Myths about Schizophrenia

Misconceptions:  What Schizophrenia is NOT

Here are some common myths about schizophrenia that need to be dispelled:

MYTH: People with schizophrenia have a split personality, or multiple personalities.
FACT: The word “schizophrenia” derives from “schizo,” meaning split or fractured, and “phrenia,” meaning mind. Thus, schizophrenia describes the breaking apart of one's mental functions, not the splitting apart of one's personality. “Split personality” is an entirely different disorder, now called dissociative identity disorder.

MYTH: People with schizophrenia have sub-normal intelligence.
FACT: While people with schizophrenia have cognitive impairments, this is not the same as a lack of intelligence. Those with schizophrenia demonstrate the same average intelligence as the rest of the population.

MYTH: Schizophrenia is caused by child abuse, terrible parenting. or an otherwise horrible childhood.
FACT: Neglect or abuse has not been shown to be an important factor in the development of schizophrenia. As has been stated, there are both genetic (inherited) and environmental factors associated with schizophrenia, and childhood experiences have not been cited as a strong environmental factor.

MYTH: Schizophrenia makes a person bad, lazy, or uncaring.
FACT: “Laziness” and “lack of concern” are misunderstandings or mislabels of certain “negative” symptoms of schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is often misunderstood—and stigmatized

The media all too often portrays people with schizophrenia as violent and dangerous. They sensationalize the disease by featuring chronic patients whose symptoms are not being treated.

How often have you seen characters in film and/or television programs portrayed as seeing images and talking to themselves, or as living on the street and having poor personal hygiene—and been told that these characters have schizophrenia?

These depictions are unfortunate—not only because they perpetuate society's lack of understanding of schizophrenia, but they create greater stigma for mental illnesses in general.