‘Kony 2012’ Director Suffered ‘Reactive Psychosis,’ Family Says
Jason Russell, who directed a documentary about a notorious Ugandan warlord that went viral, will remain hospitalized “a number of weeks” to recover from “reactive psychosis,” his family said Wednesday.
Russell, 33, was picked up by police last Thursday after several people reported a man running along a San Diego, California, street in his underwear, screaming, sources said.
“Jason’s incident was in no way the result of drugs or alcohol in his body,” the family statement said. “The preliminary diagnosis he received is called brief reactive psychosis, an acute state brought on by extreme exhaustion, stress and dehydration.”
Russell’s family said his doctors told them it was “a common experience given the great mental, emotional and physical shock his body has gone through in these last two weeks.”
“Even for us, it’s hard to understand the sudden transition from relative anonymity to worldwide attention — both raves and ridicules, in a matter of days,” their statement said.
The filmmaker “has a long way to go, but we are confident that he will make a full recovery,” his family said.
“He is, and will remain, under hospital care for a number of weeks; and after that, the recovery process could take months before he is fully able to step back into his role with Invisible Children,” it said. “During that time, we will focus not on a speedy recovery, but a thorough one.”
Russell is one of the founders of the San Diego-based nonprofit group Invisible Children, which produced the half-hour film about warlord Joseph Kony. “Kony 2012” skyrocketed to popularity on YouTube, propelled by thousands of posts on Twitter and Facebook, garnering nearly 85 million views since its March 5 release.