I have a good friend from college who dropped off the face of the earth after graduation. For five years, we knew nothing about what he had been doing. To our group of friends, this was nothing uncommon. We were used to him coming to a party and leaving without saying goodbye. We knew him to go out and wander the streets of Cambridge and Boston by himself, and junior year, he went off to China on an exchange program and sometimes we would hear stories of his exploits there. He was very animated and everything came back to the great evil that was China - the soon to be sole world power. Since we had not received any type of communication from him, we assumed that he was somewhere in China fighting to bring the nation down or rotting away in a prison for trying to do so.
A handful of months ago, I was able to work my Googling/stalking magic and found an address in Spokane, WA that seemed like a plausible contact. I sent a Christmas card and asked him to call or e-mail me. A couple of weeks later, on January 2, I missed a call and received an e-mail from his mother in which she told me that he had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
The next evening, I spoke to his mom. It is a very sad story, unfortunately. They arrived in Washington after our graduation on a Wednesday. He was very happy and excited to soon be starting a job at the Berlitz language school in Tokyo. His brother and couple of other friends wanted to take him camping before he left. So that Friday they went camping. He was waiting for the two friends to pick him up. Something happened that the car with his two friends fell off a 900 foot cliff and died. He didn't even know that this happened because he called his mom wondering where his friends were, thinking that they were playing some prank on him. His mom told me that the parents of his friends that died even went to their house, blamed him for the death of their children and said they wished it had been him instead of their children.
He became depressed but still went away to Japan. She got that call from his building owner in Japan asking her to get him. She said that when she found him and it seemed like a scene out of Howard Hughes' life and he had even dunked his computer and phone in water because he was afraid he was being tracked. She was able to bring him back but refused help.
At some point, she found out that there was some history of mental illness on his father's side. Because of the current laws, he could not be helped against his will. He left one day while she was at work and received a call from him 15 months later. He had been found in a park after having tried to overdose. He has been in and out of hospitals, but unfortunately because of the laws, he'll only be required to be on his medications for 90 days at a time and then he'll stop taking them once no longer required to.
He does not really know that something is wrong with him. He doesn't know he is ill, so knowing that he has some level of happiness is what helps her keep it together. She said that when he first started living in the assisted living homes, she was visiting him twice a week, plus Friday to pick him up for the weekend and Sunday to take him back. She still takes him home every weekend. Unfortunately, any communication from us is not welcomed. She mentioned to him that he got a Christmas card from me and greetings from friends, and he said something to the effect of 'I knew it, I knew they were tracking me and now they found me.' Even another card saying 'have a merry and jolly time' sparked a paranoid episode. She says that he is often in his own world and thinks that everything is signaling him and that the FBI, CIA, and what have you are tracking him. She said that they even took him to a local FBI office to show him that he was not in their computer system. After they left, he said that the reason he was not in the system is because it was a secret investigation. She says that Shea is in danger since he'll often walk into the street without being aware of what he is doing.
Our friend is now destined to a life of assisted living homes, mental hospitals, drug cocktails, random paranoia, and he will not get better.
I was really affected by the news. It was so sad to hear that our friend has essentially disappeared and has become a person ruled by the plots conceived by his malfunctioning brain. Nevertheless, he will always be one of our good friends.
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