Research about Schizophrenia - Artemis

Schizophrenia affects the brain and makes it difficult to tell the difference between reality and non-fiction. To make our character seems as though he actually is mentally ill these are the kind of stage directions we would give our actor.

*Examples of Physical Symptoms----

--A blank, vacant facial expression. An inability to smile or express emotion through the face is so characteristic of the disease that it was given the name of affective flattening or a blunt affect.

--Staring, while in deep thought, with infrequent blinking.

--Sleep disturbances- insomnia or excessive sleeping

--Involuntary movements of the tongue or mouth (facial dyskinesias). Grimacing at the corners of the mouth with the facial muscles, or odd movements with the tongue.

--Eye movements- difficulty focusing on slow moving objects

--Unusual gestures or postures

--Movement is speeded up- i.e. constant pacing

*Examples of Feelings/Emotions----

--The inability to experience joy or pleasure from activities (called anhedonia)

--Sometimes feeling nothing at all

--Appearing desireless- seeking nothing, wanting nothing

--Feeling detached from your own body (depersonalization)

*This information was taken from the website http://www.schizophrenia.com/earlysigns.htm

I have also been doing this in Psychology and found that although Schizophrenia in children is rare, it has happened. Schizophrenia is also a spectrum disorder meaning there are many types. We are not going to focus on a specific part and keep it quite broad due to the limited amount of time we have for the whole film. It would take to long to go into detail.