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Symptoms In 'The Perks Of Being A Wallflower'

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The Perks of Knowing Your Symptoms
In the movie The Perks of Being a Wallflower there is a persistent common factor of trauma throughout the entire movie. This movie portrays trauma and its effect on a person's life and the lives of the people around them. So, what is a wallflower? A wallflower is exactly what it sounds like, someone who tends to stay on the outside of people and groups. Someone who stands alone up against a wall. A wallflower is Charlie. Charlie, the main character in the movie, is someone who has been through a lot of traumatic experiences. This is why he tends to live in the shadows, alone just like a wallflower. In the movie, Charlie is not specifically diagnosed with any type of disorder that is presented to viewers. However, from watching the movie, Charlie clearly suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder otherwise known as PTSD. …show more content…

In Charlie's case, he has flashbacks to the trauma he's witnessed. He has flashbacks to when his aunt molested him as a child while he was in high school. His symptoms occur throughout his entire school year which fits the diagnostic criteria for PTSD. In addition, Charlie avoids talking about going through these traumatic experiences. He refuses to talk about what happened to his best friend and his aunt. Charlie also has negative alterations in mood and cognition. When Charlie gets depressed he becomes very dark. His thoughts take over his body and he becomes a completely different person. Charlie's aunt died on her way to get a gift for him. As a result, Charlies carried an overwhelming amount of guilt and shame. He thought she died because of him. All of these symptoms meet the diagnostic criteria for Charlie to be diagnosed with

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But when Charlie got the surgery, he realized when his intelligence was wearing off, he got super depressed but he powered through the depression. One quote from the book that indicates depression is “please... please let me not forget how to read and write.” (keyes 25). Even though he is forgetting how to read and write and he is getting depressed, he powers through the depression. On the last page he says “im taking a cuple of books along and even if i cant reed them ill practise hard and maybe i wont forget every thing i learned.

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