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Mental problems in Chitral
-letter
"I was born in one of the remote areas of Chitral nwfp Pakistan. I had
high hopes to become an Engineer, but my family was very poor. When I
reached the 4th class of primary school I became sick and everything
changed suddenly.
One day when I was walking through the jungle to reach my home I felt a
heavy pressure on my mind. I started shivering and then lost
consciousness. When I woke up, I found all my family members and the
spiritual healer around me. After that everyday I used to have Jinn,
Pari the bad evil spirit that enters the body. It used to take me to the
top of the mountains and throw me down on the earth. I was always
covered in abrasions and spot of injury from these episodes. Also, Jinn,
Pari and bad evil spirits would beat my parents. They were unable to
control me so they locked me in a room and fed me through a hole in the
wall. I was so scared and I cried a lot. I visited many Ziarat and
spiritual healers, but still I was sick.
I was unable to continue my school. I used to die many times inside my
heart when I see my colleagues going to school. A friend told me that
there is treatment for me in the Aga Khan Hospital; but there was no one
to take me there. Now I am 26 years old, and I still have attacks from
Jinn everyday; sometime I fall on the road, into the ditches and bushes.
Children make fun of me because of my strange behaviors. I want to go
for suicide, but I am afraid of dying.
I am becoming
weaker and weaker day by day. My appetite has decreased; I only want to
inhale smoke. Nobody likes to talk to me even my parents. Life has no
meaning for me."
This was the story of J Khan my class mate and an intelligent boy in
primary school. He suffered from a severe mental illness called
Schizophrenia and died at age 26 because he was not taken to the
hospitals for treatment. J Khan could have been saved of this terrible
fate. If we teach our communities about mental illnesses so the others
living in misery can be saved of a similar fate.
Mukhtar Ali Khan Hayat,
Kabul Afghanistan,
06 March 09.
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