Do you find similarities between yourself and Mohammad?
Mohammad is an 18 year old student who has limited displayed emotions. He spoke about severe physical, verbal and emotional abuse by his brother growing up. He remembers feeling neglected by his parents from early childhood. Both of them are always working. His brother has an alcohol problem. He finds this extremely disturbing since its forbidden by his religion. He described reacting to his brother’s abuse with passivity and by trying to avoid him. He also described being an easy target at school who is bullied by everyone. He says, “They bully me because I am quiet.” He has been skipping school leading to achieving bad grades in exams.
He spoke about his home life as ‘terrible’. His experiences include frequently being woken up and irritated in the middle of the night by his brother who is also suffering from insomnia. His father is also a passive man who ‘goes with the flow’ when his mother expresses distress regarding work and colleagues. He constantly thinks about suicide. He blames his father for not defending him against his brother. He feels alone in his own house and feels scared to take part in activities at school. He reported occasional nightmares. Mohammad disclosed that his mother’s father committed suicide by drinking poison. He sees similarities between his grandfather and himself. “Both of us, no friends”, he says. He didn’t recall sharing too many memories growing up with him.
At school his major problem is performance anxiety. He feels nervous in front of people and starts to stammer when he is asked to talk in front of people. He doesn’t feel good at school and lacks motivation to do his assignments. However, he enjoys biking and forgets all his problems when he is outside.
Mohammad has been referred by the school counsellor. He arranges hourly sessions whenever he has a difficult time at home or school. His therapeutic journey includes biking, therapy and trying to constructively talk to his family and classmates. If you found similarities between yourself and Mohammad, our team would be able to help you too.
Personal details have been changed to preserve confidentiality.