Mental Illness In Still Alice And A Beautiful Mind

Illness and Love To live with a mental illness is not as bad as living with someone who is suffering from a mental illness. Both of the protagonists of Lisa Genova’s Still Alice and Sylvia Nasar’s A Beautiful Mind suffer a mental illness, Alzheimer’s Disease and Schizophrenia. The problems that the protagonists’ face in their daily life, not only affects themselves but puts their loved ones in an uncomfortable situation. Mental illness impacts every aspect of an individual’s life and leaves a calamitous imprint on the lives of everyone involved. Family members of an individual who is living with a mental illness put their relationship at risk if they do not provide a support system. Several cases show that many family members tend to ignore

All of her kids were successful, except for Lydia. Lydia was the unique one who never had a close bond with her mother. When Alice was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, not only was her career failing but so was her relationships with her loved ones. John Howland was a smart and caring husband towards Alice but, was not mentally prepared to take on a bigger role of taking care of his wife. He often did not believe that his wife had Alzheimer’s and was trying to escape the truth. “Are you concerned that your diagnosis might be inaccurate? /We [John] think it’s a real possibility” (Genova 83). This conversation was between John and a nurse at the hospital because John was taking more precautious measures such as testing for APP, PS1 and PS2 mutations to confirm the diagnosis, “John had done his homework. He’d spent the last several weeks buried in literature…of Alzheimer’s.” (83). Since Alzheimer’s is a genetic disease, it is known that it will travel to the kids. Alice has 3 kids: Anna, Tom, and Lydia. Anna was the only known offspring to inherit the gene while Lydia wanted to keep it a secret. “You’re [Lydia] choosing to dismiss what she wants because she has Alzheimer’s/ If [John] she got everything she unilaterally wanted, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.” (262-263). The conflict starts to arise as Alice’s

John Nash and Alice Howland ‘s condition leaves their loved ones hurt. Even when their condition causes problems in their relationship, they find a way to heal the connection, a support system. At the end of the story, at John Nash’s Nobel Peace Prize speech, he thanked Alicia Nash for always being there for him, through thick and thin. “Perhaps it is good to have a beautiful mind, but an even greater gift is to discover a beautiful heart” (Nasar 390). He quoted this at his speech because Alicia taught him about “a beautiful heart” and he connected it with a beautiful mind. Alice Howland ended up forgetting Lydia and sometimes her other kids, John Howland eventually comprised with Alice, when he asked Alice “Why [Alice] do we need to leave now/ No.[John] Take your time” (Genova 268). Alice and John’s support system turned out to be their spouses, who never gave up on