Evaluating Harry In The Film Requiem For A Dream

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Harry’s Biopsychosocial Evaluation I will be evaluating Harry in the movie “Requiem for a Dream”. The patient will be diagnosed using criteria found in the 5th edition of The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, known as the DSM-5 (APA, 2013). All of the factors contributing to Harry’s psychopathological state will be quantified biologically, psychologically, and sociologically (i.e. biopsychosocial model). My hypothesis for the mental disorder that Harry is suffering from is Severe Opioid Use Disorder. Harry has endured a multitude of stressors such as the issues with his mother, friends, girlfriend, drugs, and matters related to drugs. These factors absolutely perpetuate his issue with using, it could also be what started …show more content…

These factors cause so much stress to Harry that it ends up in acute depression which then is solved temporarily by his drug use. It is clear that in Harry’s mind, drugs are the answer. It is his answer to financial woes and his answer to feeling bad. Due to the fact that feeling bad and finances are pressing issues for Harry; there is no doubt his mind will prefer substance use. According to the DSM-5, the essential features of substance withdrawal are cognitive and physiological concomitants and behavioral changes that are due to the fact that the person stopped or reduced their drug use. The only time these symptoms are relieved, at least partially, is by consuming more of the substance in which they are addicted to. (APA, 2013) Since it is inevitable that Harry will run out of heroin, it is just a matter of time until he does something desperate for it and the desperation will continue because addicts spend a great deal of time acquiring drugs or getting money to get said drugs. Since Harry is experiencing withdrawal, he is displaying the exact specifications of substance withdrawal in the light that his addiction-addled mind is caught in a loop of activities that can produce a situation in which drugs are the end …show more content…

As stated previously, dopamine rewards from drugs are what cause the continuation of drugs. So biological alterations, such as lowered dopamine in the brain, creates a response to restore dopamine (i.e. consume heroin), and this produces psychological alterations due to the need of acquiring heroin again, such as the mental withdrawal process of behavioral changes, cognitive and physiological concomitants, also a blatantly blind devotion of time and resources to acquiring heroin. In essence, the drive of withdrawal and/or his possible predisposition for addictive tendencies fuels his psychological need for intake of opiates. The psychological pains of withdrawal is largely what manifests his impaired control of drug usage. Marion and Tyrone both have a strong influence on Harry to at least be around heroin, and being around heroin would absolutely trigger Harry’s psychological need to consume. This social-psychological interaction also interacts with the biological-psychological interactions that were stated previously. The way this happens is that since Harry cannot control his habits, has psychological and biological tendencies towards heroin, and has close friends that are heavily involved in heroin, leads him to a greater chance of using heroin since the

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