Lawyer's Slide into Pyschosis
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Interesting, but sad, story
https://www.wsj.com/health/psychosis-schizophrenia-mental-health-committed-9efcdf6c
Rob Dart isn’t the successful lawyer and father who left the people who love him two years ago to follow his delusions. That Rob lives in the memory of friends and in family photos.
This Rob, who arrives on time for our interview, is standing by the roadside under the blazing California sun, his eyes and hair competing in wildness, his grin difficult not to match.
In the past year, this Rob has been hospitalized, shot, housed, unhoused, a winner and a loser in court battles. Ultimately, he has shed every scrap of evidence of his life before illness: his connections to his son, family and most friends. He wanders the streets of greater Los Angeles, begging for change and lying down to sleep when he is tired. He believes people are controlling him via hypnosis, activated by a headlock.
Rob, 44, doesn’t believe he is sick. He has refused treatment repeatedly. During a hospitalization last year, he argued remotely before a judge from his hospital bed that he shouldn’t be committed. The judge agreed.
“I did want to leave the hospital, and I did not want to take the medications,” Rob said.
