False. Schizophrenia is not a split personality but a split from reality. Split personality is a separate mental disorder that is now called dissociative identity disorder.
Poor parenting causes schizophrenia
False. Schizophrenia is a brain disorder. It is caused by a biochemical imbalance.
People who suffer from schizophrenia are “crazy” all the time.
False. Hallucinations and delusions can be well controlled by medication and some people can lead relatively normal lives with a relapse here and there.
Schizophrenia is quite rare
False. Schizophrenia affects 1 in 100 people.
People with schizophrenia are dangerous
False. People with schizophrenia tend to retreat from people and are less likely than the average person to be violent.
Taking street drugs causes schizophrenia
False. Taking street drugs does not cause schizophrenia although in a person who is predisposed to schizophrenia it may bring on the symptoms earlier in life. Also, some drugs such as hallucinogens can mimic the symptoms of schizophrenia that will go away once the drug is out of the body.
You have to have a family history of schizophrenia to get it
False. A person with no family history has a 1% chance of getting schizophrenia. Schizophrenia does run in families. The closer the relative the higher the chance of getting schizophrenia; a child who has a mother and a father with schizophrenia has a 40% chance of getting it.
