11/7/2023 0 Comments Did i have a psychotic break![]() I looked around at my surroundings and thought, “Wow, all these homeless people and passers-by are extras in my TV show!” When a man I thought was Daniel Day-Lewis showed up following my dog-run invasion, I was ecstatic. ![]() It came to a head that beautiful fall day, when I left my apartment and jogged through Tompkins Square Park. Unknown to me - a guy who somehow thought Larry David had nothing on him as a comedian - my life was already starting to spin out of control. I felt invincible and full of myself, a telltale symptom of the disorder I had no idea was brewing. I sincerely believed that I was the star of my own reality TV series and that cameras were following my every move.īut all was not well. On a maximum of four hours of sleep per night - sometimes none - I scrawled a creative manifesto on the walls of my East Village apartment in red Sharpie and paid a professional photographer to take pictures of the writings. My goal was to create a half-scripted, half-improvised TV show, the likes of which the world had never seen. We had rented out a studio in Union Square and held a casting call. I’d done a few gigs and had plans with a producer friend to film a pilot for a television series starring my comic alter-ego, Myles, complete with a distinctive Mohawk haircut and handlebar mustache. I’d say my problems started during the summer of 2009, when I was juggling my demanding legal job with ambitions to become a stand-up comedian. The psychotic break was one of three I would suffer as a result of bipolar disorder over 2½ years. I’d often represented mentally ill people in court. I was 26 and a first-year public defender working for Legal Aid in Brooklyn. In that moment, I sincerely believed that I was the star of my own reality TV series and that cameras were following my every move, like I was Jim Carrey’s character in “ The Truman Show.” The policeman couldn’t possibly have known that his humor fueled my delusions. That was me in the midst of my first psychotic break. McDermott wrote his memoir to fight the stigma of mental illness. “I can’t wait.” The way I see it, there’s a good chance either Jay-Z or Kanye West will be there. In my disordered mental state, I believe him. “No, there’s a costume party later,” he says. ![]() 29, 2009 - a cold day - but I am barefoot and shirtless, wearing just a pair of Adidas soccer shorts. I’m crying on the L train subway platform, my hands clasped behind my head like a captured soldier, as two NYPD officers confront me. The now-34-year-old author of the book “ Gorilla and the Bird: A Memoir of Madness and a Mother’s Love” (Little, Brown and Co., out Tuesday), tells The Post’s Jane Ridley about living with bipolar disorder and his journey to better health. In a psychotic break, he dropped to all fours in the dog run, exposed his buttocks and encountered someone he imagined was Daniel Day-Lewis on the basketball courts. One sunny afternoon eight years ago, lawyer Zack McDermott sprinted through Manhattan’s Tompkins Square Park, convinced he was being filmed for his own TV show. 'Jeen-yuhs': Kanye West battles bipolar disorder, suicidal urges and addictionĪlvin Ailey doc: How a poor kid from Texas became a modern dance legendīebe Rexha: 'I'm a little f-ked up' - but making 'Better Mistakes' 'General Hospital' star dishes on his soap opera supercouples
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |