Nightline (ABC) - 1999-05-31

Channel: malgent

Transcript

Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:00] Finally tonight, neighbors in a

[0:02] Pennsylvania town encounter an

[0:03] unbearable situation. A young black bear

[0:06] found wandering around a town just

[0:07] outside of Pittsburgh today. Can you

[0:09] believe that? For three hours, this

[0:11] young guy played chase with animal

[0:12] control officers. That barbed wire has

[0:14] got to hurt. Oh. Finally, the officers

[0:16] were able to catch up with him and

[0:18] tranquilize him. And after he fell

[0:19] asleep, the bear was returned to a

[0:21] nearby forest. And we're told he is just

[0:24] fine. That's it for us. Thank you and

[0:26] good night, everybody.

[0:33] Fisher broadcasting

[0:40] >> May 31st 1999.

[0:50] >> What you always see is the mentally ill

[0:54] committing violence.

[0:57] and he just started shooting everybody.

[0:59] >> We have a report of gunfire at the US

[1:01] Capital building.

[1:02] >> What you don't see are people

[1:05] successfully coping with their mental

[1:07] illness.

[1:08] >> But now we got life, we got society, we

[1:10] have members of our peers.

[1:12] >> I would like to see more psychiatric

[1:14] rehabilitation and impatient. How's it

[1:16] going?

[1:18] >> And what you don't see

[1:20] >> is one man's herculean efforts to get

[1:22] people suffering from mental illness

[1:25] into treatment. And out of the

[1:27] headlines,

[1:28] >> the guy who might

[1:29] >> tonight, mighty Mo Armstrong, one man's

[1:32] odyssey to care for those whom society

[1:36] has shocked.

[1:41] From ABC News,

[1:46] this is Night Line

[1:48] reporting from Washington, Ted CP.

[1:54] Some stories we carry inside ourselves

[1:56] and never tell. Others take years to

[1:59] rise to the surface, but somehow someday

[2:02] they do emerge. This is one of those. My

[2:06] old friend Herb O' Conor, who's done two

[2:08] tours as a producer here at Night Line,

[2:10] carried within him for many years, the

[2:13] story of his mother's illness. And then

[2:16] when she lay dying a while back, he

[2:18] shared that story with all of his

[2:19] friends here at work. His mother, it

[2:22] turned out, had suffered from

[2:23] schizophrenia for many years. Herb has

[2:26] some terrifying memories of how that

[2:27] manifested itself, how his mother's

[2:30] inner demons came pouring, tumbling out,

[2:33] how she suffered from it, and the impact

[2:36] that it had on the family. The fact is

[2:39] that one in five American families has

[2:41] to deal with a severe mental illness

[2:43] over the course of a lifetime. In any

[2:46] given year, an estimated 5 million

[2:48] Americans suffer from an acute episode

[2:51] of mental illness. A lot of you, in

[2:54] other words, will be able to relate to

[2:56] this broadcast in a very personal way.

[2:59] So, while the voice you hear tonight

[3:02] telling you the story of a remarkable

[3:04] man who works with schizophrenics, well,

[3:06] that voice is mine. This piece of work

[3:09] was crafted by Herbbo Connor who in

[3:12] honor and memory of his mother has

[3:15] wanted to tell this story for a very

[3:18] long time.

[3:20] Mo Armstrong is a man in perpetual

[3:23] motion. We have a guy who's missing and

[3:25] we think he might be in the shelters.

[3:28] >> Whether it be searching for a missing

[3:30] person with a mental illness,

[3:32] >> I would like to see more psychiatric

[3:34] rehabilitation. an impatient

[3:35] >> button holeing a key legislator.

[3:38] >> I've lost seven kids to this disease,

[3:40] you know, and I and I now I'm back on

[3:42] track

[3:42] >> to group therapy in Roxberry. Mo quickly

[3:46] gets an earful from people who have been

[3:49] twice cursed with a drug addiction and

[3:52] mental illness.

[3:54] >> What's called in the mental health field

[3:56] dual diagnosis. I get out, I go right

[3:59] back to using, you know, and I never

[4:01] realized I had a mental illness.

[4:04] >> Speaking with positive people, that

[4:06] helps me a lot with my mental illness

[4:08] and my disease of drug addiction.

[4:11] >> And if it's positive people you need,

[4:14] then 55-year-old Mo Armstrong with his

[4:16] boyish enthusiasm and endless energy is

[4:20] the ticket. But the first step to

[4:22] recovery is knowing that you have a

[4:25] psychiatric condition. You know, it's

[4:27] it's still the most shameful thing

[4:30] almost that a person can say that we are

[4:32] is mentally ill. And I don't know why

[4:34] that is.

[4:35] >> I think even if you're a drug addict,

[4:37] you're in you're mentally ill.

[4:39] >> Well, I think so, too.

[4:40] >> Being out there on drugs and picking up

[4:42] men in the middle of the night running

[4:44] to somebody house for $10 to get a hit

[4:46] 3:00 in the morning. That's insane. So,

[4:48] we got everybody running around saying,

[4:50] "Well, just quit using, but they got

[4:52] mental illness." And nobody even tells

[4:54] them what they got and nobody even tells

[4:56] them what they should be taking to stop

[4:58] the mental illness. So, people just go

[5:00] back and they start grabbing for that

[5:01] drug and that alcohol again. You know

[5:03] what I mean?

[5:04] >> Take away.

[5:05] >> Yeah. Take away the pain. Take

[5:07] >> away the pain.

[5:07] >> And nobody wants to deal with it. I

[5:09] would have thought until about 10 years

[5:10] ago, schizophrenia meant you had two

[5:12] personalities.

[5:13] >> You know, I can hear myself and walk,

[5:15] you know, in real walk.

[5:19] Yeah. All these sounds and crackling and

[5:22] rustling and whispering and

[5:23] >> Well, hey, at least you wasn't waiting

[5:25] for MC Hammer TO COME.

[5:27] >> I WAS WAITING for MC Hammer TO COME GET

[5:29] ME.

[5:30] >> NO, I WASN'T waiting for MC Hammer to

[5:32] come get me.

[5:33] >> I was waiting for MC Hammer to come get

[5:35] me and marry me, divorce his wife, and

[5:38] help me get my kids out of foster home.

[5:41] Now, that's sad.

[5:42] >> Let's do You Are My You Are My Sunshine.

[5:45] Mo Armstrong takes the temperature of

[5:48] the hundreds of people in Massachusetts

[5:50] who are suffering from mental illness

[5:52] such as schizophrenia. Whether it be

[5:55] listening to the horror stories of the

[5:57] past,

[5:57] >> but the abuse was bad. They shave my

[6:00] hair out to the bones and they whipped

[6:03] me with hangers

[6:04] >> or complaints about certain personnel at

[6:07] a shelter.

[6:08] >> To have neglect of responsibility and

[6:10] when they when they make a mistake, they

[6:12] try to blame you for their actions. On

[6:14] his rounds, Mo sees what most Americans

[6:17] do not see. People with mental illness

[6:21] doing well.

[6:22] >> We're part of society. I mean, back

[6:24] what, 20, 25 years ago backwards, you

[6:27] know, sweating it out. But now we got

[6:30] life, we got society, we have members of

[6:32] our peers.

[6:33] >> But while progress is evident, the

[6:35] stigma of being mentally ill still cuts

[6:38] deep.

[6:38] >> As far as the public's view of mental

[6:40] illness, what you see on networks is the

[6:43] thing. What sells is the woman cuts her

[6:45] husband up and buries him in the

[6:47] basement. You know,

[6:49] >> Mo Armstrong goes out of his way to

[6:52] identify with them.

[6:54] >> Everybody who I met who's homeless has

[6:55] been mentally ill almost.

[6:57] >> They even the ones that don't have the

[6:59] diagnosis, they're still mentally ill.

[7:01] That's right.

[7:01] >> They look mentally ill to me. I look in

[7:03] their eyes and they look like me. Mo

[7:05] Armstrong ends his day teaching students

[7:08] at Boston University by focusing on one

[7:11] particular hardcore case. People with

[7:15] mental illness get higher than anybody

[7:18] else. All right, let me give you an

[7:20] example. Okay,

[7:23] there is one guy smoked an ounce of pot

[7:28] every month for like two or three years.

[7:32] took hallucinogen, okay, every day for a

[7:36] couple of years. Took two to three grams

[7:40] of cocaine

[7:42] every day for four years.

[7:45] Okay. Took magic mushrooms, you know,

[7:49] this the psilocybin stuff up in the

[7:51] teeth, you getting you really like

[7:53] loaded up in the front of the head, you

[7:55] know, did that while mixing it with the

[7:57] cocaine. Okay. and intermittently

[8:02] was drunk, famous for drinking a Court

[8:06] of Jack Daniels in a half hour and

[8:08] passing out in vomit.

[8:12] That was me, folks.

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[10:12] I think I just had a wakeup call

[10:16] and it was disguised as a car

[10:22] and it was screaming at me not to get

[10:23] too comfortable

[10:27] and fall asleep

[10:31] and miss my life.

[10:49] For most Americans, this is the face of

[10:52] schizophrenia.

[10:54] Ted Kazinski, the uni bomber, killed

[10:56] three and maimed 23 others. Russell

[11:00] Weston killed two Capitol Hill police

[11:02] officers last July. But this too is the

[11:06] face of schizophrenia. James Michael

[11:09] Armstrong, who calls himself Mo.

[11:13] >> Even though Mo is, I think, quite

[11:15] extraordinary, the examples that you

[11:18] drew on of people who have committed

[11:19] violent acts are also quite

[11:21] extraordinary. Tony Zipple is Mo's boss

[11:24] and believes that Mo is an exceptional

[11:27] schizophrenic. That is, most

[11:29] schizophrenics never recover as well as

[11:31] Mo. But then, neither do most commit the

[11:34] violence that makes the evening news.

[11:37] Welcome back.

[11:38] >> Schizophrenia is is a very disabling

[11:41] mental illness that doesn't have

[11:42] anything to do with split personality.

[11:45] It really is a disorder in which the

[11:47] person may well have hallucinations,

[11:50] delusions, and they hear things that

[11:52] aren't there. They develop very peculiar

[11:54] ideas, often paranoid ideas. If in the

[11:57] next few minutes you confuse Mo

[12:00] Armstrong with Forest Gump, you would be

[12:03] forgiven. He grew up in Kakok, Iowa. And

[12:06] after a bout with polio, he became an

[12:09] Eagle Scout, an allconerence high school

[12:12] football player,

[12:18] >> and a champion twister. In 1962, Mo

[12:22] became a Navy medic attached to the

[12:24] Marines third reconnaissance battalion

[12:26] in Vietnam. He was decorated for saving

[12:29] a marine while under heavy fire. But

[12:32] then the intense stress of combat

[12:35] triggered his schizophrenia

[12:37] >> and I was very terrified because it was

[12:40] like I had lost control. I wasn't able

[12:42] to stop crying. My life had just

[12:45] completely fallen apart.

[12:46] >> Mo received an honorable discharge from

[12:48] the Navy but soon became homeless,

[12:51] abused drugs and alcohol. He lived for

[12:55] years in a small hut in the mountains of

[12:57] New Mexico. Incredibly, he found his way

[13:00] into a successful rock band that had a

[13:03] hit song in Europe.

[13:09] >> But Mole fell down again, moved to South

[13:12] America, played in yet another band, and

[13:16] nearly died from a cocaine overdose.

[13:19] >> The first 10 years, I dipped out and

[13:21] used drugs and alcohol, you know, to

[13:23] kind of drown out this anxiety. Mo

[13:26] returned to the United States and stayed

[13:28] off drugs and alcohol for good.

[13:31] >> This is KALX

[13:33] in Berkeley. He tried to get into

[13:36] broadcasting but concluded that most

[13:37] stations were disinterested in a live DJ

[13:40] with a psychiatric condition. He went on

[13:43] to earn two bachelors and two master's

[13:46] degrees.

[13:48] >> Hey guys, how's it going? Hey Willie.

[13:52] Today, Mo Armstrong is director of

[13:54] consumer and family relations for the

[13:56] Vinfen Corporation, which runs mental

[13:59] health services for Eastern

[14:01] Massachusetts. He is also a member of

[14:03] the president's committee for the

[14:05] employment of people with disabilities.

[14:08] Mo sometimes talks about himself as the

[14:10] Forest Gump of mental health. You know,

[14:12] when you think about the movie or the

[14:14] book Forest Gump, it's it's this guy who

[14:16] is a little different, out of the

[14:18] ordinary, who has a disability, who goes

[14:20] through the most amazing series of

[14:22] adventures. You know, every little slice

[14:24] of his life is a new story and a new

[14:26] adventure that all culminates in him

[14:28] being quite an extraordinary person. In

[14:31] a moment, a conversation with Mo

[14:34] Armstrong.

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[15:09] >> Okay. The Hollywood Bowl. Okay. I go

[15:10] left on Labraa. Right. No left. Right.

[15:12] Exit at Kanga, south on the five, west

[15:14] on the 10. And when you see a massive

[15:16] sign, get off.

[15:17] >> Before you go here, go here. Whether

[15:20] locating an address or planning your

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[15:25] How does it feel to drive the luxurious

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[15:49] Now you know.

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[16:03] >> Before you go here, go here. Whether

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[16:11] >> Coming up, a bride, a groom, and home

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[16:14] >> People think teens have too much sex. If

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[17:35] This is Webster House in Brooklyn,

[17:38] Massachusetts. one of 200 so-called club

[17:41] houses across the country where the

[17:43] mentally ill can go for a meal, a game

[17:46] of pool, peer support, and help finding

[17:50] work.

[17:50] >> This clubhouse is extremely effective.

[17:53] What do you What do you do here? I mean,

[17:55] it's a it's a very cheerful place.

[17:57] That's a No, I mean, that's the first

[17:58] thing you notice about it. It really is.

[18:01] Uh

[18:04] >> well we first off we just try to be

[18:07] regular people with each other. Now that

[18:10] sounds kind of strange but you know most

[18:12] of us came out of a mental health system

[18:14] that was very

[18:16] um very formal. There were guys in white

[18:19] coats. You know this whole thing was way

[18:21] too formal. So you know now we have

[18:23] folks who are actually spending time uh

[18:25] in this particular program. But sad to

[18:28] say uh and there's not a great

[18:31] outpouring of psychiatrists or people at

[18:34] higher levels of mental health who do

[18:36] spend a lot of time in our clubhouse

[18:39] program. People come here once or twice

[18:41] a year.

[18:41] >> Let's take a particular case at the

[18:44] moment. This woman over here for

[18:45] example, Barbara.

[18:47] >> Barbara's been talking ever since she

[18:48] sat down. Right.

[18:49] >> Right.

[18:50] >> You know what?

[18:51] >> What Barbara?

[18:52] >> Then you asked, did you correct on your

[18:54] own?

[18:56] I'm Barbara, I'm going to be talking

[18:58] about you for a second now, and I don't

[19:00] mean to be rude, and if I say anything

[19:01] that you disagree with, you go right,

[19:03] you go right ahead and tell me.

[19:05] >> Barbara probably will, won't

[19:07] Barbara's, you know, Barbara is sitting

[19:10] over here, and Barbara has been talking,

[19:12] I think, to herself,

[19:14] >> right,

[19:14] >> the whole time that we've been talking,

[19:16] right?

[19:16] >> Everybody else has been sitting brave.

[19:18] What are you doing?

[19:20] >> What may happen? You know, going home,

[19:23] what may happen? But you know the

[19:25] reality is that Barbara and many of the

[19:28] Barbaras would be on the streets of

[19:30] America without a home and without a

[19:32] place to live and without a place to go

[19:34] to if we didn't have this and here I can

[19:37] guarantee you that everybody's life has

[19:39] improved dramatic has everybody's life

[19:41] improved here dramatically since we

[19:44] >> can

[19:46] so so so I mean the qu the question

[19:49] >> No mo I was asking I was asking a

[19:51] different kind of question

[19:52] >> question I was asking is all right. If I

[19:56] run into someone who is doing what

[19:58] Barbara is doing, how do I

[20:00] >> what I am?

[20:01] >> How do I respond? How

[20:03] >> you did it?

[20:05] >> Okay.

[20:05] >> You might be giving diialysis

[20:07] psychiatrist coming up yourself.

[20:10] >> You treated Barbara just like another

[20:12] human being.

[20:12] >> Okay. Now, Barbara, I don't know what

[20:14] this means. It says movie star radio

[20:17] woman. Is that you?

[20:18] >> Yeah. I'm I'm a movie star radio woman.

[20:21] >> Uhhuh.

[20:22] >> Okay. on the app and on radio.

[20:25] >> Uh-huh.

[20:26] >> Well, then we're in the same we're in

[20:27] the same business.

[20:29] >> Explain to me the difference here

[20:31] between someone who just has an

[20:34] unusually deep level of depression and

[20:37] someone who is psychotic.

[20:38] >> In my case with schizophrenia, hear

[20:40] stuff, see stuff, or think stuff. So,

[20:43] there's times that I hear these things,

[20:44] you know, which aren't there. this kind

[20:46] of rushing sound that kind of starts in

[20:49] a and then builds up from that.

[20:52] >> You know, uh well over a hundred years

[20:54] ago,

[20:56] >> Toro once said, "Most men,

[20:59] >> meaning most human beings,

[21:02] >> lead lives of quiet desperation."

[21:04] >> Mhm.

[21:05] >> Is the only difference between most

[21:08] people and those who are mentally ill

[21:11] the quiet part? as most people are able

[21:15] to keep their desperation in control and

[21:18] the mentally ill are not.

[21:20] >> It seems as though this is a

[21:23] neurobiological brain condition. So

[21:26] there tends to be a brain activation

[21:31] which takes place and causes this

[21:34] desperation to take place. Whereas in

[21:37] the past, I think people felt, well, if

[21:40] I could kind of like go off to the

[21:42] little house by Walden Pond, right, I

[21:45] might get my life together. And that

[21:47] works and that sometimes doesn't work.

[21:50] But for the vast majority of people,

[21:52] there needs to be some kind of mental

[21:53] health system which is engaging and gets

[21:56] people to the inside. So people do have

[21:58] this desperation. probably what would be

[22:01] different between mental illness and

[22:05] somebody who was just kind of worried

[22:08] would almost be the intensity. I meet a

[22:11] lot of people who carry on or have some

[22:13] kind of characteristics of mental

[22:16] illness but it's I don't know the old

[22:18] term used to be neurosis or something

[22:20] you know but it's pretty mild. I mean

[22:22] it's not out there hearing stuff

[22:24] whirling around my head and trying to

[22:26] like get myself home before I fall

[22:28] apart. But Mo, you're describing it

[22:30] almost as though it were a purely

[22:32] physical

[22:34] manifestation.

[22:35] >> We've never thought about that till

[22:37] recently. But it does seem as though

[22:40] with modern imaging that we're able to

[22:43] pick up more and more and more of this

[22:46] as a brain disorder, which we were never

[22:48] able to do before. I I didn't understand

[22:51] that that was the mental illness. And it

[22:54] it has to do, I believe, with a with a

[22:57] biological change that happened in my

[22:59] brain. We've never looked at

[23:03] major mental illness or that kind of

[23:06] over

[23:08] activity within the brain as directed.

[23:11] We've always tried to subdue it or or or

[23:13] stamp it out rather than coach people to

[23:17] live with mental illness.

[23:18] >> Let me make a statement.

[23:20] >> Sure. and see if to what degree you

[23:22] agree with it or disagree with it. A lot

[23:25] of people who are dangerous and violent

[23:30] are schizophrenics.

[23:32] But most schizophrenics are not

[23:35] dangerous or violent. that a lot of

[23:38] people who are dangerous um have there

[23:41] are many people who have schizophrenia

[23:44] who uh suffer to such an extent who

[23:48] never have recognized their own

[23:51] schizophrenia and are not in our mental

[23:54] health programs that they have exhibited

[23:58] dangerousness. The people who are in our

[24:00] mental health programs today I'm not so

[24:02] worried about. But you know, we've had,

[24:04] you know, a couple of high-profile cases

[24:06] of people with schizophrenia.

[24:08] >> Ted Kazinski.

[24:08] >> Ted Kazinski. Um, the guy Weston um

[24:12] didn't even know what hit them, you

[24:14] know. I mean, they had, you know, every

[24:17] uh symptom of of schizophrenia. You

[24:20] know, the kind of delusional stuff.

[24:21] Remember I said hear stuff, see stuff,

[24:23] think stuff. Had the delusional stuff.

[24:25] Never understood it. Never knew what hit

[24:27] them. And their families didn't know

[24:28] what hit them. Their families had never

[24:30] been educated. their families were

[24:32] completely out of the loop.

[24:33] >> But particularly in Kazinsk's case, for

[24:35] example, I mean, he was about as

[24:37] isolated as a man can make himself.

[24:39] >> He must have really been struggling to

[24:41] live with a lot of pain and we did not

[24:43] do a good job of outreach. He is a

[24:46] classic case of outreach failure. But

[24:49] look, I mean, Mo, when some guy goes off

[24:51] into the mountains or goes off into the

[24:53] woods and builds his own little house

[24:54] and is self-sufficient,

[24:56] it's it's hard for society to reach out

[25:00] to him when he has clearly put society

[25:02] behind him. We have then those are

[25:05] problems that we have. But in the case

[25:06] of major mental illness, it has broken

[25:08] my heart consistently that people who

[25:11] should be in a mental health program and

[25:14] understand their own mental illness are

[25:16] not. within the past year or uh you had

[25:20] to be taken off one of your major

[25:22] medications.

[25:23] >> Was a very great medication.

[25:25] >> It was causing you what?

[25:26] >> Back pain.

[25:27] >> Back pain.

[25:28] >> I have serious back pain.

[25:29] >> And without that medication, you had you

[25:32] had a relapse. my life became um where I

[25:36] was totally disassociated, you know,

[25:38] because when I start seeing stuff and

[25:41] not that I'm seeing that with you right

[25:42] now, Ted, there's this luminescence that

[25:45] kind of takes place in people's faces

[25:47] and kind of a a weird kind of

[25:50] magnification and I feel like I'm kind

[25:52] of out of my body. Taking the benadryil

[25:55] and the GABA,

[25:58] >> Mo Armstrong found a way out. He

[26:00] carefully chose over-the-counter

[26:02] medications and combined them with a

[26:04] strict regimen of sleep and meditation.

[26:08] >> The hope is that someday we would

[26:11] actually be able to go out and talk more

[26:12] and more about our own struggles. Think

[26:14] how many years I had to hide that in my

[26:17] own life. Think how my own mother and

[26:19] father never understood that. You know,

[26:21] think how ashamed they were for all

[26:23] those years. And that's a that's a lot

[26:25] of burden. I sometimes think that it's

[26:28] harder, you know, to live with the

[26:30] misunderstandings and the prejudices of

[26:33] society than it has been to even live

[26:35] with the mental illness.

[26:38] I'll be back with a word about how you

[26:40] can talk to Mo in a moment.

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[28:50] >> Yeah. Give me a medium pepperoni. Mhm.

[28:53] >> Oh, hold on.

[28:54] >> What if you had caller ID?

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[28:59] >> Yeah, bring the kids. Hi. Make that uh

[29:02] two large pepperonis. Oh, wait a second.

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[29:18] >> No wonder life's better here.

[29:23] Immediately following this broadcast,

[29:25] viewers in the Eastern and Central time

[29:27] zones will be able to join Mo Armstrong

[29:29] in a live online chat. Log on to

[29:32] abcnews.com,

[29:34] part of the Go Network. That's our

[29:37] report for tonight. I'm Ted Coffel in

[29:39] Washington. For all of us here at ABC

[29:41] News, good night.

[29:45] If you'd like a transcript or video

[29:47] cassette of this or any other edition of

[29:50] Night Line, please dial 1800 Call ABC.

[30:04] Night Line has been a presentation of

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[30:08] from ABC News than from any other

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