Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a long-term mental health condition that causes a range of different psychological symptoms, including:

• Hallucinations – hearing or seeing things that do not exist;
• Delusions – unusual beliefs not based on reality that often contradict the evidence;
• Muddled thoughts based on hallucinations or delusions;
• Changes in behaviour.

Doctors often describe schizophrenia as a psychotic illness. This means sometimes a person may not be able to distinguish their own thoughts and ideas from reality.