I Thought It Was Demonic, Not An Illness” — A Father’s Story Of Survival, Loss & Regret
✍️ By Teju/ December 1, 2025/ 11:43pm
Lying in a pool of his own blood, on the floor of his home, moments after being attacked, Joshua Obinem confronted death with brutal clarity. “If help doesn’t arrive within a minute, I know I’ll go. I’ll be dead,” he recalls thinking. What followed was not the story of an outsider attack, but one of unimaginable betrayal and loss within his own family.
Joshua was stabbed at his doorstep by his son, Benjamin, after trying to disarm him barehandedly. In a desperate escape for help, he ran across the street screaming for neighbors to call the police, only to be struck again, first in the head, then in the stomach. All the while, he believed he was the first victim.
He was devastatingly wrong.
Unbeknownst to him, Benjamin had already attacked his elder daughter, fatally stabbed his wife, and killed another daughter before turning the knife on him.
The Obinem family, deeply rooted in Christianity, initially interpreted Benjamin’s escalating psychological distress, erratic behavior, excessive prayer, and unsettling declarations, as a spiritual battle. Joshua now admits they only fought one side of the war. The other, the medical, was left untouched.
After his arrest, Benjamin was detained under the Mental Health Act and diagnosed with schizophrenia and schizophrenia-induced psychosis, rooted in schizophrenia. Joshua confesses he had never even heard the term “schizophrenia”. If he had, he insists, he would have pursued both prayer and professional help simultaneously.
His biggest regret? Not acting sooner, not knowing sooner, and believing that healing could only arrive from spiritual intervention without medical backing.
Despite the horror, his love for his son remains unwavering. His message to Benjamin is clear: “Forgive yourself. We haven’t stopped loving you. We are forgiving you, so you should forgive yourself.”
This tragedy brings to light a deeper conversation that many communities still struggle to have: the danger of confusing mental health crises for spiritual possession, and the irreversible cost of blurred lines between belief systems and psychological care.
While Joshua survived, parts of his family didn’t. And for him, the pain of what could have been will always echo louder than the violence of what was.
Let this story not be shared in vain. Let it save another family before a diagnosis does.
