NASHUA – When his son was turning 13, John Broderick noticed he was starting to spend a lot of time alone. When his son went to high school, he began smoking behind his parent’s back. In college, he began drinking every day.

“I didn’t understand what was going on,” Broderick said.

The former chief justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court told his story, and the story of his son, John Christian Broderick, to students at Nashua High School South on Tuesday. It’s part of his effort to get the signs of mental illness known, so that people suffering can get help.

“We don’t talk enough about this, and we need to talk about it,” Broderick said.

Since he started the Change Direction campaign last year, Broderick has travelled more than 32,000 miles in New Hampshire to tell his story, and to get people aware of those around them who might be suffering from a mental illness.

Broderick thought his son was dealing with an addiction to alcohol. After helping him through four rehabilitation programs, Broderick allowed his son to live at home for a time. Soon enough, he and his wife decided the son’s inability to stop drinking required “tough love” and kicked him out.

“I didn’t understand what was going on,” Broderick said.

Broderick drove to his job on the Supreme Court, while his son lived on the streets, drinking and struggling to survive. What the judge did not know, and did not understand, was that his son’s heavy use of alcohol was not the problem. It was the underlying mental illnesses that caused John self-medicate with alcohol.

Broderick brought his son back into his home a few weeks after kicking him out, but the situation soon erupted into violence. In 2002, John, while suffering a mental health crisis, attacked his father, hitting him in the face with a guitar and breaking the bones in his face.

John ended up going to prison for the assault, but has received treatment since. Now that he is free and healthy, his father has dedicated himself to working on behalf of the mentally ill, and trying to educate people on how to recognize mental illness.

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, joining Broderick, said that while the government could not solve the state’s mental health crisis alone, everyone working together could. That starts with teens being willing to talk to someone they trust about themselves or their friends who might be dealing with a mental health problem.

“What we’re really talking about here is tough conversations,” he said.

Damien Fisher can be reached at 594-1245 or dfisher@nashuatelegraph.com or @Telegraph_DF.