More details are emerging regarding Johnny Lewis' mental state just two days after the Sons of Anarchy star was found dead in a driveway in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Los Feliz.
In an exclusive interview with alternative sentencing specialist Wendy Feldman, who worked with Lewis after he got in trouble with the law this year, Feldman discussed the specific mental illnesses the actor was dealing with.
"I met Johnny to work with him on a potential alternative sentence that would keep him out of jail but into some sort of program," Feldman said. "We maintained the relationship for a period of 2 months, but there was such an obvious need for a medical therapeutic approach versus a common-sense life-skills approach."
Feldman, who operates the website Notes From an Insider, said Lewis was dealing with "psychopathy or bipolar disorder…something that needed a psychiatrist rather than a therapist." She said she didn't see him as someone who had been ravaged by drugs.
"Johnny denied to me he was taking drugs," Feldman said. "I didn't see that profile. I really saw someone who had mental illness."
Police have yet to determine whether or not drugs or alcohol played a role in Wednesday's bizarre turn of events.
In terms of his prescription drug use, however, the troubled thesp, who had a history of run-ins with the law in recent months struggled with taking his medication while he was locked up, according to Feldman.
"When he was in the L.A. county jail system, he didn't want to take his meds that he was prescribed in the psych unit," Feldman said.
A source told E! News Lewis was on a bipolar drug called Abilify until June. He reportedly stopped taking the medication when he couldn't afford it anymore.
And in addition to his criminal record and issues with prescription drugs, Feldman said Lewis' relationship with his parents was "estranged" and he was in the midst of a custody battle.
"He was brokenhearted about that," Feldman continued. "When he talked about his daughter, he talked about love."
A source said in spite of Lewis' distance from his family, "his father actually recognized he was very ill, and was pro him getting treatment for psychosis and his bipolar disorder."
"His father is actually very kind and wanted him to get better," the source went on.
Like many people in his life, Feldman said she wasn't shocked at all by Lewis' death.
"That's the lesson, if anyone can get a lesson out of this tragedy. He had the diagnosis of very serious mental illness that was not being treated, and that's why it becomes obvious that you're gonna have a tragic end result of some great magnitude."
Lewis died after plummeting from the roof of a house where he rented a room. The home's 81-year-old owner was found dead inside and Lewis is suspected of killing her.