Law&Crime Sidebar - Darrell Brooks Reveals Struggles with Meth Abuse in 2007 Documentary

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Starting point is 00:00:35 will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. You actually become the drug. Not even human being. Daryl Brooks, now serving a life sentence for killing six people in the Waukeshaer. parade tragedy featured in a documentary about meth use. We discussed the drug and Brooks's behavior. I'm Ann Janette Levy and welcome to Law and Crime Sidebar podcast. Daryl Brooks is now serving six consecutive life sentences plus 700 years for that awful incident in November of last year where he drove his SUV through barricades and into the Christmas parade in

Starting point is 00:01:24 Waukishaw, Wisconsin. Six people were killed, including an eight-year-old boy and dozens more were injured. It was a really awful thing that traumatized the entire community there in Waukesha. If you watched the trial, you saw that the behavior of Daryl Brooks was anything but normal. He turned the entire trial into a complete spectacle. He represented himself. He fought with a judge. He did all kinds of things. Listen as Brooks talks about his meth use and how it made him feel. This was in the Crystal Darkness documentary. I wasn't a human anymore. I was just Something. Something vile. Disgusting. Dispicable. I can go on. I can use a lot of words, but that's what I became.

Starting point is 00:02:14 So joining me to discuss this, and Darrell Brooks's behavior and methamphetamine is Julie Goldberg. She is a licensed addiction counselor. Julie, welcome to Sidebar. Thanks for coming on. Thanks for having me. Excited to be here. Tell us first of all, for the of our listeners and viewers who may not know, what is methamphetamine? Meth is a stimulant, and it's a drug. It can be smoked, it can be snorted, it can be ingested in a pill form, or injected, using an IV drug. And it causes extreme spikes in dopamine to the brain, among other things. So extreme euphoria.

Starting point is 00:02:50 Sometimes when people use it, they also experience hallucinations, delusions. The hallucinations can be auditory and visual. What are the long-term effects of meth? It depends on how long someone's using it, how often they're using it. Usually, when someone goes through withdrawal and stops using meth, they have chronic fatigue, they sleep for a really long time, they're very depleted, and then over time they can start experiencing long-term impacts mentally, like increased in paranoia, increase in hallucinations, increase in delusions, potentially.

Starting point is 00:03:27 It's not for every person, but sometimes that is happening. Can it cause changes to your brain even using it for a short time? Yep. So research shows that because meth increases dopamine in the brain, when you're not using it, you actually have decrease in dopamine. So over time, you can have decrease in dopamine in the brain and increase in hallucination and delusions and paranoia. Again, it's not for all people, but for many, that's what they experience.

Starting point is 00:03:54 And I know you've never met Daryl Brooks, of course. you've never treated him so you can't diagnose him. But we had heard some talk and discussion during the court proceedings that the judge said she had ordered competency evaluations for him. He was deemed competent to stand trial. She said the only thing that showed up was the fact that he had some personality disorder type things going on. So when somebody has mental health issues such as maybe a personality disorder, could drug use exacerbate the those things, those tendencies or those traits? Oh, 100%. And again, I don't know him. I didn't work with him, but especially in males, if they're using drugs at an early age, it can increase the likelihood of long-term mental health. Usually it's before the age of 26, but with males, the likelihood of long-term mental health implications increases with drug use. Why in males versus maybe females? Males exhibit the behavior more commonly than women do. You know, often sometimes women are experiencing those things as well, but they're not expressing

Starting point is 00:05:02 it outwardly in society. Perhaps the research has just done more on males because they're displaying the behavior more. And I don't actually know why. That's just what it is. I think schizophrenia is more common in males. I'm thinking of research that's connected to schizophrenia in particular. Sure. And just to be clear, we don't know of any schizophrenia diagnosis with Daryl Brooks.

Starting point is 00:05:25 One thing that I find interesting, and it's funny that we're sitting here having this conversation because I've done a lot of stories about drug use over the years, whether it's methamphetamine or heroin, fentanyl, things of that nature. And my mom also happens to be an addiction counselor just like you are. So we've had these conversations many times over the years. And she always told me that basically a lot of people self-medicate, people who might have some mental health problems self-medicate by using drugs or they use a drug to make themselves feel either better or normal, what have you? So do you see that in your practice? All the time. I don't think you can work with drug addiction and not take, I would say a trauma lens. So most people in my practice

Starting point is 00:06:14 and when I worked in a detox center, most people that I've worked with have experienced trauma in their past and they're using substances to soothe and ease that trauma, the pain associated with it. What are the long-term effects? You said of meth there could be delusions, paranoia, things of that nature. When I watched that clip of Daryl Brooks, he seemed very normal. He's incarcerated. I'm assuming he's having, he has no drugs in his system because he is incarcerated. I mean, somebody like him who has personality disorders, even though you haven't diagnosed him or examined him, we want to be very clear about that. What could it do to somebody like that? In my experience with meth users, when I'm talking about hallucinations and delusions, it's often people, I'm hesitant to say people. It's something telling

Starting point is 00:07:02 them to do something. So often people are controlled by the voices that they're hearing. And those voices cause a lot of paranoia. Imagine if you were going throughout your life and you're hearing someone telling you to do something or not to trust someone or you're being watched or scanned. And I was hesitant to say people telling them to do something because often it is a religious figure. Jesus is really common for some reason among math users. Sometimes it's aliens telling them to do certain things. I've experienced people also saying that the FBI is communicating with them. So it's people, but it's also historical figures and then organizations. as well. And that's one thing that could happen. So voices are telling them to do something. They're

Starting point is 00:07:51 experiencing a lot of paranoia and confusion around that. And then their behavior can change and fluctuate. Are those people more people who suffer from schizophrenia, though, the ones you're referring to? No. No? Oh, okay. People just, meth users may experience. No, it's a really good question, right? Because it sounds like schizophrenia, but no. It's just people that are either using math, or have used meth long term. And that's a side effect of it. Interesting. Well, I think it's pretty wild that we've seen this documentary kind of come to light

Starting point is 00:08:25 showing him seemingly acting normal. I hate to use that word because normal can be different things for different people. But he's sitting there. He's talking about his drug use and being quite candid and saying he turns into something terrible. And I do want to say we heard no testimony or evidence that he was under the influence of meth. at the time that this happened, that the time that he plowed these, plowed this car into the parade. It's just a terrible thing. And we should note that the judge in this case also said that she just

Starting point is 00:08:55 thinks he's evil. That's all she thinks. Yeah, it's interesting. She said she had him evaluated. He has personality disorders. And she thinks he's evil. You know, he got mad and did whatever. So it was quite the ordeal. Julie Goldberg, addiction counselor, thank you so much for coming on to talk with us about this. We really appreciate it. You offering your time and your expertise. Thank you. And that's it for this edition of Law and Crime Sidebar podcast. It is produced by Sam Goldberg and Logan Harris. Bobby Zoki is our YouTube manager. Alyssa Fisher handles our bookings and Kiera Bronson does our social media. You can listen to and download Sidebar anytime on Apple, Spotify, Google, and wherever else you get your podcast, and of course you can always watch it on Law and

Starting point is 00:09:38 crimes YouTube channel. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy, and we will see you next time. You can binge all episodes of this law and crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

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Law&Crime Sidebar - Darrell Brooks Reveals Struggles with Meth Abuse in 2007 Documentary

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