How America’s Mental Health Crisis Became This Family’s Worst Nightmare

HIGH FALLS, N.Y. — The last time Emily Abramson saw Andy Neiman, he was in the waiting area of a hospital emergency department. She knew her brother was in trouble. But she figured he’d be safe.

It was before dawn on May 21, 2021, just a few hours after Emily had found Andy confused, agitated and running through an orchard adjacent to her house in a rural part of the Hudson River Valley. Andy had bipolar disorder , the psychiatric condition that causes dramatic, recurring bursts of euphoric mania and deep depression, and he was in the midst of what Emily and the rest of their family had come to recognize as one of his manic phases. The 47-year-old actor/playwright was speaking rapidly and disjointedly, though with more desperation than usual. He kept talking about a searing pain he felt under his skin — the result, he said, of toxins he had absorbed while staying in a cheap hotel — and was tearing off his clothes for relief.

But Emily believed Andy could get better, because he had gotten better before. The 20-plus years since his initial diagnosis included lengthy periods when medication and counseling allowed him to laugh, love and work. In 2012, he’d gotten married to a fellow thespian; in 2013, the two had a baby girl on whom he doted. He had picked up jobs waiting tables while appearing in local Shakespeare productions and making progress toward writing plays of his own. For these stretches, Andy was on his way to realizing the potential others had seen in him ever since he was an 8-year-old starring in a production of “Pinocchio” or when he was a champion performer on the high school debate circuit.

The first step, Emily knew, was to get Andy stabilizing care at a hospital. The closest was about 20 minutes away