There’s this: a well linked story at the LA Times about Jani, a six-year old girl suffering from schizophrenia. And it’s worth your time. But there’s something better too.
Jani’s father maintains a blog, and his perspective, his voice, gives you more insight, understanding, and heart-ache than any journalist ever could.
Here he is talking about his daughter, and her struggle to ignore the delusions of her disease:
She surveys her environment and you can actually see her trying to find something, anything, that will shut out whatever it is she is hearing. She will pick up a few toys and put them down, then look up at nothing in particular, with what looks like a sad, wistful smile on her face. And then she will walk around listlessly, head raised, sometimes shaking as if she is disagreeing, staring up at something we can’t see. We watch her, in those moments, give up. It is the most awful thing I have ever seen in my life and it breaks my heart. And I grab at some toy and call her over, desperately trying to engage her. I keep talking to her, playing with her, working every second to keep her here.
The title of the piece is “I wish you’d never learnt to weep.”