Best friends are necessary in life and we all have them at some point in our lives. Some of us have had imaginary best friends, for some of us it's mom, dad or a family member, and for others a best friend is a stranger person they meet along the way. For me, my best friend growing up was one of my younger cousins. He was 9 months younger but always acted like the older, tougher and meaner. We had a plan for what to do when we were older, we both dreamed of having a Mexican/taco restaurant. We both loved tacos and every Thursday after school we would go around the corner from his house and buy tacos from "Don Michael", a super convenient place to eat where you would get way more than what you actually paid for. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay We were very closed off and wanted to crash at each other's houses almost every weekend. After staying at my house for a few times, he just wanted me to stay at his house, but he wouldn't stay at my house for any reason. At first I thought it was a little strange, but I always agreed with him and we would stay at his house. Once, after several months of constantly wondering, he finally decided to stay at my house. Everything was fine and we had a lot of fun: we ate a lot of food, sweets, played video games, board games, played football in the middle of the street and watched movies. When it was time to sleep, we turned off the lights and the silent night began to be pierced only by the sound of someone crying. At first I thought it was outside, in the street, but listening carefully and attentively I noticed that the noise was coming from inside the house, from my room. I immediately turned on the light and realized it was my cousin crying. “I didn't do anything bad, I didn't say anything bad,” I thought to myself. After a few seconds of crying with the light on he said he wanted to go home and see his mother. I was 8 years old and had seen a lot of movies, so I thought, "he must sense something and we need to go see what's happening to my aunt." After making my parents drive for 45 minutes, we arrived at my aunt's house and found that there was nothing wrong with my aunt and I started to wonder why my cousin was crying. A few years later, he agreed to stay at my house again. The same thing happened over and over again, so I knew there had to be something wrong. It wasn't until 6 years later that my cousin went to a doctor and was diagnosed with schizophrenia. At the age of 17 I didn't understand what it really meant and I wanted to help my cousin in any way I could. Helping him wasn't very easy since my family and I had moved to another country when I was 12 years old. Living with schizophrenia not only has consequences for the person with the disease, but also affects family members. Managing it is not impossible and living a long and joyful life could be very possible. Before we talk about treatments and how to manage schizophrenia, we will first discuss what exactly schizophrenia is. Next we will move on to the causes of the disease. Finally, we will talk about the treatments and management of schizophrenia. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Schizophrenia is a psychological disorder involving severely distorted beliefs, perceptions, and thought processes. During a schizophrenic episode, people lose touch with reality. They become engulfed in a completely different inner world, often characterized by mental chaos, disorientation and.