Some Early Warning Signs of Schizophrenia

1. The person experiences changes in thought pattern from coherent and logical to vague and illogical. Often part of this is the appearance of loose associations.
2. The person loses a sense of bodily boundaries.
3. The person experiences auditory hallucinations in which he/she hears another voice definitely and regularly. Families may hear the person talking to the voices when he/she is alone. Do not confuse this with the occasional religious peak experience of highly religious young adults in which a god talks to them nor with the harmless habit some people have of talking to themselves for company.
4. The person who before could express emotions normally now has either marked flattening or grossly inappropriate emotions.
5. The person feels that other people are inserting thoughts, controlling his/her actions, or trying to persecute him/her in a systematic way.

Surviving Schizophrenia: A Family Manual by E. Fuller Torrey, M.D. New York: Harper and Row, 1983