Don’t Wait for Me: How a Mother Lost Her Son to Bipolar Disorder and Drug Abuse

Ros Morris’ son Zach was a bright young musician who seemed on the brink of success when his behaviour suddenly spiralled out of control. He began using more powerful and dangerous illegal drugs and stayed up all night writing strange mathematical equations on his bedroom walls and drawing diagrams of spacecraft and pyramids. His once intelligent conversation deteriorated into mindless babble and at one point he thought he was God. Over the next eight years, after he was diagnosed as suffering from bipolar disorder, Zach was sectioned under the Mental Health Act on numerous occasions and his family had to repatriate him from three different continents when his psychosis re-emerged while he was travelling. Don’t Wait for Me is a mother’s harrowing account of her son’s descent into the hell of drug abuse and mental illness. It vividly describes the nightmare her family went through and highlights the despair, guilt, helplessness and anger experienced by all those involved.