The Gaslit Truth

How Joey Marino's Life was Terminated by Overmedication: A Journey of Trust, Trials, and Tragedy

• Dr. Teralyn & Therapist Jenn • Season 1 • Episode 21

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How far would you go to understand the true impact of psychiatric medication on a loved one's life? On this heart-wrenching episode of the Gaslit Truth Podcast, we share the poignant story of Joey Marino, an actor cherished for his role on the TV show ER. Carley, Joey's close friend and advocate, joins us to recount Joey's arduous journey through anxiety, the aftermath of his father’s sudden death, and the perilous path of overmedication that worsened his condition. We uncover the eerie similarities between Joey's fate and that of basketball legend Pistol Pete Maravich, adding a haunting layer to this narrative.

Imagine facing severe neurological disorders and not knowing whom to trust. We walk you through Joey's trials with dystonia, akathisia, and tardive dyskinesia, highlighting his struggle to place his faith in healthcare providers. Through Joey’s story, we emphasize the importance of looking beyond visible symptoms to truly understand the person behind the suffering, challenging societal stigmas along the way.

Consent isn't just a formality—it's a lifeline. Carly spotlights the grave oversight in psychiatric care wh

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Dr. Teralyn:

Therapist Jenn:





Speaker 1:

Welcome back to another episode of the Gaslit Truth Podcast. We are so glad you're here. Make sure, before we get started, you like and follow and share and comment on all of our social media platforms and where you listen to the Gaslit Truth. You can also send us an email at thegaslittruthpodcast at gmailcom. With that, I'm going to issue a trigger warning on this one today, which I try not to do as much as possible, but this story that we're about to talk about is very tough to discuss and also very hard to hear and see.

Speaker 1:

So if you are listening to this episode, you might want to take a trip over to YouTube, because we're going to be sharing some videos and photos along the way. So I'd like for you guys to get the full picture there, so you may have seen this on particularly. I think TikTok is where I see it mostly, but that's just because that's the platform I'm on mostly. But this is the Joey Marino story and we have Carly here, which is a friend of Joey Marino, and for those of you who don't know who Joey Marino is, he was an actor, and most notably in the show ER, correct? Did I get that right?

Speaker 1:

Okay, there's way more to Joey than this, but that's. I think those are the biggest headlines. And yeah, and he has. He has a story about psychiatric medication and what I call polypharmacy and I think they're calling it polydrugging. You'll hear him say that Multiple pharmaceutical use psychiatric particularly that eventually ended his life. So that's going to be the story that we are discussing today. So I'd like to give a nice, warm welcome to his friend Carly.

Speaker 3:

Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Thanks for coming, Carly.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for being here. This is going to be a tough one, because I think it was yesterday, maybe the day before, I went down the Joey Marino rabbit hole on YouTube actually, and I found myself kind of paralyzed watching, like literally like I had I had trouble forming words around it, I had trouble watching it. I just I was just kind of lost in my thoughts about the whole thing, and the other thing that I kept thinking about was all the other people that have gone through something like he has that don't get the chance to have a voice in this. So I feel like in telling his story, we're also giving a voice to so many. So, yeah, so let's get started with a little backstory on who you are, carly, and what's your connection with Joey.

Speaker 3:

So I started at Page4ER six years ago and Joey was one of a few people that joined and followed and stuff. And for the first four years we kind of just talked a little bit and I'll say, hey, do you want to do this interview, do you want to do this and that? And the answer would always be no, and so I did nothing of it, like okay, maybe he doesn't care or something. But now he did care, but he just couldn't do it. And so when he went to the Mississippi State Hospital, and that's when I knew he was probably drugged, and that's when I knew all what was going on, and when he had gotten out in March of 2022, that's when he and I talked on the phone and I said, you could have just told me like I would have helped you, I would have done something. I'm like, yeah, I know, but I'm telling everyone now.

Speaker 1:

So the interesting story to me is that he literally slid into your DMs. Essentially right Like he like slid into your DMs. Right and you're like what is going on here?

Speaker 3:

Wait a minute.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, did he ever talk about why he did that? Was that? Did he ever mention, like, why, why he picked you, like why he picked this as his route?

Speaker 3:

You mean for, like why he was on medication or why no?

Speaker 1:

why he reached out to you in the first place.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, oh because so a person that he and I knew that we could talk to, that she had done a GoFundMe and that's how I knew. So I started promoting the GoFundMe and I was like, hey, I want to help you and do this, let me do this with you guys.

Speaker 1:

And that's how I started getting connected more with you guys, and that's how I started getting connected more okay, all right, that's interesting because we're like, how in the world did you know this has happened?

Speaker 3:

and then suddenly you know you're just this person who now is kind of the speaker for him, right yeah, I was just a bystander, like I just want to help, and all of a sudden, like you know, yeah, so Would you mind sharing a little bit of his story that you know, a little bit of his backstory and how this all?

Speaker 1:

when you found out what was going on, what else did you learn?

Speaker 3:

Well, he was born and raised in New Orleans, louisiana, and he always kind of had anxiety. He had a lot of different things go on in his life and you know I was told that he would feel anxious a lot of times and his dad had a massive heart attack at 44 or somewhere in that area and, um, he always been like a health knight and he got extremely anxiety over it because he didn't know if he was going to be the next one to get that heart attack or not. And so you know he loved basketball, he loved theater, he was with the new orleans jazz, with Pistol Pete Miravich for a little bit. It's funny I just have to say so.

Speaker 1:

I read the story that's listed in Mad in America and I was reading it out loud to my husband and I said New Orleans, jazz, pistol. And he goes, pistol Pete. Like right immediately Pistol Pete.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, you know what's kind of scary. And I realized a few months after Joey had died and I'll go back to that story. So Pistol Pete died in January, about January 5th around there somewhere like that in 1981 or whenever that was and stuff and Joey died January 14th and he was his true hero. So the fact that he passed the same month as him was really bizarre for me. I was like wait a minute.

Speaker 1:

I think when you start putting things together it's a little bit mind-blowing. You know, like all this stuff, like yes.

Speaker 3:

And I'm known for that. I'll put every little thing together and people go. Really, I'm like yes, really, yes, yes, make them funny, like yes really, yes, yes, it makes them funny, it does, why not?

Speaker 1:

Yes. So go ahead.

Speaker 3:

And so he did that for a few years. And then 1994-ish, 95-ish, he worked on a movie with Anthony Edwards, delta Heat. And he did that in New Orleans and that was his ticket to come to LA. And so he drove to Burbank to Warner Brothers and he started doing Yard. And he did that from season four to season eight. So when he left the show he was the background orderly and then he went off to some other shows and stuff like that. And so when Anthony left the show he was just.

Speaker 3:

You know, a lot of people have told me he always had like anxiety, he always liked being in his own little circle and he didn't want to like go travel for filming, he'd like been on the site. And so when all that was done he got to a doctor that was a family member that helped him and he got chosen for the first medication and had a reaction and felt suicidal. And he never felt suicidal at all until he got on that and he developed akathisia. And then from there he developed like other systems and stuff and got like tons of medications. He was on 30 to 32 different medications in a 10-year span.

Speaker 1:

I want to just kind of slow down for one second, because the first medication you mentioned was Prozac, which is a very commonly prescribed medication for many people, and he had almost an immediate reaction of suicidality to that which I also feel like is common. It's common, unfortunately very common, that this happens, but we don't talk about it again. And then, when she mentioned Carly mentioned akathisia. I just want to discuss what that is a little bit here. Maybe Jen and I can help with that discussion, because akathisia is also a term that we don't discuss or have a name to it. It seems like a very medical term. But go ahead, jen, do you have some thoughts on it?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, no, I was just going to say there, there is a video that that is is up here and Joey discusses and he tries to describe actually what that is. Um, and I I've got a couple here that I'm going to show. That one's not up at my fingertips right now, but the idea of he talks about that internal restlessness, right, which is something I've recently went through as well. Eternal restlessness, right, which is something I've recently went through as well. So, when I'm watching, when I was watching some of these videos, um, the uh, like it's very hard as somebody who's I'm going through this right now too, um, I was having a really hard time, carly, watching some of the videos that were out there.

Speaker 2:

Um, and I think part of the reason why was because I've sat in these spaces that he has and I can actually understand what that internal state of restlessness feels like and that you have to just move and you can't sit still and it's so terrible that you feel this overshadowing sense of doom and it's as though this is not going to go away.

Speaker 2:

And for someone who has never been suicidal, similar to him myself right, when you're in that state, you start to contemplate how to make it disappear and what are the things that you can do to make that internal sense of doom and restlessness disappear? And I had a very strong reaction to watching the videos because I can sit in this with him. So essentially, it's hard to describe. Akathisia is a very subjective thing and when you start to look it up and read about it on in books, right Like people's description of it is different across people. But, um, that was the one thing that I think is very common amongst it is just an internal state of restlessness and you feel like you are out of control. You do feel like you do not have control over anything and then it leads to some paranoia and it leads to these thoughts that people would say, well, you must be psychotic then.

Speaker 1:

Which then leads to polypharmacy, right? So suddenly you're suicidal and you're telling people this is how I feel. I feel this anxiousness, this restlessness. I can't sleep.

Speaker 2:

I feel this anxiousness, this restlessness. I can't sleep. It's hard to describe Clearly.

Speaker 1:

you're either on the wrong dose, the wrong med, or you need more right. And that set the stage for 30-some meds in 10 years is what you said.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and on the website I named every single medication he was on and each doses that they did, you know, and he would tell me I was on the lowest dose of Cerebral and I got a hold of his medical stuff. I said, Joey, no, you weren't. He's like what do you mean? I'm like you were on 100 milligrams, 50 milligrams, then 25. He's like what I'm like, yeah, so you didn't know what was going on. Then I was like what I'm like, yeah, so you didn't know what was going on.

Speaker 2:

Then, Like what you know, I was like dumbfounded how he didn't know that, disconnected even from what he really was given or it wasn't given Wasn't disclosed. Wasn't disclosed to him either is possibly kind of a question too. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Do you think that he at at that point trusted his care providers or do you think that at that point he was starting to question some things?

Speaker 3:

He was willing to trust his brother. He went with his brother for the first five years or something like that, and you know they had their times, you know up and down what siblings do and stuff. And then the person that he had known from the er days came in and that was like a whole different feeling for him and you know he trusted me more and just kind of felt more secure with me. And so when I took over last year I actually noticed a huge difference in him really. He, you know, still had an akathisia and a dyskinesia and everything, but he had like more calmer days a little bit and more able to sit up and stuff. So it was kind of like with a weird difference, how all that kind of portrayed. And in the 2015-ish area he had a friend that was supposed to be an advocate too and he felt betrayed in some ways by him. So he kind of felt like he couldn't fully trust people.

Speaker 2:

Up until when I took over, yeah, and throughout this story too, carly, something that strikes me as obvious on the back end but clearly was not happening on the front end is when you're struggling with dystonia and akathisia and tardive dyskinesia and all of the heart of dyskinesia and all of the the the list of symptomologies that he had. Right, like, I think, about the idea of um, how to understand what's happening to you but to be able to also make choices. Um, given what, what is happening in the storm in your brain, and he there's a couple videos of him talking about the storms that he gets right and like we can see in these videos, in these videos which we're going to show, some of them right, like the physical manifestations and even like the neurological, cognitive impairments that are occurring. Right, but how is it that? It really blows my mind? Because at a certain point, you have to put trust in other people, because you don't have the capacity to fully understand and really comprehend all of it, right, so you put your trust in other people.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

I also want to say that. So the stuff that he is going through, the dystonia, the akathisia, the tardive dyskinesia, you know this is I'm not even sure how to put words to this you know this is I'm not even sure how to put words to this. When you see somebody going through that, I think we have this automatic idea that they are incompetent humans now, um, because their their body movements aren't their own anymore. So we, we tend to override, um, what they want, or think they have no idea what they want, because now they're literally look feeble, you know, or infirm. I had mentioned this to Jen because there was a particular, a couple of videos she's going to show and you could see the tardive dyskinesia and that's the involuntary muscle movements, but often it's facial things like tongue and mouth and neck and all of that.

Speaker 1:

And when I worked in the prison system there was a guy there that I that had that Um and he he was, he looked just like Joey. I mean I could see the whole thing was replaying in my brain and I remember I had never seen that before. And if you do see it, it's, it's alarming, like, because it's so over the top for some people, for other people it's not. It's more like a small lip or jutting of the tongue. You know, in and out it's still alarming. Whenever I see it now I'm like go to the doctor, this is not okay, like you need to not know this is going to get worse or stick around forever, you know. But I I clearly remember people dismissing this guy, dismissing him as a human because of the TARDIS, dyskinesia, and I feel like I'm wondering if that's what Joey went through as well.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And.

Speaker 2:

I'm, yeah, I it's and I'm this, actually, if it's okay, if I play a video here, there's one that is on Joey Marino, storycom, which is where the videos and the photos that I had just shown and I'll bring up where that is coming from he has a. There's a video out there that is entitled, being labeled, something that you're not, and I think that that's very imperative for kind of what we're talking about here. So I'm going to bring it up and see if I can, if I can get this to do what I would like for it to do. If you're, if you're all right with me bringing this up, carly, and I'm going to, I'm going to share my screen here so that people can can see just a piece of of what this, what this looks like, and it's. It's not going to be super slick here and I'm trying my best to just make it happen here we go, all right, all right. So here's our video we're going to watch here. I can get it to pop up for me.

Speaker 1:

I can't hear it. Do you have?

Speaker 2:

audio on it. It's not bringing the audio through here.

Speaker 1:

I mean I can hear it, I think through your. If you can put your it, do you have audio on it? It's not bringing the audio through here. I mean I can hear it, I think, through your.

Speaker 2:

If you can put your microphone. Yeah, it's coming through my computer. It's not going to shoot. All right, I will. I will pause that right now. I'll see if I can bring it back up and get the audio, because I would like the audio to be coming through here and it's not. But it's Joey describing people, saying that he is crazy and labeling him things that he is not.

Speaker 1:

But you can see, you can see in the video, if you're watching it now, the facial movements that he's also experiencing and he's trying, as he's talking, trying to cover it up. You can tell like he's just trying to talk through it or move through it. It kind of reminds me of Michael J Fox with this Parkinson's. You know, it reminds me a lot of that. Those movements.

Speaker 3:

He was obsessed with Michael J Fox.

Speaker 2:

Oh was he.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, he was. He was obsessed with Michael.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I, uh, I'm going to. I'll play in the background here and see if I can see this, get this to come up here. So I'm going to.

Speaker 1:

I'll pause it and I'll let you guys keep going with your conversation.

Speaker 2:

It would be great if I could get this to pop here.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so I did find um, he had written into Mad in America in 2021 and I didn't know that Cause I saw your article that was recently published in Madden America and everybody should go read it because it's very compelling. But I think he wrote like a little some type of poetry or something is all I can do, so I'm going to read that out loud because I think it does a pretty good job. It's called Bedridden by Joey Marino.

Speaker 1:

I can remember certain feelings, but I can't feel very well. I can't hold someone's, but I can't feel very well. I can't hold someone's hand because my hands overgrip, they squeeze very hard, they open and close rapidly and flail around until they stop. My skin cannot be touched, even through my clothes, because it is excruciatingly painful and oversensitive. All my muscles and bones pull in every direction in constant contraction. As soon as I initiate a movement, a whole cascade of jerks and flailing moments ensue until it stops and stiffens again. For the first time in my life, people are scared of me and that last statement that he had was like. That gives me a little choked up, because I'm like people were afraid of him because of the movements and how he presented, because of psychiatric medication harm and that is right before he went to the Mississippi hospital and did that like days before he left.

Speaker 1:

Okay. So, yeah, this was published December of 2021. So, and that was before you came around, too right, like you knew him then, but you weren't with him then, yeah, so I, you know, talk a little bit more, because my biggest curiosity with him is in these later videos and things like was he okay? So this is the part that I'm trying to trying to connect. Was he off all of the psychiatric medications at the times of most of these videos, or what time was? Was he ever off of them, or did he ever successfully taper?

Speaker 3:

well, I know that he tapered in 2020, and I actually have a notebook he wrote. He was on Valium and kind of did a little bit of history of what was going on each day and stuff, and so he was tapering and then went to the hospital and he was pulled turkey off of it, they pulled him off of everything, and he was pulled off of it, they pulled him off of everything. And so when he moved to Los Angeles, he was off of everything for like a month.

Speaker 1:

And then he had to get out of band and volume again. So because of the harm he was never fully completely off anything then too right, because they couldn't successfully taper him.

Speaker 3:

No, in like October of last year too, he started to taper, and he was on Klonopin, trihephrodol and Carbazepine for March through December of this last year, and so when he was tapering, he wanted to do it by himself. He didn't want no doctor's help. He didn't trust anyone anymore.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, he was just like full on worried about it. And I was worried about it because you know, I'm 400 miles away, I can't just go down the street and get him something's going on. So he started doing that and started going a little too fast and got too ambitious with it and started having more problems.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's what I was curious about if he ever actually successfully got off and that's the scarier part, because he was then turned into a forever consumer because he couldn't ever successfully get off or I guess his symptomology would get worse, right.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I mean he wanted to get off of it, he wanted to go life back, he wanted to go back on the site and work out in the gym and do all this stuff without being in so much pain. But he just couldn't get to that point.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and so he was. How was he perceived by other people? Was he perceived as someone who was suffering or something else?

Speaker 3:

It was kind of both. You know, you had some people that believed him and helped him. Now you have other people that faced it. Then later on, when they get their way in certain stuff, they say, oh, he was just faking it. But you know, you can't fake this stuff. There's no way, you know.

Speaker 1:

When you saw him, when you were able to lay your eyes on him because your relationship that you had with him was over the phone and things for quite a while, right yeah, when you were actually to physically see him. What was your first initial thoughts about that?

Speaker 3:

Well, because I was going to Burbank that's where he was living at the time and he would actually lay in bed. He couldn't really get up. He was having like a really hard day. But as soon as he saw me he got up and was like I want to give you a hug. And we hugged. It was sad, but I was happy to see him Happy. He was okay at the time, difficult, but really good at the same time.

Speaker 1:

How did you get to the point where he was the one, like you're, the one that I want my story to be shared with. How did you get to be in that position with him?

Speaker 3:

For the two years he and I got real close. We talked every single day, we talked multiple times a day, texting this and that. When it was just me, him and a different friend of ours, we really went at it and talked and stuff, and I was the one that paid his phone bill for him, I was the one that helped pay the rent for him and all this stuff, and so he knew I had good intentions. My heart was pure.

Speaker 3:

And it was pure since day one me helping him. I've never changed the money part Never came to my mind.

Speaker 1:

I said if you want me to have it I will, otherwise I'm okay, you know, yeah, so cause I feel like that that's such an interesting part of the story is that when someone finds somebody to share their story and says, like it's like handing over themselves to you.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and so what? What do you think the actual story is that he wants people to know? You know, I mean his story is is terrible, I mean the whole thing is, is is a travesty of the psychiatric care in the United States. But what do you think he really wanted people to know? Like, what is the actual story that he wanted you to tell?

Speaker 3:

Just to kind of be more aware, just be more up-to-date, be your own advocate and just look up the side effects. He was told don't look up the side effects because you're going to be liable to get them. And so he listened to a certain person that had said that, and so, you know, he Googled it, he joined Facebook group pages, he joined BenzoBuddiesorg, one of those two, and he, you know, was his own advocate of that way. He didn't want to be on any of this, he wanted to be out of all of it.

Speaker 1:

You know it's funny, because I popped on a Facebook a TikTok live with you a couple of days ago and I was in my jammies. I was so thankful that the video didn't come on. I'm like, oh my gosh, my husband actually came in later and he goes you didn't go on a live, looking like that, did you? And I said no For sure, hold on, my mic is having problems again.

Speaker 1:

So you had said on there that somebody had told him don't look up the side effects because then you're likely to have to experience them. And I think that that to me, if somebody were to say don't look up the side effects because you're likely to have them, I'd be like then I'm not taking this, because to me that's the warning shot of warning shots, right, like, don't do this. And I find it very fascinating that someone would say that and say because, basically, if you see a side effect, that means you're going to manifest that side effect. And I'm like, or you just have informed consent, which means if you suddenly start feeling a certain way, it is likely a side effect rather than a psychological manifestation of there's Jen, she's back, she left us for a hot second.

Speaker 2:

I'm going to call difficulties here.

Speaker 1:

That's okay, that's all right. So we were talking about. He was told from, I think, a family member, something to this was the Prozac, I believe. Right, we were talking about the. He was told from, I think, a family member or something to this was the Prozac, I believe. Right, we were talking about the Prozac. Don't look up the side effects, because if you look up and see the side effects, then you're likely to experience the side effects.

Speaker 1:

And I'm like, yeah, and so what do you think about that, Jen? If someone were to tell you don't look it up?

Speaker 2:

So I saw that and some of the information that was out there and I can tell you I had somebody very close to me recently who had a parent who was told that same thing. This was just within the last few weeks, right From a psychiatric prescriber. Don't look up the side effects of that anti-anxiety medication, because it's just going to give you more anxiety we're putting it where this is why we're giving it to you.

Speaker 2:

Right, don't look up that. And it makes me really fucking sick, actually, like for somebody in a position to, because here's the deal, that's because you know those side effects. So you, actually, it's like there's a difference and I don't want to get down a rabbit hole here. But for a prescriber or a provider who doesn't understand a harm that can come whether it's lack of education, understanding, right, like to say that to somebody resonates with me differently than a prescriber who actually knows these are the side effects, this is what will happen to you, and tells you to ignore it. Those, to me, are two very different scenarios. So here you had somebody who actually was saying to Joey or somebody close to Joey, just don't look it up, because that'll happen to you, because they have an understanding of the idea that it does happen.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, and I understood why he didn't look it up. I understood that he was desperate, he wanted to feel better, he wanted to be okay. So I don't want to judge him on that, but you know just the fact that this person would say that.

Speaker 1:

Well, I will say this isn't judgment on a consumer, on Joy, right? Because when we are consumers and we go to the doctor, we are in a place that is like please help me, I need help, I need to figure this out. You put trust into somebody, Right, because you're in that space. But that is even a bigger space to apply informed consent, in my opinion. Right, that doesn't mean you are so desperate that you don't get informed consent because you cannot consent when you're in that place. Get informed consent because you cannot consent when you're in that place, unless you are court ordered. You can consent to your life and you can consent to your own care. So if a provider were to say that, well, I was just desperate, I would take anything To me. That's a red flag for somebody who really needs to slow down and get informed consent, right, because they are literally willing to do anything to help make the stop. That doesn't mean and I know this wasn't a provider that said that, but that doesn't mean that your provider still can't give you informed consent. But I also then partner that with okay. So a family member said don't look this up. The provider should have told him anyway, like as part of their informed consent process. It's not on the consumer to look things up, it's on the provider to give legal informed consent. Yeah, like so he, he should have gotten that and he didn't.

Speaker 1:

And that, to me, is one of the first failures. Now he he could have gotten informed consent in the doctor's office and they said hey, just so, you know, you could feel suicidal and have akathisia immediately, and then he would have had to make that decision and he still could have said okay, I don't care, I want it. You know you can still do that. But it doesn't sound like, from what we know and this is speculation that he even had the opportunity to have that conversation, you know. Or if a doctor would have said you could get akathisia, I would have been like what is that, you know? Or if a doctor would have said you could get akathisia, I would have been like what is that? I have no idea what that is, you know, but I've never heard a doctor tell anybody you can get akathisia from anything. I've never. The word doesn't come out of anyone's mouth. It's weird.

Speaker 2:

You know yeah, it's not I mean and even as a consumer right For 20 some years on a psychiatric medication, up until about a year and a half ago, I'd never heard of that word. I didn't even know what it was until. I started to titrate and learned what that was right.

Speaker 1:

A hard way.

Speaker 2:

She learned the hard way, I mean the same way that even Joey and other people who are out there that have been harmed by psychiatric medications. You don't know it, you don't always know what it is, and then when you experience it, you start to get curious and you go this just can't be.

Speaker 2:

It can't just be that I take a medication or I come down off of a medication and this happens. Nobody told me about this. What is it? There's a video that Joey has up that was put up for him. It's labeled tardive dyskinesia has up that was put up for him. It's labeled Tardive Dyskinesia, dystonia and Akathisia and in this video, joe is laying in what appears to be like his bed and he is describing to the world what was happening to him at the time during this. And I've got it up here and I'm going to see, I'm going to play it and I'm going to see what we can get out of it. Joey, I know why are you like this Seroquel.

Speaker 4:

Is said to be the main culprit by my Neurologist, which I am tired of just getting hit it's helpful. Dystonia, Tardivacathesia All because of I don't just give you a hip, I tell them all. Dystonia, tardivacobesia all because of Seroquel given to me off-label sleep.

Speaker 5:

Seroquel is FDA-approved only for schizophrenic and bipolar people. It is not FDA-appro approved for you and I. This is given off label to us for sleep and anxiety and the scariest part is Seroquel is given to children. Children are being given Seroquel children for anxiety and sleep.

Speaker 2:

All right, so I'll pull that down off here.

Speaker 1:

Oops, I can still hear it Jen.

Speaker 3:

All right. The children in our country are being destroyed by the seraphim.

Speaker 1:

There you go that. When you see that now, Carly, what do you think? It's difficult.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

And it was that, was that the joy that you knew?

Speaker 3:

Yes, 100%.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so we have a question like who was doing all that recording?

Speaker 3:

It was a person that he knew from the er days. She picked him up and brought him to the last window to get some treatment and stuff, and that's who was doing all the talking.

Speaker 1:

Fine, okay yeah, the saraquel, like when she said and this is being prescribed to our children for sleep. Um, that hit hard for me because I know a lot of kids who are prescribed Seroquel for sleep, hardcore psych meds or even ADHD meds, who still have lots of behaviors or ticking or whatever, are really just experiencing akathisia or even a part of tardive dyskinesia as a child, because it is hard for an adult to explain what's happening to them, you know. So a child can't explain that for sure. So a child will act that out behaviorally, you know instead. So these videos, however triggering they are to people, I think are probably one of the most important things that people can see. Yeah, because his symptomology was so visual, yeah, you know, so visual. And I also know there's going to be groups of people out there going well, that didn't happen to me, that didn't happen to me. And I'm thinking that didn't happen to you at that level, that didn't happen to you at that level. Right, it happens to people. It's, it's like a spectrum, you know, yeah, and be glad that it didn't.

Speaker 1:

And I think there was one video that they he mentioned that it was between, did you say, 30 and 40% of people end up with on Seroquel. Was it akathisia or tardive dyskinesia? I can't remember which one, or combination of the two things? Yeah, and I looked it up. I looked up the research and it was accurate. It was 25 to 40% of people. One in four, I believe, is what it said. One in four, something like that. I'm like one in four, yeah, and be prescribed a medication. They said one in four people will experience something like this and show the video of Joy. Would you take that?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and I actually had some people say they show it to the doctor and say, oh, that's based on he's just acting, or you know.

Speaker 1:

Or he's a one-off, he's an outlier. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

That's not a normal response. He's the exception. Yeah, he's the exception to the rule. It doesn't happen to people this way. Yes, yes.

Speaker 1:

Yes, and I'm like again, if you show this to people and that's what your doctor says, that would I would be the consumer that would walk out the door. Like I would be the consumer that would walk out the door. Like there's no way. Like if a doctor dismisses something like that as being incomprehensible when the actual research said up to 40% of people will experience something on this line, you know, and they're just dismissing it and still wanting you to try it, without taking a step back and being like really, or I think there was another video that Joey said to like about the Seroquel If you were to tell your prescriber or doctor or whatever that about this and they're still trying to sell it to you, like to take it?

Speaker 1:

Or to take more, drop it in their drink and see if they'll drink it. The doctor, you know, and I was like, and he said he goes, you'll see the doctor go. Oh, no, no, no, no, thank you, you know, and I was like that is powerful. So if, if I were to drop this in your drink, doctor, would you drink it? The answer would likely be no. Yeah, you know, but they'll probably say because I don't need it. You know what I mean and I'm like, hmm, but there's so many.

Speaker 3:

That's actually something the doctor did tell him too. Like one the neurologist in Los Angeles was like so loud and yelling, I don't need it, I didn't need it, and like breaking out over this terrible stuff and it's like so why the hell are you describing this then?

Speaker 1:

Like you don't continue that you know Right, Right, I don't know I mean the story if you have not watched it. The YouTube, YouTube and Tik TOK are very visual representatives of the joy Marino story and I think it's like it's so important because, again, that spectrum, this stuff could happen to you and you need to be curious about it. And, like I said, I watch this stuff and I just I'm at a loss for words too and I wish he could be here today to tell his story differently. Yeah, I'm glad he entrusted it with somebody that's trustworthy to tell the story. Yeah, and I hope, is there anything else in his story do you think that he wants you to tell? Is there anything else?

Speaker 3:

No, not really. I know a lot of people are questioning and wondering what the last year was like for us and he and I did try the DBS surgery and a friend that was helping us. We did all we could and I said it would be eight months and he said if I was offered DBS I would still hang on.

Speaker 1:

Oh is DBS deep brain stimulation.

Speaker 3:

Is that?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, okay, yeah.

Speaker 3:

And so you know, we kind of gave up on that part because it was just too much for him. Is that, yeah, okay, know, november of last year when he had OD'd and he just couldn't take it no more. And I understood why, and I knew that was his way of saying I'm done with this. Yeah.

Speaker 3:

You know, and I wasn't mad at him about it, I kind of wish he had been a little bit more vocal about it. To where the point? Because the ambulance was called and his heart had stopped for like 20 seconds or I don't know how long, and he was rushed to the hospital and ICU and they were like trying to intubate him and stuff. And I kept telling them he had that DNR and they would not listen to me, they would need the papers and he had the papers but but the pyramid didn't want to take it. And so when I was able to get to a fax person and I faxed it to them and they finally decided to listen to me and you know he woke up and he was all over the place and he was pissed off and stuff. And I understood why. And you know, me and the friend that was helping us, we were trying to tell him like, look, we weren't the one trying to do anything, was the owner at the house that he was staying at who was doing this. And so when he got out and tried again in this particular next hospital he and I had a lot of interactions with and they tried to gaslight me. They tried to say, oh, he doesn't want no one to know where he's at, what's going on. And I called bullshit on them. I said you know damn well, he's not talking about me. Where the hell is he going? And you know, 30 minutes later they told me and they took him to a hospital in Torrance, california, and from there the doctor was worse and horrible, you know. They said to me well, we want to detox him. And I said detox with what? And he said with Klonopin. I said how in the hell are you running a damn place like this and telling me Klonopin is a detox pill? You know like I was so livid with them when they said that to me and to Joey.

Speaker 3:

And you know, as time went on, they wanted to do all this stuff and I had actually flown into town because I was scared to death about not seeing him again, flown into town because I was scared to death about not seeing him again. And so when I got to town and stuff and I saw him with another friend of ours and they almost went last to him, they said we have to be here at this time, to be here at this time, and it wasn't speculated in the website, and so when we finally did see each other, we both just started crying, me and him put to each other like how in the hell is this happening right now, you know? And then so when the next day came, I got a call from the doctor and he was like you know, I know, joey has this condition, but I really feel his milk in this. And I said what are you talking about? And he's like well, I'm watching him from the nursing station. He's sitting all calm and stuff.

Speaker 3:

Twenty-six seconds later he's moving around. I'm like oh, he saw me. He started moving. I said call it movement disorder, you should look it up.

Speaker 3:

So you know and I told him, you know, and he's like well, you know, I want to help Joey, but can you tell him to be nice to me? I'm like, why not have a conversation with him? Talk to him like a human.

Speaker 1:

This is that thing, this is what I'm saying. The way that he presented, presented he. People perceive that as him being feeble, right, he cannot have conversation. He cannot. He's not a human anymore.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, you know, that's exactly yeah, and at this point you know now it's over an hour away from where he was. If I was not going to leave that day, I would have went down there and talked to him in person. Be like you're pathetic, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah person be like you're a pathetic, you know. Yeah, no, but that that's what it is. And I think that's what we need to be cautious of is that, yeah, people with significant mental health concerns are human beings and these concerns were imputed by big pharma. They, they weren't because he had anxiety, they, you know. And and it just makes me wonder how many people are in that same situation where psych meds actually create more harm. And we did an episode on iatrogenic care, which is, you know, when the thing that's supposed to help you hurts you. And how many people have been disabled in spectrum of disability because of psychiatric medication and just the dehumanizing of care. I'm going to air quote care, right, the dehumanizing of care.

Speaker 3:

It's like going back to March of last year when me and a friend that was taking over POA with me and another friend from the show. We all went to go see Joey and stuff. We were like all together and everything and I could see the deep sadness in both the friends' faces when I was sitting with Joey, all of us talking, and it devastated me. This is the guy who was an actor, a personal trainer and loved life, did all what he wanted to bedridden in severe pain 24-7. That really devastated me to see that.

Speaker 1:

We're just a little podcast trying to help get this big story out. I think you've had some denials of bigger places, bigger media outlets. Is that correct that they won't take the story? Do they ever give you a reason? I'm just curious.

Speaker 3:

No, I never heard back. Two years ago we had a page called Joey's Jazz Journey. We had the videos out. Then, after some stuff he and I had found out he wanted me to take them down. I stripped every video there was and everything offline. I reached out to 30 different people all over the US. Not one person would say anything.

Speaker 1:

Well, I mean because it goes against conventional narrative, right. It might scare people into not getting psychiatric medication or help for their mental health, right Like it might scare people. That's the whole thing about informed consent is people think it scares people, you know.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, when we were, when Terry and I were talking about this episode before we, you know, got you on here today, carly, I I was very, almost a level of anger that I haven't felt in a very long time, even even for for the like. I would love to take what your story is and we are. We are just, we are such a grassroots like small podcast and I'm hoping this pushes something into a trajectory for for this story, um, that people aren't a lot of people aren't willing to hear, people aren't willing to accept Okay. Um, because I wish I could just take it and blow it up, because I have so much anger For anybody involved in the care of him that thought that continuing to polypharmacy, this man repeatedly Okay, anybody that was ever involved in that. I wish I could just take and remove. I just get so angry.

Speaker 2:

Like I said to Terry, I'm like every person that was involved in his care, their licenses should be removed from every single ER doctor, to every single provider that knew him, to people that were close to him that should have taken care of him that didn't, because there isn't a ton of mystery to this story. There isn't when you lay it all out. There isn't a ton of mystery, but what it is is shit people are afraid of and they don't want to talk about it. This is the stuff people don't want to talk about. This is the shit hidden behind paywalls. This is, this is the stuff that is that takes people's lives and and and joey's legacy is us trying to take this and show it to the world.

Speaker 1:

Um, somehow, somehow, this uh, we're gonna, we're gonna wrap this up um, but I feel like this story is the gaslit truth.

Speaker 3:

It is. Yeah, you know, and I still have a lot of anger, I still have a lot of unanswered questions that I want to know about certain things that's happened in the last two years. And you know he and I were super close and the people from the show that were involved in the last year I'm always going to be very grateful for them. They're kind of one of my close friends, every single one of them that were involved and you know we're just shocked. You know we're doing something to have him back here. And you know we understood why he did what he wanted to do. And you know we actually had a lot of good talks before he had passed.

Speaker 3:

And one of the things I did tell him because he had told me about a time that he told his dad to let go Because you know he was in pain and stuff, and so he and I had a FaceTime conversation. I said, joey, you can let go, you can get out of this pain, you don't need to be in this pain no more. He looked at me and was like that's why I told my dad. I said I know, that's why I'm telling you this right now, because you know we all love you, we all understand.

Speaker 1:

But you don't need to be in this team, no more. Yeah, well, you, as a witness, endured some medical trauma yourself, just so you know um. So make sure you take care of you too. And in retelling yeah, in retelling the story, I'm sure it just brings up a lot um of emotions for you as well. So make sure you take care of yourself, carlyly.

Speaker 3:

I appreciate you for having me on here.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. Thank you for being here and thank everyone else for tuning in to this difficult episode of the Gaslit Truth Podcast. So make sure I feel weird even saying this like comment, share, subscribe, all the things, but basically just love each other and support people who are going through such um tragic, difficult times.

Speaker 3:

yeah, so thank you all right, you know, thank you. I appreciate all this stuff really a lot, thank you carly.

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Dr. Teralyn Sell

Co-host
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Jennifer Schmitz

Co-host