Elaine Leong

My heart will always be with her.

Childhood Schizophrenia

I am mother with 2 daughters. When my younger daughter was at age of 4, she was diagnosed with childhood schizophrenia by physician. At that time i did not believe in the diagnoses, so i went to the medical library to search for the definition of schizophrenia. Through searching, i found out that my daughter's behaviors was matching to the sign and symptom of schizophrenia. Although this was the truth , but i still cannot believe it at first as a mom. My daughter was just like any normal child but super-active. I was devastated and keeping on looking for a way to heal her. At first, relative and friends suggest me to bring her to visit temple and visit bomoh, but the situation did not improved. In the end , i brought her to the medical department. The physiatrist decided to admit her to the hospital. She had not been eating, drinking,bathing,and sleeping for more than 2 weeks, the doctor put her on drip and ryles tube feeding. After a month in the hospital, she decided to start drinking water on her own and the doctor decided to discharges her from the hospital and allow us to take care her at home. As me and my husband are full time worker, so we discussed either one of us should quit our job and look after her. As my husband is more gentle when it comes to look after children, so we came into decision that he will quit his job while i will continue as to support my family financially. It requires a lot of patience looking after her because she is restless. It happened once that she jump out from 3rd floor and my husband was in time to save her.Although at that point of time, she had been taking medication. Since then physiatrist admit her to the mental hospital as we were unable to fully look after her. During that time, we spend a lot of time visiting her morning and evening whether rain or shine. At point of time, the doctor even advised us to let go and live on. But as a mom, even if i live outside, my heart will always be with her. Sometimes i even cry for seeing her not able to live like other children especially going to school or having children party.

Through sharing my story, i hope parents can pay full attention on their children since young and look after them whether they are healthy or sick. And i also hope that through sharing this, may some of the parents are able to realizes what is happening with their children and how important it is to look after them well.
Elaine Leong