Disordered thinking can quickly cause fear and frustration, both in the person suffering from a thought disorder and from those who interact with the person. Often, thought disorders will show a variety of frightening or frustrating symptoms, potentially including hallucinations or trouble interacting with others.
Understanding thought disorders and their symptoms can help friends, family members, and others interact with those patients more successfully. For people who experience symptoms of thought disorders, seeking treatment is essential. First Light Recovery provides comprehensive treatment for people who struggle with thought disorders.
Thought disorders occur when patients have a hard time organizing or expressing their thoughts. They can cause substantial complications and difficulty for many patients, particularly when it comes to communicating.
Thought disorders may often come with a variety of damaging symptoms, including poor judgment or insight, diminished thinking, feelings of hopelessness, increased reckless behavior, or irritability. Patients with thought disorders may also have a higher risk of developing a dependence on drugs or alcohol, often as a way to self-medicate and attempt to control those symptoms.
Thought disorders can occur in several forms. Some patients may show symptoms of more than one type of thought disorder due to an underlying diagnosis like schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.
Symptoms of thought disorders may look like:
A diminished capacity for speech. It occurs when patients struggle to form thoughts and speak clearly.
Speaking nonsense words as patients focus on the sounds those words make, not their meanings.
A high level of repetition, rather than original thought.
Regular slips of the tongue.
Occurs when the speaker loses their train of thought abruptly, often in the middle of a sentence of thought.
When patients jump from one concept to another with connections that do not necessarily make sense to listeners.
The lack of ability to speak clearly.
Speaking in an overly formal manner that is not appropriate for the setting or time.
Patients may include several irrelevant details as part of their conversations.
Patients wander between topics or get distracted from the conversation or topic at hand.
Difficulty keeping conversations on track.
Often, thought disorders will show up as a result of another underlying disorder, or will group together because of an underlying condition. People with thought disorders have severe disruptions and irregularities in their thought processes. Some of the most common thought disorders include schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder.
Patients with schizophrenia may have thoughts and behavior patterns considerably out of touch with reality. They may suffer from a number of the symptoms commonly associated with thought disorders. Symptoms of schizophrenia include incoherence, distractible speech, circumstantiality, and more. Often, people with schizophrenia will suffer from hallucinations and overall disorganized thinking patterns, which may not seem to make sense to others who attempt to engage with the patient.
Patients with schizoaffective disorder often struggle with mood disturbances and disorganized thought patterns. Like patients with schizophrenia, patients with schizoaffective disorder may struggle with a variety of unique thought patterns and characteristics, including paraphrastic errors, disordered thinking, and hallucinations.
Schizoaffective disorder may result in several potentially damaging behaviors. Often, the behavior will go in cycles, with patients showing periods of improvement followed by periods of more disordered thinking. A combination of medication and therapy can often help patients with schizoaffective disorder live more productive, normal lives.
Treatment for thought disorders can involve a variety of interventions designed to help patients cope with those challenges and, in some cases, restore normal interactions. Therapy may involve both individual and group or family therapy options. In addition, treatment for schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder may involve medications alongside that therapy. Those medications can help restore normal thinking patterns or aid in the patient’s overall development.
Treatment for thought disorders can involve a variety of interventions designed to help patients cope with those challenges and, in some cases, restore normal interactions. Therapy may involve both individual and group or family therapy options. In addition, treatment for schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder may involve medications alongside that therapy. Those medications can help restore normal thinking patterns or aid in the patient’s overall development.
*The information provided on this website is for general informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical, psychiatric, or behavioral health advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare providers with any questions you may have regarding a medical, psychiatric, or behavioral health condition.
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