Q: I am looking for advice on what to do with this situation, and hopefully some peace with dealing with it. My sister has had issues with her mental health for a few years now. Before she was sick she was a practising muslim, she would pray and practice hijab and would seak to please allah in all that she could. Her imam was very strong. However during her time at medical school she fell sick and developed severe depression which caused her to develop psycosis, where she would believe things that are not true and hear voices that would dictate what she did. The doctors says it was because of the stress of medical school that triggered the sickness. However she believes the voices are jinns and someone has done black magic on her. Over a course of a 6 months, my parents decided to take her out of school and into hospital, most of which was done against her will. she turned very very violent and they had no choice. She left the hospital heavily medicated and a changed muslim and sister. This was a year ago. After searching and visiting many imams, she now has been regularly visiting an imam who prays on her and has told her she had something done to her and he will pray for her and he will try to rid the voices . Because of this she still belives she has jinns that whisper and cause her restless nights. She also says she has lost her imam, which was the greatest thing she possed, because of them. She said they say such terrible things constantly, she is not able to stand and give salat. 4 months ago she decided to stop her medication, with the help of doctors, as she felt the problem was not her it was the jinns. and she hated the mind numbing experiance it caused her, and she wanted to return back to her studies. she seemed fine, we knew it would be risky without the medication but it was what she wanted and was handling life and the real sister was making her way back to us slowly. until a week ago, now with the stress of school, she has resorted back to her sick state. believing things that are not real. the nature of the false belifes are usually sexually related and she herself would never say or do such awful things. What do we do for her? she is in her mid 20's, im worried she will not make a life for herself, she will not be able to study. This sickness me and my family do not know how to make sense of it. If she is bothered by voices of these things that what are we to do? we have prayed and prayed. Does someone have the power with this so called magic to cause this much pain on a persons life. I know my sister is in there, suffering. After the first time it happened, she told me she knew it was happing, but could do nothing. What advice can you give to mentally sick family members, how do we cope?
