Mental health articles

behaving badly case: How Salif went out of control
Salif was the sixth child in a family of eight children. His father worked far from their village. He would
come home only for one month in the year, and when he did he was always tired and unhappy. He would
drink a lot and fight with his mother. Salif had often seen his father beat his mother. When his father was
around, he was very strict with the children. They would all be secretly happy when their father went back to work. Their mother, who worked very hard at home and in a nearby shop, had little time to discipline the children. Salif began
missing classes when he was nine. His teacher warned his mother that Salif would be thrown out of school. His mother beat Salif badly; she would then cry and say she was scared that if Salif got into mischief, his father would blame her. Salif tried to understand, but was very angry with his mother. He continued missing his classes and failed his examinations
that year. Things got worse when his father came home. One day Salif ran
away from home and spent a few nights with his friend. But he missed home and came back, only to receive another beating. He started spending more time out of the house and was regularly absent from school. He would spend time with friends, smoking cigarettes and stealing from shops. One day one of his friends suggested that they smoke some heroin that he had obtained from a dealer passing through the village. Soon Salif became
dependent on the drug and needed it every day. He stole money to support the habit until, one day, he was caught by the police. Salif was 16 years old when he was sent to a juvenile prison in a city far from the village.