One woman details her experience of living with schizophrenia, saying ‘I had no idea what was real’ during severe psychotic episodes
4-MIN READ4-MIN ListenIman Muttaqin YusofPublished: 6:20pm, 17 Sep 2026When Cindi suffered her first severe psychotic episode a decade ago, she could no longer tell where reality ended and what her mind had created began.
“My reality and fantasy [were] all distorted. I had no idea what was real, what was not,” the 38-year-old, who asked to be identified only by her first name, told This Week in Asia.
“It was so severe to the point that I couldn’t even recognise my own family members. My mother was there, my brother was there, but they didn’t feel like my mother or my brother.”
