Craig Gilner is an intelligent sixteen-year-old boy from Brooklyn, New York. He attends the prestigious and competitive Executive Pre-Professional High School, with eight hundred of the best students found within the five boroughs. He lives with both of his parents and a younger sister. Although his family is very supportive, his father spends most of his time preoccupied with work, his mother can be very fragile, and his little sister is incredibly advanced and intelligent for her age. His best friend, Aaron, also attends the Executive Pre-Professional High School where he excels in both academics and extra-curriculars.
Craig has a history of various psychological problems; he struggles with anxiety, stress, difficulties eating and sleeping, and one year ago he was diagnosed with depression. When Craig is first introduced in It’s Kind of a Funny Story, he is also struggling with suicidal thoughts and ideations. He often experiences dreams in which he tries to attempt suicide by jumping off
…show more content…
He often expresses to his psychiatrist that he feels a tremendous amount of pressure to excel in school in order to get a good job, education, and life. This pressure mainly comes from his father, who cares more about an application for a summer internship than the fact that Craig voluntarily admitted himself into a psychiatric clinic. In addition, Craig constantly feels that he is not good enough to be attending the Executive Pre-Professional High School. In internal monologues, he views himself as an underachiever compared to his peers and questions his place in school. Craig also feels that he is living in Aaron’s shadow, who appears to have everything Craig wants both academically and socially, including the girl he’s loved for two years. He is also excessively worried that his friends will find out about his mental illness, which causes significant distress especially while in Three