My name is Dr. C. Rose Cook M. D. I'm a 3rd year med. student at County General. My first rotation: Psychiatric Ward. My first patient: a 13 year old kid named Tobias Tompson. This is the story of his illness. The story will start with meeting my resident.

"Cherokee Cook," he yelled at the huddled group of 3rd years standing nervously in a pack. "Is there a Cherokee Cook?"
"Here," I called standing from the chair in which I had been sitting.
"I'm Dr. Davis," he said. He started droning on about how exciting the human mind is as he took me on a tour of the Psyche. Ward.
After that he took me down to the ER for a tour. "This is where you'll receive most of your patients," he said, leading to exam room 3. "Your first patient is a suspected schizophrenic. You'll need to take a history and chat with him a little. See if his mind works properly. Page me if you need me." He handed me the chart.
I opened the door while looking down at the chart to get the name. "Hello Mr. Tompson my name is Dr......" at that moment I looked up to see who I was talking to. Good God, I thought. He couldn't be more than 16. I glanced back down at the chart; 14. "Dr. Cook. But if you like you can call me Rose," I concluded.
"Call me Tobias, if you like. Just don't call me late for dinner." his face lit up into a smile.
I smiled back, but my brain was in turmoil. All the time I was talking to him I kept on thinking, why? Why someone so young? Why anyone? How does it work? I wanted to learn all I could about the desease and how I could explain it to someone with such a bright future.
"So did I test out okay doc?" he asked when we were through talking. And then out of nowhere he starts talking into thin air.
"Mom, it's not my fault! I didn't mean to break my leg! Honest! Don't tear down the tree house!! It was an accident! It won't happen again, I promise!" And then he acted like nothing had happened.
I was more than a little startled by this outburst. There was no warning. And there was no one he could have been talking to. I wasn't quite sure of how to react to the outburst.
"We'll have to keep you under observation for a couple hours," I said calmly. "If everything checks out though, you'll be out of here before you know it."

After that I spent some tine in the hospital's library/staff lounge reading up on Schizophrenia. I read basically everything there is to know about it. And then I had to talk to the mother.
"Ms. Tompson," I said while walking with her to the exam room, "have you seen any confusing or shocking behavior changes ("Symptoms of Schizophrenia." February 1999.) in Tobias lately?"
"Yes," she said cautiously. "Why do you ask?"
"I'm afraid your son has schizophrenia," I replied gently.
"How could this have happened?" she asked.
"Schizophrenia can be caused by a lot of things," I replied. "Stress, lack of breast milk when person was an infant, through certain genes, the mother could have gotten the flu when she was in her second trimester. All of those things have been proven to be a cause, but not one single cause explains all the cases of it (Homepage. 10-24-01)."
"Well, how does it work?" she asked. "How will it affect him?"
"Studies have shown that the blood flow weakens in certain areas of the brain. A few of those areas include the realism factors of the brain and also messes with the part that activates social behavior." I said. "One thing that happens is that emotions are free to do what they will. Tobias will have a more drastic reaction than you or me to any emotional damage, or for that matter excitement. You'll have to protect him from events that are extreme emotional risks." We had gotten to the door. "Let's go in," I said.
"Tobias," I said, thinking once again that he was too young for this to happen to.
"Yeah?" he said.
"I'm sorry to say that you have schizophrenia. You don't have to believe that you are schizophrenic, but you are going to have to accept that other people will think you're crazy. Also it's important that you take your meds." I said. "This desease will make you have less control of you emotions. You'll also rehearse fairly often."
"What's that?" he asked.
"Rehearsing is where you go over something that hurt you emotionally and try to figure out how to protect yourself, out loud," I said.
"Is there any way you can treat this?" he asked.
"Yes," I replied. "There are drugs such as clozapine, Riperidone, Roxiam and Olanzapine. The side effects to some of these are extreme, but scientists are working to better the drugs all the time ("Improving Schizophrenia Treatment").
"One thing you don't want to do though, is street drugs," I said. "Street drugs, tobacco, and alcohole all have risks of sending a Schizophrenic into pyschosis."
"Oh, don't worry," he said. "I hadn't planned on doing any of that anyways. Why should now be any different?"
" How could I have known?" I asked. "One thing I suggest that you find is an emotional outlet, like painting, sculpting, origami, poetry, ect.
"I'm going to write you up a prescription, and then discharge you. Also here's my cell number," I said, handing him the prescription and my card. "Call me when you need to talk to someone who understands your condition."
"Thank you," said Ms. Tompson.
"'Bye," said Tobias.
"Good bye, and good luck," I said as they walked out.
After that I sat in the lounge and though about Tobias Tompson. As I was thinking, I realized that what Dr. Davis had said was true.
Just then he walked in. "Are you ready for your next patient?" he asked.