(229) Psychotic/ Depression 6

- Depression varies from mild to severe, chronic or even psychotic disorder. -

Psychosis

While I was living in Silver city, I had a neighbour who was a psychotic case. We will call him Ding. He was in his forties when I moved in. Every afternoon, as I busy myself washing vegetables and getting ready to cook dinner, he would walk  up and down the back street and talk to himself.

As I settled in the area, I went to his mother's for a cooking demonstration. There I learned that his father was in his eighties. His mum was a sprightly seventy two. The gutsy old lady would drive Ding to a mental hospital 40 miles away to get his monthly jab. Ding's elder brother holds a Ph.d. and has tenure in a famous university in UK. Ding's younger sister married her Australian classmate and resides down under.

It seemed that Ding was very bright. He had wanted to be a medical doctor since he was little. Somehow his missed his first choice by two marks. No matter how his family or friends comforted him, he insisted on repeating his pre-u. Sad to say he missed again by a wider margin on second try. From then on, he deteriorated and had not recovered despite constant monitoring and treatment.

To me, it was such a waste! Ding was still good looking when he was approaching his late forties. He was not violent. On a good day he could carry on a normal conversation with me. If he had given up his first choice, he could have studied dentistry instead all those years ago.

Anyway, God was merciful to this family. In his early fifties, Ding was diagnosed with liver cancer. He knew that his parents had prayed for years that they would live long enough to care for him until Ding breathed his last. Within a year of the diagnosis, Ding died in his childhood home with his parents and a nurse in attendance. He was wise to insist he would receive no treatment. He passed into the next world with dignity and little suffering. His dad followed him two months later. The old lady packed up and sold her house to shuttle between UK and Australia.