Lars Mittank Disappearance | Was First Break Psychosis to Blame?

hello this is dr grande today's question is can i analyze the disappearance of lars matank just a reminder i'm not diagnosing anybody in this video only speculating about what could be happening in a situation like this if you enjoy this video please like it subscribe to my channel and consider supporting me on patreon i'll put the link to patreon in the description for this video so first i'll provide the details that are known about the disappearance and then i will offer my analysis lars matank was born on february 9 1986 in berlin germany on june 30 2014 when matank was 28 years old he went on vacation to bulgaria with five men they were all friends of his they were former schoolmates and all of them were in their late 20s during the trip his friends noticed he didn't eat a lot but other than that nothing else about the tank really struck them as unusual at some point matank allegedly was involved in a fight with four men who disagreed with him about which soccer team was best there are various accounts as to when and where this fight happened by most accounts it occurred on july 6 when matank was out without his friends so they didn't see the fight it appears as though matank may have also claimed that there was a second fight which involved a russian or bulgarian who the four men hired to attack him the friends really didn't seem to believe this particular story matank sustained an injury to his ear during the fight he was treated by a physician who indicated that he had a ruptured eardrum the physician prescribed him an antibiotic and told him it would not be a good idea to fly due to changes in air pressure that occur in flight he recommended matank go to a hospital but he did not go his friends flew out of bulgaria but matank stayed behind in a hotel in varna bulgaria it was not the same hotel that he originally had been staying in they had offered to stay with him but matank said he would be fine the day after his friends left the tank started engaging in bizarre behavior he called his mother anne whispered to her he indicated people were trying to rob or kill him he was being followed he was looking for a place to hide and he advised her to cancel his credit cards he then hung up the phone he would text his mother later asking about the antibiotic that the physician had prescribed to him he texted what is surfaroxam 500 that was the name of the drug surveillance cameras at the hotel captured him behaving in an erratic manner he was looking out the windows in the foyer pacing back and forth hiding in an elevator and at 1 am he left the hotel for an hour then he returned to his room nobody knows where he went to at 1am for that hour on july 8 2014 matank took a taxi to the varna airport he texted his mother i just made it to the terminal at the airport he checked in with the airport physician to make sure that he was able to fly matank walked into the physician's office dropped his bags on the floor and sat down on a chair the physician reported that matank was acting strangely really nervous and erratic after looking at his ear the physician determined the tank was fine he could fly so he could go back to germany to be with his family and his friends the tank appeared to have concerns about his medication that he addressed with the physician when a construction worker walked into the room the tank began to tremble under his breath he said i don't want to die here i have to get out of here right after he said that he jumped out of the chair and ran out of the room all he had were the clothes on his body a yellow t-shirt jean shorts and white sneakers he left his luggage behind in his luggage there was his cell phone his passport and his wallet after running out of the room he started running through the airport and out of the building he continued to run when outside he climbed over a fence and would disappear into a nearby field he was never seen again there have been various alleged sightings but none have been verified it appears as though my tank simply vanished from the face of the earth now moving to my analysis matank reportedly was a normal young man he did not stand out for any particular reason he had no history of mental illness he was generally agreeable he liked nature in the outdoors he used to hunt and fish what could have happened to lars matank let's look at a few of the theories number one he deliberately ran away it was part of some plan to start a new life there's no indication he was having any trouble with family or friends if he was planning on running away why would he do it in a foreign country and not take anything with him this theory seems unlikely but it would explain why he was never found theory number two he was involved in some type of foul play like there are theories about how he could have been smuggling drugs or something like that this theory usually has some component involving the france like they were all being terrorized by criminals they were allowed to go home but the tank had to stay in bulgaria as a guarantee that they would complete whatever criminal objective that they were supposed to complete it's an interesting theory but there's no evidence to support it and it involves a fairly complex conspiracy like all his friends would have to be in on it at a minimum like the first theory it does explain why no one ever found him but again i think this is pretty unlikely theory number three a tank was under the influence of drugs perhaps something that was new to him like he was experimenting and had an unexpected reaction some people blame the antibiotic he was prescribed but he never filled the prescription he didn't have any drugs of any type in his luggage so this one doesn't seem too likely either and it doesn't explain why his body was never found theory number four matank had a concussion as a result of that fight this caused psychosis this is a possibility but there are many reasons to believe it didn't happen the vast majority of concussions do not result in psychosis and when they do the symptoms usually manifest weeks months or even years later it's not often that it's an immediate psychosis in a case when a concussion does result in psychosis within a few hours it is often accompanied by other symptoms that the physician probably would have noticed so theory number four i think is better than the first three theories but it still doesn't explain the situation very well now moving to the last theory i'll cover here theory number five psychotic illness under this theory the tank was having what is referred to as first break psychosis or first episode psychosis he was experiencing the onset of something like schizophrenia or a major mood disorder like major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder this would explain much of his behavior like the paranoia persecutory delusions anxiety the odd eccentric behavior i think the psychotic illness theory is the best explanation but this theory does not really explain why he ran away and why he was never found i'll look at these separately as far as the running away component paranoia usually doesn't cause people to run like he did paranoia may cause someone to run a short distance and try to escape a perceived threat but not to continue running like that and not to leave everything behind as far as the never being found part it really makes little sense that he was never found perhaps he was deliberately avoiding people who were searching for him so he hid somewhere in the woods or some other type of rural area and died of dehydration or some type of injury were other people involved was he murdered why would they kill him was it a situation where some random people just happened to see him running and decided to murder him and hide the body was there an aspiring serial killer convention in town it just doesn't make sense there is no satisfactory explanation for why he was never found he did not have any means to go anywhere how far could he get with no supplies of any type i think what happened in the case of lars matank was a number of unusual circumstances came together he had some type of psychosis paranoia led to the unusual consequence of him running he happened to avoid detection and something claimed his life then somehow his body was never found maybe the kind of circumstances that only align once every thousand years i don't know what happened to him but he certainly had terrible luck there is always a chance that lars matank is alive i certainly hope he is maybe he somehow made it quite some distance was still paranoid and didn't want to tell people who he was so he just continued life as homeless what lessons can be learned in this case i have just two here the first one perhaps it was not a great idea for his friends to leave him behind in a foreign country after he complained of a head injury second even though his mother did tell him to come home right away on a flight perhaps she should have called the police for a welfare check she probably didn't recognize the symptoms of psychosis maybe this case will bring more awareness to that condition those are my thoughts on the case of lars matank please put any opinions and thoughts in the comment section they always generate an interesting dialogue i hope you found my analysis of this topic to be enlightening thanks for watching

Channel: Dr. Todd Grande

Views: 109,849

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Id: 6GcYlWP3G9U

Length: 10min 13sec (613 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 23 2021