The increased rate of mad people roaming the streets of Nigeria is alarming. There is hardly a street in the rural areas where there is no mad person. In my street growing up, the madman was called Bello. I never knew if that was his real name or just a moniker he was given. Bello ate from dustbins or whatever was given to him when he begged at shops and restaurants. They would give him old bread, and leftover food.
People who knew him before he went mad said he was once a mathematics teacher and had run mad because of the complexities of mathematical formulas. Many persons corroborated his story but had a few variations to the cause of his condition. It was suspected that he was struck with madness by a family member who was jealous of his achievements.
Bello’s condition was pure madness.
It wasn’t a come-and-go thing. He spoke to himself, and to people only he could see. Also, he was very raggedy and tattered, yet very energetic, and full of vigour. He cracked jokes, sometimes lewd, other times clever with riddles and proverbs so I wondered if he was truly mad or just pretending. One day he disappeared and we never saw him again. Some people said he had been shot dead. Some said he had been relieved of his condition by the person who made him mad. Others said he had been taken by the government to be treated for his disease. No one knew for certain, and after a while, no one cared. A different madman took his place and life went on.
But every now and then, I remember Bello. I remember his hoarse voice, his quick strides, his wild jokes. I wonder how his condition had started, and if there was anything he could have done to prevent it. What could have triggered a normal human’s mind and made him run mad, making him unaware that the things he was doing were abnormal? How unbalanced could a person be?
I have described Bello’s symptoms to professionals and they say what Bello must have had was Schizophrenia, a condition that has severe effects on a person’s physical and mental well-being. It disrupts how the brain works, interfering with your thinking ability, memory, and how your senses work.
Schizophrenia usually happens in stages, with different symptoms and behaviours depending on the stage.
In the onset, it can include social withdrawal, anxiety, lack of motivation and neglect of personal hygiene. After that, it becomes active and comes with a disconnection from reality. A person will have delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized or incoherent speech.
There is no concrete treatment for Schizophrenia. It can be managed, and the symptoms are reduced so that the person doesn’t roam the streets like Bello. It’s important to get treatment from a psychiatrist or mental health professional who has experience treating people with this disorder. Schizophrenia tends to run in families, but no single gene is thought to be responsible. So, there could have been someone in Bello’s family with this mental illness, which made him susceptible. Who knows?
Drug abuse does not directly cause schizophrenia, but studies have shown drug misuse increases the risk of developing schizophrenia or a similar illness. Certain drugs, particularly cannabis, and cocaine, may trigger symptoms of schizophrenia in people who are susceptible. Teenagers and young adults who use cannabis regularly are more likely to develop schizophrenia in later adulthood. I don’t know if Bello took drugs while he was younger. If he did, that might have been a major trigger.
You need to care for your health in order to avoid this condition.
That’s the best you can do. Caring for your health can also make treating your condition easier and help reduce anxiety, depression and fatigue. It can help you have a better quality of life and be more active and independent. You must maintain good physical and mental health, prevent illness or accidents, and effectively deal with minor ailments and long-term conditions.
A lot of superstitions fly around as to why a person goes mad. Yes, fetish things do happen. We cannot close our eyes that that reality. People can actually be struck with madness, as absurd as it sounds. However, the truth is other things as mentioned above are responsible nine out of ten times. And a person has to pay conscious attention to their mental health. Like Bello, we are all susceptible, and if we don’t pay attention, what begins as a small mental issue, can degenerate to madness.
