The man in the tree was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, but his mom says shes been unable to get him into treatment.
The man in the tree was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, but his mom says she's been unable to get him into treatment. Scott Bonjukian

KOMO:

The world came to know Cody Miller as the man who spent 25 surreal hours perched atop an 80-foot tree in Downtown Seattle. But to one woman Miller is a son who struggles with paranoid schizophrenia and a man who needs help.

Lisa Gossett is speaking out about how her son's life took a terrifying downward spiral in hopes it will help Miller and the others who suffer from mental illness.

Gossett says Miller grew up with ADHD, but it wasn't until he became an adult that a series of incidents landed him in jail. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. "She struggled to find help and wasn't able to find Miller when he was released from jail or get him medical treatment."

Miller is now 28-years-old. He has been in and out of jail before, and now he's being charged with first-degree malicious mischief and third-degree assault by King County prosecutors. They say he did nearly $8000 in damage to the tree.

As Eli Sanders has written:

Between 2009 and 2012, more than $4.3 billion was cut from state mental-health budgets around the country in the wake of the Great Recession. In Washington state... the 2009 budgeting cycle alone saw more than $23 million cut from mental-health programs. In the years before that cut, the state held a D grade for its mental-health services from the National Alliance on Mental Illness. So did the United States as a whole.