Schizophrenia?
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At the onset of schizophrenia there is an acute period with predominantly positive symptoms in some patients, whereas others may have mostly negative symptoms in form of chronic long-term illness. Like indicated earlier, there are many variations and combinations of symptoms in different patients, with one or other predominant symptom, either negative or positive. The active, psychotic phase is usually preceded by a period of gradual, insidious deterioration of functioning that affects all spheres of life; personal appearance, interests and social relations. This phase is often hard to identify when it is happening, but can usually be easily pointed out in hindsight. Like mentioned earlier, in most cases the initial development of schizophrenia occurs in an otherwise active period of life, and the signs of disorder are usually interpreted as normal changes in personality due to altered circumstances in life.
It can really start with anything depending on the person.
OCD could turn into hearing voices, or I guess hallucinating...
There's also paranoia schizophrenia which can begin as something like Anxiety..
I am a 75 year old veteran who was diagnosed with schizophrenia paranoia at about age 30. I have been on med's since then and no longer have symptoms. The disorder started with me very suddenly and violently in 1960 while I was attending a university. It was very severe at first putting me into a hospital. The med's helped a lot as did the psychotherapy but I attribute the chief reason for my improvement to Tender Loving Care on the part of mental health professionals and my family. The fact that I was diagnosed early and treated almost from the origin till now with diligence have been factors in my improvement.
I disagree with the Link to "Hubrin" above because they use DSM II and DSM III as diagnostic tools whereas DSM IVR is the most recent diagnostic manual. Also I do not believe a genetic link for the disorder has been proven. The cause of the disorder is unknown. There are many types of schizophrenia.
Good luck, good health, peace and love!
The answers above don't answer your question, although what they say is true.
The answer to the question: "How does schizophrenia start?" has as it's only true answer: "No one really knows."
Schizophrenia is a singular disease that involves a chemical imbalance in the brain, making the afflicted person unable to make important distinguishments. For example, the inability to prioritize everyday sounds. The chirping of a cricket and the hum of the refrigerator may become as important as the warning "Look out." This makes for a dazed or disoriented mind. The shadows of trees waving on the ground may appear as so many snakes. Etc.
Though the disease itself is singular, it can manifest itself in a wide variety of ways. The afflicted person could consider himself a religious personage (Jesus, Buddha, Mohamed), or he could believe he could fly, or walk on water. Often he would claim to hear voices in his head (Joan of Arc?) or see things ways other people didn't. (Vincent Van Gough?) Often, even with treatment, these people are geniuses that end up killing themselves (Van Gough again). The character in the movie A Beautiful Mind saw patterns in numbers, clouds, stars, that weren't there. He had an imaginary protagonist. But, he survived. If you haven't already, and are intereste in this topic, go see the movie.
Diagnosis of this disease is difficult because it can be disguised as other maladies. My sincere congratulations to Mad Mac for having lived a fulfilled life with this ailment. He says he was diagnosed at age 30. That is unusual, it usually becomes apparent in the middle teens, is misdiagnosed, then becomes rampant by about age 20 or so.
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