Excellent topic today, when I am studying mental disorders I like to first look at the timeline, so my first criteria if I am looking over a patient case study or exam question, is the time. Is it over 6 months? Once that criteria is met, then I look for the patient having 3 or more symptoms over that 6 month period. Typically I look for positive symptoms and a negative symptom coexisting together and try to distinguish it from Delusional disorder or Personality disorder. I have interacted with a couple patients while visiting a mental hospital, I generally get along with those folks, I try to give them a listening ear, I have one friend who is along the line but haven't been diagnosed but developed those symptoms abruptly, very sad case, in the Caribbean we tend to think of those things as evil spirits invading the body, I honestly can't say no to those beliefs but some cases I feel like its the hands of evil doers. I notice that it is one of those disorders that is also heavily associated with drug abuse especially marijuana while talking to few of the staff of the mental hospital but if you ask me, a few of these guys just have unique beliefs and nothing is really wrong with them. I have also come across more male patients than females, an most of the males broke when life crisis hit home