Being a schizophrenic

Being a schizophrenic… This is a very big heading. It is one of the main syndromes in psychiatry. I will talk about a schizophrenic case which I call Hasan to represent all of my schizophrenic patients. It is a completely fictionary case. He recently came back from military service. He is engaged and wants to get married. He is looking for employment.

As you can see, he is at a turning point in his life. His fiancée has high expectations of him. He is actually a university graduate; he has a diploma in business administration from a University in Anatolia. In vain, there is no employment to be had. But he is hopeful. The level of income of his parents is below the average. He feels a responsibility towards his parents and wants to play a small role in this large world. Approximately a year passes and he fails to find employment. And his fiancée starts to lose her patience. His sleep and appetite deteriorate. One night he wakes up covered in sweat. He has discovered the person responsible for it all. His fiancée! In any case, she is having relationships with other men. It did not escape his notice during their meetings with friends. That night he hears a voice. The voice says “you are right”, “that girl is a deceitful person”. However, some of the men that his fiancée is deceiving him with are strong. Hasan notices that they are following him. For example his telephone may be tapped… Through the subsequent days Hasan’s scenarios continue like this. The “being followed” becomes a larger problem. Even his thoughts can now be monitored. He has not got a single moment to lose. A large number of strong organisations like the CIA, MIT are after him. On the one hand being followed, on the other messages that come with dreadful sounds… Hasan arrives at a point where for one moment he considers suicide. When one looks at the connections between the events there is absolutely no doubt about what is going on. One day when he is watching television they openly talked about Hasan and his fiancée in the television program. Whilst one of the speakers was saying “good” things about Hasan and his fiancée the other was doing quite the opposite, using unspeakable words. For a whole year Hasan managed to cleverly hide the storms in his soul from others. His parents were the first people who noticed the situation, as Hasan was not looking after himself; he was looking ragged, smoking continuously and walking from one room to the next with distrust and suspicion in his eyes. They decided to take him to the doctor. Although reluctant, Hasan complied and was introduced to the diagnosis that day. Schizophrenia… In the meantime Hasan’s fiancée had long left him, and our Hasan had long given up looking for a job…