When I first took over Amin's case and became his attending doctor, I carefully read his medical records to understand his condition.
Amin was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
He has been dependent on his mother since he was a child.
When his mother died of illness a few years ago, he felt that the neighbor was the culprit in her death.
Although Amin did not come into contact with the neighbors, the occasional coughing noise from the neighbors was enough to make Amin think that his mother was infected by the neighbors and died of illness, and even thought that the other party was passing the deadly virus to himself.
Written by: Dr. Lai Wan Shan, School of Mental Health, Castle Peak Hospital
Therefore, Amin was very afraid that as soon as he left the house, he would be infected by the virus from his neighbors.
In addition, he has severe obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Every time he goes home, he has to wash his hands more than a dozen times and wrap his items in multi-layer plastic bags to reduce the chance of being contaminated by neighbors.
But contrary to his cleanliness, his home is full of clutter and disorder.
He also once said that the house was full of termites and was plagued by those little insects.
At first I thought the termites were just Amin's hallucinations, or one of the ways he delusional neighbors persecuted him, until after the home visit...
Although after the drug treatment, Amin was not so resistant to home visits at first, but he just needed to prepare in advance: lay a layer of garbage plastic bags on the floor, and also wrap all the objects that the visitors might touch.
His home has only one walkway through which one person can pass, and the ground under the plastic bag is uneven.
There are multiple termite nests in the house, and even the beds are invaded by termites.
The places outside the aisle are full of clutter, and no amount of hands can reach the walls.
Amin explained that he was reluctant to throw away those items full of memories.
But he lost his living space and could only sleep on a small sofa every night.
Despite the severe epidemic, he would rather throw away the mask than give up those old objects.
Although the bits and pieces of memories are precious, the most important thing is the people who remember them. Memories should not be carried on dead objects, but deep in people's minds.
After much persuasion, Amin finally agreed to let us throw away an object for him as a new beginning.
And he is also willing to start to take care of his own home, such as throwing away the old burdens and moving towards the future again.
Lost in the confusion of the epidemic, how to find the way forward
