While that was puzzling, when he told Tony Stewart Racing team manager Jimmy Carr he was going to walk away from the sport midway through the 2014 season, the alarm bells went off.
“When you quit a ride like that and you are on the top of your game that says something,” East says, “But I saw little things. Sometimes he would be off sitting on a four-wheeler all by himself.”
After discussion, Bobby East committed to finishing the season.
“I knew he wanted to get to 50 national wins and in his last race he sat on the pole and finished third,” Bob East said. Still, he remained steadfast in his decision to retire. It was a mystery to all concerned. Then, in one revealing conversation Bobby finally told his father, “You don‘t know what I am going through. I don‘t want the pressure.”
True to his word, he walked away from racing. He found jobs in fast food restaurants and other tasks that he deemed easy. He was a steady worker but had little ambition to do much more. Were other drugs involved? The Easts don‘t know for sure.
Then at one point Bobby decided to move to California, and when he returned things were clearly very wrong. It was the first time the family began hearing Bobby talk about hearing voices and he began to share what can only be deemed delusions.
In one scenario Bobby felt someone in California was controlling him through the voices. It was distressing for everyone. At one point he asked his mother in desperation, “when will they stop?” There was no answer.
Janice eventually got Bobby in front of mental health practitioners. The diagnosis was schizophrenia and certainly the presence of auditory hallucinations pointed to this. As matters deteriorated the Easts tried to get their son to enter a hospital for treatment. He not only baulked at the suggestion, but bolted for Miami.
When he was prepared to return to Indiana the family made it clear he must enter treatment as a prerequisite for living in their home. He finally agreed. The medication he was prescribed made an impact. The voices abated and he once again found work and stuck with it.
Unfortunately, a common issue crippled his recovery. He hated how the drugs made him feel. There was also little else to hold on to. Recalling the time, Janice East says, “He would go to work and come home and go to sleep, or he would want to drink. And he wanted to go back to California.”
At the first chance to break away from mandatory treatment that is exactly what he did.
Bobby had some awareness of the severity of his situation and he tried to get a handle on his problems. He sought help at the Betty Ford Center and first participated in the residential program and then lived in one of the associated therapeutic communities. As a part of the treatment regimen his parents spent a week at the center taking part in programming for families. He enjoyed his time there. However, when he was discharged, Bobby East chose to remain out West.
Janice East had faced the anxiety of watching her son rocket around high-speed race tracks, but it paled in comparison to this. Whether he was technically homeless at times is hard to say. Sometimes he stayed with family, other times he found a place with people he met on jobs and couch surfed. He sold security systems at one point and an associate reported that he was good at it.
Still, East called his parents regularly and was always up to date on the progress of Indianapolis sports teams. Out of character he repeatedly told his parents that he loved them. It made a deep impression. “I can still hear him say that,” Bob East said with his voice crackling.
It was not the life the Easts envisioned for their son. One day he was racing on the grandest stages in American motorsports, and then he was moving from one part time job to another without a permanent address.
The bottom line was that their son was an adult and he reported that he enjoyed his lifestyle. His wishes were dramatically driven home at the 2021 Turkey Night Grand Prix at Ventura Raceway. Bobby jumped at the chance to attend the race and joined his family at the hotel.
It was a pleasant visit. Janice East took the opportunity to buy new clothes for Bobby and all felt he would return to Indiana with them. Not so. It soon became apparent that he had no intention of leaving, and in the end asked the family to drop him off in town.
Bobby East could see the look of heartbreak on his parent‘s face but simply told them, “It‘s not as bad as you think.”