It seems she had some personality disorder, narcissism, she's self-centered. But that's NOT a depression.
Dissapointing movie.
I haven't seen the movie so I can't say how it compares to the book. But I can tell you beyond the shadow of a doubt she was clinically depressed. I highly recommend the book for a very illuminating story of a mental health disorder that is highly pertinent to our culture.
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^^^^^ Ahhhh how old are you 12?
Please... grow up.
Do not fret. You are fearless in a way I shall never know - The Village
This movie was crap. I'm upset I spent money to rent it. The book was much better.
Anyway, it does show aspects of depression, however, a woman/man who is clinically depressed does not change moods so drastically. Many people that suffer clinical depression have a fairly stable mood, albiet morose, tired, or anxious.
Wurtzel is up and down on the pole ends of the spectrum consistently. For example, when she was with her mother and cursing her out, telling her she hated her and only a few seconds later, recanting her statement, and again, after that, screaming in hysterics again...well, that's not depression.
I can't believe this woman has never been diagnosed a manic. Most likely she has, but isn't sharing it with her vast world of readers.
I can't beleive they even made this movie. Wurtzel is a horrible human being who's only goal in life is to cash in on her "illness." A dirty beast, she is. I read the book and it's some of the most pathetic drivel I have ever laid eyes on. It's been a few years now and I still won't bother to give this film one second's time of screen attention.
sharea dirty beast? really? who the *beep* are you to say *beep* like that? your *beep* mom was a pathetic beast, how's that? no, it doesn't matter, scratch that, you're a *beep* idiot for calling anyone a beast. go *beep* yourself in hell you little *beep*
sharei love how imdb bleeped it all out, that's great, hehe.
shareShe's bi-polar. That's what accounted for her drastic mood swings. When I first read this book I thought it was crap, just someone trying to make some money off of being all sad and depressed which seemed to be the cool thing to be a couple of years ago, but after reading it again I realized how well she really did portray the mood swings and the total sense of hopelessness someone who suffers from depression feels. The movie wasn't that great though, I was definitly let down. I thought they would try to follow the book a little better
shareINCREDIBLE MOVIE! Now I want to read the book. My ex-girlfriend and still one of my best friends is Bi-Polar and it was shocking to see how similar this movie was to some of our arguements, or some of her outbursts, I really connected with this movie... and um... whoever said she wasn't depressed really must have not even the slightest idea about depression at all.
shareWhoever started this topic doesn't have a clue about what depression feels like.
"What the **** are you, cops or doormen?" - Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop
sometimes when people get depressed, they get mean and selfish.
a guy told me that his first depression made him sad and scared and his family was very supporitve
his second depression, he was a jerk.
my first depression i was CRAZED but able to study and do school.
10 years later, back in grad school, i got depressed. my mood was not crazed just flat. and i could not get any studying done (that sucked)
she WAS NOT BIPOLAR!
1) she was self absorbed
2) she was young
3) she came from a very over dramatic screaming mother
4) she feared abandonement.
just because a person's mood's go up and down does not mean they are bipolar. that gets thrown around too much.
to a non cliniciian, borderline personality and histronic personality can seem bipolar.
some people EMOTE when they are depressed. I flew into rages crying spells...the one thing you never feel is happy.
Speaking as a depressed person myself, what people don't understand is that when some one is depressed they tend to have mood swings and act a lot like christina ricci did in the movie. I was so drawn to this film when I first viewed it because it captured what its like to live with depression I felt to a T
shareI really liked the movie, but the ending seemed really abrupt. Do people really just get better all of a sudden like that? I would've liked to see more of how she became better, not just the depths of her problems.
shareso there ya go, it's not "depression" since bipolar is so much worse, and even better, it's bipolar 1, or the hyper manic one with the extreme highs and lows. don't slam elizabeth wurtzel, you try living with that *beep* you bitch.
shareYou're oviously the expert on bipolar as you seem to suffer from it. Or are you just naturally agressive and ignorant?
shareTo Cydebay Thanks i'm actually a counsellor.. A job you could never do as you don't sound very empathic and seem to think its okay to make fun or insult others feelings. This started as a serious discussion on here why do people have to be rude and hurtful.. My old school friend had bipolar and committed suicide it isn't a joke which is why I trained in counselling and psychology.
shareI was diagnosed with Chronic depression over 15 years ago and I can guarantee that this was a depressed woman...there are a few types of depression and the behaviour she exhibited were consistent with depression.
I think that the movie had some parts that were less than great, but I think that overall, a movie about depression (a true story) would be difficult to pull off in a way that would make everyone happy.
I guess people will need to learn to agree to disagree.
I agree with what you've written, especially in your last paragraph. I'd like to add..I myself, was undiagnosed for 6 years and when I was finally diagnosed I was mis-diagnosed with depression. Finally, for the past 4 years I have been properly diagnosed Bi-polar. This movie is amazing. It was like looking at my own life but fortunately for her she managed to get help alot sooner :)
share"Anyway, it does show aspects of depression, however, a woman/man who is clinically depressed does not change moods so drastically. Many people that suffer clinical depression have a fairly stable mood, albiet morose, tired, or anxious.
Wurtzel's up and down on the pole ends of the spectrum consistently. For example, when she was with her mother and cursing her out, telling her she hated her and only a few seconds later, recanting her statement, after that, screaming again...well, that's not depression."
Well, I acted that way. And I'm not manic, it's just, it does tend to take you on a roller coaster...though I never insulted anyone just because...or become obssesed with anyone...The smallest thing could set me off.
:)
If I were a drink I'd be a margarita, since I'm tall, salty& I always have tequila in me-Chip Esten
Oh, and she definetly wasn't bi-polar. We never saw her suddenly be entusiastic, loud and hyperactive.
And I would know, 2 of my cousins and a close friend are bi-polar.
If I were a drink I'd be a margarita, since I'm tall, salty& I always have tequila in me-Chip Esten
Depression and bi-polar don't have to be separate. Mental illnes isn't so easily compartmentalised. We did see manic aspects of her in her writing obsession and the need to go to Austin. I thought the movie gave good glimpses of a complex character.
shareMaybe she was later diagnosed as bipolar, where you do have those type of mood swings and it can be that drastic. But if I'm to understand correctly, this is a movie based on an autobiography written in 1994 (or at least published then). That doesn't mean that she had been rediagnosed by then. If she was bipolar and there is a strong possibility that she was then the movie highlighted it perfectly. The mood swings, the inability to think things totally through before doing them. It's classic bipolar but at the time it was written, usually if you were bipolar you were either diagnosed for your manic (ADHD) symptoms or your depression symptoms; they didn't start putting them together (on a regular basis) to get manic-depressive.
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What the hell are you on about?
No matter how long we debate about whether she was depressed, bipolar and how many people could or couldn't relate to it it's ont getting us anywhere.
People suffer depression in all sorts of ways, and they cope in all sorts of ways.
People have to understand that some people with depression become self absorbed, negative, and don't want to go out.
I think the problem that may actually be trying to addressed at this current time (maybe not so much at the time the movie was released) but about how misunderstood mental illness is.
I thought this was a truely amazing story.
I hate to sound like a typical post but i remembered the come down but i also remember the recovery i made watching this movie and i found truely shocking to find out the statistics of just how many sufferers there are. I also thought that in a way it was something that some people could relate to.
Pied Piperio - you lose all sense of who you are sometimes with such an illness. I remember in the movie i think Elizabeth says "i don't know who i am", and it's true, you don't know who you are, you're not in the right mind frame to think right and certainly not make proper decisions.
Maybe if you had a mental illness you dealt with it differently, liek everybody else.
Yeah...I would seriously read the book. The movie did not follow the book at all hardly. The book showed a lot of that remorse and a lot more explaning why she went off on some of the people she did. The movie just kind of made her out to be this social butterfly who was a crazy bitch. In the book she hardly leaves her room or talks to anyone and isolates herself from her roomates and won't even let sunlight into her room.
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From what I've been reading on these posts apparently if you don't suffer from depression then you don't deserve to watch this film. You make depression sound 'cool' and cliquish.
shareWhat I have found from people I know is in general most don't understand depression or other illnesses related because they don't know anybody or have a family member that has to deal with this their whole life. I have a younger sister who has had drepression and anxiety disorder since she was around 12 year old. When I first read this book I finally understood her pain, anger, and mood swings. After reading the book I asked her to read it and she only got through a few chapters and could not continue. She said it hurt to much because she said it was like looking into a mirror. But I must say reading the book helped me to talk to her about everything and helped me to understand it wasn't something she could just Stop. When she would say cruel things or cry for no reason I could see, I use to tell her to just Stop It!!! Now I understand that's not how it works. When I bought the DVD I asked her to watch it with me. She loved it! She said that was me before the meds. She said the part she related to the most was when the Space Shuttle disaster happened. She said it's like you can't see or related to anyone elses pain because yours it all too consuming. You see, she was part of the beginning of the "Prozac Nation".
She is now 45 years old, currently working on her Masters degree, healthy and happy. She has been married for 20 years and has 3 children.
For those of you on this board who don't understand depression I understand. I was you. Educate yourself and it will help you to have more patients and compassion for those who suffer every day.
"She said the part she related to the most was when the Space Shuttle disaster happened."
I didn't understand the Space Shuttle part of the movie. It wasn't exactly shown in a very explanative way. They showed her watching the SS disaster in hospital while her mother was being mugged. I'm guessing it had something to do w/ feeding off the misery & grief of strangers (SS victims families), but they didn't exactly show that very well. What was supposed to be the point ?
People who suffer from depression don't claim they have it in order to belong to a clique.
No-one wants a membership.
I completely disagree with that. It's not that people claim to be depressed to be in a clique, but have you ever heard the saying "misery loves company"? Everyone I know has some form of depression, for the most part. All of my friends are just as insane as I am, and they always have been. People who have mental disorders tend to flock together, and I can't really explain why..
I think that's why cutting has become so popular.. Some people start cutting organically, but I feel like, these days, most of the younger people start because they see it on TV and know that that is what depressed/crazy people do. And if you are depressed or crazy you have to follow those guidelines and cut yourself and get street cred and become the person you feel like you are.
Girl, Interrupted was my bible when I was a kid. And it becomes more apparent to me as I become older (and better diagnosed, and better medicated), that some of the things I did were because I thought it's what I was supposed to do.. The ultimate appropriate reaction to my depression, obsession, mania, etc.
It is a very cliquish disease, because we all cling to the same stereotype and even those who want to be happy tend to revel in being miserable. And it's more fun when you have someone else there to self-destruct with you.. When there's someone who calls you up after you've not heard from her in a couple months to tell you she's been cutting herself and you can reply that you've been taking too many sleeping pills..
And you can bond over it, to the point of somehow becoming thrilled with one another's misery, so that it's a game and a lifestyle and morbid.
And it is true that depressed people, and people with other mental illnesses lose their identities.. So being "depressed" becomes the identity.. Which is so much easier now that it seems like ever girl between the ages of 12 and 19 is clinically depressed.. It's like being a cheerleader.. Cheerleaders tend to hang around together.. And so do the depressed.
http://stanfordwank.livejournal.com
StanfordWANK: Because who doesn't like it rough?
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All I said was that I am depressed and I can relate to her, I didn't make it sound like it was great to be depressed or anything, Jesus man get a clue.
shareMy depression became severe in the first year of college as well-- I can relate to this character so well (especially the way she snapped at her boyfriend and couldn't write).
Whoever started this thread needs to brush up on depression.
"I like weird. I like weird a lot."- Jeremy Sisto, "May"
deaf sheep, I agree that her depression is not portrayed in a very clear-cut way. I don't know anybody who suffers from depression, but her constant cruel outbursts seem to point towards a type of personality disorder.
share"She said the part she related to the most was when the Space Shuttle disaster happened."
"I didn't understand the Space Shuttle part of the movie. It wasn't exactly shown in a very explanative way. They showed her watching the SS disaster in hospital while her mother was being mugged. I'm guessing it had something to do w/ feeding off the misery & grief of strangers (SS victims families), but they didn't exactly show that very well. What was supposed to be the point ?"
No she was not feeding off of the misery & grief of SS victims families. If you rememmber the dead and empty look on Lizzy's face as she was watching the news report. Thats all it was. Depression can make you dead and empty inside. Simple yet complicated.
Depression can make you not see or related to anyone elses pain because yours it all too consuming.
Not having seen the movie I can only say what I took from the book. I would say a diagnosis of Bi-oplar affective disorder is more appropriate. IIRC she mentions being given Lithium. Lithium is indicated more for use in a bi-polar illness than a depressive one, her descriptions of her mood swings are also more suggestive of a manic-depressive cycle. Cyclothymia is also a possibility.
I would also suggest that she does have elements of a personality disorder, most likely a borderline or narcissistic type. Obviously without interviewing the woman herself this is of course speculation but given her written account I would not go with a diagnosis of depression. She does describe depressive symptoms but they are not of a psychotic nature-indicative of unipolar (or severe) depression and the aforementioned mood swings are not entirely in keeping with a recurring mild/moderate depression.
I was wondering if she might not have been (perhaps also) been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, has it been in 2005 rather than 1985. From what I understand, BPD was not as well understood back then as it is now.
The acting out I saw in the character did not necessarily make me think of depression either, but I understand some people say it's exactly like what they experienced.
Borderline and depression sometimes co-occur (from what I've read, I'm not a dr.) "Girl Interrupted" anyone?
ANYWAY, GOOD MOVIE!
Bipolar disorder was once called manic depression. I'd often feared I may have had it or possibly cyclothymia, but my doctor doesn't seem to think so. I was said to be dysthymic. I've lalso had anxiety. I've been on Prozac since last August.
You can't always tell if someone is suffering from depression. The signs aren't always obvious. It took me a while to see how depressed I was, not just "feeling down in the dumps once in a while." I am currently writing ideas down for my memoir on depression and getting on Prozac. I have sometimes acted out the way the girl did in the movie, often with crying involved.
Also, I think it was a comment about what Prozac does to the emotions - leveling them out, or flatlining them as I like to think about it.
Steady, easy, unemotional. I think that's what Elizabeth's initial problem was with the Prozac (as is a lot of people's issue with it) - it makes you less like the emotionally-extreme person you normally are, so that you don't recognize yourself and feel like a phony.
Overall, I wonder if she was also trying to make a comment that "the World" out there - society - sees it as wrong, weird, too hard to deal with when you actually have visible emotions. When you act on them, or act out at all. That we're becoming a nation of zombies because it's easier for society that we don't have emotions....
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These behaviors you have listed are text book characteristics of bi-polar depression :)
shareI have first-hand experience with a narcissist and (as with many personality disorders) - it goes hand-in-hand with depression, low self-esteem, etc.
Don't jump to diagnose something you have no background knowledge on.
I am currently on Xanax for extreme panic disorder and Rohypnol for an anxiolytic. This woman that was portrayed in this movie definetly had a form of depression/anxiety. It comes in all shapes, sizes, forms, and circumstances. As another poster said, whoever started this needs to step into the shoes of someone like mine, or her place and just witness for themselves how all consuming this type of DISEASE that depression is. Its not something you can just, wish away. It has to be treated, just as if something happened to a part of your body; you would TREAT it. DEPRESSION, ANXIETY, PANIC, BIPOLAR: all that are REAL conditions that can be just as bad, if not WORSE than conditions of the body. After all, the mind rules all. Educate yourself before you start another petty post like this again fella.
sharehalf this thread is people getting really upset over semantics.
how depressing.
I just saw this movie and I did enjoy the performances Ricci is a fave of mine, I am also a sufferer of Major Depression, OCD and GAD for about 12 years and I could not truly identify with her. I think what Im trying to say is that depression has so many different varibales where you just cant pigeon hole to one set of symptoms. When you think depression you think sluggish withdrawan so on and so forth, my depression has kept me on fire nervous as hell and not wanting to be around everyone because I hated everyone and was afraid of what I would do to them, As an earlier post stated I coould no way have such a social life when I am in the abyss of depression.
still a good flick
Step in my office...your f&*@#ing fired!
Well said.
We're here for art, man.