Sofia

The Schizophrenic.

Sofia was 18 years of age. She was a Pacific Islander from Samoa.

She was referred to the Group because she had been depressed because of family conflict and wanted to talk about it. She was the youngest there.

She had returned to school in the sixth form to repeat a lost year looking after relatives and she was doing well.
But there was trouble in the family because her parents were splitting up and her relatives were angry.

Sofia was the youngest client in the group. She was bright and attractive. She had returned to high school to do her 7th form year. Being successful this year was important to qualify for entrance to University. She hoped to train to become a primary school teacher. She felt things were just starting to go well for her.

Her parents splitting up at this time made things quite difficult for her and for the family. They expected her to be involved and she fully agreed as a matter of course.

She told us all about the difficulties in the family. She spoke clearly and listened carefully to what others in the group said. Sofia announced that a social worker had arranged a family meeting to sort things out. She wouldn't be able to attend the group for the next few weeks because she had to attend these family meetings.

More than a few weeks passed. It was three months before we heard from her . All of us in the group wondered what had happened to Sofia.

Finally, I phoned her to see what had happened. She was still living in the family home and I invited her back to the group. She said she would come. When Sofia turned up, she looked dreadful.
She had put on a great deal of weight. Her once beautiful black hair was unkempt. She shuffled into the room, chain smoking home rolled cigarettes.

Everyone was appalled by the change in her. Everyone began talking at once. "What has happened to you?" "What is the matter?" "What's going on?" everyone wanted to know. She told us that they had discovered she was very ill. In fact, she said they found that she had been unwell for a long time. But before now, it seemed that neither she nor anyone else had known it.

Sofia was besieged by questions from the group. "What illness?" "Why were you unwell?”
Thomas, always an outspoken member of the group asked "Were you lying to us?" Everyone in the entire group was on the edge of their seats. Sofia hesitated. I gently prompted her and she spoke using broken phrases.

Yes, she went along to the family meeting. There were harsh words spoken. She had become upset in the meeting. Somehow, she had found herself talking about the help she got from her "friend.” She had had this friend since childhood. And it had talked regularly with her. She had never spoken about it before because it was so ordinary. She thought everybody had one.

Her friend would advise her; and sometimes chide her quite harshly When things were difficult or she was upset, her friend would advise her and sometimes chide her quite harshly when things were difficult in her life or sometimes when she was upset over little things. Sometimes Sofia thought her friend spoke to her through a character on the TV or radio.

She was never sure whether it was real or imaginary but somehow it didn’t seem to matter very much.
A Social worker running the meeting told her parents that Sofia should see a psychiatrist. The entire family was alarmed. They respected her opinion. She was a professional. If she was worried about Sofia, then they would be too.
This social worker was very good at her job and arranged for Sofia to have a psychiatric assessment within a week.


Sofia said the psychiatrist was very nice. She was scared of him at first. She felt shy about talking to him about school or her school friends. Sofia said she was very relieved to find that for the most part all the psychiatrist wanted to know about was the voice of her imaginary friend.

She didn't have to talk about things that upset her. She didn't have to talk about school at all. Instead, for the first time in her life, someone really was very interested in her friend’s voice and what she said to her. She had never told anyone about it before.

Sofia said the psychiatrist was a little strange. He asked a lot of questions that didn’t seem to make any sense. He asked her a lot of questions about things she had never thought of. Were the voices she heard male or female? He asked her if she felt everyone was against her?
Did she think something or someone put thoughts into her head against her will? Did she think she could put her thoughts into other people’s heads. Did she hear voices arguing? Did her friend ever ask her to do things she didn’t want to do? Had she ever thought of killing herself?

Would she count backwards from a hundred in sevens? And who was the prime minister? "But he didn't say whether he meant Samoa, Tonga, New Zealand, or Australia." She sighed.

At the end of the interview he became very serious. He told her that hearing the voice meant that she, Sofia, was unwell. She would probably have to take medication for a long time, possibly for the rest of her life. Sofia then suddenly realized that she must have been ill for years without knowing it, and without any treatment.

Her parents were informed and were very understanding. She was started on medication but it made her feel very drowsy in the mornings. She had difficulty getting up and going to school. When she got to school she couldn't concentrate. All morning, she felt like dropping off to sleep.
They had to tell the teacher who was very understanding. The teacher suggested Sofia ought to take time off until she got well because she wasn't coping with the lessons.
So Sofia stopped going to school.

Then the psychiatrist reduced the medication. That helped a bit. But when Sofia told him that that she felt very depressed thinking she might be like this for the rest of her life, the psychiatrist added antidepressants to her medication. She became even drowsier and she started to smoke heavily and put on weight. Finally she stopped going to school because she couldn't concentrate on her study.
Everyone said she couldn't concentrate on her study because she was so unwell, and she agreed.

Sofia finished telling her story to the Group saying the psychiatrist said she had something beginning with "S". "Schizophrenia?" someone said with disbelief. "That's it," Sofia said.

Thomas, always indignant and outspoken in the Group, snorted loudly. He jumped up, about to make another of his pronouncements. As the person running the group I was about to head him off. I was afraid he would hurt Sofia's feelings. So I was shocked when he unexpectedly turned to me and waggled his finger. "See Doc?"
Now he pointed at Sofia. "I know you're new to this so I will tell you what's happened here. Sofia's "been psychiatrized" and I hope you're proud of it. It's a great profession you're part of.”