ROOM 103B
WHAT IS SCHIZOPHRENIA?
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However, save for regularly-scheduled visits and hospital stays, professionals are not usually on the front lines.  This distinction is left to the afflicted individual and/or her loved ones.  In that vein, I think it is important to know some of the signs and symptoms of sz.  As mentioned in Room 103A, there are 4 types of schizophrenia.  I will focus on 2 of them: paranoid and schizoaffective disorder.  There are also a number of schizophrenia-related personality disorders.  For now, I will omit them from our discussion.

Paranoid schizophrenia.  The term means different things to different people.  To some, it means a deranged lunatic wandering the streets and hunting down his prey with the exactness and tenacity of a wild animal.  Unfortunately, this portrayal occurs far too often in the media.  For the vast majority of individuals, this is an unfair stereotype.  To illustrate this point, the FBI claims that there are less than 20 serial killers loose in the United States.  Yet, there are 2 - 3 million people with schizophrenia, paranoid type being the most common!  The truth is that while most schizophrenics think violent thoughts, we abhor confrontation.  Most of us will avoid confrontation at all costs.  And more often than not - in fact much more often - we are victims of crimes not the perpetrators.

(continued)
Despite most media depictions, people with paranoid schizophrenia more often are victims rather than perpetrators of violent crimes.
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ROOM 103C
WHAT IS SCHIZOPHRENIA?
(CONTINUED)
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