He stood up and walked around the room, trying to make sense of the eerie stillness. And then, just as quickly, everything snapped back. His family stirred. The TV carried on. The moment vanished.

For most people, it would be the stuff of nightmares. For 30-year-old Fitri from Tapah, Perak, this was merely one of his hallucinations – part of living with schizophrenia.

And instead of keeping these moments hidden, he recreates them as POV videos on TikTok, giving viewers a glimpse into what he experiences.

“My intention was never to spread awareness. I was just doing it for fun. But somehow, as my videos went viral, it started to educate people,” Fitri told FMT Lifestyle.

“I was a little scared that I might be oversharing and that made me want to do it less but people engaged with my videos and they started to have empathy.”

His experience mirrors a growing trend nationwide. Schizophrenia is a mental health condition that affects how a person thinks, feels, and perceives reality, often leading to hallucinations and delusions.

Last year, Malaysia recorded 8,303 schizophrenia cases, and public hospitals saw a 14.6% increase in cases compared to 2021, according to health minister Dzulkefly Ahmad.

Fitri, the second among four siblings, began noticing his symptoms in 2020 after suffering mental and emotional abuse from his then housemate.

“When my housemate started to abuse me, I started to lose myself. My attitude changed. I constantly found myself locked in the toilet. I was severely depressed,” he shared.

“Then the voices started – telling me to take care of myself, and to hurt people who hurt me. This wasn’t an internal monologue; it felt like someone was talking right in front of me.”

Ironically, it was the same housemate who eventually took him to the hospital for a diagnosis.

Initially, his family struggled to accept that their happy, easy-going son was suddenly mentally sick. But after he moved back in with them, their support helped him stabilise. “Having family support is really, really important,” Fitri stressed.

Once more stable, he refused to let the illness define him – reading, watching YouTube videos, and even testing himself in crowded places like malls and night markets to identify his triggers, adapt, and learn to avoid situations that could worsen his symptoms.

He also focused on his overall health: exercising, strengthening his faith, giving up vaping, and avoiding toxic people.

Almost on a whim, Fitri began sharing his experiences on TikTok in 2023, talking openly about schizophrenia, his daily life, and the hallucinations he experiences.

Realising that talking about schizophrenia wasn’t enough, he decided people needed to see it for themselves. “I figured viewers had to experience it,” he said, and began re-enacting his hallucinations in POV videos.

So far, he has posted four “schizophrenia simulation” clips. His most popular – with over three million views – takes place in a mosque, where figures suddenly appear beside him as he prays, smiling back eerily.

“I hope by watching my videos, people who have friends and family members with schizophrenia will be kinder to them. Maybe they will think, ‘if I behave badly to them, their condition might worsen, just like Fitri’s hallucinations’,” he explained.

Ultimately, he urges others with the condition not to give up.

“Get diagnosed, get treated. Sometimes the voices might ask you to end your life and it feels easier, but please don’t. Endure, and one day God will deliver you,” he concluded.

And for someone who once felt swallowed by the darkness, that hope is everything.

Follow Mohammad Fitri on TikTok.