'Riverdale' Star Mädchen Amick Wandered The Streets Of L.A. Looking For Bipolar Son

Riverdale actress Mädchen Amick shares a hard story about her son Sly Alexis and his shocking Bipolar 1 diagnosis.

Mädchen Amick and her husband David Alexis believed they raised their kid with respect and as normally as possible. "He was a normal kid and got along great with teachers and coaches," she recalled to People.

It was when Sly went off to college that she realized that he was struggling. He began having trouble with drugs and alcohol. "There was a lot of delusional thinking," when it came to Amick’s son and his behavior.

"There was a lot of talk about things that just didn't make sense, and also, he would admit things like it seemed like the phone was listening to him and the TV was watching him and very paranoid thoughts and feelings. Then just waves into mania, which would give him this larger-than-life personality."

The actress received an alarming call from her son’s roommates one day, they were panicked and unsure of what to do at the moment, they couldn’t find him. He has left home without his cell phone and wallet.

"All of a sudden, the world just got pulled out from underneath him," she remembers. "We got together as a family and we drove down from Los Angeles to the streets of Irvine to just try to find him. It took hours, but we finally did. He was just walking down the street just really, really out of it."

Amick says it took a phone call from her daughter Mina Tobias, 29, pushing her to move and help her son. Mina had been studying to become a therapist and had noticed something was "really wrong.”

They contacted a hospital immediately to get guidance on the matter like how they could approach Sly and the best tactics to help him.

As with most authority figures called to a scene of someone with mental health issues, the situation did not go well. "I tried to explain to the emergency staff what was going on, and they just kind of looked at him like another kid doing drugs," Amick told the publication.

"But they took him in overnight and they basically said, 'He just seems like he's got an addiction issue. You're going to have to tackle that as a family.' They discharged him a few hours later, and we took him home."

Amick spent the best money on treatment centers that didn’t help her son. In 2012 she finally met a doctor and found a treatment center that could help her son. "That's when they said, 'This is not an addiction issue, this is a mental health issue.’"

She recalls being scared but happy that they finally had answers. "As scary as that was, it actually became a relief because now it had a name and there was some pathway to try to figure out what to do about it."

Amick shared that even after a proper diagnosis there were still states of hopelessness. "There have been several times it felt like he wouldn't make it and we were called to the hospital [for alcohol poisoning] to basically say goodbye," chimed in dad, David. "But he always fought to live and pulled through."

Sly has had other slip-ups including one in 2021 but Amick and her family were now more equipped and prepared to help him through his destabilization. Sly is thriving in life besides the minor misstep. He is a Behavioral Health Technician and studying to be a case manager for others dealing with mental health and related issues.

Amick is also the creator of the foundation Don't Mind Me which spreads the word about mental health. They host a charity golf game in which the proceeds go to help mental health foundations.