Insane people

I had a friend back when I was in my 20’s when living in L.A. that had some rather unique issues.

Hell of a nice guy and a real sweetheart, but he was also bipolar and schizophrenic. He had some hereditary issues on his dad’s side of the family. Most of the time he was very functional. He was a talented chef who would work seasonally as head chef for high-end mountain resorts where he would have free room and board, save up a decent pile of money, then come back down to L.A. and hang out during the off season. He managed his condition through medication and marijuana, although the marijuana was obviously his own thing. Judge if you want, but the marijuana kept him very level and focused. I’ve never jumped on the pothead bandwagon that marijuana is the solution for everything, but in this case, it really was a positive. About 95% of the time he was a perfectly lucid, rational, and charming guy.

Anyway, he would occasionally run into episodes, and when he did, it meant he was going to become a little dangerous and we would make sure we contacted his family when it did. He had this strange thing where he was a very creative writer, but his creative side would be what would set him off. When he would suddenly start writing, we knew he was about to go manic and would contact his mother immediately because she was used to dealing with it. It wouldn’t happen immediately. He would start by writing pages and pages of stream-of-consciousness stuff, and talking about traumatic things that happened to him when he was younger. His writing would frequently talk about Oberon, the king of the faeiries from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. We eventually learned that once he started talking about Oberon, and almost taking it on as a persona, the manic phase had fully kicked in and he might start getting dangerous to himself or others. I know this sounds like I’m making it up, but I’m not. In fact, I’m even leaving stuff out.

It was so strange because he was a genuinely sweet guy, very intelligent, and very well-read. I always thought it was such a shame because it was his creative side, which was really very fascinating, that unfortunately would bring on his psychosis. It was as if one couldn’t get too deep into creative discussions with him for fear of setting off a trigger.

I still think of him from time to time and wonder what became of him. If he was in the company of the wrong people at the wrong time, things could get very scary. I fear that sooner or later he would have had to end up institutionalized, and if I’m realistic about it that is probably the case. It’s just very sad.