Wrestling Superman

I volunteer at a soup kitchen that attracts a lot of different kind of people. Some of the hardest to reach out to are those with mental illness. One of my friends has drug-induced schizophrenia. This means that when he goes out on a crack binge, he is likely to have severe hallucinations and delusions. My friends’ major delusion is that he believes he is Superman. One Saturday it was the worst I had ever seen. He was really erratic and confused. He called himself Kal-el, which is Superman’s name on the planet Krypton. He was weaving through traffic downtown, calling on the powers of the sun, and had a wild look in his eyes.
Not really knowing what to do my friend called the police. We trailed him from afar, watching out for him and communicating back to the police. One police officer shows up, tries to communicate with Johnny, realising quickly Johnny is completely out of it, the officer tries to put the cuffs on. One thing about Johnny is that while not tuff, he is very strong.

At this time I am across the street watching the whole thing go down. The officer radios for help but none is coming. Instinctually (I spent 4 years bouncing at a bar in town) I run over to help. What many people don’t realise is that the cops have escalation techniques that they are allowed to use. If he doesn’t comply I am allowed to do this, if that doesn’t work I can use my baton, pepper spray, Taser etc. I could see in the officer’s face that he was going through that process; there was also a lot of fear in his look. Running over I announced
                        “Officer Officer! He’s a friend! He’s a friend! Schizophrenia, Schizophrenia!”

He immediately relaxed and I helped him wrestle Johnny to the ground. Johnny’s eyes were wild and he had a crazed look on his face. He recognised me but was unable to fight through the haze in his mind. Now I am a big guy and the officer was no slouch either but it took us ten minutes to turn him on his front and cuff him. Afterward all of us took a break and were completely out of breath.

In all of this we did not strike him in any way, did not have to use a baton, pepper spray, or a Taser on him. I have seen officers do much worse with people more sane than Johnny. I believe God had me there for a reason. I believe that if I weren’t there my friend would have suffered serious harm.

It got me thinking about mental illness. Lots of people believe that mental illness is caused by demons and I must admit that thought was going through my head as I was face to face with Johnny, saw his eyes, his demeanour. I definitely believe that there is a spirit behind mental illness. Just be careful if you decide to tell them they have a demon, trust me they know more abut demons then we could ever know.

By the way.. I just call him johnny because I don't want to use his real name and Johnny is the farthest thing from Superman that I could think of.