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A woman in a skincare face mask was seen in a Twitch video kicking food belonging to a couple who was live streaming in Singapore recently.

Since the video, and other versions of it, went viral, the woman's younger sister has stepped forward to speak out about the incident in an interview with CNA.

Woman has schizophrenia

The 37-year-old Pearlene (not her real name) reached out to CNA and disclosed that the woman in the Twitch video is her elder sister.

The woman is 41 years old and is currently being treated for schizophrenia.

Pearlene told CNA that her sister was often under the impression that someone was trying to harm her.

Her sister has "displayed symptoms of autism" since she was a toddler, Pearlene added.

Their father was the woman's main caregiver, but he had been thrown out of the house after the woman started believing he was trying to "bring a demon to harm her" due to a relapse.

As the closest sibling to the woman, Pearlene took over to care for her elder sister.

Pearlene told CNA that she was heartbroken and cried after learning of the incident.

"There are a lot of such people (with mental illnesses) on the streets," said Pearlene.

"Usually what you do is just walk away if you know there is something wrong with them."

Reactions to incident

However, this was clearly not the case during the Jun. 28 incident, where the couple live streaming not only engaged with the woman, but they appeared to throw a drink and smack the elder woman on her back at one point.

Pearlene told CNA she was saddened to see how her elder sister was treated by the couple and by those who poked fun at the older woman online after multiple videos of the incident were circulated widely and spoofed.

Other individuals who pointed out that the woman was "not in the right state of mind" questioned why the videos were shared and urged people to be more sensitive instead of "criticising and shaming" the woman.

The original Twitch video by the live streaming couple seems to be deleted and was no longer available at the time of writing.

Pearlene told CNA that her sister thought the live streaming couple was being "a public nuisance", and the woman was not affected by the incident.

Schizophrenic patients have a different view on what's normal or not

Coming to her sister's defence, Pearlene said that some schizophrenic patients are not fully aware of what they doing nor do they have any control over their actions.

She added that schizophrenic patients may have a different view of what is normal and what is not, which in this case resulted in the woman getting mocked by some netizens.

For example, the woman told Pearlene that she wore a facial mask out on the day of the incident because her skin felt dry.

The woman also explained to Pearlene that she did not wear a bra that day so that she would have one less item to wash or spend money on.

A widely misunderstood mental illness

According to Singapore Association for Mental Health, schizophrenic patients are widely misunderstood and discriminated as a result.

For example, it is a myth that they have "split personality". Like what Pearlene told CNA about, schizophrenic patients struggle to tell what's real or not when they are unwell.

Another myth is that schizophrenia cannot be helped.

Instead, schizophrenic patients can "recover and resume meaningful roles" within the community when given the right support and treatment.

Background

Clarence Kang, 39, and his wife Angelica Mendoza, 37, were sitting on the side of a covered pedestrian walkway outside Buona Vista MRT station and live streaming when the woman approached them.

She said they were not allowed to take a video there and told them to "switch off that thing (their live streaming device)" before she called the police.

Moments after an exchange between the couple and the woman, she kicked the plastic bags containing the live streamers' food.

Retaliating, Kang supposedly threw a packet with drinks at the woman while Mendoza apparently smacked the woman on the back.

After a few minutes, a female passerby restrained the woman and police arrived at the scene shortly after.

The woman was admitted to the Institute of Mental Health after the incident.

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Top image screenshot from 3wh33ler/Twitch