Positive symptoms are thoughts or events that a person with schizophrenia experiences which others around them don’t experience.7 They may include:
- Hallucinations – hearing, seeing, smelling, feeling, tasting or otherwise sensing things that others don’t123
- Delusions – believing things that others see as unrealistic, mistaken or strange;123 or paranoid delusions (for example, believing that you are being persecuted, influenced or harassed in some way)12
- Feelings of being controlled (for example that your mind or body is being taken over)1
- Thought disorder (such as confused and disconnected thoughts1 caused by other positive symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions3 and, perhaps, speech2)
- Unusual movements – including agitated body movements and the repetition of certain movements, and catatonia (an inability to move)2
Positive symptoms may appear suddenly or over a period of time; they may be severe and may cause a psychotic episode in which it’s impossible to tell what is real and what isn’t.23
