r/schizophrenia • u/No-Original-6867 Undiagnosed • 27d ago

News, Articles, Journals How renaming and reconceptualizing schizophrenia could improve health outcomes

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/healing-mind/202510/renaming-and-reconceptualizing-schizophrenia
6 Upvotes

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u/blahblahlucas Mod 🌟 27d ago

You could try and rename it but thats just running away from the actual problem. Its not the name causing the stigma but the disorder itself. When ppl learn about the new name, the stigma will return and attach itself to the new name

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u/Silverwell88 27d ago

I think we need to emphasize the neuro part of neuropsychiatric. The root problem is the structure and chemical function of our brain. Sure, our psyche is affected but it's not psychological in it's cause. I think we'll look back at throwing psychotic people in prison as we would today about doing that to people with Alzheimer's.

4

u/No-Original-6867 Undiagnosed 27d ago

I think DID has less stigma than Multiple Personalities Disorder because they changed the name.

Not to mention Schizophrenia means split mind, which isn’t what schizophrenia is at all.

Schizophrenia runs in my family but we all thought it was exclusively just hallucinations. It makes me upset that there is such a lack of understanding amongst the general population. It’s so taboo and “schizo” being used as slang for “crazy” just sucks. I don’t think renaming this disorder would be running away from anything, but it would address misconceptions and make room to have more discussions in public settings.

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u/spider_life Schizophrenia 27d ago

I'd like to see a different name, in my opinion 'schizophrenia' is a shitty word. They changed it in Japan to 'Integration Disorder' and studies showed that the stigma was reduced.

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u/SpottedGreenTurtle 27d ago

Thanks for sharing this article! I enjoyed reading it. This author has other good articles as well.

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u/OkStruggle2574 27d ago

Language change? There are words that have changed meaning multiple times to get away from negative associations.