Blanche Dubois Mental Illness Essay

Hello there Doctor,

My name is Harold Mitchell or Mitch and I have a concern about my one close friend named Blanche. Blanche is someone who I met when she was visiting her sister, Stella. Blanche was a single lady who came from the small town of Laurel and decided to move in with her sister for a few months after having a past few months back in Laurel. Blanche and I became very close and had a few romantic encounters, but I am not going to marry her. However, I have noticed some very strange things with Blanche that make me think she has some mental issues and PTSD from her past. Blanche used to be a married woman. Unfortunately, one day her husband shot himself to death making Blanche lose her special someone. She was absolutely devastated

The first example that shows Blanche having PTSD is when she was re-experiencing symptoms. When she heard the vendor that was selling flowers for the dead, she had flashbacks of all the deaths that happened in her life. The next example that shows Blanche having PTSD is when she avoids being in lighted rooms. When there is light, Blanche avoids it as she does not want to be shown in true light. She is usually in dark rooms with not much light. She does not want to show her true self in the light and wants to hide from reality. The third example is Blanche being very on the edge and easily scared, always never having confidence. She is afraid of growing old as she slept with one of her students to make herself feel young again. She is also afraid of not being desirable to men, the desires of men, judgment, and having people discover the real truth about her. She creates many lies to make herself feel better. The last example is Blanche experiencing cognition. She blames the loss of her family home on her sister, Stella, but she doesn't even acknowledge the loss of the family home at all. She blames her mistakes on other people to make herself feel less guilty. These symptoms truly do show that Blanche does have PTSD. All those symptoms that help diagnose PTSD is what Blanche has. Before she was taken away she said, “I shall die of eating an unwashed

I know that she can be helped and can be recovered. She will have a successful life after she gets the treatment she deserves. I think the best treatment she needs is cognitive restructuring. From the article it says, it “helps people make sense of the traumatic event. Sometimes people remember the event differently from how it happened. They may feel guilt or shame about something that is not their fault. Cognitive restructuring can help people with PTSD think about what happened in a realistic way” (“Post-Traumatic”). This would help Blanche because this treatment helps people make sense of the event. Sometimes it even helps that person remember the event differently to help them feel less guilty which is the perfect case for Blanche. Blanche feels guilty because she felt that her husband shot himself because of her. This treatment will help her feel less guilty and for her to look at the event a different way. If Blanche does not get this treatment, she will continue to live with guilt the rest of her life. However, if Blanche does get the treatment she needs, she will have a successful life again. She will get her life back together and potentially even have a new look at life. She needs to not be afraid of what she looks like, and to accept her mistakes and to make them up. She can get a