Paul Alexander was a young British teenager who possessed an amazing talent for skateboarding, he was full of character and had crazy ambition for his age. Upon moving from Leicester to Bristol he discovered incredible opportunities such as sponsorship, recognition and invitation to travel different countries. It was here that he started living with professional skateboarder Danny Wainwright, and became engulfed in the responsibility free skater lifestyle.
Paul seemed to be well on his way to achieving his dream of turning pro until one day when it all changed, he was hit by something he had never experienced before and this had crippling results. Paul’s dreams it seemed had been robbed from him by a severe form metal illness. This is Paul’s story told to us by his friend and fellow skateboarder Tim Crawley.
Yeah, the dude is a drug addict. Thats what caused his “mental illness”. They always try to hide the fact that they mess up their heads with all sorts of substances, and on top claim that this wasn’t the reason they fail at life. Junkie logic.
I wonder if the thought ever entered his head to get rid of that ever present weed…..did he not make any connections? Nope, obviously not.
Mental illness causes self-medicating, not the other way around. Weed probably didn’t help, but it certainly doesn’t cause mental illness out of thin air. Whatever was causing him to abuse the pot was likely the same thing that caused his breakdown.
That, or it was caused by repeated head injuries incurred through skateboarding crashes. Google CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy) and educate yourself.
What about chemically induced psychosis? They are very clear about his constant drug abuse. Couldn’t that be the cause?
It’s very easy to judge a young man’s actions retrospectively. A lot of young men dealing with insidious-onset mental health issues, particularly those in the psychotic category such as Paul, choose to try and cope with stress by numbing themselves with chemicals. In all honesty the weed didn’t help, but the break-up and lack of an emotional support network in Bristol all contributed to his initial episode.
He is a talented and intelligent man who has dealt with a lot of issues in his life and instead of judging him for his mistakes, it would be better for him and the 200,000+ people living with psychotic illnesses in the UK, if we simply accept that this has happened and support him in trying to take his life back.
No one would ever choose to become psychotic.
I agree that the self medication is more of a by-product of psychosis than a risk factor for developing it, but I’d disagree with any argument stating that using illicit “numbing” drugs does NOT contribute to the further development of psychotic symptoms.
Also there are people who would choose to be psychotic, look at the way the business world worships and praises people who are psychotic and with the American Media’s frightening obsession with people who are psychotic through the portray of these people in popular TV shows (Dexter) and of course there’s the correlation of celebrities and mental illness (Kanye West) and Politicians… don’t even get me started on them.
No one SHOULD ever want to be psychotic or choose to be, but unfortunately not everyone out there shares this point of view