>> National marketing support was provided by the Foundation for Excellence in Mental Health Care, supporting independent research and innovative programs for safer, more effective mental health care.

♪ >> About an hour ago, my wife called me and told me that the police had just stopped by the house and had picked up Eric.

I called the Mental Health Center of Dane County.

They apparently had been trying on an almost daily basis to pick him up wherever he is.

♪ >> We are officially on the record.

This is the deposition of Jim Black.

This matter is pending in the circuit court of Dane County in the state of Wisconsin.

>> First off, can you tell me how long have you known Eric?

>> I would say we probably first had contact in the Crisis Unit sometime in early 2003.

♪ >> He went on a walk, and it was fairly cold out, and his mother called the police, and so they hospitalized him.

So that was the first episode that got him into the system.

She immediately thought he was psychotic.

I said, you know, "Just relax.

Let him, you know, work through this."

>> She calls the mental health system and says, "You've got to do something.

He's getting worse.

He should be in a hospital, and he should be given medications."

>> Did you expect that treatment would be psychotropic medications?

>> That's usually the first response for treatment.

Yes.

>> If the medication was harmless and it did nothing but help him, well, that might be acceptable, but the medications aren't harmless.

>> He stayed on fairly high-dose antipsychotics for quite a long time.

And he was thinking, if this is what my life is going to be, I don't want to continue it.

♪ ♪ >> People assume that you're crazy and that's all there is to it, but the truth is that the voices and the visions are different for everybody.

My voices are very nice to me, actually.

I don't hear them every day.

They happen more when I'm stressed out.

>> He's been on Risperidone, Lorazepam, Clonazepam, Clotiapine, Olanzapine, Haldol... >> Vroom!

I don't think my case is really that severe.

I mean, some-sometimes it is.

♪ >> Eric's been given a number of diagnoses -- paranoid schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, schizophreniform disorder, psychosis not otherwise specified.

>> If the voices were getting too annoying, I definitely think that I would ask for something, but I don't need it to be forced on me.

I don't need to have them guessing what the voices are going to do.

You don't have to tape this, Dad.

>> Eric is my oldest brother, and he is just a really great person.

♪ >> Wha!

>> [ Screams ] [ Laughter ] >> [ Laughing ] >> ♪ Whoo, ooh ♪ >> Oh, damn.

♪ >> ♪ A Thursday ♪ >> [ Laughing ] >> Oh!

You can't... ♪ >> He's so smart.

I think he'd be good at teaching.

♪ From what I've gathered, he didn't like meds, ever.

♪ My dad says it was just him and his nature... and my mom is pretty adamant that my dad brainwashed him into thinking that meds are a bad thing.

I could see either of those options being true.

[ Whirring ] >> Here's the situation.

My mom thinks I'm going to go crazy because that's just the way she is.

She just doesn't want to believe that I'm going to stay better.

My dad, on the other hand, thinks that my mom saying that I'm going to go crazy is going to make me go crazy on its own.

>> My honest opinion is that especially in the last four or five days... >> Yeah.

>> ...is you're showing en-enough symptoms that I feel there is a good chance you could end up involuntarily hospitalized if you don't talk to Fred Coleman on Thursday and if he suggests medications, do what he says.

>> This is what I fear.

You end up proving to us that you can stay at Mom's house despite what I think might happen or could happen.

>> Let's agree to disagree!

>> Okay, and-and then you... >> I don't want to argue anymore with you... >> ...just to make a point.

>> I don't want to argue anymore with you.

I want to agree to disagree.

I just want to live my own life, and I'll do whatever I want.

If I choose to stay at Mom's house, I choose to stay at Mom's house.

>> Eric, that's always been the case.

You can stay there.

>> So you think that your life is not intertwined with mine in any way... >> I think I want to end this conversation.

>> Okay.

>> So are you looking good enough that I can interview you today?

>> Oh, my God, how fast is this going to be?

'Cause we're in kind of a hurry.

>> Open my window!

I'm hot.

>> Oh, it should be some quick questions.

>> We're in kind of a hurry, so, like... hurry.

>> Okay, um, who's crazier -- me, Mom, or Dad?

>> Oh, my God, I'm not doing this.

>> Hey, who's crazier, me or my parents?

>> Uh, your parents.

>> Oh, wait.

I changed my answer.

Eric is the craziest one.

>> [ Laughs ] >> He's going around with some dumbass little video asking people about if their people in their family are crazy.

That's crazy.

That's creepy.

Creepy!

>> [ Laughs ] >> Later.

>> I'm afraid I don't have a response to that.

He's probably right.

Good morning, everybody.

[ Clears throat ] Around 2007, things started getting better.

I ended up back in school, and I chose my major, which is genetics.

>> Let me know when you're made.

You're made?

>> And I got to a relatively low dose of medication.

For a couple years, things were going pretty well.

But around February of 2011, I was getting like a bit of a tremor in my hands.

I was worried that it was something called tardive dyskinesia -- that's like this incurable like muscle-twitching thing that is quite a serious like possible side effect of Risperdal.

It's where like you have these twitches that, um, like, maybe your hands are twitching and like your face, too.

You, like, start grimacing and, like, making all these faces.

I was on a low dose, and I guess I thought I'd be able to go off and still be okay.

♪ >> Beginning in about May of 2011, Dane County alleged that Eric was dangerous to himself.

♪ The criteria for dangerousness is you have actually tried to kill yourself, to commit suicide.

That's a fairly easy one to understand.

Less easy to understand is that because of recent acts, it's likely that you will do something like this.

>> How do we know?

>> You don't.

>> Nothing would have happened if they had called me.

We would have brought him home, and he would've been fine, and he would've de-escalated.

>> We have an individual who in the past has responded well to treatment, has done well, but now is refusing treatment, and we want to provide treatment before they're a greater risk.

>> The dangerousness card is a very powerful card to play.

>> When a person says they're going to jump off a balcony, it doesn't mean that they are going to jump off a balcony.

♪ >> Do you recall what the results of your evaluation were in May of 2011?

>> Yes, I recommended a six-month commitment, um, with an order to treat.

>> And on what basis did you recommend the commitment?

>> He had been -- and again, from memory -- he had been manic, psychotic and delusional for a period of time, and there were concerns about how well he was caring for himself as well as a number of third standard issues -- that is, impaired judgment.

♪ >> There's huge stakes because, yes, we're talking about removing someone's constitutional rights to determine possibly where they live, what medication they take, what treatment they're getting.

And then there's huge stakes on the other side -- is the community safe?

Are we going to be protected from individuals that are being threatened or from this person committing suicide?

>> I think I read in the record that during the course of this commitment, he was in Mendota, I think, for maybe...or other hospitalizations for 87 days?

I think, was that what I read?

>> It was a very difficult hospitalization.

It was extremely difficult to get him to re-compensate -- that is, to stabilize on medications.

>> We saw from Eric being treated for months and months on end with medications in locked settings, he didn't get better.

He got worse.

>> Initially, he was willing to take medication, but they piled on the medication.

They gave him much more than he knew from experience that he needed.

>> It's a very difficult situation, but I believe that once Eric gets back to a baseline level of functioning without psychotic symptoms, that he does better, and in my opinion, if coercion is necessary to get him back to that point of stability, then that's what's necessary.

♪ [ Turn signal clicking ] >> For some people, the hospital might be a helpful setting.

For me, it really is not.

I just rage against the system for being locked up.

Everyone who's in the hospital has to be on meds.

They put me on them right away when I got in.

♪ >> He's up there in the cage.

♪ >> Eric's on an outpatient commitment.

That means there's a list of behaviors and requirements that you have to adhere to.

>> No drinking, no harming myself or others.

But the big one was that there's these people who are going to come and make sure that I'm taking my medications.

♪ ♪ ♪ I'm at my dad's house.

Just felt like being with my family, my stepmom.

And I wanted to see my little brothers.

>> [ Speaks indistinctly ] >> All right, Rex, ready?

You're going to catch this.

I know you can do it!

Yeah!

>> After this last hospitalization, Eric was put on an outpatient program where they actually come to your house and watch you take the medication.

♪ [ Doorbell rings ] The day after Eric was released, they came to my house.

And the plan was for them to do this every day.

>> Hi, Eric.

How are you?

>> I'm okay.

>> I have medicine for you.

>> I'm just curious -- what happens if I refuse it?

>> [ Chuckles ] I think you know the answer.

I mean, nothing's going to happen right this second if you refuse it.

>> Yeah.

>> Yeah.

>> But eventually, I'd be sent back to Mendota.

♪ I'm just going to go with it.

I don't think I have much else of a choice, so... ♪ ♪ You know, I want to talk a little bit about like what's the worst that could happen if I did go cold turkey.

I mean... >> If you're on a moderate to high dose and you stop suddenly, it's hard on the body.

So, from my experience, I think that's a risky choice.

The worst is something really bad happens where you're really out of contact with reality and bad judgment gets you injured or killed.

>> Okay.

>> Less worse than that is you get more voices, it lasts for months, but you manage not to run into the police or the hospital or have something bad physically happen to you.

>> Okay.

>> Less worse than that, and I don't think likely, is you feel much better physically and the other symptoms go away, and you're okay.

>> Okay.

>> And you feel really good.

♪ >> Medications involve a class of medicines called antipsychotic drugs.

These are drugs that are very effective, have been proven to work in terms of suppressing or alleviating the psychotic symptoms of the illness and preventing relapses from occurring.

>> Many of the drugs that are prescribed to treat these disorders act by globally changing brain chemistry.

Using them to treat a complex psychiatric disorder is a bit like trying to change your engine oil by opening a can and pouring it all over the engine block.

[ Laughter ] Some of it will dribble into the right place, but a lot of it will do more harm than good.

♪ >> What we need conceptually to make progress here is to rethink these disorders as brain disorders.

But this is an organ of surreal complexity, and we are just beginning to understand how to even study it.

>> If you had a psychiatrist up here, he would say, "We have a very solid evidence base for antipsychotics."

Short-term, real quickly, you have people coming to an emergency room, you put half on an antipsychotic, half on a placebo, and in six weeks, at least the manifestation of psychotic symptoms have abated more in the drug-treated group.

Now let's trace the long-term outcomes literature.

There was an NIMH study done by William Carpenter.

It went for one year.

And basically they had a group treated with psychosocial care, and they compared that to a group treated with drugs.

At the end of one year, the relapse rates were lower for the psychosocial group -- not medicated -- and they were also less socially dependent.

You see why this is so profound?

Drugs have a risk and benefit.

You need a benefit over here, right, to justify all the risk.

What Carpenter is raising in 1978 is "Maybe the drugs are making people more biologically vulnerable to psychosis, the very target symptom, which means you're losing this long-term benefit."

♪ >> I decided I'm just going to not go in for my injection and not take my oral medications anymore.

♪ It's possible that I might need to stay on a lower dose, and maybe at some point I'll decide to do that, but the dose I'm on is way too high.

I'm absolutely positive of that.

>> So, what are you thinking now, Eric, about your meds, and what you are planning to do, or... >> I want to try going off of my meds.

I just want to try it once, and if it doesn't work, then I'll go back on them.

>> What kind of a time frame?

>> Even if I just had another week or two.

>> So if your dad says, like, "I'm worried," you would say, "Okay, I'll go back on the meds"?

>> Yes.

These people at CSP, they want to work with me, but they have all these complicated things with the order to treat, which says that they have to treat me.

What, are they just going to keep trying to make me take the meds, and I'm going to keep refusing, and it's going to just happen over and over?

I mean, it seems like they don't want me hearing voices and they don't want me seeing things, but I've said many times that those don't really bother me very much, and if they were bothering me, I would tell somebody, and I would tell somebody, "Please help me make the voices go away."

But I've never really said that.

I mean... [ Chuckles ] >> Hey, Mr. Chairman.

Ladies and Gentleman, I am not a public speaker.

This is going to be tough for me.

Just to a give you a background, in April of 2011, our son Matthew was doing good.

And then he started becoming paranoid.

He actually went to his doctor and told his doctor, "I'm going crazy."

A few weeks later, he drove himself to the emergency room at the local hospital, walked into the hospital, and said, "I want a brain scan because my brain is leaking.

I'm dying."

Last day before discharge, they said, "Your son is good to go."

I was enraged that they would let him out, told them he was going to kill himself.

They told me they had formed a delegate bond, and he was going to take his medicine.

I told them he had never taken his medicine for his other doctor.

Matthew came home a week later and killed himself.

>> What makes these disorders so vexing and quite different than diabetes or hypertension is that at the very core for many people with these illnesses there's a loss of insight.

They do not realize that they are ill, or if they do, at the moment when they are psychotic, they reject the notion that they need help.

>> What do we want?

>> Human rights!

>> When do we want it?

>> Now!

>> What do we want?

>> If you make the personal decision to take a substance as part of your recovery, that is your personal decision.

All right?

[ Applause ] Our movement sprang up 43 years ago.

36 years ago, I started getting involved in this because I was forcibly drugged and told it was hopeless, that I was going to get on psych drugs forever.

Neuroleptics, I now know...

If I was a teenager now ending up in the system, I could easily have been Eric.

When I got to college, I began having these experiences that would get me in trouble with the Harvard authorities.

When I was in my sophomore year, I'd think the CIA was making my teeth grow really fast, and I thought that that was God personally talking to me.

I actually agreed to go to the institutionalization because I thought I would get rest and I would find this insight.

The psychiatrist sat there and said, "David, you've been locked up several times, diagnosed schizophrenic, bipolar.

This is a psychosis caused by a chemical imbalance, a genetic problem, and you're going to be coming in and out of the institutions unless you stay on psychiatric drugs the rest of your life."

I had a vision of recovery, and my family had a vision of recovery, and it wasn't matching what the mental health system was coming up with.

>> What do you want?

>> Human rights!

>> When do you want it?

>> Now!

>> What do you want?

>> Human rights!

>> When do you want it?

>> Now!

>> What do you want?

>> Human rights!

>> My senior year, I got a knock on the door of my dorm room, and I connected with this movement, and that was Mental Patients Liberation Front.

I kind of found this unique career that literally became my vocation, which was community organizing to change the mental health system.

I want to say that that march was fantastic!

>> Yeah!

[ Applause ] >> All right!

I reached recovery with non-drug alternatives.

Under no circumstances should I ever be given any kind of psychiatric care without my explicit consent, period.

>> First new message from unknown caller.

>> Hi, Richard.

It's Gateway CSP calling.

I'm actually trying to reach Eric.

We are obligated under the court order to make sure that he takes the medication.

If he chooses not to do that, we will have to initiate police pickup.

Thank you.

[ Click ] >> I thought they were just going to let me try going off my medications, and apparently they're not, so I guess I have no choice now.

This is like a nightmare.

I wish they would just leave me alone.

>> After medical school, I went into the Navy because they paid for my school.

Then I started a private practice, and I've now been in practice 20 years.

I really felt that I had no choice in helping Eric.

He needed somebody on his side.

The record is very clear that he was at his worst when he had the most medications he's ever gotten in terms of antipsychotics.

He was on ten times as much on for at least two years before.

And that's when I said, "Whoa.

Somebody's not monitoring the situation."

And that's when I started looking into it and trying to help get a reasonable treatment for him.

>> We are here today because Eric gave his father certain advance directives concerning the type of treatment that he would want to have or not want to have.

Eric had received in the past forced treatment with psychotropic medications, and he wanted to express his advance directive that he not be treated in that same way again.

♪ If this were a conventional power of attorney, there would be no question that the power of attorney would have the authority to make the health care decisions.

>> I agree with that.

So once he is committed, the commitment order controls his mental health care.

And Eric doesn't have any authority to change that.

So how does he have any authority to transfer a right that he doesn't have to his father?

The motion is denied.

♪ >> Well, basically, it seems like they decided that since I don't have a decision over my health care that my dad doesn't get to have a decision, either.

>> When people experience someone who's hearing voices or having delusions, they have a fear of an unpredictability -- that that person is literally "out of control," and that therefore, perhaps violence might result.

♪ >> We're following this breaking news story -- a school shooting that has taken place at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

[ Siren wailing ] >> Before there was Elliot Rodgers, there was Adam Lanza in Newtown, Jared Loughner in Tuscon, Aaron Alexis at the Washington Navy Yard.

All had untreated or undertreated serious mental illness.

All spiraled out of control within a system that lacked the basic mechanisms for help.

>> The vast majority of people with mental illness are no more violent than the rest of the population.

In fact, they're more likely to be the victims of violence.

>> They often accuse us of violence even though we're less violent than the general population, but our people that have been forcibly shocked, forcibly drugged, tied down, pushed around, impoverished...I mean, that is a form of violence.

>> I've been off the medications for 11 days or so now, and I'm feeling fine.

Definitely, definitely, my thoughts are clearer.

I mean, I'll admit I may have been hearing some slight sounds off in the distance, but they weren't bothering me.

So, so far there really haven't been any negative side effects.

[ Telephone ringing ] ♪ >> According to Eric, the police arrived, handcuffed him, took him downtown to this emergency services unit, handcuffed him to a chair, and using uniformed force, got him to take apparently 2 milligrams of Risperidone.

>> The nurse prescriber does a medical status exam, and though he was handcuffed to a chair at that time, she indicates he was not threatening or aggressive in any way.

>> Mm=hmm.

>> And he was cooperative.

>> Yes.

>> Someone like Eric, who looks good and is very bright, can sometimes say the right things to lead people to believe that he's doing better than perhaps he actually is.

♪ >> He started taking Tylenol.

He took 10 pills probably over a 2-hour period.

His Tylenol level was close to being dangerous.

Hello?

>> Hi.

Richard, this is Jim Black from Crisis.

Do you have a moment?

Or... >> Yeah, I got a moment.

>> So, okay.

We wanted you to be aware that Eric is in violation at this point.

Please encourage him to come in.

If he does not, there is no question that he will be picked up tomorrow.

>> Well, it's Eric's choice, so... we'll see what he thinks about that.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

>> Okay, bye-bye.

[ Click ] [ Click ] ♪ >> There's no reports of Eric doing anything wrong other than just not coming in for his appointment for medicine, is that correct?

>> As far as I know.

I know people...I guess the question is I'm not sure how he's doing in terms of, you know, symptoms.

[ Buzzer sounds ] ♪ [ Buzzer sounds ] >> I was just hanging out at my dad's house, and the cops showed up at the door, and they took me to Meriter.

The cops escorted me to a room.

Then the nurses locked the door, and I was stuck here.

♪ Why have I been admitted?

>> They just can't let the patient dictate what's best for them during a commitment.

>> Why not?

>> Because they're the experts.

Their reasoning or justification is, "Well, if he doesn't start taking his medicine, it could turn into a crisis."

>> I feel confused and a little bit scared.

>> It's got to change.

You know, something's got to change.

>> I feel like I'm being treated like a criminal or like a child or both.

The nurse said, "Take your medication, or we'll keep you here longer."

That's basically what she said.

So I took it.

♪ [ Sighs ] Thanks for stopping by.

>> Sure.

>> Am I concerned about the effects that these constant threats are having on Eric?

Yes.

He consistently chooses to medications, and that's his right to do that.

>> For me, the issue is, is, is bullying, is that freedom, the value of freedom and choice and liberty and self-determination, they don't end when you are experiencing a mental and emotional problem.

We all love freedom, but the value of that doesn't end when you're considered to have a mental health problem.

In fact, respecting our empowerment may be what helps save our lives during extreme states.

So, for me, the main difference between the dominant mental health system and us is about power.

♪ ♪ >> There were plans to issue a pickup order on Eric tonight.

Crisis is going to recommend to the county that the commitment be extended.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> He's now very resistant to taking medication.

I mean, would you agree with that?

>> Quite obviously.

>> Right.

I mean, to the point where he's somewhere... >> Hiding.

>> ...where he's hiding.

I do not know where he is.

>> No.

>> Yes.

So... [ Sighs ] ...what's to be done about that?

>> [ Sighs ] >> Just to be clear, as we sit here today, you don't have any idea what Eric's insight into his mental illness as of today is, do you?

>> I do not.

>> You don't have any insight or opinion as to his level of dangerousness as of today, correct?

>> I do not.

>> And you do not have any insight or opinion as to his level of judgment or decision making.

>> I do not.

>> It's November 28.

A hearing was scheduled today to decide whether Eric's commitment should be extended or not.

My hope was to show that he was doing well without medication and that he would be freed of his commitment.

Then we got a call from Eric's attorney.

>> [ Sighs ] Um... that if I went to the court that they were going to take me to a hospital.

>> I think we are just going to keep refusing to go to the hearing.

It just doesn't make any sense to go through this at this point.

>> There were some people who were saying, "Listen -- we've been fighting with Eric.

We've been fighting with Richard.

This isn't helping Eric.

Why don't we just turn him over to his father and let his father decide treatment and see what happens?"

And others saying, "No, this is a kid who's at risk.

We know that by his history, we know he does better in treatment.

We need to make sure that he remains in treatment to be stable."

>> About an hour ago, my wife called me and told me that the police had just stopped by the house and had picked up Eric.

They apparently have been trying on an almost daily basis to pick him up wherever he is, although he's been behaving fine for almost two months outside of the hospital as an outpatient.

[ Horn honking ] There are two police cars here.

Undoubtedly, they brought Eric here.

I have a son that was brought in by the police.

>> Let's have a look here.

Let me just go let them know you're here.

>> Okay.

>> You can sit in a private room, and the charge nurse will be out in just one moment to talk to you.

>> Sure.

>> Hello.

I'm the charge nurse tonight.

>> Hi.

>> He's not here anymore.

>> When did he leave?

>> 5, 10 minutes ago.

>> So, you guys put me in that room just so that you could take him out of here without me being here.

Is that what happened?

>> Well, that's pretty much what happened.

>> Without me seeing him.

>> They basically didn't want you to have contact with him, so... >> Well, I mean, even criminals have a right to call whoever they want to.

And I'm sure he wanted to talk to me.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> I'm going to go up there and ask to see my son.

♪ Hey, Eric.

>> Why am I here?

>> You're the admission doctor, is that...?

>> Yeah.

>> I didn't get much of the story, why he's here.

>> When someone isn't compliant with their outpatient conditions, the police are kind of authorized to go and be on the lookout for your son.

>> Okay.

can pick him up and bring him in.

>> I don't think you'll be able to find a more powerless group of people than the severely mentally ill.

This type of thing is happening to thousands of people just like Eric.

The system is broken.

Eric isn't your usual nail, and the usual hammer isn't the answer.

Will he change his mind?

No.

I don't think he'll ever change his mind.

[ Keys clacking ] >> On the fifth and sixth of this month, we were to have an extension of a commitment hearing.

The county had to prove that without medication, Eric's judgment would be so impaired that he was likely to cause harm to himself.

>> When I came into the court the afternoon of the fifth, Eric was sitting in a wheelchair.

They had chains between both of his feet.

They had him handcuffed.

two experts said that Eric could not be treated under a commitment because he was resistant to a commitment.

The next thing is the county says, "Well, I'm converting this to the proceedings for the temporary guardianship and protective placement."

Protective placement means that your judgment is so impaired that you can't take care of yourself at all.

>> When they announced that Eric should have a temporary guardianship, I was just demoralized.

I mean, I...

It's like a punch in the stomach.

♪ >> I have no idea how long I'm going to be here for 'cause I haven't been following the rules.

Well, I didn't think they were actually going to bring me back here because I, there's no reason to bring me back here!

There just isn't!

♪ ♪ >> About a month later, I got a letter from the social worker that evaluated Eric.

He wasn't disabled enough to require a guardian.

>> Even though there was no longer legal authority to hold Eric at Mendota, Mendota didn't release him.

So, I wrote a letter to the duty judge and brought it to her.

♪ >> And then suddenly this order came from the judge late in the day saying that they had to let him go.

>> One of the staff claimed to be death and went around trying to steal my soul all the time.

>> It wasn't very fun.

It would've been less fun if the whole place were on fire, but that's about the only way I can imagine it being less fun.

♪ >> Everybody but Eric agrees that he shouldn't stop his medication abruptly.

He knows that can actually create psychosis.

>> He was going to show people that not only does he have the choice, he can stop it completely if he wants to.

♪ >> He went to a lab where usually he can hang out with other computer geeks.

That room was locked, and so he got frustrated and set off an alarm.

[ Siren wailing ] [ Horn honking ] [ Alarm sounding ] [ Siren continues wailing ] >> Hi.

I'm hallucinating.

The voices and the visions are stressing me.

Sometimes they don't bother me, and sometimes they do.

And right now they're bothering me.

Same as before, except now it's worse.

♪ >> Whatever was being done by the mental health system just wasn't working.

♪ >> Dr. Jackson was hired as an independent expert to evaluate Eric.

>> Our expert witness felt that the risks of taking the medications in the doses that he was for as long as he was far outweighed the benefits.

♪ >> We presented an alternative plan for Eric's treatment.

Eric would not be forced to take medications, starting immediately.

His new private treatment team would be working with Eric to determine what medications he should take, if any.

>> And the county accepted that.

>> I think the county accepted that plan because they were at wits' end.

They didn't know what to do next.

♪ They were trying everything.

They tried all the antipsychotics.

They put him in the hospital.

They gave him injections for months at a time.

And nothing was working.

Well, today we are going to go pick up Eric.

It's February 1.

It's his birthday.

And hopefully, this will be the last time we ever pick up Eric from Mendota.

[ Indistinct conversation ] >> Jenna, it's your brother Eric.

I'm out of the hospital.

Call me.

Call my dad's phone.

Bye.

Oh, wait, let me try something.

Watch this.

What am I going to ask you next!

>> I can't answer that.

>> [ Chuckles ] That's great.

Apparently, free will exists.

Can't figure out what I'm going to say next.

You are my friend.

>> You are certainly entitled to that opinion.

>> [ Laughs ] >> Abracadabra!

No, I don't think that's going to work.

Uh... What to start with?

Actually, this is going to take forever.

I'm going to do something else.

>> Eric came out of Mendota an emotional wreck.

>> I just don't feel safe.

I feel like at any time they could come and take me back.

Even though they say they're not going to, I don't know whether to believe them.

>> Please help me.

>> The family had different views on what Eric needed to do to get better.

>> He knows that the wiser thing to do is to taper.

>> I'm going cold turkey on the Risperdal.

I'm not going cold turkey on the other stuff.

That's the plan.

>> One can consider it risky to let somebody who is apparently psychotic to make decisions about their medication.

>> That's not even supposed to be there.

It's nitrogen.

It's an element that I thought up.

It's um, I guess that'd be C3NH5.

>> We felt in the end, Eric will be taking medication because it makes sense to him and not to other people.

>> I am definitely experiencing symptoms of withdrawal, and I'm doing my best to cope with it, but it's not easy.

>> The antipsychotic -- and we are talking about Risperidone -- will block some of the receptors for dopamine.

And the body responds to that by creating more receptors.

And when you take away the Risperidone, suddenly all of those receptors are reactive.

>> This is the worst possible thing you could do according to the Bible -- turn to the book of Revelation and rip the entire thing out.

There!

Now I will burn this book because I think it's evil.

>> Dad, I thought you should know that Eric wants to burn another book in the fireplace!

>> Pure vodka, what should I do with this?

♪ >> It's gotten, like, worse.

And it scares me that it could get even worse.

[ Alarm blaring ] [ Siren wailing ] >> If someone pulls a fire alarm, the fire department should show up and check if there's a fire.

Not the police should show up and take the person who pulled the fire alarm to a mental institution.

obviously!

>> Well, they should at least take them to jail or fine them.

>> No!

They should check if there's a fire.

>> Well, they did, and there's no fire.

You said, "There's no fire.

I pulled the fire alarm."

>> I didn't say there was no fire.

Are you delusional?

>> You said you saw fires in the atoms.

>> There was a fire?

>> Yes!

There was a fire!

>> Where?

>> In the building!

>> Where?

>> In the atoms!

>> In every atom there's fire.

>> People would say, "Eric, there was no fire," and he'd say, "Yes, there was a fire."

And for him, there was a fire.

[ Alarm blares ] ♪ [ Siren wailing ] ♪ >> Well, my dad's, like, team of people wanted to try the no-meds approach, and I was all for it as long as it worked, but if it didn't work, I was going to say, "Well, I think he should take meds instead."

And it just...It didn't work, in my opinion.

[ Alarm blaring ] [ Siren wailing ] [ Horn honking ] ♪ ♪ >> Spring of 2012 was actually a time when I was struggling a lot.

I just, I just stopped taking my medications cold turkey, which isn't a good idea.

I should've just kept lowering it.

[ Sighs ] I ended up in jail.

>> He was hallucinating; He was in a dark cell.

He was really at the very lowest point of his life.

♪ >> I ended up being hospitalized.

>> He was with a physician that listened to all those people that said that he was being given too much medication.

Either he was an unusual Mendota psychiatrist, or he actually read the record.

>> His prescribing psychiatrist greatly reduced the amount of medication, which of course reduces concerns over the side effects of those medications.

>> Eric decided to stay on medications and then taper them slowly, at a very safe rate, and he was at peace with that finally, and I think that was the start to his recovery.

♪ [ Cheers and applause ] >> He got back into college, and he graduated with a high grade-point average.

>> I have my degree now in genetics.

♪ ♪ ♪ Today, I'm on like 1.5 milligrams of Risperdal.

The person who prescribes the medication, I did ask her to lower my dosage.

So, she's worked with me to lower the dose that I'm on.

I still feel like maybe sometime in the future I would try slowly going off my medications.

♪ When I got out of the hospital, I started working on this crisis plan, so that there would be a plan for if I end up hospitalized again.

Here's some of it.

[ Clears throat ] All right.

At any facility, no medication should be put in front of me with the person asking me or telling me or forcing me to take them.

I believe there is a chance that I can recover from a state of psychosis without ingesting prolonged courses of drugs that may cause more harm than good.

Whatever the situation and no matter what is happening, I want my treaters to listen to me.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> National marketing support was provided by the Foundation for Excellence in Mental Health Care, supporting independent research and innovative programs for safer, more effective mental health care.