Schizophrenia Treatment in California
Schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder that disrupts a person’s thinking, perception, and sense of reality. It’s essential to get professional treatment, and residential mental health treatment can be a holistic approach to safe healing.
For schizophrenia treatment, the clinical and medical teams at Southern California Recovery Center use psychiatric assessment, consultation, and medication management, along with evidenced-based interventions for treatment.
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What Is Schizophrenia?
Schizophrenia is a complex, chronic mental health condition characterized by disruptions in thinking, perception, emotions, and behavior. It often involves symptoms such as hallucinations (hearing or seeing things others don’t), delusions (strongly held false beliefs), disorganized thinking, and reduced emotional expression.
It affects roughly 1% of the global population and typically emerges in late adolescence or early adulthood. With proper treatment (usually a combination of medication and therapy) many people with schizophrenia are able to manage their symptoms and lead meaningful lives.
It is common for symptoms of schizophrenia to run within family members, and in fact, the mental illness can be passed down even through several generations. Although reports show that a majority of the individuals who struggle with this illness are men, there is often an alarming number of both men and women who suffer from it.
Signs & Symptoms of Schizophrenia:
- Paranoia
- Variety of beliefs that are not based on reality (delusions)
- Decreased or complete lack of emotion
- Fast slurred speech
- Portraying an exaggerated self-image to others
- Smelling, hearing, and even seeing things that are not there (hallucinations)
Treatment for Schizophrenia
People with schizophrenia may require more intensive residential treatment methods and forms of long-term therapy. for them to be able to be involved and participate in the daily tasks and responsibilities they have at home.
Evidenced-based interventions for schizophrenia treatment:
Individual Psychotherapy
Individual psychotherapy sessions are great opportunities for a psychiatrist to teach the patient how to deal with their different thoughts and behaviors in effective ways. It is also a great time to gain a broader understanding of their illness and its accompanying effects. Helping to manage the patient’s various everyday tasks ad responsibilities life is a significant benefit of this form of therapy as well.
Dialectic Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
DBT a specific type of cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy introduced primarily to produce better treatment methods for borderline personality disorder. Since the time of development, DBT is used to treat many kinds of mental health disorders and has proven effective for schizophrenia.
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT therapy is designed to help the individual alter their behavior and thinking habits. The therapist shows different ways that skills can be developed meant to deal with voices and hallucinations the patient would typically be struggling with because of the illness. Patients can eventually learn to recognize and cope with the things that trigger their psychotic episodes.
Cognitive-Enhancement Therapy (CET)
Often referred to as cognitive remediation, this type of therapy helps teach people how to recognize social cues and deal with various triggers. Improving memory capacities, attention capabilities, and the ability to gather and organize thoughts are at the center of this therapy’s purpose.
Get Schizophrenia Treatment in California
If you think that you or a loved one could benefit from a residential mental health treatment program, please do not hesitate to reach out. Southern California Sunrise Recovery Center offers sustainable therapy and treatment options for schizophrenia and other mental health conditions.
Please speak to one of our specialists to learn more about the mental health programs and treatment options that we offer in Orange County, California.
Frequently Asked Questions
Medications are the cornerstone for schizophrenia treatment. The most common prescribed drug for schizophrenia medication is antipsychotic medications.
Like any other mental health disorder, there is no one cure for schizophrenia. It is treatable and manageable with antipsychotic medication and behavioral therapy.
The exact cause of schizophrenia is unknown. Some factors that play into the cause of schizophrenia include a combination of physical, genetic, psychological and environmental factors can make a person more likely to develop the condition.
Schizophrenia involves a range of problems with the way a person thinks, behaves and shows emotion. Signs and symptoms of a person with schizophrenia include delusions, hallucinations or disorganized speech, and reflect an impaired ability to function.