AUGUST 20 — A few years ago, the Health Ministry reported that one in a hundred Malaysians suffer from schizophrenia. That’s a relatively high number, in my opinion, but many people still find it alarming each time they have to deal or liaise with a schizophrenic.
Schizophrenia’s symptoms include paranoia, delusions, hearing voices and extremely erratic behaviour; to be blunt, they can scare the hell out of you if you’re unfamiliar with it.
This article has two objectives a) to give an insight into the severity of the condition and b) to present at least one (creative) approach when talking to a schizoid person.
There’s a quote attributed to Confucius about how we’ll discover that not all problems can be resolved with violence... it has something to do with when a mosquito lands on your testicles.
It’s almost the same when dealing with schizophrenics. When you speak to them, you’ll soon realise that not everything can be resolved with the common tools people use to solve problems i.e. logic and reason, let alone anger and threats.
Many people think they can shout and bully a schizo into acquiescence; might as well bomb whole cities for the sake of peace. People need to understand how the schizophrenic mind works.
For example, explain to a schizophrenic that he needs to sign a checklist and he may demand proof that his signature will not be used for illegal matters.
If he sees a truck outside the apartment or office, he may think it’s a spy-vehicle stalking the building and you’d be better off letting him go out and “inspect” the vehicle rather than try to convince him there’s nothing to be concerned about.
In a sense, I could not help but think of schizophrenia when that particular PAS MP felt the need to ask Minister of Finance Lim Guan Eng to revoke the word 'sesat' because of the word’s 100 per cent unqualified association with neraka.
Yes, Lim had better retract the word lest some people face the fury of hell’s damnation.
If ex-PM Najib Razak was a schizo, not only would he deny that he’s culpable for the 1MDB scandal, he may suggest that the MACC officers interrogating him are actually spirits of long-deceased Mayan warriors.
If you respond that there is no possible connection between the MACC and the Mayan civilization, he will ignore you and repeat a narrative about how you (and him and everyone else) are being threatened by unseen metaphysical forces.
(The above examples are not about making fun of schizophrenics — it’s about pointing out the uncanny resemblance between a serious mental condition and how nonsensical some politicians sound).
It is doubly painful for friends and loved ones of those suffering from schizophrenia because ─ unlike HFMD, dengue or cancer patients ─ schizo folks are often the victims of judgment, anger and ridicule.
Even when people already know “something is not right” with so-and-so, it is hard to resist pouring scorn or derision upon the schizo’s words and behaviour.
In a depressing sense, the schizo is one of society’s most severe yet hidden outcasts i.e. they are cast out socially but they don’t “know” they are and nobody will ever admit to being unkind to these mentally afflicted folks (see Note 1).
The schizophrenic’s hallucinations and compulsive speech must, in fact, be met with more gentleness, more patience, more kindness, more compassion.
Learning a new language
How do you handle such mindsets? How do we even converse properly?
The short answer is if you want to change a schizophrenic mind, you can’t. This is why if you need these good folks to co-operate or life can be quite a neraka for you.
Or, you can learn a new form of human persuasion.
You can learn to mimic schizoid “reasoning” and work with it. You can say that yes maybe the Mossad is stalking the restaurant but you heard that the Egyptians are talking to the Israelis so, rest assured, Mr Schizo, you can eat your mee goreng Mamak in peace.
The point is that ─ when communicating with schizophrenics ─ you need to renounce your former use of logic and reason and adopt a new more “fluid” approach.
This creates amazing training ground for people who pride themselves on their rationality and water-tight judgment and super-sound argumentative skills.
If you are such a person, and you find yourself having to work (or live) with a schizophrenic, congratulations: You get to throw everything away and, quite literally, “learn a new language.”
Expanding on this—from the personal to the communal—maybe society as a whole needs to learn to speak anew to those who think in entirely different ways from the norm. Maybe we should stop immediately relying on pills and shots and ─ God forbid ─ electric shocks.
The above is at least one lesson which a schizophrenic can teach us. To roll with the world instead of trying to mold it into our image.
The other lesson we can learn is gratitude for the routine and the banal. Indeed, if you live or work with a schizophrenic, a quiet uneventful few hours becomes sacred.
And every bit of “normality” is treasured as precious. I’m sure New Malaysia can live with this?
* Note 1: I suspect this is true of almost all people suffering from mental instability. However, the schizophrenic’s condition is not severe enough that they start banging tables or what-not, yet sufficiently serious to piss and frighten everyone off. Conclusion: It’s a very difficult existence.
** This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
