Things that worsen schizophrenia are high stress, lack of sleep, poor diet, not sticking to treatment and not taking medication as prescribed and substance and use like drugs and even alcohol can worsen schizophrenia.
High stress situations like job loss, relationship issues, abuse, can also trigger episodes of schizophrenia and or worsen existing symptoms.
Common schizophrenia triggers are high stress life events like job loss, bereavement, trauma, as well as medication non adherence, and drug abuse like abuse of cannabis, cocaine and amphetamines.
Other common schizophrenia triggers are environmental stressors like chaotic environments, social isolation and moving can trigger episodes of schizophrenia in people that are vulnerable.
Losing your job or losing your home, divorce, losing a loved one, the end of a relationship, physical abuse, sexual abuse or even emotional abuse can also trigger schizophrenia.
The first red flag of schizophrenia is social withdrawal and isolation, which is when a person pulls away from friends, family and activities that they once enjoyed.
This social withdrawal and isolation in people with schizophrenia is also often accompanied by a decline in their functioning like school or work as well as having increased irritability, sleeping difficulties and odd or suspicious behavior during the early or prodromal phase.
Early red flags of schizophrenia include social isolation like stopping of phone calls, avoiding social gatherings, and even becoming reclusive.
Declining performance like a significant drop in grades or job performance, behavioral changes like depression, anxiety, irritability, or lack of motivation.
Cognitive and perceptual shifts like strange thoughts, difficulty concentrating or even suspicions.
And physical changes like having drastic shifts in sleeping habits or neglecting of personal hygiene.
These early and often subtle changes in a person with schizophrenia often appear in a persons late teens to their early 30s.
Serotonin is often high in schizophrenia due to higher serotonin release, especially in your frontal cortex, which also links to worse negative symptoms, which challenges the older ideas of low serotonin.
In schizophrenia, there's also evidence of overall serotonergic dysfunction, with different receptors also showing varied activity, like potentially higher 5-HT1A and lower 5-HT2A, and this imbalance affects glutamate signaling, which contributes to symptoms like apathy, psychosis and cognitive issues, which make serotonin a key target for new treatments for schizophrenia.
The age at which schizophrenia develops is in a persons late teens to early 30s.
Men often show signs and symptoms of schizophrenia earlier, like in their late teens and early 20s, and women often show signs and symptoms of schizophrenia in their late 20s and early 30s.
Although less common, schizophrenia can also occur in childhood, which is early onset or much later in a persons life, also known as late onset, after age 40.
The onset of schizophrenia often follows subtle cognitive or social changes which can be mistaken for normal adolescent development.
The late teens and early 20s is a time of significant brain development, most particularly in the frontal ex, which can also trigger schizophrenia in vulnerable people.
And genetics and environmental factors interact, with hormonal changes during puberty possibly playing a role.
Early signs of schizophrenia are social withdrawal, emotional flatness, changes in sleep, and disorganized thinking can appear years before a formal diagnosis of schizophrenia occurs.
Schizophrenia starts by way of a complex interplay of genetic vulnerability as well as environmental triggers, which often becomes apparent in late adolescence and or early adulthood when a persons experiences significant brain changes.
Things such as drug use, especially use of cannabis, stressful life events and certain complications during pregnancy can also trigger the onset of schizophrenia in people who are already predisposed to schizophrenia.
Early signs of schizophrenia can also be subtle and can include depression, social withdrawal and even problems with a person's hygiene and attention.
Having a family history of schizophrenia also increases a person's risk of developing schizophrenia, although schizophrenia does not always run in families.
And having imbalances in your brain chemicals like glutamate and dopamine imbalances, as well as having issues with brain development as well as connections, can play a role in the development of schizophrenia.
Major stressful life events, like losing a job, abuse or even bereavement and losing a loved one can also be triggers for schizophrenia.
Use of mind altering drugs, especially marijuana or cannabis, during adolescence, is also linked to a higher risk of developing schizophrenia.
And exposure to certain viruses or even malnutrition during pregnancy can also increase your risk of developing schizophrenia and research also suggests that living in a city might increase your risk of schizophrenia, especially for people who have a genetic disposition.
Early signs of schizophrenia are behavioral changes like social isolation, withdrawal from friends and family and a decline in personal hygiene.
Other signs of schizophrenia include.
Problems with concentration, lack of motivation and difficulty organizing your thoughts, and poor performance at school.
Emotional changes, which can include inappropriate emotional responses, flat affect or increased suspicion.
And subtle perceptual changes, in which the person might begin hearing or seeing things that others don't see or hear, although it can also be more prominent later on in the schizophrenia.
Males often show symptoms of schizophrenia in their late teens to early 20's and females are more likely to develop schizophrenia and show symptoms in their 30s.