How does negative symptoms show themselves? Is it only lack of motivation and cognition or is it also common that it includes anxiety and depression or can it also be excl. anxiety and depression?
Thanks <3
For me it’s like this (scientific names are in parenthesis):
- inability to feel pleasure (anhedonia)
- inability to love/hate someone; it’s like I have a cold heart (flat affect)
- inability to laugh/weep; I can laugh sometimes, but it’s fake
- inability to initiate and pursue actions that require effort or concentration (avolition)
- inability to find topics for conversation or give elaborate answers (poverty of speech)
I don’t feel depressed or anxious. I feel empty all the time.
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I feel empty all the time as well. I don’t get sad or happy, just empty.
Maybe I get a bit anxious when with people.
I don’t think negative symptoms include depression and anxiety because, if you take meds for depression and anxiety, you won’t necessarily “cure” the negative symptoms.
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Do a google search, if you were able to post this question you can do it easily. There are more negative symptoms than what andrey has mentioned.
Anhedonia: This is characterized by the inability to experience pleasure. The person with schizophrenia may find nothing in life pleasurable. No activity, no hobby, nothing. Since nothing seems pleasurable while experiencing anhedonia and other negative symptoms, their overall functioning may become extremely impaired.
Apathy: The person may no longer care about anything or become apathetic. This is characterized by a “lack of emotion,” interest, and concern. In other words the person with schizophrenia may become indifferent to important aspects of life. This leads to neglect of social, emotional, physical, and cognitive aspects of life. There is a lack in overall sense of purpose and the person may appear very sluggish. This is also very common among individuals with dementia.
Avolition: Inability to initiate work towards goal-oriented activities. As a result, this makes productivity on a job or at school very difficult. The person with schizophrenia may have zero interest or drive to participate in social activities for long periods of time. This is one of the 5 main negative symptoms of schizophrenia. This is different than anhedonia in the respect that individuals with avolition may want to complete a task, but they do not have even an ounce of motivation to finish it.
Alogia (Poverty of Speech): A key negative symptom that psychiatrists look for to diagnose a person with schizophrenia is alogia. This is considered a form of aphasia, which is a form of impairment when it comes to speech-related functioning. This is often found among individuals with dementia as well as mental retardation. The person with schizophrenia is unable to come up with any material to contribute to conversation and they may not be able to respond to questions.
Asociality: This specifically refers to lack of motivation to partake in social interactions accompanied by the preference for solitary activities. This is common among introverts and people with schizoid personality disorder. In schizophrenia, this symptom can makes the person want to avoid socialization.
Blunted or Flat affect: The individual may lack emotions or experiencing what’s called a “flat affect.” This is essentially the inability to feel any emotion – they are blunted. Subtract all forms of emotion and they have no desire to do anything.
Difficulty in abstract thinking: It may be difficult for the person with this illness to think with any degree of complexity. They may be able to think in very simple terms, but they will not be able to solve complex problems, plan ahead or organize their thoughts. This is likely due to functional deficits in the prefrontal cortex.
Emotional withdrawal: The person with schizophrenia doesn’t share their emotions with others and doesn’t remain open about how they feel. They retreat and keep their emotions to themselves. This coincides with social withdrawal so basically the person no longer shares anything with the world.
Flat expressions: The person may lack emotional expression which may be noticeable when they speak or are involved in a conversation. They may have an inexpressive face, appear dazed or boring, have a very flat or unemotional voice, and be unable to make eye contact. They may stare at you blankly while you are talking and not produce any sort of facial-emotional response to any outside stimuli.
Lack of motivation: The individual may experience significant problems getting motivated to hold down a job, get dressed in the morning, or perform simple tasks. They may not take care of themselves and severely lack personal hygiene and forms of self-care. There is no enthusiasm or inspiration to fuel the person to take action in a certain direction.
Lack of relationships: The person with schizophrenia may have no social ties or any sort of relationships. This is due to their impaired cognitive functioning, as well as poverty of speech, and lack of emotion. The totality of the negative symptoms makes it difficult for anyone to form relationships – even with family members.
Lack of spontaneity: The individual with schizophrenia has a difficult time being spontaneous, especially in social conversations. If you discuss a certain topic with the person, they may not know how to adequately carry on a conversation that relates to what you were talking about. Similarly, they will be unable to transition or make connections to the topic.
Poor rapport: The person is unable to create any sort of emotional bond or connection with another person. This is evidenced in conversation and lack of social connections.
Social withdrawal: The person may experience passive or apathetic social withdrawal. They may not have any friends and completely withdraw from society. At a younger age before onset of the illness, they may have had friends. Schizophrenia causes individuals to completely withdraw from social functioning.
Speech difficulties / abnormalities: The individual may not speak much, even if they are in a situation where they are forced to interact. They also may exhibit confusing speech or abnormal speech during a conversation.
Stereotyped thinking: An individual with stereotyped thinking often has repetitive thoughts that interfere with their ability to think. The person holds certain beliefs that are unreasonable and could be excessive. Basically an individual may be able to talk about a certain topic, but will be unable to transition to talking about something new. Some people have their conversational ability limited to very few topics or their conversation seems highly repetitive.
Unawareness of environment: The individual may be unaware of their current situation or environment. This results in a state of confusion and disorientation.
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Yes, @eduvigis posted a complete list of all negative symptoms. It seems I don’t have them all. Should I consider myself lucky? Hehe… not at all.
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I think I have all negative symptoms in some degree.
@Solid it’s wonderful that you’ve been such a supportive friend to your friend who is experiencing psychosis.
Just a friendly reminder that the forum has changed since you joined a year ago; namely, the Family and Caretaker Category was moved to its own forum.
I’d like to direct you over to our Family forum, found at:
While this forum is for people with schizophrenia and other closely related psychotic disorders, the Family forum is specifically for people like yourself, who have a loved one they are concerned about.
Best of luck,
Moonbeam
Volunteer moderator
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No one notices my negative symptoms I have all the subtle ones but they control my life significantly. I have alogia, concrete thinking, lack of spontaniety and unawareness of environment. I had all the a’s when I just got out of the hospital but they went away with med changes. Im not sure if my anhedonia was just dysphoria caused by high dose zyprexa…