Essay - Schizophrenia Is One of the Most Frightening of All Mental...

Schizophrenia is one of the most frightening of all mental disorders for those who do not know very much about it because it can cause those living with the condition to act in ways that seem out of control and stereotypically "crazy." And because it interferes so often and in such serious ***** ***** daily life, schizophrenics also quite ***** find their symptoms to be frightening or at least disturbing.

Because schizophrenia ***** be so deeply disruptive ***** people's daily *****, ***** who are living with the condition often seek to come to terms ***** the illness. This paper explores one of the possible therapies that schizophrenics may ***** and ***** has proven to be helpful to many of them: Cognitive behavioral therapy.

It ***** perhaps first be useful to provide a couple of b*****sic definitions, beginning with ***** itself.

Schizophrenia is a group ***** ***** disorders that ***** have ***** beginning usually in adolescence or young adulthood. Symptoms include disturbances in thought, perception, emotion, ***** *****terpersonal relationships (Unsw*****th, 1987, p. 12. As a form of psychosis, schizophrenia causes the person to blur the distinction between reality and fantasy:

People ***** ***** usually ***** difficulty distinguishing ***** reality ***** fantasy when ********** are experiencing symp*****ms ***** the illness. ***** inability to distinguish between reality and fantasy is known as psychosis and the core symptoms of schizophrenia are often displayed by psychotic behavior (http://www.cognitivetherapynyc.com/*****.html).

***** varies in *****tensity both from person to ***** as well as from time to time. The variable intensity of the illness in terms of *****dividual as ***** ***** across time has implications for ********** strategies, making cognitive or behavi*****al therapy especially attr*****ive. A serious mental disorder ***** interfered with a person's ********** ***** function to the same degree at all times might well be *****tter treated pharmaceutically. But a condition that is sometimes severe and sometimes much less so may be better treated with cognitive behavioral ***** (***** supplemented ***** drug therapy when it becomes necessary) which reduces the degree ***** symptoms at ***** times w*****hout any of the attendant side effects or dangers of drugs.

***** severity of schizophrenia varies from person to person, with some patients having only one or a few ep*****odes of the illness and others ***** continuous *****. Most people ***** schizophrenia experience considerable difficulties in their interpersonal relationships, in caring for personal needs, in work*****g, and in living independently (http://www.cognitive*****nyc.com/schizophrenia.html).

In order ***** underst***** the ***** therapeutic value that cognitive behavior may hold, it is essential that we *****and precisely what we mean ***** cognition and the way in which cognition is related to behavior as well as to emotion.

Cognition, according to Clark ***** Fairburn (1997) is simply the processes involved in knowing - which include ***** and judgment. Cognition includes e***** mental process that can be described ***** an experience of knowing, as d*****tinguished ***** those ***** processes that are associated with an experience ei*****r of feeling or an experience ***** willing. Another ***** of defining cognition *****