Opinion ID: 1479202
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Tavares' Personal History

Text: Anthony Tavares' life story is tragic indeed. He was born in 1979, the middle child of three. His older sister, who died in a car accident in 1994, chronically abused him, and was herself treated several times for mental illness. His father, who is schizophrenic, committed murder by stabbing a man with an ice pick. [4] Tavares first began to show signs of mental illness when he was only four years old. His mother sought treatment for him because she had a multitude of complaints about his behavior. By age six, he was admitted to his first psychiatric treatment program, and he was expelled from mainstream education in the first grade. Throughout his childhood, he was continually shuffled between special schools, residential care facilities, juvenile detention, and hospitals. According to Tavares, [t]hey used to try to put me everywhere   . They used to say I was mental. As a child, Tavares was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), but he did not take his medication. His behavior, and his mental health, never improved, but worsened with time. By age eleven, he began to suffer paranoid and delusional symptoms. He also grew more violent; as a young teen, he was charged with assault on several occasions, had threatened to kill a boy, and had threatened people with knives. Throughout adolescence, Tavares continued to deteriorate. His history during that period of his life includes suicide attempts, arson, and assault, as well as several psychiatric hospitalizations. Tragically, Tavares fared no better as he grew into adulthood. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia at age nineteen. Early in 2000, he was involuntarily hospitalized due to audio and visual hallucinations of animals killing each other, paranoia, and a belief that the devil was stalking him. Tavares' condition improved with medication, and he was discharged with a diagnosis of chronic paranoid schizophrenia. Later that year, however, he reported to his doctor that the television was talking to him, that he had figured out how to clone people, and that people were trying to genetically alter him. When Tavares was hospitalized again a year later, he still was suffering from hallucinations. He told one of his doctors that he was being raped and mugged by God, the mob and doctors, and that the devil invaded his body. He also believed that his thoughts and feelings were being reported over the radio. Again, Tavares' symptoms improved with medication, and he was discharged with a diagnosis of chronic paranoid schizophrenia. In the weeks preceding the murder of Hayes, Tavares had stopped taking his medication, and his mental health was rapidly declining. People who knew him said that he had become highly agitated, that he talked to the television, and sometimes just stared into space. He thought he was being watched, and complained of voices in his head. He would wave his hands in the air and yell get out of here! He believed that devils were telling him to do things, so he sought out an exorcism and wanted to build a church to keep the devils away.