"Dealing with Tridosha is easier now"
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia
People are sometimes susceptible to mental disorders when faced with aggravating factors such as grief, fear, excessive worry etc. When mental unrest becomes severe, a person ceases to be able to function normally in everyday life. This leads to nervous exhaustion and breakdown or serious disorders such as insanity, delusion, psychosis, schizophrenia and bi-polar disease.
The name schizophrenia means 'split mind'. The disease is marked by considerable disturbances in thoughts (as if person has two minds) which affect perceptual, social and emotional processes. The patient is almost detached from the real world and lives in his own imaginary world. The disease usually arises in the first half of life and its beginning may be sudden or gradual. Schizophrenia is usually compared with the disease Atatwabhinivesh.
No specific cause of schizophrenia has been detected so far though genetic and social factors seem to play causative role in many cases. Imbalance in neurotransmitters in brain is suspected to be behind the disease. Many schizophrenics have enlarged brain ventricles which suggests degeneration as a possible cause. In Ayurveda, imbalance in psychic energies (Sattva, Raja, Tama) supported by imbalance of physical energies (vata, pitta, kapha) are believed to cause various mental disorders. This applies to schizophrenia as well. Lack of mental discipline, indulgence in negative thoughts and activities and negative emotions like hatred, anger etc. are known to cause imbalance in psychic energies, which in turn leads to diseases like schizophrenia.
- Depression
- Deterioration of personal hygiene
- Odd or irrational statements
- Unnecessary hostility
- Strange suspiciousness
- Extreme reaction to criticism
- Excessive sleep or insomnia
- Forgetfulness and difficulty to concentrate
Quite a few schizophrenic patients give history of bad life style, improper food habits, lack of discipline in personal life and unsocial attitude. So maintaining good life style, food habits and discipline acquire lot of significance when it comes to psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia. Getting up early in the morning, avoid sleeping late at night, doing physical exercises etc. Eating fresh food, vegetables, seasonal fruits and avoiding non-veg, fast food and liquor, maintaining regular food timings, taking meals with peaceful mind and avoiding hot discussions are advantageous for mental health. Making prayers, reading spiritual texts, reading good literature, listening to thought provoking lectures, hearing mantras and music also help to improve mental strength. Yoga, Pranayam & Meditation are well known for helping in mental problems. Social support helps in combatting stress and keeping mental strength in challenging situations.