Mental health and the Movies

The movie that I chose to watch was “Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood”. At first glance this is a movie about the struggles of a mother daughter relationship and the bond of friendship. But as you watch the movie from a more discerning perspective you notice it is about much, much more. The movies touches on mental illness, alcoholism, drug abuse, addiction, love, child abuse, family relationships and probably a whole lot more that I was not able to pull out.

Do the characters (often more than one) in the movie exhibit any traits of a specific psychiatric disorder? Describe in detail these traits and the disorders(s) they represent. Are there coexisting or dual diagnoses? Include the pathophysiology f the disorder(s).
1. The main character Vivi suffered from mental illness more specifically generalized anxiety disorder that progressed to Panic disorder. Vivi suffered from verbal and emotional child abuse by being caught in the crossfire of an unhappy marriage of her parents. Vivi’s true love was killed in WWII. She was unable to deal with the grief or loss she suffered, which further impaired her mental health. Instead she married and suppressed her emotions. This movie took place prior to 1969 in which Kubler-Ross developed the “Stages of Grief” which include stage I – Denial, Stage II – Anger, Stage III - Bargaining, Stage IV – Depression, and finally Stage V – Acceptance. In Vivi’s case she went through stage I – III but Stage IV which is related to dealing with depression which was where she stopped and stayed. Because this movie took place in the 1950’s the school of thought was suffer through, do not talk about your emotions, and take a pill if your day gets to rough. Her depression, anxiety and pain hit her like waves against a sandcastle until finally she crumbled. She had no coping skills and she used alcohol and prescribed medications to try to heal her pain but eventually her mild anxiety turned to panic anxiety which ultimately resulted in a full mental breakdown. The mental breakdown led to her physically beating her children in which she repressed the memory and finally, she was involuntary hospitalized for six months. The movie does not talk about her treatment only states that she chose to repress the memory and did not want it ever brought up again. I think the character was ashamed of her actions

As in this movie and true to life Vivi was not the only victim of her mental illness. Her oldest daughter Sidda was very traumatized by her mother’s mental health. She suffered abandonment issues because she did not understand why her mother left her. The character Sidda’s lack of knowledge regarding mental illness made her feel like she could have prevented the breakdown of her mother. Sidda spent many years in therapy struggling to find answers to the question asked by so many people in our society “why?” Sidda herself struggled with commitment issues and suppressed her pain with denial. I think a key point of this movie is many people have lack of knowledge when it comes to dealing with mental issues of loved one and many people suffer due to this lack of education.

The last character I want to talk about is Shep Walker the husband of Vive. Shep was a kind man who loved his wife and family but suffered from lack of knowledge relating to mental illness. His suppression, Lack of knowledge and denial of what was happening to his wife caused long term damage to his children and had a huge impact on how they coped and functioned in their daily lives.

How did you react to the characters in the movie? Di you find yourself marking any character o moral judgments of the character(s)? Does your knowledge of mental health nursing alter your response to the characters or the movie?
2. I felt sad for the characters, I think anytime people do not have the ability to cope with changes in life it is definitely unfortunate. I don’t think I judged any of the characters, if anything I think I just kept thinking I am glad that when I have had to face changes in life I have had the coping ability to go through the process in a fairly normal manner, for instance death. Even though I had no knowledge of Kubler-Ross theory those were the steps that I naturally went through and I think it is sad when people fixate and are not able cope and move on. My knowledge of mental health nursing makes me feel empathy towards the characters in the movie. It makes me realize that this women’s illness is not a choice and solutions rather than judgment should be considered.

Mental health and addictive disorders affect families and significant others. (“Family diseases”). How do the other characters cope with or react t the behaviors of the primary characters)? Are these unhealthy, enabling, codependent, destructive, or supportive behaviors? Describe.
3. As I stated in questions one there was a huge knowledge deficit regarding mental illness in the characters portrayed in this movie. Because of the shame and embarrassment felt by Vivi after the treatment the breakdown was never discussed per her request. Sidda blamed herself for the breakdown of her mother and at one point in the movie she says “I always wondered what I had did wrong.” The lack of communication regarding the breakdown was destructive to the mental health of the children involved. It left the children with low self-esteem and abandonment issues as well believing somehow they contributed to their mothers breakdown. The feelings that the children specifically Sidda experienced were completely unhealthy, destructive and led to long term emotional damage.
What ethical questions or moral dilemmas did the movie portray? How were these resolved, or overcome, if they were?
4. One of the moral dilemmas is when should people step in, the three friends of Vivi as well as her husband regretted not sitting down with the children and explaining to them what had occurred with their mother. They never discussed it because Vivi was ashamed of herself, the result were the children went into their adult life blaming themselves. So the question arises is the feelings or possible embarrassment of one more important than the emotional stability of another? I don’t believe so.
An ethical dilemma I saw was the passing out of medications without regard to patient safety. The main character received her medication from a town doctor who it was implied in the movie gave out a lot of prescription at the expense of his patients, with negative results. The question that came to mind was, were the doctors and the drugs they were prescribing even being monitored during that time? I doubt that they were, even now prescription drug abuse is a huge problem in our society. It is close to my heart because my aunt died from a prescription drug overdose, and when she died we found in her possession multiple unfilled prescription signed by a psychiatrist. I am grateful for the regulation and tighter control on medication that has evolved over the years.