My uncle is schizophrenic.
He was born in Denmark but got married to a woman from Pakistan. A couple of years into their marriage, I remember they were having problems and they had something to do with my uncle having 'strange thoughts'. I was a kid at the time, but my uncle confided in me and told me that the thoughts included him cursing God and prophet Muhammed. He was 18 at the time they started occurring and, being somewhat religious, he was terrified that he was going to hell. He went to Umrah and cried and asked for forgiveness, but couldn't control the thoughts.
I told him that I'm sure God knows his intentions and knows that he is ill. At the time I knew there was something wrong with him but I didn't know of schizophrenia - and neither did anyone else in the family. Turns out, the 'thoughts' were voices in his head. No one believed he was ill, they all thought he was a sensitive person and just somehow convinced himself that there was something wrong with him. The only person who believed him and supported him was my mom, his eldest sibling. The rest would either make fun of him or get frustrated and yell at him (my grandfather in particular) if he talked about his illness etc.
I won't bore you with the details, but I stopped seeing my family when I was around 12-13.
Fast forward to 2010
I was in Pakistan visiting my dad's side of the family. Hadn't seen my uncle in years and didn't know how he was doing. He then decided to come to Pakistan with his wife and kids. He was staying with my aunt (dad's sister) as she is married to someone related to my grandfather. Lots of drama ensued. In order to avoid a wall of text:
My uncle started getting hearing voices and would cuss his wife out and threaten to kill her.
My aunt asks my uncle's kids how they're doing. They tell her that they're scared of my uncle and that he kicks them. They are happy when they're at school but when it's time to go home they start worrying about how their dad's mood is going to be that particular day.
He then started cussing out the people he was staying with, i.e my aunt. My cousin obviously didn't like someone cussing his mother out, so he almost punched my uncle.
Uncle started staying with his grandparents instead. They put a plate with fruit and a knife in his bedroom. In the middle of the night my uncle started getting hallucinations and said he could see a woman with long black hair who was there to kill him. He said she was going to use the knife that had been put in his room and accused the family of trying to help the 'woman with the long hair'.
Uncle's wife says she wants a divorce and refuses to go back to Denmark.
Everyone convince her that she should go back because of the kids as they have no future in Pakistan.
On the way to the airport my uncle is yelling in his sleep, cussing his wife out. The driver is shocked that they're sending the wife and kids with my 'crazy' uncle.
Everyone in Pakistan had a laugh about all this. They'd make fun of him and gossip about him and continue to believe that his "illness" is caused by him being sensitive. Fucking idiots.
He's taking his medicine now so he's a lot better. He's mostly quiet though, and doesn't speak unless spoken to. I feel really bad for him because he was mocked when he tried telling people about his illness. I recently found out that he was diagnosed with schizophrenia around 18-19 and got meds that worked well. He got married when he was around 22 I think, but no one told his wife and her family about his illness - which is fucked up to say the least. She's no saint herself though, but that's a story for another thread.