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Sections of this article:
01, from this point of view, depression can develop into schizophrenia
02, the more trauma suffered, the more prone to hallucinations, delusions
03. How to prevent depression from developing into schizophrenia?
Does depression develop into schizophrenia?
If so, how likely are there?
This is a concern for many parents of people with depression.
These parents may have taken their children to see a lot of psychiatrists, and the initial diagnosis was depression; but then the condition was serious, the child had hallucinations, delusions and other symptoms, and some doctors said that the child was an early stage of schizophrenia, a precursor to schizophrenia, and even said that it was schizophrenia.
Some parents may have learned that some children will have the above situation after inquiring everywhere and adding a lot of depression groups, and they are very worried about whether their children will be like this.
The concerns of this part of the parents are completely understandable. Because in the public perception, schizophrenia is equivalent to "mental illness", very serious and terrible, everyone avoids it, and no parent wants their children to become "mentally ill".
So will depression develop into schizophrenia?
The image comes from the Internet
If you look at it from the perspective of traditional, mainstream psychiatry, most psychiatrists will answer: Generally not.
There are two main reasons for this.
The first reason is that mainstream psychiatry believes that depression and schizophrenia are two relatively separate diseases with very different causes.
The mainstream view is that the cause of depression is related to biological factors and psychosocial factors, and the heritability is about 40% to 70%; that is, the role of genetic factors is not particularly significant, and psychosocial factors have a great influence.
As for the cause of schizophrenia, although the mainstream view does not deny that there are certain psychosocial factors, it believes that biological factors are more important. Genetic factors, in particular, believe that the heritability of the disease can reach 80% or more.
The second reason comes from clinical experience, where it is relatively rare for depression to develop into schizophrenia.
Even if there is, many doctors tend to think that the patient is actually schizophrenic, but the symptoms are not significant at first, so they are "misdiagnosed" as depression.
Again, the above is an answer based on traditional, mainstream psychiatry.
According to our years of clinical breakthroughs in multidisciplinary diagnosis and treatment (MDT) and pathological memory repair under deep hypnosis (TPMIH), depression may actually develop into schizophrenia, but of course, the probability is relatively low.
Why?
Whether it's depression, schizophrenia, or bipolar disorder that is increasingly recognized by the public, they are all symptomological diagnoses. Faced with the same patient and the same set of symptoms, different psychiatrists may have different interpretations.
For example, many patients only have emotional symptoms at the beginning, but the effect of drug treatment is not good, the condition is not controlled, and it continues to deteriorate, and gradually appear hallucinations, delusions and other psychotic symptoms, and some also laugh at themselves.
When they go to the doctor, different doctors are likely to give different diagnostic opinions. Some think that this is depression with psychotic symptoms, some think that bipolar disorder is accompanied by psychotic symptoms, and some think that this is the early stage of schizophrenia, or even schizophrenia.
We have also received many of these patients. When they have taken medication, the psychotic symptoms have been better controlled, and a certain degree of rationality and self-awareness has been restored, we will use deep hypnosis pathological memory repair technology (TPMIH) to find the psychological root cause of these symptoms.
As a result, we found that behind their hallucinations and delusions are also pathological memories, which are mainly superimposed psychological trauma and supplemented by pathological positive emotional experience.
Some patients often hear voices talking about themselves, denying themselves, thinking that there are cameras to monitor themselves, and even have symptoms of delusional persecution, which is often related to the superimposed psychological trauma they have suffered, such as school bullying, long-term parental blows and belittling.
Some patients have exaggerated delusions (baseless beliefs that they are capable and extraordinary) and love delusions (firm belief that others are in love with them), which are related to superimposed psychological trauma and pathological positive emotions.
For example, one of the high school students we once treated was diagnosed with schizophrenia by psychiatrists at other institutions. When she was seriously ill, she considered herself a god of the universe with the power to change the fate of others; she also thought that a Japanese star had a crush on her and confessed to her through various methods.
Later, through the deep hypnosis pathological memory repair technology (TPMIH), we found that she had suffered a large number of superimposed psychological traumas during her growth experience, mainly from family, school, and especially school bullying. She is very depressed and inferior, and if she had just developed psychosocial symptoms, she could have been diagnosed with depression.
In order to release the pressure, she began to find solace in her fantasies, imagining that she was super capable, and the more she thought about it, the more excited she became. She also loves Japanese and Korean pop culture, crazy obsessed with a Japanese male star, repeatedly watching his videos, MVs, etc., often imagining that she can be with him, and her heart is very happy and sweet.
She repeatedly imagined that producing strong positive emotions formed a pathological positive emotional experience. After repeated and intensified, she began to have auditory hallucinations, such as hearing the Japanese male star talking to her out of thin air.
At first she had a certain amount of self-awareness, thinking that this was impossible. But as auditory hallucinations became more and more frequent, she gradually lost her self-awareness, firmly believing that male stars just liked themselves and transmitted their voices through various means. The delusion of love and the exaggerated delusion mentioned above slowly formed.
In addition, the exaggerated fantasies of some patients are also related to repeatedly receiving excessive praise in the process of growing up, and overestimating their abilities.
For the above patients, after we have efficiently and accurately repaired their pathological memory, their hallucinations and delusional symptoms have been greatly alleviated or even disappeared; after rapid drug reduction and withdrawal, the symptoms have not rebounded.
Some patients do not directly deal with psychotic symptoms, but after their emotional symptoms are relieved or even disappear, hallucinations and delusions gradually disappear.
So, we think that at least this subset of patients is not real, typical schizophrenia, but depression/bipolar disorder with psychotic symptoms.
There are also "little flower plums" in the recently discussed "Feng County Giving Birth to Eight Children" incident. If she goes to the doctor during her first divorce and psychosocial symptoms, she is likely to be diagnosed with depression.
But later she suffered a series of psychological traumas, her condition became more and more serious, and she is currently diagnosed with schizophrenia by the authoritative Nanjing Brain Hospital in China. In fact, we suspect that she is more likely to suffer from complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD).
However, the above is just our family opinion. Schizophrenia is the most difficult to define and describe of all major mental illnesses, and its diagnosis is inherently controversial. For the above situation, many doctors believe that it is schizophrenia.
From this point of view, even if the patient is depressed at the beginning, as the condition continues to deteriorate, it may become schizophrenia in the eyes of many psychiatrists.
So if the patient's symptoms are very prominent and accurate, and most psychiatrists agree that it is a typical schizophrenia, there is no controversy, then is it possible that this may develop from depression?
It's also possible.
From the perspective of psychological trauma, schizophrenia does not appear suddenly, but is a process of gradual accumulation and development.
We have found in the clinic that those who have been diagnosed with depression and who have been diagnosed with early stage schizophrenia have experienced significantly more and more severe superimposed psychological trauma than those who have only been diagnosed with depression.
Some patients suffer from depression after suffering from superimposed psychological trauma; if the trauma continues to increase and the problem is not alleviated, they may commit suicide due to painful torture.
If there is no suicide, they may have psychotic symptoms, self-awareness is constantly impaired, cognition, emotion, and spiritual consciousness are becoming more and more difficult to unify, falling into chaos. Finally, if the psychotic symptoms exceed the severity of the emotional symptoms, it is possible to meet the diagnostic criteria for typical schizophrenia.
From this perspective, we believe that the main cause of schizophrenia is not genetic factors, but social and psychological roots, mainly still superimposed psychological trauma, pathological positive emotional experience as a supplement to pathological memory.
Of course, since we mainly treat patients with depression and bipolar disorder, schizophrenia is less common, which is only our preliminary view.
Since, from the perspective of psychological trauma, depression may develop into schizophrenia, how can we prevent it?
We have repeatedly stressed that after a child suffers from depression, in addition to receiving professional drug treatment, it is very important for parents to reflect, change and improve themselves.
If parents learn "family self-help therapy", can actively seek out and repair the trauma that the child has suffered in the past, and as far as possible, no longer bring new psychological trauma to the child, then the child's subsequent development of schizophrenia will be very low.
So if the child has been diagnosed with early schizophrenia, schizophrenia aura, or even schizophrenia, does it mean that the child has no hope of recovery?
The answer, of course, is no.
Whether the schizophrenia is "controversial" or very typical and accurate, psychiatric drugs should be used to control the symptoms first, and try to eliminate psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions.
For this, there is a general consensus in the clinic. Even a mental rehabilitation institution like ours, which is mainly based on clinical psychological intervention, needs to use drugs to control the patient's psychotic symptoms first, so that they can restore a certain degree of self-awareness and rationality, and psychological intervention is more likely to play a role.
That for the vast majority of patients, when hallucinations and delusions are controlled, they can seek professional psychological therapy, family therapy, and even a combination of certain exercise therapy and nutritional support.
Even if professional psychotherapy is not found, if family members can deeply self-reflect, change and improve, and use "family self-help therapy" to actively repair the psychological trauma of patients, they can also help them better restore social function, and even achieve reversal, take off the hat of "schizophrenia".
We shared an article about the "new treatment" for schizophrenia before, and researchers in Australia pointed out that if the correct treatment can be carried out as soon as possible, such as comprehensive treatment such as drugs + psychology, patients suffering from schizophrenia can live a fairly normal life.
Therefore, for schizophrenia, we do not have to be too pessimistic, if you know how to deal with it correctly, the patient has the possibility of recovery.
And if the child has depression, will it develop into schizophrenia in the end? I hope that after reading this article, parents can come up with an answer in their hearts.
Also, in psychiatry, not only schizophrenia is classified as a "major mental illness", but also bipolar disorder. Many parents of bipolar disorder patients are very frightened and collapsed when they learn about it, "How did my child become mentally ill?" ”
And in the clinic, it is very common for children to be diagnosed with depression first and then diagnosed with bipolar disorder, much more than to be diagnosed with schizophrenia.
So here comes the question:
Will depression develop into bipolar disorder?
If so, how likely is it?
Subsequently, we will write a special article to analyze this problem.