| People tend to rely on certain support structures in | | | | her "real" husband's. These symptoms are typically |
| their lives. These structures serve as ways for | | | | only found in more extreme cases of this mental |
| people to alleviate fear and anxiety in an increasingly | | | | health disorder, but this is what is most cited as the |
| stressful world. There are certain things and certain | | | | main difference between schizoaffective disorder and |
| people that we count on to alleviate our stress and | | | | the more recognizable schizophrenia. |
| anxiety at the end of the day. People can go into a | | | | This particular symptom is believed to be an outcrop |
| panic when that support structure is taken away | | | | of unwanted changes or emotional damage in the |
| permanently. The build-up of stress and anxiety can | | | | patient's interpersonal relationships. By attributing the |
| exact a price on one's mental health that most | | | | unwanted behavior or changes to a "duplicate," the |
| people simply can't afford. The fear of this can | | | | patient can feel safe in discarding their emotions for |
| sometimes lead to someone developing a case of | | | | that person. This has the side effect of developing a |
| separation anxiety. However, the field of mental | | | | sense of detachment around the "duplicate" in some, |
| health is a complicated field where even if your | | | | while others report feeling extreme levels of fear and |
| support structure is there, your mind says they're | | | | anxiety. In theory, the reactions are affected by |
| not. | | | | how had the patient's delusions have gotten. |
| There is a dangerous psychological disorder known as | | | | Another difference that some have noted is the |
| schizoaffective disorder, which has interesting effects | | | | perception of the voices that the patient hears. Both |
| on human perception. The problem is highly similar to | | | | disorders cause someone to hear voices that aren't |
| schizophrenia in symptoms and treatment, although | | | | really there. However, while schizophrenia causes |
| schizoaffective disorder poses a much larger mental | | | | people to perceive the voices as coming from their |
| health risk. Both problems are common, with at least | | | | own minds, people with schizoaffective disorder |
| 10% of the population having experienced it at one | | | | experience it differently. These non-existent voices |
| point in their lives. Both have a tendency to generate | | | | are heard via the ear, making it seem as if they are |
| the same range of side effects in patients. The | | | | real voices from real people, rather than delusions. |
| primary difference between the two is that | | | | Most people believe that the difference lies in the |
| schizoaffective disorder does a significantly larger | | | | brain tricking itself into believing there is actual |
| amount of emotional damage to patients than | | | | sensory information, which most assume does not |
| schizophrenia does. There is also the distinctive | | | | occur with the voices in schizophrenia. |
| symptom of more serious cases of schizoaffective | | | | Perhaps the most critical difference between the |
| disorder, which echoes plots of science fiction | | | | two is the degree of emotional healing that the |
| B-movies rather closely. | | | | patient and his loved ones would have to go through. |
| The most distinctive symptom of schizoaffective | | | | Schizoaffective disorder tends to do more damage |
| disorder is that patients suddenly find that people in | | | | to personal relationships than regular schizophrenia. As |
| their lives have been..."replaced," for lack of a better | | | | such, there is usually more emotional healing needed |
| term. In one instance, a housewife saw her husband | | | | for the people around the patient to make a full |
| and believed he was a duplicate of her real husband. | | | | recovery than in schizophrenia. Like all serious mental |
| She believed that he was a fake despite his having | | | | health problems, the patient has to deal with the |
| the same physical features, personality, and voice. | | | | damage done to the people around him. However, in |
| When asked why she felt that she was looking at a | | | | the case of schizoaffective disorder, there was likely |
| clever fake, she said that his nose seemed longer | | | | damage or changes to the relationship in the first |
| and his shoulders didn't seem as broad as those of | | | | place. |