Found Deceased LA - Mark Bakotic, 21, New Orleans, 30 Dec 2016

[Rayemonde]

If Mark is still alive and living on the streets, I agree that it's likely that the drug triggered off a mental illness. If he is avoiding his posters, it may be because he is paranoid and thinks that people are out to get him. He may think that his parents are trying to kill him, or are actually government agents, or robots, or aliens disguised as his parents, and be actively avoiding them. If that is the case then even if they manage to corner him it won't do any good - he won't willingly go with them, and they can't have him committed to a mental hospital against his will unless he is a clear danger to himself or others. People with paranoid schizophrenia or delusional disorder are capable of organised behaviour such as avoiding places where they have seen their poster. Unlike people with disorganised types of schizophrenia, they can seem quite normal until the subject of their delusions is brought up.

I have to say though, that it seems more likely that the sightings are all mistaken and Mark is sadly deceased I know that drugs can trigger mental illness in susceptible individuals, but I should think it would be very rare for someone to go from perfectly normal to permanently psychotic after taking a drug once. But it's possible Mark has had previous signs of mental illness that his parents have chosen not to share with the public, who knows. MOO.

 

[Rayemonde]

Just found a case of this class of drugs causing psychosis. This man's psychosis sounds like a disorganised type (it's hard to imagine him fending for himself on the streets and evading people), and who knows whether he would have soon returned to normal anyway if his mother hadn't taken him to hospital... The drug he took was 2C-2-4.

Recently we encountered an acute intoxication in an emergency setting involving one such drug, which has never been reported as a clinical case anywhere.

A 40-year-old man, with no previous history of mental disorder, although having had experiences of occasional use of street drugs, was brought to the emergency room by his mother. He was in a delusional state with incoherent speech, such as ‘I am a murderer and president’ and ‘Once I close my eyes, all of the world will disappear’. His mother reported that he had been in this state for 3 h. In an admission interview he confessed to ingesting a liquid from a bottle labeled ‘Vanilla aroma’ 9 h earlier to enhance sexual pleasure when engaging in masturbation. Six hours after ingestion he was overtaken by dreadful fear, which resulted in this emergency visit.

On neuroleptic medication he recovered from a psychotic state with no neurological deficits 17 h after the ingestion.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1440-1819.2008.01764.x/full

 

[Rayemonde]

This is really scary - a case of persistent psychosis in a teenage girl after taking one ecstasy tablet! she had no family history of mental illness, and have been perfectly normal until she took the drug.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3304680/

 

[mpnola]

Ray, I am right with you on your line of thinking!! And I have shared in many threads (not sure about this one) that I worked in mental health for a long time. I used to ask every one of my clients (not what we called them, but its easier to explain that way) if they remembered the first time they felt different. All but one told me of a very specific drug incident. Some were after years of drug use, but they could pinpoint the time it changed. Some were the very first time they tried it. One was actually weed! First time he ever tried any drug- he smoked weed after he had already graduated from college. And he has never been the same since. It always felt to me like there are "puzzle pieces", if you will, in the brain. Drugs disconnect the pieces in order to allow other things and experiences through. Most of the time, the pieces set back into place, as they should. But, every now and then, they overlap and don't go back into place properly, allowing those experiences to constantly leak through. This is not a medical explanation! LOL! Obviously. It was just how I could wrap my head around what might be happening and why it almost exclusively surrounded a drug experience. That alone should be enough for no one to ever want to try drugs! I don't think it has been studied enough, yet. My experience was not scientifically valid, so I don't want people to think I am trying to say this is what happened. I just always found it very interesting that this was the story every person I encountered and asked about it had.

 

[tlorik]

And the brain is full of chemicals and electrical connections. What if all it takes is that one specific combination of chemicals or electrical stimulae (?) to damage or disconnect something that stays damaged? Terrifying. When I was a kid - and here I'll be showing my age - drugs were popular and the stuff of nightmares for parents. Still are I would think. At that time LSD was the "biggest baddest" and there were always horror stories told to us of people that took that one bad trip they didn't come back from. I remember my mom saying you wouldn't know how you would react to something until you took it and then it could be too late. That was enough to keep me on the straight and narrow! I read somewhere recently that LSD was making a comeback and it scares me silly. I worry about what seemed to make Mark so afraid. Twenty just seems so young to me and to be lost maybe in your own mind seems so sad.

 

[mewmew]

This is really scary - a case of persistent psychosis in a teenage girl after taking one ecstasy tablet! she had no family history of mental illness, and have been perfectly normal until she took the drug.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3304680/

That is terrifying! I'll be sharing this article with my friends who think it's no big deal. Thanks for the link.

I think of Mark and his father always. Still hoping he comes home safely, and soon.

 

[Simply Caustic]

Bumping for Mark


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[JerseyGirl]

No ID yet. A man's body was found washed up Sunday (March 5) on the shore of the Industrial Canal in the 9th Ward, New Orleans

http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2017/03/body_washed_up_new_orleans_ind.html

 

[mpnola]

I clearly hang out on websleuths too much. I have my little downtown today. We walked down the entire river front from the French market to the aquarium. As he was strolling along catching pokemon, I was looking every homeless guy in the face and checking the water and rocks for bones. Seriously. I choose to spend my day out looking for bones? Good thing no one knew what I was doing! Except yall now! On a positive note, all I saw was a Navy blue tshirt with capital letters across the chest in yellow or maybe stained white. I would have taken a pic, if it wasn't busy with pokemon.

Also, there was a group of college aged kids. They were walking around giving out care packages to all the homeless. These are the people his family needs to talk to!! They are do-gooders , who the homeless appreciate and trust. They can access people others can't.

One other thing- I only saw 2 signs along the whole walk. One was a color page about 2 women wanted for kidnapping and robbery.... have no idea what that was about! The other was a homeless services flyer. Nothing about mark. There were Sooooo many homeless out there. About 20 were gathered in one area with musical instruments and sitting on the steps down to the water. I just have a feeling he's not homeless in nola. Just a feeling.

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[policyoftruth501]

I clearly hang out on websleuths too much. I have my little downtown today. We walked down the entire river front from the French market to the aquarium. As he was strolling along catching pokemon, I was looking every homeless guy in the face and checking the water and rocks for bones. Seriously. I choose to spend my day out looking for bones? Good thing no one knew what I was doing! Except yall now! On a positive note, all I saw was a Navy blue tshirt with capital letters across the chest in yellow or maybe stained white. I would have taken a pic, if it wasn't busy with pokemon.

Also, there was a group of college aged kids. They were walking around giving out care packages to all the homeless. These are the people his family needs to talk to!! They are do-gooders , who the homeless appreciate and trust. They can access people others can't.

One other thing- I only saw 2 signs along the whole walk. One was a color page about 2 women wanted for kidnapping and robbery.... have no idea what that was about! The other was a homeless services flyer. Nothing about mark. There were Sooooo many homeless out there. About 20 were gathered in one area with musical instruments and sitting on the steps down to the water. I just have a feeling he's not homeless in nola. Just a feeling.

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I have to agree with you. He either doesn't want to be found or something tragic has happened. I don't live in NOLA, but I've been there many times. Canal street, the Quarter, Jackson Square, the Moonwalk, and the mall and aquarium area are always covered with people - pretty much at all hours. I can't imagine if the word has been spread heavily throughout this area that he is in this area and not being seen. I'm about to be back in NOLA in 4 weeks so I'm sure I'll have my eyes peeled as well. Every time there's a post on this thread I am so hopeful it's news he's been found.


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[mpnola]

They are having a prayer vigil in Jackson square on March 11 at 11 am. Sigh. I can only imagine how hard this has to be.

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[JerseyGirl]

They are having a prayer vigil in Jackson square on March 11 at 11 am. Sigh. I can only imagine how hard this has to be.

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A Facebook group called “Find Mark Bakotic” is organizing the prayer vigil, which will take place in Jackson Square on March 11 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

http://wgno.com/2017/03/09/prayer-vigil-set-for-man-missing-since-december-30/

 

[mewmew]

I haven't seen anyone post this yet, though I may have just missed it.
This is the same Mark Bakotic, right?
How horribly sad that he was on such a healthy path and was so proud of his accomplishments, yet somehow found himself mixed up in drugs. Any thoughts?

http://www.musclefood.com/mark-bakotic-transformation-story

 

[mpnola]

I haven't seen anyone post this yet, though I may have just missed it.
This is the same Mark Bakotic, right?
How horribly sad that he was on such a healthy path and was so proud of his accomplishments, yet somehow found himself mixed up in drugs. Any thoughts?

http://www.musclefood.com/mark-bakotic-transformation-story

Yes, that's him. I saw those and was also surprised. Thanks for posting it here. His friends on the page make it sound like he/ they don't consider it doing drugs as much as they seem to think they enhance their clubbing experiences. I guess the difference is how often or when they do them? I don't know. It's all mind altering, to me, which can never be good.

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[policyoftruth501]

Yes, that's him. I saw those and was also surprised. Thanks for posting it here. His friends on the page make it sound like he/ they don't consider it doing drugs as much as they seem to think they enhance their clubbing experiences. I guess the difference is how often or when they do them? I don't know. It's all mind altering, to me, which can never be good.

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I understand that line of thinking. I partied a lot in my twenties and even though there were drugs involved there's a separation from thinking of yourself as a drug user (someone with no job, no money, addicted, etc.) and more as someone who is just part of the party scene where that's the only time drugs are a part of your life.

At least that was the experience for me and nearly everyone I ran around with in my twenties. There were only a couple of people that became addicted and still struggle today. There were never any people I personally knew that ODed.

Drugs were different then - Ecstasy wasn't illegal then so it was still a pure pharmaceutical and hardly any of the hard core drugs (like Heroine and Crack) were prevalent in the club scene. And the drugs that were prevalent weren't chopped up and mixed with God knows what like they are today. The party drugs, and just drugs in general, are too scary with all the cutting and adding that's done now. Drugs have always been risky, but now it's completely out of control.


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[watergirl62]

K2/ Spice comes to mind. Huuuge problem here in Austin for quite some time. GTS.

The drug-friendly culture disses the reports of it being a psychotic trigger as something analogous to urban legend (think Satanic Panic) but seriously, the ERs and LE cant even handle all the K2 issues anymore.

Where are you, Mark?

 

[tlorik]

No ID yet. A man's body was found washed up Sunday (March 5) on the shore of the Industrial Canal in the 9th Ward, New Orleans

http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2017/03/body_washed_up_new_orleans_ind.html

Any further info on this??

 

[cool12]

bumping
where are you mark?

 

[tlorik]

bumping for Mark. Still hoping for news.

 

[policyoftruth501]

I was just thinking about him and then saw there was a post. I was so hoping it was news he had been found.


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