Frequently Asked Questions

1. You can always tell when someone is experiencing a mental illness.

False: Not all people who look or act differently are mentally ill. Some people who exhibit eccentric behavior and manner isms do so as a matter of choice and not because of mental illness.

2. Mental retardation is a form of mental illness.

False: Mental illness and mental retardation are fundamentally different conditions. Mental retardation can occur before, during or after birth as a result of a genetic or glandular deficiency, an injury, or some factor which is not understood.

3. Schizophrenics may have a biochemical imbalance.

True: The cause or causes of schizophrenia remain elusive. However, the evidence is pointing increasingly to an imbalance of a chemical called “dopamine” which is produced in the brain. Some schizophrenics’ brains show an excess of dopamine sensitive receptors and this has led scientists to speculate that the disorder may stem from abnormal reactivity to dopamine.