Disorganized schizophrenia is also known as hebephrenic schizophrenia, named after the Greek goddess of youth — Hebe in reference to its age of onset in puberty. This subtype of schizophrenia is considered to be the most debilitating form of the disorder. The patient loses all touch with reality and is absolutely indifferent to the happenings around him/her. These individuals come across as living in a different world altogether, they may talk or gesture to themselves and have hallucinations and delusions of great intensity. This subtype of schizophrenia is characterized by extreme distortion of the thought process, disorganized behavior and unsuitable emotional expression.

This disorder usually occurs at an early age and represents a severe disintegration of the individual’s personality, thereby disrupting his/her daily life and functional capacity. Although, there is no cure for disorganized schizophrenia, medications and good mental health care services may enable individuals to deal with this devastating disorder.

Symptoms of Disorganized schizophrenia:

An affected individual has a history of abnormality, over-meticulousness about insignificant things and fixation with vague religious and philosophical issues. While schoolmates often play and involve in other social activities, individuals with this disorder become withdrawn and preoccupied with fantasies.

The person tends to appear as emotionally indifferent and oblivious to his/her surroundings. He/she may laugh or exhibit inappropriate emotions at odd times.

Speech becomes incomprehensible and may include considerable baby talk, childish giggling, a repetitious use of similar sounding words and a derailing of associated thoughts that may sound like puns.

Some individuals may also invent new words known as neologisms leading to absolute distortion of speech.

Hallucinations and delusions are quite commonly experienced by these individuals. They might hear voices condemning them of wicked practices or calling them evil names. The delusions experienced may be sexual, hypochondriac, religious or persecutory in nature. These are extremely disorganized and realistic in nature.

These individuals may feel threatened and behave aggressively in response to the hallucinations and delusions.

Hebephrenic individuals often display peculiar and strange mannerisms such as making weird faces, talking and gesturing to themselves or laughing and screaming at inappropriate times.

Some of them may even develop an abnormal interest in feces and urine.

Obscene behavior and the absence of any modesty or sense of shame are also prevalent in these individuals.

It is important to understand that individuals suffering from disorganized schizophrenia are indifferent to real life situations, no matter how grave they may be. They require a great deal of empathy and support from their loved ones. There might be no sure shot cure for this disorder but proper medical care and treatment can enable them to live and feel better.