Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness, is a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels, and the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks (nimh.nih.gov). People that have this mental illness tend to easily lose their focus and gets triggered by anything that changes their mood. There are two types of episodes that occurs manic and depressive. During a manic episode, a person often behaves recklessly, picking fights and lashing out at people. During a depressive episode, the same person might have little energy, feel sad and hopeless (helpguide.org). This greatly affects their relationships with the people around them especially their family, friends, or significant other. Unfortunately, there is …show more content…
Bipolar disorder is becoming so common that Hollywood has made several films about it, but probably the most popular one was the 2012 movie called Silver Linings Playbook. The film Silver Linings Playbook, starring Bradley Cooper, is set in Philadelphia as he plays the main character Patrick “Pat” Solitano Jr., a diagnosed bipolar who was released from a mental institution and later moves back with his parents. According to the Mayo Clinic website, there are two types of bipolar disorders: Bipolar I and Bipolar II. Bipolar I is about experiencing manic episodes and this can cause a significant impairment in the person’s life such as difficulty at work, social activities, or relationships. This could also cause to trigger a break from reality. Bipolar II deals with depressive episodes, but have never experience manic episodes and this can cause distress or difficulty in areas of the person’s life such as decreased need for sleep, racing thoughts, or distractibility (mayoclinic.org). Between the two types of bipolar disorders, Pat Solitano expresses the symptoms for Bipolar disorder I. …show more content…
After being release from the mental institution, he tells his mother to bring him to the library to read some of Nikki’s teaching syllabus. Later that night, Pat finishes one of the books and gets furious about the ending that he throws it out of the window, breaking it. Afterwards, he goes to his parents’ room and wakes them up ranting about how Nikki lets her students read an awful book because a character died leaving in a sad note. He thinks that life is already bad as it is that it should’ve ended in happily ever after. The next day Pat decides to visit his old house where he and Nikki used to live. In addition, he stops by the local high school and talks to a teacher asking if Nikki still works there. The teacher gets scared and reminds him of the restraining order, in the end he doesn’t get any information about Nikki. Once he gets home, the police officer shows up and gives a warning to Pat to stay 500 feet away from their house and any establishments that he’s restricted. Another impact was during the Eagles game, when Patrick’s brother gets into a fight with a bunch of guys. At first, he was trying to calm himself down, but loses control seeing his brother getting beat up. This makes his father upset and starts blaming him for the defeat of the Eagles. The impact of Bipolar Disorder was realistically portrayed in the
Throughout the movie, Pat displays signs and symptoms of Bipolar I disorder. He has moods swings that go back and forth between manic episodes and depressed episodes. We see the manic episodes with his aggressive behavior, easy irritation, increased physical activity (always out jogging in the neighborhood), lack of sleep, and very poor
As his year went by Pat thought he had a high chance in playing college basketball so on the day of his first game as a senior Coach Mel Thompson from the The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina. That night Conroy had an astonishing 22 pts which made up for his junior year where he left off on a rough note. Following the game, Coach Thompson came to the locker and was talking to Pat’s coach who he pointed out Conroy in the back changing which suddenly lead to Coach Thompson talking to Pat about how he would love to have him play at Citadel. As the year continued Pat had realized what an opportunity he had at playing college basketball but, he was perplexed as to why he had not received an offers from schools. That night Conroy went home to find his mother crying, Conroy formerly asked his mother “ why are you crying?” (Conroy 182) his mother’s response to him was “ I could not hold it in anymore Pat but, your father has ripped all of your scholarships.” (Conroy 182) from that moment on Pat’s attitude towards his father would change, meaning he was all on his own due to the fact that his mother was alongside his father. As Pat’s freshman year in college was coming he now realize as
This is due to the fact that you can be both manic and depressed, but not at the same time. Some key symptoms of mania are: sleeping very little but feeling extremely energized, grandiose beliefs about ones abilities, rapid talking, racing thoughts, increased goal oriented activity and inflated self esteem. In the documentary, Sam displayed all of the symptoms during his manic episodes. Some key symptoms of bipolar depression are: feeling worthlessness, sad or empty, thoughts of death or suicide, weight changes, sleep problems, difficulty concentrating, irritability, retardation and agitation. Sam displayed most but not all of these symptoms. He was feeling worthlessness, had thoughts of suicide, and had changes in his weight. More specifically, he gained weight during his depressed episodes. The main DSM-5 symptoms of bipolar depression are: depressed mood most of the day or nearly everyday, diminished interest or pleasure, significant weight loss or gain, insomnia or hypersomnia, psychomotor agitation, fatigue, feelings of worthlessness or guilt, thoughts of suicide and diminished ability to think or concentrate. The main character Sam showed significant signs of weight gain when he was in his depressed state. He also showed signs of feeling worthless. During a sit down with the filmmaker of the documentary, Sam was telling him that he felt empty and that he didn’t have pleasure or interest in much of anything. Sam later on in
Desire. Pat was a man who wanted. Wanted to live on the edge, craved a challenge, needed to be busy. When told in High School that he was too small to play baseball, he chose not to join the chess team, but lift weights and play football instead. Headstrong and filled with hubris, he would decide his course and stick with it. While meeting with the head coach of ASU’s football team he announced to his superior, “Coach, you can play me or not play me, but I’m only going to be here four years. And then I’ve got things to do with my life (Page 71-72).” Running his own show, he refused to let the world get in his way.
Bipolar Disorder (Formerly known as Manic Depression) is a mental illness linked to alterations in moods such as mood swings, mania, and depression. There is more than one type, Bipolar I and Bipolar II, and the subcategories are divided by the severity of the symptoms seen, such as cyclothymic disorder, seasonal mood changes, rapid cycling disorder and psychosis. Age of onset usually occurs between 15-30 years old with an average onset of 25 years old but it can affect all ages. (Harvard Medical School; Massachusetts General Hospital , 2013) Bipolar disorder affects more than two million people in the United States every year. (Gardner, 2011)
Other than his teacher, he has two best friends named Patrick and his step sister Sam. Patrick is a happy and care free guy who happens to be homosexual and has a hard time dealing with that in school due to bullying, especially because his secret boyfriend named Brad, who is the quarterback of the football team, doesn’t want anyone to know about their relationship. Sam is Patrick’s step sister and a senior in high school. She has a boyfriend named Craig who is also a senior and has to reject Charlie when he confesses his love for her because of him. Charlie was hurt when Sam rejected him, so Patrick helped him find a new girl to crush on.
The main character Pat who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, displayed signs of manic episodes such as: fast talking, rambling with words, and no sleep. There were about 3 scenes of Pat waking his parents up early in the morning because he was looking for something, or could not wait to tell them something in the morning. Throughout most of the film, Pat exhibits a lot of delusions. Before hospitalization, it is briefly mentioned that Pat was accusing his wife and another teacher (who ironically was the man who this wife cheated on) embezzling money from him. After hospitalization, there were delusions that him and his wife were perfect for each other and they were going to be work through their marriage when that clearly was not the
Bipolar disorder is a lifelong mood disorder characterized by periods of mania, depression, or a mixed manic-depressive state. The condition can seriously affect a person’s reasoning, understanding, awareness, and behavior. Acco...
For example, his wife cheating on him was by far one of the biggest impacts. Pat was always living a bipolar lifestyle, but he just self managed his condition, keeping his symptoms to a minimum. This incident escalated his condition, which pushed him to his breaking point. Another thing that could have affected the development of his mental illness was by him not taking his medication. Yes, there are some pretty bad side effects of most medications, but this was physician subscribed and he refused to take it. The medication could have subsided or in terms lessened the severity of his condition. Towards the end of the movie, we see Pat finally giving in to take his medication after many violent outbursts. One last thing that I feel could have escalated his condition was his father. In Pat’s family, he was always seen as the outcast and was not treated the same as others. His father says in the movie that he regrets not spending as much time with him as a kid and that he was trying to make up for it now. His father did not know how to handle Pat’s violent mood swings as a child and that itself lead to them having an unhealthy father-son relationship. One thing that I have learned throughout this chapter is how important family is in helping a person with a mental illness with guiding them through their process of recovery. There are many factors that can drive and worsen a mental disorder, but there
Bipolar disorder is a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in a person's mood, energy, and ability to function.
Pat, when in a depressive mood swing, suffers anxiety of being forgotten, lonely and betrayed (Martinez, 2004). The stress of knowing he has this anxiety also can create more anxiety and stress (Martinez, 2004). The treatment in the movie he receives is therapy and medication, however cognitive therapy would mostly help him more in the long wrong (Comer, 2014). He needs to process the stress and anxiety and emotion in order to recover and progress forward and not be caught in the past (Comer, 2014). Pat must face his dysfunctional thoughts and work through them. Tiffany is stressed through her unprocessed feeling and is then anxious when it comes time to face her real thoughts and emotions. This stress causes her to have anxiety toward anything having to do with relationships because it relates back to her unresolved feelings with her late husband. She is avoiding this. In order to process these emotions, she will need to probably need to go through some exposure therapy (Bonanno, 2004). She will need to slowly be able to say her husbands name and slowly start looking at pictures and then ultimately visit his grave (Bonanno, 2004). This way she will be able to face her feelings, process them, and then move forward in
Pat has to readjust to his new life throughout the movie. Pat now has no wife, no job, no house, and many new battles. Pat is a character with emotional regulation issues and poor social skills. As the movie develops we follow Pat as he grows as a person and gains coping skills to adjust to his new
The characteristics of bipolar disorder are significant shifts in mood that go from manic episodes to deep depressive episodes in a up and down trip that seemingly never ends. There are actually three types of bipolar disorder. In bipolar III disorder there is a family history of mania or hypomania in addition to the client experiencing depressive episodes. This category is not highly used but is worth noting. Bipolar II disorder is marked by hypomanic episodes that have not required hospitalization. Bipolar I disorder is the full-blown illness and is defined by the presence of manic episodes which require treatment, and usually hospitalization (Wilner 44).
Bipolar Disorder is the tendency of manic episodes to alternate with major depressive episodes, like a roller coaster. Barlow, D., Durand, M., Stewart, S., & Lalumière, M., 2014, p. 222. Their moods and relationships are unstable and they usually have a very poor self image, recurrent feelings of emptiness and fear of abandonment. Barlow, D., Durand, M., Stewart, S., & Lalumière, M., 2014, p. 444.
The film, Of Two Minds, is based on real life accounts of individuals living with bipolar disorder. Before watching this film, I had an idea of what bipolar disorder is , but after viewing this film I was completely mistaken. Previously, I thought being bipolar was going from a “normal” mood to an angry or sad mood in a matter of seconds and could be simply fixed by taking medicine. But my previous thoughts were completely wrong and bipolar disorder is very serious and complicated. I didn’t know the severity of this disease and I think a lot of the general public is uneducated about bipolar disorder as well as mental illness. Terri Cheney describes having bipolar disorder as, “Take the best day you ever had and multiply it by a million, it 's like a flu but one hundred times worse. It 's having flu in your mind."