Akmal Shaikh is facing imminent execution in China for carrying drugs; Reprieve believes he suffers from bipolar disorder, and was likely delusional at the time of the offence. We are trying to illustrate the debilitating effect of bipolar disorder for the Chinese authorities.
Please share with us your own experience, whether personal or otherwise. To kick off, here is the story offered by Reprieve’s director, Clive Stafford Smith.
CLIVE STAFFORD SMITH, Director, Reprieve:
My dad suffered from bipolar disorder from the early Sixties until his death in 2008. It cannot detract from my love for him, but it was certainly confusing when I was a child. Typical was one day when he called me into the sitting room. When he was 16, he said, he had volunteered for the RAF during the Second World War. In his opinion, our modern society kept children mollycoddled for far too long. It was time, he said, for me to go out into the world and make my own way. So here was £200.
I was taken aback, and not sure what to think. I was only seven years old. I am not sure I had ever seen £5 before, and £200 seemed a lot of money, though I was not sure what to do with it. I was still staring at it when my mother came into the room and, somewhat to my disappointment, took the wad of notes away from me and sent me off to bed.It was a great relief later in life when I came to understand what bipolar disorder means.
MEG HEWITT, 34 years old, London:
My father was diagnosed 10 years ago with bipolar disorder after displaying extreme manic episodes. After threatening colleagues, past and present, he lost his job and was sectioned under the Mental Health Act.
A well respected journalist with more than 30 years industry experience, he failed to cope with the death of both his parents in a six month period. He managed to work again for a couple of years but the threat of another episode was always in the back of our minds. He has been sectioned on numerous occasions, the worst being two years ago when he destroyed his flat, threatened local residents and disappeared for 10 days. During these times he has consistently had paranoid delusions where people he knows work for Al Qaeda and are trying to kill him or experiences god complex tendencies.
This has been an intensely difficult few years for myself and my younger brother and can only begin to understand how Akmal and his family are feeling. I would not wish bipolar on anyone.
My father has lost his career, health, home and almost his family.
AIMEE GRIFFIN, London:
Speaking as someone who has had direct experience of living with someone with bipolar I believe that Akmal is in this situation as a direct result of manipulation by these drug smugglers. These drug smugglers played on this vulnerable mans position and diminishing psychological well being.
My father was diagnosed with bipolar disease in his early twenties. As a child I always knew my father was different, and most definitely had a rather skewed concept of reality compared to my friends parents. At the best of times he was a caring individual and a pretty hip dad. On the other hand I always prepared for the inevitable with my father as I never knew what would come next.
It has taken me many years to come to terms with my father's illness. I realise now that my father like Akmal can not have sole responsibility for his actions as he is not in full control of his emotions or actions. Bipolar disease can be managed with proper medical attention and it is extremely common today. My father has taken control of his disease but still experiences the extreme highs and lows that are attached with the disease.
Sadly for Akmal he has never received any psychiatric help or medication! I went for a period of time not speaking to my father and during that time I always feared that I would get a call telling me that he had been in some horrific accident or maybe in jail like Akmal.
I feel so much for Akmal and his family. This man does not deserve to die. He is a man living with a disease which has led him to make a succession of badly informed decisions.
JOHN, London:
I was moved to write after reading about the appeal for Akmal Shaikh who, like my own Father, suffers from bipolar disorder.
My Father was always my hero, the man I looked up too and loved as I still do to this day. He was always a proud man, a former British soldier that instilled in my brother and I, discipline, fair play and most of all compassion.
Dad was always a very responsible man until all that changed in the Summer of 2005.
Both my parents, now retired, had returned after a lengthy stay at their holiday home on the island of Cyprus, at first it was great to see them both but it didn't take long to realise something was wrong. At first Mother told me that my Fathers behaviour had changed considerably and he was suffering from strange mood swings which she could not work out. It wasn't long before I noticed the change myself, it was as if he was on a "high" all the time and nothing would bother him, he even stated that he had never felt so alive. When in public he would come out with the most embarrassing comments about people and their appearance, in particular those that he saw as overweight, he just didn't care about what he said and left it to us to pick up the pieces, it was a miracle he didn't come to any physical harm, we didn't have a clue at that stage what the hell was going on.
The behaviour slowly but surely became more bizarre, he would go out drinking every single night and would at times keep very questionable company with people that had drink problems, something he would never do. When I eventually confronted him about this and his odd behaviour he failed to see what the problem was. He was unable to grasp the fact that he was behaving in a very anti social manner and that the problem was with us, by now long suffering family, I remember saying that My Father went off to Cyprus and a total stranger returned, where had my dad gone.
The last straw finally came when my Mother and Father were invited to his nephews 40th birthday in Ireland. Before the flight and for reasons only known to him my Father decided to pack a .22 air pistol along with a .22 silencer in his luggage (not hand), apparently he wanted to give them to a cousin that shot game. The idea of trying to smuggle such items through customs is beyond belief and it would have been something he would never in a million years dreamed of doing before he was unwell. As you can imagine customs officers detected the items which were confiscated and he was cautioned.
Finally as a family we managed to get my Father referred to a specialist and he was finally diagnosed as suffering bipolar disorder. I am glad to say he has responded well to medication which he will have to take for the rest of his life but rather that than the nightmare he became.
The idea of killing a sufferer of bipolar disorder would in my opinion be a serious miscarriage of justice, the whole case needs to be reviewed, I can't help but think, that could have been my Father!
SHARON NELSON, Malaysia:
I suffer (and I use that word consciously) from a severe case of Bipolar Disorder II. I read Akmal's story, and although I do not get delusional, I do get into states of hypomania, where life is in technicolour and everything is possible. You feel like you have sprouted wings, and that all you need is a space and an opportunity to fly. (I mean this as a metaphor -- I'm so sorry if I sound condescending, I'm just trying to be as clear as I can).
These states of mania are SUCH a welcome break from depression. You feel able, valued and talented. It is very, very hard -- perhaps impossible -- not to allow yourself to believe these things. You think that you are sick when you are depressed, and well when you are in a state of mania. Consequently, you don't seek help.
Reading the story that Akmal told, I feel there is no way at all he could have conjured such a vivid, detailed and near-ridiculous story unless he really believed it. Surely a person with no such illness would have been far more savvy about creating a plausible story?
I live in Malaysia . Although the mental health practitioners are becoming more open-minded, the population at large is not. If my country is anything to go by, I can imagine what China 's attitudes must be. Bipolar and many other mental illnesses can't be seen. They are not tumours, they are not wheelchairs. They are difficult to comprehend, and somewhere in the confusion there is always an element of blame.
WILLIAM, 16, London:
I am 16 years old, and this summer I experienced my first episode of psychosis due to bi-polar disorder. Starting from small paranoid thoughts, I gradually had created a whole conspiracy that all of those around me were lying to me, and were trying to hide me from the truth; I thought that I was the most important person in the world, literally, that I was destined to save the world. I made several phone calls to the police because I beleived my life was endangered.
It is easy to relate to Akmal Shaikh's story that he belived he was destined for pop stardom, and I'm sure that if I didn't receive the help that I did, I could have been just as easily manipulated. Akmal desperately needs medical help, bi-polar is truly an awful illness.
Please send your own story to info@reprieve.org.uk. Please provide a brief introduction to yourself, as you feel appropriate.
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