Schizophrenia, sometimes called split personality, is a severe debilitating mental illness that affects a person. Olaogun Dunsimi writes about a sufferer’s struggle for survival.
“The thought of having to relive the whole day, again and again, day after day, is mind-draining. The screaming, the rage, the silent whisperings... I wish I could stop them but I don’t know what to do,” Kunle Adeola sobbed.
One could help but feel his anguish and helplessness as he talked about his brother, Kayode.
Wiping his eyes with the back of his hand, Kunle says “I am tired of seeing him like this. I want my brother back. I want him back. He played with me when I was sad; he was there for me all the time.”
Kayode is not always like this. It all started after college when he tried to secure a job all to avail. He wrote many aptitude tests and went for interviews. He wished and hoped for an employment all to no avail. This went on for four years.
He also got jilted by his long-time girlfriend, Bisi. As a result, Kayode kept to himself, completely withdrawn from every social activity.
Before long, he took ill and finally broke down. He was thereafter diagnosed with severe mental disorder.
“He was hospitalised for days... this marked a new era in my family,” Kunle noted.
Kayode started seeing things others don’t see. He speaks to himself when alone, laughing and gesturing at the same time. He was later diagnosed with schizophrenia.
“I fear for my parents, because I’m scared they would just have a heart attack when this whole thing finally breaks down,” Kunle tells me.
“He has been taken to lots of places, used drugs, spent so much money...we are yet to see light at the end of the tunnel. People now point fingers at me and say something like ‘yeah that’s him, that’s his brother.’”
Schizophrenia is also sometimes called split personality. It’s a chronic, severe debilitating mental illness that affects a person.
It is one of the psychotic mental disorders and is characterised by symptoms of thought, behaviour and social problems. The thought problems associated with schizophrenia are described as psychosis, in that the person’s thoughts are completely out of touch with reality a times.
For example, the sufferer may hear voices or see people that are in no way present, or feel like bugs are crawling on his/her skin when there are none. The individual may also have disorganised speech, behaviour, physically rigid or lax behaviour.
There are five types of schizophrenia, and these are based on the kind of symptom the person has at the time of assessment. They are paranoid schizophrenia, disorganised schizophrenia, catatonic schizophrenia, undifferentiated schizophrenia and residual schizophrenia.
Although research is still going on in this area, the causes of schizophrenia are still unknown.
Treatments only focus on eliminating the symptoms of the disease, and this includes anti-psychotic medications and various psychosocial treatments.
But the fact remains that in this part of the world when we see such people we never want to believe that this disease is hereditary or triggered by sickness or socio economic factors, such as state of livelihood, poverty, unemployment or a tragic incident, it could happen to anybody.
But we always seem to get the idea that such people have gotten their hands dirty at some point in life and gotten the consequences of their actions or like it’s usually been said ‘the works of evil doers...’ or its ‘juju.’
Little do we realise that when we ignore these set of people and leave them to their fate that is when they become irredeemable. We see so many of them on the streets, what do you think happened to them?
We see them in some families, their relatives trying and struggling to make their loved ones sane and normal beings again. We should be able to empathise with them, give a helping hand when needed, to show them love, not point fingers at them because they go through a lot of pain having to see their loved ones that way.
Schizophrenia is gradually becoming a plague globally. There aren’t even enough homes or institutions out there catering for the need of these people, except in the developed countries where they have enough nursing homes and institutions for them to be properly taken care of.
Not every parent can afford to fly their child out of the country for such medical care. Parents of sufferers often ask why care facilities are not in the country to care for Schizophrenia patients.
“Our life doesn’t have to be shaped with naira signs before we can get something done or know what’s important. Let’s try to help one another. It begins with just one attempt from you, let love lead the way,” says a sufferer’s parent.
“The thought of having to relive the whole day, again and again, day after day, is mind-draining. The screaming, the rage, the silent whisperings... I wish I could stop them but I don’t know what to do,” Kunle Adeola sobbed.
One could help but feel his anguish and helplessness as he talked about his brother, Kayode.
Wiping his eyes with the back of his hand, Kunle says “I am tired of seeing him like this. I want my brother back. I want him back. He played with me when I was sad; he was there for me all the time.”
Kayode is not always like this. It all started after college when he tried to secure a job all to avail. He wrote many aptitude tests and went for interviews. He wished and hoped for an employment all to no avail. This went on for four years.
He also got jilted by his long-time girlfriend, Bisi. As a result, Kayode kept to himself, completely withdrawn from every social activity.
Before long, he took ill and finally broke down. He was thereafter diagnosed with severe mental disorder.
“He was hospitalised for days... this marked a new era in my family,” Kunle noted.
Kayode started seeing things others don’t see. He speaks to himself when alone, laughing and gesturing at the same time. He was later diagnosed with schizophrenia.
“I fear for my parents, because I’m scared they would just have a heart attack when this whole thing finally breaks down,” Kunle tells me.
“He has been taken to lots of places, used drugs, spent so much money...we are yet to see light at the end of the tunnel. People now point fingers at me and say something like ‘yeah that’s him, that’s his brother.’”
Schizophrenia is also sometimes called split personality. It’s a chronic, severe debilitating mental illness that affects a person.
It is one of the psychotic mental disorders and is characterised by symptoms of thought, behaviour and social problems. The thought problems associated with schizophrenia are described as psychosis, in that the person’s thoughts are completely out of touch with reality a times.
For example, the sufferer may hear voices or see people that are in no way present, or feel like bugs are crawling on his/her skin when there are none. The individual may also have disorganised speech, behaviour, physically rigid or lax behaviour.
There are five types of schizophrenia, and these are based on the kind of symptom the person has at the time of assessment. They are paranoid schizophrenia, disorganised schizophrenia, catatonic schizophrenia, undifferentiated schizophrenia and residual schizophrenia.
Although research is still going on in this area, the causes of schizophrenia are still unknown.
Treatments only focus on eliminating the symptoms of the disease, and this includes anti-psychotic medications and various psychosocial treatments.
But the fact remains that in this part of the world when we see such people we never want to believe that this disease is hereditary or triggered by sickness or socio economic factors, such as state of livelihood, poverty, unemployment or a tragic incident, it could happen to anybody.
But we always seem to get the idea that such people have gotten their hands dirty at some point in life and gotten the consequences of their actions or like it’s usually been said ‘the works of evil doers...’ or its ‘juju.’
Little do we realise that when we ignore these set of people and leave them to their fate that is when they become irredeemable. We see so many of them on the streets, what do you think happened to them?
We see them in some families, their relatives trying and struggling to make their loved ones sane and normal beings again. We should be able to empathise with them, give a helping hand when needed, to show them love, not point fingers at them because they go through a lot of pain having to see their loved ones that way.
Schizophrenia is gradually becoming a plague globally. There aren’t even enough homes or institutions out there catering for the need of these people, except in the developed countries where they have enough nursing homes and institutions for them to be properly taken care of.
Not every parent can afford to fly their child out of the country for such medical care. Parents of sufferers often ask why care facilities are not in the country to care for Schizophrenia patients.
“Our life doesn’t have to be shaped with naira signs before we can get something done or know what’s important. Let’s try to help one another. It begins with just one attempt from you, let love lead the way,” says a sufferer’s parent.
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