ipl-logo

Mood Disorders In The Film Helen

1581 Words7 Pages

Summary The Movie Helen, tells the story of a well accomplished and successful music professor who is going through depression, Helen. The movie shows how Helen redraws from her life—family, friends and career due to depression. This movie highlights the struggle people with disorders go through, the stigma they face and the importance of patience, understanding and support system for people going through depression or any mental illness. During the movie Helen is forced to come to terms with her depression and overcomes this with the help of her friend Matilda. Definition of Mood Disorder Mood disorders as diverse in nature. Mood disturbances are intense and happen long enough to be clearly dysfunctional and many times lead to serious problems …show more content…

In the film, we see that Helen has hypersomnia an example of this would be when she woke up from her sleep thinking it was still morning and wondering why Julia (her daughter) hadn't gone to school, not realizing that it was 4PM (Nettelbeck. S, 2009). Another symptom seen in the movie mentioned in the DSM-5 as symptom seven of criteria (A) is “feelings of worthlessness or excessive or inappropriate guilt (which may be delusional) nearly every day (not merely self-reproach or being sick)” (Butcher, Hooley & Mineka, 2014). She feels so guilty that she wanted to keep her illness away from her daughter and has a rage when she finds out that David told her daughter, Julia. The level of worthlessness and guilt Helen had was bad that she chose to move out and stay with Matilda. The sixth symptom seen in the movie as mentioned in the DSM-5 is “Recurrent thought of death (not just fear of dying), recurrent suicidal ideation without a specific plan, or a suicide attempt or s specific plan for committing suicide” (Butcher, Hooley & Mineka, 2014). In the movie, Helen had two attempted suicides, the first was when she tried to stab herself with a knife and the second time by overdosing. Criteria B of Major Depressive Disorder states that “the symptoms cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational or other important areas of functioning” (Butcher, Hooley & Mineka, 2014). From the symptoms mentioned above we see that Helen’ social, occupational and other necessary functioning areas of her life were drastically

Show More
Related
252 Words | 2 Pages

Many people experience depression, and don’t know how to show it, but Melinda finds a way around that problem by showing it in her drawings of trees in art class. In the novel Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda Sordino is pushed into arguably the worst year of her entire existence. After an obscured anguish over the summer, Melinda enters ninth grade being quiet and somber. Struggling with school, family, and friends, melinda explains the tragic story of her experiences, and the reason why she has decided not to speak. Although Melinda does show some evident outer signs, such as cutting her wrist with a paperclip, much of Melinda's depression is shown through her artwork of trees.

Read More
919 Words | 4 Pages

Then there are patients like Cheryl. Cheryl is a middle aged white woman, who is mostly seen dressed in sweats and t-shirts. Her hair is usually wild and untamed and she wears a pair of broken glasses, pieced together with tape. Many of these patients have experienced trauma, which may have been minor (i.e. bad grade on an exam) or extreme (i.e. sexual abuse), and may have led them to become more ill. This documentary exposes the truth behind those who suffer a mental illness and shows how they are still people who struggle with the same issues as those without a mental illness.

Read More
753 Words | 4 Pages

she questions the validity of the diagnoses. Susanna suicide attempt and delusions are what caused her to be admitted, although she showed no other signs of being mentally ill, she did have a mental breakdown. Lisa is diagnosed Sociopath it's clear she was misdiagnosed and is most likely Bipolar, but her misdiagnoses led to more mental health issues. Sociopaths are usually very charming, but show lack of empathy for others They tend to act out, but seem cold and collected in the face of tragedy like with Daisy's Suicide.

Read More
785 Words | 4 Pages

Once in Doylestown the quarreling between Joyce and Lionel had escalated just as “Joyce’s hypersensitivity and depression” increased as well. His mother was a hypochondriac who would take pills to help calm her nerves and when the pills seemed to fail she would double the dosage so

Read More
1102 Words | 5 Pages

As a result, if some sort of small altercation had broken out between Helen and one of her clients, its resoundingly possible that the man could have resorted to unintentionally or even intentionally killing Helen. This is even more likely when you consider that in the eyes of the client, Helen could’ve possibly been seen as more of a wife because of the effort she puts into the domestic side of her work. However, at the same time, she was still seen as a possession. This perspective can be seen through eyes of Bennett as he examines the Helen’s corpse with an eerie sense of lust and affection. Bennett doesn’t see the tragic result of an inhumane in the burnt remains of

Read More
410 Words | 2 Pages

In the film, American Psycho, Patrick Bateman works as a banker in Wall Street. Throughout the movie, people found in this career are constantly confused for one another, and Bateman is not an exception. The psychological disorder portrayed is yet to be accurately determined, though while watching the movie, I thought Antisocial Personality Disorder and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder were being portrayed. The symptoms shown in the movie for the personality disorder were irritability and aggressiveness, reckless disregard for self and others, and deceitfulness.

Read More
894 Words | 4 Pages

Another thing that led the narrator close to insanity was basically being isolated in the house. She spoke many times about wanting to see cousin Henry and Julia but John said he would only let her see them when she gets well and anytime before that he would rather "put fireworks in her pillowcase" than let her see those "stimulating people." After awhile she thought it was "discouraging not to have any advice and companionship." John spent most of his time in town because of serious cases and Jennie let her be alone when ever she wanted to be. When she was alone she said she would always cry I 've nothing and started to imagine things is the wallpaper.

Read More
540 Words | 3 Pages

The movie that I watched for this essay is Girl Interrupted. Girl Interrupted is about an eighteen-year-old girl named Susanna Kaysen who is admitted to Claymoore psychiatric hospital. She ends up in the hospital after having an overdose of medication. She begins to deny accusations that she was going commit suicide. Susanna has been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder.

Read More
640 Words | 3 Pages

Typically, those who are bipolar have intense emotional states that occur in distinct periods called mood episodes. (Bipolar) A mood episode is when your mood and behavior have a drastic change. Not all people do have these mood episodes. Some people who are

Read More
519 Words | 3 Pages

Bipolar Affective Mood Disorder, or commonly known as Bipolar Mood Disorder is one of the most commonly diagnosed, yet most difficult to treat as well as cure. In fact it can be safely said there is no permanent or long-lasting cure to this mental disorder, or more accurately put, chemical imbalance in the brain, mainly due to imbalance in levels of the chemical Ceratonin. Bipolarity is characterized as having two phases of extreme mood swings. In fact, the word in itself gives the meaning to the disorder. ‘Bi’ meaning two and ‘polar’ suggesting extremities.

Read More
1202 Words | 5 Pages

People with bipolar disorder experience unusual and intense emotional states called “Mood Episodes”, which represent a drastic change from a person’s usual mood and behavior, (National Institute of Mental Health). A. Mood episodes can be very explosive and irritable, (National Institute of Mental

Read More
960 Words | 4 Pages

“Depression is a disorder most commonly associated with adolescent suicide” (Hittleman 1). When the pain is too hard to endure, some choose to intentionally end their own lives. Teens usually face more difficulties than tweens, yet they’re not as mature as adults, making them the most vulnerable victims of depression. In Jay Asher’s novel Thirteen Reasons Why, he made an accurate portrayal of depression by delineating the pessimistic thoughts of protagonist Hannah Baker throughout her story, and without receiving succor from her friends, teachers or parents, committed suicide to end an unabated affliction. Depression is an agonizing experience, yet it can be imperceptible from outside.

Read More
935 Words | 4 Pages

The movie Shutter Island is overwhelmingly filled with themes of mental health. Before moving into the content of this paper I would like to disclose this movie contains a false and melodramatic portrayal of mental illness, this is not an accurate representation of the field. The movie begins with Federal Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his new partner traveling to a secluded island containing a mental facility for the criminally insane. They are supposedly there to investigate a missing patient, however, throughout the movie we see clips with signs and symptoms that point to Teddy’s own diagnosis of a mental disorder. That maybe Teddy isn’t exactly on the island for an investigation but has his own hidden secrets to uncover.

Read More
688 Words | 3 Pages

Throughout the movie she is diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. That basically meant that she had disorder that impacted the way she thought and felt about herself. Susanna went on basically hatting the mental hospital like she was forced to be there. While she is going through her days in the mental institution she meets many women with minor and extreme disorders. She also becomes friends with one of my favorite characters.

Read More
961 Words | 4 Pages

Silence of the Lambs Mental Health Analysis Silence of the Lambs explores the life of a psychiatrist with antisocial personality disorder who has a connection to a serial killer that is under investigation. While some of the characteristics presented in this movie correlate to those on the DSM-V for a person with antisocial personality disorder it creates a stigma and fear against people with mental illnesses. During the interviews Hannibal Lector shows many symptoms commonly observed in people with antisocial personality disorder and the facility shows the lack of resources and therapy for antisocial personality disorder (ASPD). Main Characters and Their relationship in the Presented Environment Lecter was interviewed by a training FBI agent Starling in a case of an old patient of

Read More

More about Mood Disorders In The Film Helen

Open Document