Silver Lining Playbook PTSD Bipolar OCD!

Silver Linings Playbook  Post Tramatic Stress Disorder Bipolar OCD

Finally a movie that touches on what mental illness such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Bi-polar, and OCD looks and feels like.

Last week I attended a presentation by NAMI Stand Up Against Stigma is the National Alliance for Mental Illness statement for May Mental Health Awareness Month. 

The first day Silver Lining came out was I think the same day.  I really wasn't sure what the movie was about but as I watched it, I was overwhelmed with emotion as I yelled and cried out FINALLY a movie to help us with Mental Illness be understood and hopefully accepted back into society without prejudice. 

Then on Saturday, I received my NAMI magazine and they have a full article about the movie.  Wow someone is reaching out to me to push forward with my book because it is very timely and further illustrates what it is like to have PTSD, Conversion and Somatization disorders. 

In Silver Linings Playbook: Movie Trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZLKfYQ_Wyo

Pat Solatano- a man with Bi-polar and PTSD.

The Movie illustrates:

• The challenges of coming home after a hospital stay.  His wife was caught having an affair and he beat the man severely. 
• How people in the small town react to him with prejudice and are terrified of him because they know what he did. 
• Behaviors that are routine and comforting to Pat but are abnormal to others; example, wears a garbage bag while running because he sweats. 
• How up and down emotions are high and lows, etc
• Shows how Pat's hearing is affected when he hears a song that isn't playing because of the trauma he experienced with his wife's affair.  
• Others with mental illness accept each other and can be the biggest help to overcome challenges. 

Society Non - Acceptance = Mental Illness Stigma

Peer to Peer Support = Acceptance, Encouragement, True Friendship

Jennifer Lawrence- a woman with depression and challenges of being known as the town slut. Pat exhibits concern, encouragement and is protective of her when men approach her house and in society, because of her prior reputation. She helps Pat to overcome his challenges and to get his life back together and in the process she accepts him for who he is regardless of his mental illness.

Robert De Niro is the father with Obsessive Compulsion Disorder it shows how his disorder affects his family relationships, money situation because of superstitions while betting on football games, again a routine that makes him feel safe and that all is right in his world.  Also shows how one family member with mental illness can trigger another family with mental illness and how it causes chaos in the house.

Book Cover

Flashbacks in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Surviving the Flood does this very thing by describing in detail what it is like to have distressing flashbacks, body memories, sensitivity to sound, smell, touch, and leaving reality to go to the past as triggers arise in everyday tasks and environment. Also, how upsetting it is for a patient to have to accept medications when it is their only choice to control their diagnoses. It also illustrates in detail what therapy looks and feels like, as the little girl switches ego-states, while going through the process of healing.  It also shows the transition from a hospital stay to home life and the judgement of people who know that you were in the hospital. 

After reading this book, you will have a road map back to sanity while making new trusting relationships with people you chose to be a part of your healing journey.

 

Anyone affected by mental illness will be able utilize the steps in this book to assist loved ones in finding the path to their unique healing journey.

 

You will have gone through the entire healing process so if you experience a relapse or regression you will recover quickly reinforcing that you have control of your mental illness.

 

Leslie Raddatz