March
3, 2013
Today I
want to review a movie in relation to thoughts about my nephew.
Spoiler
alert: if you haven't seen "Silver Linings Playbook" but want to,
don't read this unless you want to know how it ends.
Christy
and I went to see the movie "Silver Linings Playbook" a couple of
days ago. I loved it. I'm pretty sure she did, too. But it's really more of a
feel-good movie than a realistic one. Yes, it's the way we wish things could turn
out in a situation like that, but, having lived with a husband who was
afflicted with bipolar disorder, I don't believe that a person can be
"cured" by finding the "right person" to fix them. I guess the movie didn't proclaim that
"Pat" was cured and it only got as far as the cozy family scene after he and "Tiffany" had declared their love for each other and were
acting "normal" in a social setting, so we don't really know what
happens beyond that. . . a day or a month or a year later. And probably none of
us really want to think about what happens beyond that. Let us just leave with
the idea that they all lived happily ever after. But from my experience, the normalcy would
not have lasted very long. Now, don't get me wrong--I loved the story, the
acting, and the glimpse of hope that this movie offered. But life is so damned
much more complicated than movies.
There
were a few realistic touches that gave an accurate taste of living with someone
afflicted with this disease. The things that had a ring of truth: Pat
complaining that his medication made him feel "foggy." Pat waking his
parents at 3 and 4 in the morning because his mind was racing with obsessive
thoughts.
After
seeing this movie, I've heard several people say that they know someone just
like Pat. Which leads me to believe that more of us have experience dealing
with mental illness than any of us realize.
And
mental illness cannot be cured in the way this movie suggests any more than any
physical illness can be cured by mind over matter. I'm not saying that doctors
and western medicine have all the answers or that pharmaceuticals are the cure
for everything by any means. What I'm saying is that there are no easy answers
to any of this. And I'm not really sure how to find them.
And back
to my thoughts about my nephew. One of the worst thoughts I've had is about the
medication he was on. He was diagnosed with depression. Which is a mental
illness. Just a few months ago, he had started taking an antidepressant and
seeing a therapist. I have heard that there is some risk associated with
antidepressants in that they can actually exacerbate the problem. They come
with the warning of possible suicidal thoughts. And they tell the sufferer to
see a doctor if this happens. . . I'm sorry, this thought just chills me. What
if the person can't/won't/ is incapable of heeding that warning. We don't want
to believe that a medication could cause a worsening of a condition. But they
do. And the worsening of a condition like this is. . . the ultimate worst.
