themselves, such as smoking or drinking to excess, but people don't smoke to damage themselves – harm is an unfortunate side-effect. The reason they smoke is for pleasure, whereas people who self-injure intend to hurt themselves.

article references

Schizophrenia in children is a rare, but serious mental illness that requires immediate medical attention and treatment. The term, schizophrenia, refers to a mental disorder characterized by delusional thoughts, distorted thinking, auditory and visual hallucinations, and irrational behavior. Since this serious psychiatric illness rarely presents itself in children, medical professionals frequently miss the early signs of the disorder in patients under age 12.

Schizophrenia in Children –Early Warnings

Certain behaviors, sometimes occurring prior to age 7, can hint at the early onset of schizophrenia in children. If your child persistently complains of hearing voices that speak negatively to him, voices talking to one another about him, or stares at things he finds frightening that are not actually there, make an appointment with his pediatrician for a consultation. Subsequent assessments may end up indicating that he simply has a vivid and creative imagination and not childhood schizophrenia.

Signs and Symptoms of Childhood Schizophrenia

Most parents shudder at the thought of hearing a diagnosis of childhood schizophrenia for their child. But it’s best to educate yourself, stay informed, and know how to recognize the symptoms of schizophrenia in children. Studies indicate, for both children and adults, that early intervention allows for a stronger recovery and provides greater protection against relapse.

As with many diseases and conditions occurring in children and adults, signs and symptoms for children may differ from those in adults in both nature and intensity. Read the list below, which includes many of the common childhood schizophrenia symptoms:

• Paranoia – Child feels that people conspire against him or feels they talk about him in a derogatory way.
• Hallucinations – Seeing and hearing things that do not exist or are not present at the time.
• Decline in hygiene – Child exhibits a marked disinterest in personal hygiene where he had an age-appropriate interest before.
• Unfounded anxiety and fear – Child complains of unfounded fears that reach beyond the scope of normal childhood fears (i.e. monster in the closet or under the bed). He or she shows extreme anxiety about things not apparent or based on reality to others.
• Withdrawn and isolated – Child uncharacteristically withdraws from loved activities, does not relate to peers and cannot maintain friendships.
• Extreme moodiness – Child swings from one mood extreme to another, unprovoked by any visible external factors.
• Fragmented speech – Child gradually, or suddenly, loses the ability to carry on a normal conversation pattern.
• Chaotic thoughts – Child has difficulty separating television fiction from dreams and reality.

These represent only the most common signs and symptoms of schizophrenia in children. You may observe other abnormal and irrational behaviors and ideas coming from your child. Make a list with times and dates of each incidence.

Causes of Schizophrenia in Children

Although experts don’t have a clear understanding of what causes childhood schizophrenia, research suggests that it develops in a similar way to adult schizophrenia. Researchers remain puzzled as to why this devastating brain disorder develops early on in some people, but not in others.

Imbalances of important brain chemicals, called neurotransmitters, may play a role in the early onset of schizophrenia. Experts aren’t sure whether slight brain structure differences seen in imaging studies; conducted on people with the disorder, hold any significance.

Genetics and environmental factors most likely play a significant role in the early onset of schizophrenia. But even without knowing precise causes, researchers believe certain risk factors for schizophrenia may increase the risk of childhood-onset schizophrenia.

Possible Early Onset Schizophrenia Risk Factors

• History of first or second-degree genetic relatives with schizophrenia
• Mother became pregnant at an older age
• Stressful living environment (i.e. physical or emotional abuse, a difficult divorce, parental separation, or other extremely stressful situations)
• Exposed to viruses while in the womb
• Mother with severe malnourishment during pregnancy
• Taking psychoactive drugs, such as LSD, psilocybin (street name – magic mushrooms), or MDMA (street name – ecstasy) during the pre-teen and early teen years

Treatment for Childhood Schizophrenia

Treatment options for children with schizophrenia have improved considerably in recent years. Physicians and mental health experts take a multi-faceted approach to treat schizophrenia in children and teens. A combination of medications, individual and family therapy, and specialized school programs result in better recovery outcomes for children and adolescents.

The medications used in the treatment of schizophrenia in children and teens belong to a class of drugs called antipsychotics or neuroleptics. Depending on your child’s medical history, the severity of symptoms, age of onset and many other factors, the attending physician will determine whether to go with traditional varieties of these drugs or use the newer, atypical antipsychotics. A psychiatrist who specializes in children and adolescents will prescribe the medications he or she believes will work best for your child. The doctor will closely monitor how these powerful medications affect your child.

The newer antipsychotic drugs seem to manage symptoms better than traditional medications and carry a lower risk of the common severe side effects associated with the first-generation antipsychotic medications. The most common side effect associated with these newer medications is relatively significant weight gain. Because of this, the medical staff will watch for signs of insulin resistance. If unchecked, insulin resistance can worsen and result in the patient developing diabetes.

Medication alone will not satisfactorily manage childhood schizophrenia symptoms. The child must take the medication to control symptoms in order to receive the full impact and benefit of individual and family psychotherapy interventions. Multiple research studies show that this multi-faceted approach greatly increases the possibility for recovery.

Family psychotherapy educates the patient’s family members about the disorder, how to cope with the illness, including what to do when symptoms intensify. The family therapy team will often provide access to professional care providers that can help during times of crisis.

Individual psychotherapy will help your child develop basic social skills necessary to interact effectively with others. They may also include adjustments to educational programs and cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) treatment.

Since no cure exists for schizophrenia in children, treatment strategies focus on reducing symptom intensity and frequency. A child with severe symptoms at the onset may need hospitalization until physicians can reduce the intensity and stabilize the patient. The psychiatrist treating your schizophrenic child or adolescent may need to adjust the complex combination of treatment areas to find a balance that works best for your child’s unique needs.

article references

While schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder, schizophrenia and depression (a mood disorder) are common. Schizophrenia is known to cause mood swings to the point where the patient’s reactions are completely incongruent to what’s happening around them. For example, a person with schizophrenia may act happy at a funeral.

Schizophrenia can also increase the chances of a long-standing major depression. What’s worse is that the depression puts people with schizophrenia at an increased risk of suicide. Suicide and schizophrenia are common with approximately 10% of people with schizophrenia dying of suicide.¹ People with schizophrenia and depression may also exhibit greater memory and attention problems than in schizophrenics without depression.²

People with schizophrenia may be particularly suicidal when:³

• They are very psychotic and out of touch with reality
• They are very depressed
• They are in the first 6-9 months of medication treatment, as they are thinking more clearly and learning about having schizophrenia

(Extensive information on suicide and suicidal thoughts)

Depression and Schizophrenia Psychosis

It is not known why schizophrenia and depression are so closely linked but part of the reason may be psychosis. Psychosis in schizophrenia is the manifestations of hallucinations and delusions. Hallucinations are experiences of one of the senses, smell, touch, taste, hearing or sight that aren’t really there. Delusions are false beliefs that are held in spite of evidence to the contrary. For example, a delusion might be that the government is reading the thoughts of the person with schizophrenia.

Hallucinations can be particularly troubling to the person with schizophrenia and may lead to depression or even suicide. The most common hallucination is auditory – the person often hears voices. A person with schizophrenia may hear one voice speaking only to them or multiple voices having a conversation. These voices can seem very real and be very distressing to the person with schizophrenia and possibly encourage depression. What’s more, once a person becomes depressed, the voices may then speak of the depression repeatedly; making it very difficult for the person with schizophrenia to come out of the depression.

Command Hallucinations in Schizophrenia and Depression

There are several kinds of hallucinations that may lead a schizophrenic to depression and suicide. One type is a command hallucination. As the name implies, command hallucinations command a person to do things. One of the things a voice might command a person with schizophrenia to do is to commit suicide.⁴ Because the person with schizophrenia may not be able to recognize the voice is not real, the command to commit suicide can be very compelling.

Treatment of Depression and Schizophrenia

When depression and schizophrenia occur together, treatment is very important. Treatment of the schizophrenia may make the voices that compelled the person with schizophrenia towards depression and suicide go away, which may effectively reduce the depression as well. Treatment of hallucinations is typically done with antipsychotic medication.

Other times, depression treatment may be needed in addition to the treatment of schizophrenia. In these cases, antidepressant medication may be used alongside an antipsychotic.

article references

Schizophrenia is a mental illness that can greatly impact a person’s life and it’s common to wonder, “What causes schizophrenia? What's behind the development of schizophrenia?” The causes of schizophrenia, though, are complex and come down to many factors, both genetic and environmental. While specific causes of schizophrenia may not be pinpointed, it is clear that schizophrenia is a brain disease.

It is thought that a person’s genetics and the environment in tandem put a person at risk for schizophrenia (see: Schizophrenia Genetics). Schizophrenia is not caused by any one element, but when multiple elements are put together, the result is schizophrenia. For example, a person may have a gene combination that increases the risk of schizophrenia but it’s only due to extreme life stressors and drug use that schizophrenia manifests.

Genetic Causes of Schizophrenia

Family studies of people with schizophrenia reveal that the causes of schizophrenia are partly genetic. While the risk of developing schizophrenia in the average person is 1%, the risk for someone with a parent with schizophrenia is around six times that and siblings have a 9% chance of having schizophrenia. While the underlying specifics of the genetics are not well understood, these numbers do show the development of schizophrenia is partly genetic.

Environmental Causes of Schizophrenia

While no single or even a combination of environmental factors is known to cause schizophrenia, there are environmental factors that can increase the risk of schizophrenia. Many occur before birth. Prenatal risk factors include:^1,2

• Malnourishment
• Exposure to some viruses
• Lead exposure during pregnancy
• Pregnancy complications
• Older age of the father

Stressful life circumstances and taking psychoactive drugs such as marijuana, alcohol, meth or LSD, during adolescence may increase the risk of schizophrenia.

Biological Causes of Schizophrenia

It is known that the brains of people with schizophrenia differ from brains of those in the average population. Brain imaging scans have shown that some areas of the brain are smaller or malformed in those with schizophrenia.

One part of the brain that appears to be affected by schizophrenia is the hippocampus. This part of the brain is part of a system called the limbic system which is responsible for processing emotions and memories. The hippocampus is smaller in those with schizophrenia.

In one study, even in children as young as 12, the difference in hippocampus size was seen. Moreover, the hippocampus continued to shrink in the 12 years of follow-up in the study.

A brain chemical, dopamine, is also thought to be involved in the causes of schizophrenia. Effective antipsychotic medications (medications which reduce psychosis) inhibit the neurons that fire this chemical while drugs that exacerbate dopamine firing are known to induce psychosis. It is likely, though, that dopamine abnormalities vary across different regions of the brain. Glutamate, another brain chemical, is also likely involved in the causes of schizophrenia.

It is not understood exactly how these brain anomalies are created but it appears they may exist before schizophrenia manifests. The brain abnormalities may only fully come to light as the person goes through puberty due to the rapid brain changes seen during this time in life.³

article references

Schizophrenia genetics is an interesting subject. When someone is diagnosed with schizophrenia, one of the first things people want to know is how they got it – did they get it from their parents; is schizophrenia hereditary?

It’s natural to ask these questions, but the answers may be unsettling. Scientists believe that schizophrenia involves genes and the environment but no single gene, or even known combination of genes, causes schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia and Genetics

For decades researchers have been looking at families to try to determine if schizophrenia was hereditary and if they could identify one or more schizophrenia genes. What researchers have found is that schizophrenia does indeed run in families, but this does not completely account for the cause of schizophrenia.

For example, parents and children share 50% of their genes but the risk of getting schizophrenia if one has a schizophrenic parent is only 6%. The following is your risk of developing schizophrenia based on a known relative with schizophrenia:¹

• General population – 1%
• First cousins / uncles / aunts – 2%
• Nephews / nieces – 4%
• Grandchildren – 5%
• Half-sibling – 6%
• Sibling – 9%
• Children – 13%
• Fraternal twins – 17%
• Identical twins – 48%

Notably, identical twins share 100% of genes, yet their risk is only 48% if their twin has schizophrenia. This indicates that there is more than just genetics at work in schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia, Genes and the Environment

It’s thought that the difference then, is the environment. It is likely that a complex network of genes puts a person at risk for schizophrenia, but then environmental factors may be the deciding factor as to whether a person gets the illness. Similarly, a person may be at less risk of schizophrenia genetically, but due to greater environmental factors, they develop schizophrenia.

Environmental factors that are thought to increase the risk of schizophrenia include:

• Lead exposure during pregnancy
• Birth complications
• Extremely high stress experiences
• Drug use as a teenager

Specific Schizophrenia Genes

Scientists are working hard to identify which genes increase the heritability of schizophrenia. Unfortunately, scientists estimate that there are between 100 and 10,000 genes with brain-damaging mutations but how these genes work depends on the individual. There are over 280 genes currently identified as having been linked to schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia genes are sought after by population studies. Some studies look for common genes between large numbers of people, while others look for shared rare combinations of genes. Both types of studies, however, have only been successful at accounting for a tiny part of schizophrenia’s heredity. As Nicholas Wade of The New York Times put it,²

"Schizophrenia too seems to be not a single disease, but the endpoint of 10,000 different disruptions to the delicate architecture of the human brain."

article references