Joseph Emerson, the former Alaska Airlines pilot who attempted to shut off an SFO-bound plane's engines as he rode in the cockpit last fall, due to a bad and extended mushroom trip he was on, has given a new TV interview.

Emerson and his wife, Sarah Stretch, were on Good Morning America Friday morning, giving a new interview about his case, and their ongoing efforts to raise awareness about pilots' mental health.

The incident happened last October, and the flight, from Everett, Washington to San Francisco, diverted and made an emergency landing in Portland after Emerson's actions. As he explained in interviews last fall, and in court hearings, Emerson had been on a trip with friends to memorialize his best friend, Scott Pinney, a fellow pilot who had died in 2018.

The group had been camping in Washington's Methow Valley, and Emerson took psilocybin or "magic" mushrooms, hoping that they might help his ongoing depression about his friend's death. He said that when a friend drove him to the airport two days later, he still didn't feel right, but he was desperate to be home with his wife and kids in Danville.

"There was a feeling of being trapped, like, 'Am I trapped in this airplane and now I'll never go home?'" Emerson said. He said he contined, as he sat on a jump seat in the cockpit — a privilege for pilots flying standby — to feel "this isn't real, I'm not actually going home ... until I became completely convinced that none of this was real."

He says that he texted a friend about his mental state, and the friend texted back about doing breathing exercises. But the text was read aloud to him into his headset, which apparently increased his sense of unreality, and he ripped his headset off.

"And then, as the pilots didn't react to my completely abnormal behavior in a way that I thought would be consistent with reality, that is when I was like, 'This isn't real. I need to wake up,'" Emerson says.

In order to put a stop to this frightening, dreamlike state he was in, Emerson said he reached for two red handles above him which he knew to be fire-suppression handles that cut gas to the engines. The two pilots were able to pull his hands away, and he luckily was not able to shut off the engines.

As Emerson now explains to ABC News, "What I thought is, 'This is going to wake me up.' I know what those levers do in a real airplane and I need to wake up from this. You know, it's 30 seconds of my life that I wish I could change, and I can't."

He further says in the interview that he was jolted momentarily back to reality when the pilot physically grabbed his hand. But when he went back into the plane's cabin, after trying to chug some coffee directly out of a pot, his feeling of warped perception persisted. He, again, tried to "wake up" by reaching for the handle on the cabin door, and a flight attendant's touch jolted him back to reality again — and he asked her to handcuff him, which she did.

Emerson says that he didn't begin feeling more normal, and back to reality, until Tuesday — four days after he had taken the mushrooms.

He later learned from a jail physician in Portland, where he remained in custody for the next 45 days, that he likely suffered from hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD). The condition can affect people new to hallucinogens, and cause a trip to go on for days longer than it should, causing extended hallucinations and trouble perceiving what's real.

Emerson also tells ABC News that he has come to terms with his alcoholism, and though that may not have played a role in this incident, he had long been trying to self-medicate his own depression by, he says, "using a depressant."

Emerson now faces a possible trial this fall in Portland. While the most severe charges against him — 83 counts of attempted murder — were dropped by prosecutors last December, he still faces a host of federal and state charges, including 83 counts of reckless endangerment. A plea deal remains a possibility.

And while his flight career may be over, Emerson and his wife hope to make a difference with a nonprofit they've founded in recent months called Clear Skies Ahead, which aims to help pilots dealing with mental illness — and to remove the stigma that can sometimes prevent pilots from seeking treatment.

Emerson tells ABC News, "Of course I want to fly again," but he says he knows that may not be possible, and he, adds, "What is up to me is to do what's in front of me, put myself in a position where that's a possibility, that it can happen"

Previously: Former Alaska Airlines Pilot Accused of Trying to Bring Down Plane Freed From Jail Pending Trial