Schizophrenia Essay

Inside the Beautiful Mind of John Nash

Floating around like a lily pad in a still quiet pond. Until his eyes gaze upon you with endless and limitless expansion like there is so much of a person trapped inside a little box. Not having any response and having too many responses is a contradiction but not impossible. People ghosting around you swarming you like the paparazzi never leaving you alone. Always there following you and seemingly to appear out of nowhere. Heavy weights latched on to your body weighing you down into the soil to consume your well being in an ocean of darkness and despair. To escape is an illusion and to deal with these episodes is a nightmare. The idea of winning or losing doesn’t exist in a nonlinear black and white world. Articulations spewing out of the depths of your subconscious mind like a combination between dejavu and a memory. Watching disregarded footage as if they are bloopers of a murder scene. Strange warlocks in white cloaks casting spells and setting intent with their colored lozenges. Never giving them the reassurance that it works because you rebuke these devilish practices due to these low vibrational frequencies they leave you in. Leading back to square one sinking lower in the ocean of darkness and despair. This is a brief description inside the mind of David Cantu and John Nash. Both who suffered from Schizophrenia, a disabling brain disease. David Cantu is a family member who I was very close with. He had a beautiful soul and heart. He suffered from Schizophrenia as he was diagnosed when he was nineteen years old in 2016. John Nash is a man who invented Game Theory and I will focus on his story, but include David as a personal experience I had with him. Both these two men have had interesting and eventful lives along with the people who were close to them. In this case study we will determine the diagnosis, treatment, etiology, prognosis and personal experience of the character John Nash in the movie A Beautiful Mind directed by Ron Howard and Russell Crowe who plays John Nash in the movie. 

Schizophrenia is a chronic, severe and disabling brain disease. It usually affects men in their late teens and early twenties and women in their twenties to early thirties. About two million Americans experience this disease in a given year (Course Reader). The symptoms include hearing internal voices that no one else can hear, believing that other people can read their minds and are controlling their thoughts, their speech can be incomprehensible or frightening to others. People who also suffer from schizophrenia experience hallucinations and delusions. Nash from A Beautiful Mind had hallucinated his roommate/best friend, his niece and the Detective. All of these characters inside his mind to us viewers watching the movie was hard to catch at first. So I related that to how a person who has schizophrenia and figured it was a similar feeling. While diagnosing someone it is necessary to rule out any other illnesses. Sometimes people suffer severe mental symptoms or even psychosis due to other medical conditions (Course Reader). Medical history should be checked along with a physical examination and additional laboratory tests. It is to rule out any other possible way a person could have these specific symptoms. In general, the earlier someone with schizophrenia is diagnosed and stabilized on an appropriate treatment regime, the better their chance of recovery (Nemade, Dombeck). Also abused drugs can lead to someone experiencing symptoms of schizophrenia so a blood and urine test will need to take place. Sometimes it can be tough to decipher one mental disorder from another. Some people experience a major depressive disorder with symptoms of schizophrenia (Course Reader).  People who can’t clearly be diagnosed are sometimes categorized with a schizoaffective disorder because there is no single cause of schizophrenia and the person has overlapping symptoms. 

Scientists do not yet fully understand all the elements necessary for someone to have schizophrenia. Scientists are searching through genes, crucial moments in brain development and other unknown factors that could lead to the illness. What they do know is that schizophrenia may be a result from an interplay of genetic and behavior factors. This disease can be genetically passed on from one generation to the next. Intrauterine starvation, viral infections, perinatal complications and various stressors have seemed to also  have an influence on the development of this disease (Course Reader). Nash may have got his disease from his family. Scientists tried to pinpoint the cause to chromosomes 13 and 6 but it is still unconfirmed. Other regions in the brain may cause these symptoms as well. Such as a chemical defect and abnormality in the brain along with inherency (Course Reader). Our brain’s neurotransmitters have been thought to be involved with schizophrenia along with imbalance of the complex and interrelated chemicals of the brain. Some patients have enlargement of fluid filled cavities but this is something also found in people who don’t have schizophrenia, but brain abnormalities are still factored in as a potential cause of this disease. Because scientists have been able to single out areas of the brain and find patterns within each patient there are treatments to counteract this disease but not yet cure it. Available treatments can relieve symptoms but most continue to suffer some of the symptoms throughout their lives. Medication, psychosocial treatments, rehabilitation, individual psychotherapy, family education and self help groups are all treatment opportunities for people who have schizophrenia. Antipsychotics are typically used to treat patients with this disease. They are often very effective for treating the symptoms of hallucinations and delusions but is not effective for treating symptoms like reduced motivation and expressiveness. Sometimes when people with schizophrenia become depressed some other symptoms can appear. Sometimes the older antipsychotics like haloperidol and chlorpromazine can produce side effects that resemble the more difficult to treat symptoms and so by lowering the does or switching to a different medicine the side effects may be reduced. The newer antipsychotics like olanzapine, quetiapine and risperidone does not have this problem. John Nash, in the movie was on medication and had decided to secretly stop taking them which is a common response amongst patients with schizophrenia. He didn’t want to take them anymore because he was becoming depressed and couldn’t mentally function properly. As time went on he learned to manage it instead of it managing him. 

Living with schizophrenia is a difficult experience. When David and I would interact I could kind of notice little things he would do. He was often alone and when we were at family functions he was always in the background not really paying attention to what everyone else was doing. He would act himself around me mostly and occasionally start laughing and it was because of the hallucinations and the delusions he was experiencing. I first found out he had schizophrenia when I went to see him at the hospital because he had the first episode I’ve ever been involved in willingly. That’s when he said he was hearing voices and he was scared of what was happening to him. David’s prognosis was a grim one. He had ultimately committed suicide. It is an unfortunate fact that people with schizophrenia attempt suicide more frequently than do people in the general population (Nemade, Dombeck). There are many outcomes for a person suffering from schizophrenia. It is important for family and friends to help support in any way possible and for the patient to receive the necessary treatment needed to sustain a happy and balanced life. Nash learned to solve his problem of finding a kind of solution that worked for him, which is what he is famous for, solving problems. Him being able to ignore and develop mental constructs in his head as a normal way of living is amazing. Available treatments and medications can relieve symptoms. But it has been estimated that one in five individuals recovers completely. With more case studies and research that scientists and families are doing there will be breakthroughs and setbacks. It is necessary to look over family history because if no one in the immediate family has the disease or related symptoms that is a good thing, but if they do then it’s not. The prognosis is usually positive when the disease quickly abrupt opposed to slowly taking over. The chances of recovery are good when the diagnosis is early enough to be treated quickly and consistently (Nemade, Dombeck). Our minds are mysterious and beautiful and delicate parts of us and we need to take care of ourselves and each other and fully try to understand how our own individual brains operate and function. 

Schizophrenia is a terrifying disease that affects men and women similarly. It is important to recognize the disease early on because it will increase the chance of full recovery substantially. As you have read above you will be able to notice signs of people who are close to you. If anyone you know is experiencing this disease you will have a better understanding of what it is they are going through and will be able to interact easier with them. If someone you know is having these symptoms and isn’t diagnosed mention it and help them get the help they need. Don’t wait or be uncertain because it’s better to get them the help they need and them be fine then to not and they end up on a grim pathway. I want to take a moment to dedicate this research paper to my late cousin David who was a bright light in my life and I’m sad to have to say goodbye, but those fears and anxieties are longer in existence and that leaves me content. 

Click here to see a Schizophrenia installation piece I created called Disorientated Perspective.

Work Cited

Gerrig, Richard J. Psychology and Life. Pearson, 2014.

Howard, Ron, director. A Beautiful Mind. Dreamworks, 2011.

NEMADE,, RASHMI, and MARK DOMBECK. “Prognosis And Recovery Factors Of Schizophrenia.” Mental Help Early Childhood Cognitive Development Language Development Comments, www.mentalhelp.net/articles/prognosis-and-recovery-factors-of-schizophrenia/.

“Schizophrenia (Mental Health Disorder) Information.” MyVMC, 19 June 2018, www.myvmc.com/diseases/schizophrenia/.