Man falsely committed to psych hospital finds out he was not delusional: He WAS being spied on by law enforcement

April 16, 2013

Geoffrey Smith was a typical Canadian college student. He lived in a basement suite alone, had student loan debt, and was awkward around women. However, this all changed last year when his family staged an intervention that ended with him being sent to a Vancouver psychiatric facility.

Smith’s parents and friends say that he became extremely paranoid last fall and began to make bizarre claims that he was being followed by men in suits who were driving large black SUVs, that his phones were tapped, that he was being watched at home, and that his computer was being hacked.

Smith still managed to function well at school during this period, but his family believed that the level of their son’s paranoia merited some sort of psychiatric care. The staff at the hospital where Smith was committed to against his will said that Smith’s behaviour was evident of paranoia and that he showed extreme conviction of the reality of his delusional beliefs. The medication that the hospital administered to Smith did not appear to help, but just made him sleep all day.

In a shocking development, Smith was released from the facility and received an apology from the RCMP. His family was told that Smith had been mistaken for a major gang leader who held the same name and went to the same school and that surveillance had been implemented on the innocent Mr. Smith.

Smith later said that he “feels betrayed by my friends and family who, instead of believing me, sent me to a mental institution that drugged me up.” The RCMP has since spoken to Smith’s college and he will receive a full refund for the tuition he paid and he will not receive any F’s on his transcript.

As for the lessons that Smith has learned from this, he warns others to, “Trust people more and believe them when they say that they are being spied on, or else this might happen to someone else—though that might not be too bad for them, since the living conditions at the facility were better than my basement suite. The meds also really helped me sleep.”

Smith also told us he thinks that his experience at the facility will help him get more dates, since he claims that “Nothing gets the ladies better than a good story!”

Source: Aidan Mouellic, "Accusations by man that led him to being committed proven," The Other Press (www.theotherpress.ca), April 16, 2013.