Are online tests for schizophrenia serious?
As a matter of principle, tests that are available online free of charge should be viewed with caution and the results critically reviewed. This is mainly because most tests of this kind do not meet scientific criteria and therefore cannot test specifically and sensitively enough for the presence of schizophrenia. Most tests focus on risk factors for the development of schizophrenia, in addition to a few questions about the current emotional state. Since schizophrenia is an extremely complicated and multifaceted disease, a diagnosis should always be made by a specialist and contact should be sought with him/her if you suspect that you have schizophrenia yourself.
What are the accompanying symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia?
The leading symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia are delusions and hallucinations. In addition to these two, however, there are numerous other symptoms that are frequently observed in this disorder. These include emotional instability.
Patients often experience intense anxiety, which further emphasizes the paranoid aspect of this disorder. However, such anxiety often turns into excessive anger, which can even threaten others. The affected persons are usually not reassured by good coaxing.
If this condition persists for a longer period of time, a compulsory hospitalization may become necessary. In contrast to other forms of schizophrenia, there is no listlessness, motor disorders or flattened emotions, summarized under the term “negative symptoms”. Hallucinations are one of the leading symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia.
They are characterized by the perception of stimuli that do not actually exist, which distinguishes them from so-called illusions. Since it is a feigned sensory perception, hallucinations can have many different qualities. Optical, gustatory, sensory or acoustic hallucinations can occur.
The latter are, however, clearly more frequent in this clinical picture, in the form of commenting or commanding voices that indicate the affected person. In paranoid schizophrenia, the feeling of being persecuted is usually created or amplified by these voices. As a source of the voice, the affected person usually indicates former caregivers.
The content of acoustic hallucinations is very different. In addition to commenting voices or expressing their thoughts (becoming thoughtful), the voice can also give directive instructions, which can be the case especially in delusion. Even if they occur significantly less frequently, some patients experience olfactory or taste hallucinations, which in paranoid schizophrenia is often interpreted as an attempt to poison or similar.
The anxiety paranoid schizophrenic can often turn into increased aggressiveness. The triggers for such an escalation can be numerous. Those affected can imagine that they are being chased by someone they have to fight and that all those around them are part of the “system”.
Often this leads to the fact that persons in an acute schizophrenic psychosis have to be fixed in order not to endanger others. In addition to these extreme aggressive outbursts, which occur especially in very severe cases of illness, many patients have a permanently elevated level of aggression, which is probably fed by the constantly felt fear. The persecution mania is characterized by the fact that actually harmless events are interpreted in terms of persecution or threat.Affected people describe first having a restless feeling (delusional tension) and brewing something concrete against them. The hallucinations usually intensify these thoughts significantly and the footsteps of pursuers are heard. Nearly all things that the person concerned perceives in such a phase are put into context with the persecution and thus perceived as a threat.
