Star Wars Child Star Jake Lloyd In Mental Health Facility After 'Psychotic Break' Due To Schizophrenia

Jake Lloyd‘s mom is finally giving an update on the former child actor’s life since Star Wars.

The 35-year-old, who is known for playing the young Anakin Skywalker in The Phantom Menace back in 1999, has been pretty quiet since he graced the big screen and became a household name of Star Wars fans everywhere. But according to his mother, Lisa Lloyd, it’s because he was struggling with his mental health behind closed doors.

In an interview with Scripps News that was published on Monday, Jake’s mom said that he began to struggle with his classes back in high school. That eventually led to him dropping out of college. By the time 2008 rolled around, he was living back at home in Indiana with his family. Then, he had some seriously worrying symptoms, like hallucinating people with “black eyes” or believing he was having conversations with Jon Stewart through his television. Eventually doctors finally landed on a diagnosis, believing he was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.

Since then, the child star had struggled to come to terms with his diagnosis. He was even arrested in 2015 for causing a car crash, according to his mother. He got out of jail ten months later, but following the death of his sister Madison Lloyd in 2018, Jake was said to not be able to “handle it.” That again sent him on a downward spiral. His mother recalled how in March of last year the Star Wars actor suffered what she called a “full-blown psychotic break” while driving home one day:

“He said he wanted to turn the car off. And he turned the car off in the middle of the three lanes, and we were in the middle lane. There was a lot of yelling and screaming … The police got there, and they asked Jake some questions. He was talking to them, but none of it made sense. It was all word salad.”

So scary…

Jake was admitted to a hospital that same day, and was eventually transferred to a mental rehabilitation center two months later. And luckily, things have been looking up. Lisa said that he’s now ten months into an 18-month stay, and so far, he’s been making “remarkable” improvements:

“He’s doing much better than I expected. He is relating to people better and becoming a little bit more social, which is really nice. It’s kind of like having more of the old Jake back, because he has always been incredibly social until he became schizophrenic.”

Wonderful news! And as far as Star Wars, she says he’s still a big fan: