Bipolar Movie Analysis

At the beginning of the film, Pat is discharged from the hospital after a court-mandated eight-month stay. Pat exhibits problems with anger, delusional thinking, obsessive behaviors, and frequently carries out very inappropriate conversations. Although Pat has not seen his ex-wife in over eight months and she has a restraining order against him, he still believes that his marriage is fixable and will get better if he gets into shape and fixes his mood swings. Not only does Pat believe his marriage is fixable, but he still believes he and his wife are still together. This type of thinking is very delusional. Additionally, Pat exhibits an obsessive behavior by frantically searching for his wife and essentially begs his peers to contact her. …show more content…
Like most of his wild theories, this one turned out to be false.
Pat is curiously confident and upbeat for a man just released from a mental hospital and under a restraining order from his wife. What stage of bipolar disorder would you guess he’s in? Pat’s symptoms fit under Bipolar II disorder. Although the symptoms between Bipolar II and I are very similar, the symptoms associated with Bipolar I are significantly more severe than those associated with Bipolar II disorder. Pat does not appear to have any extreme manic episodes, but rather has frequent hypomanic episodes. Additionally, Pat does not exhibit any symptoms of extreme depression, but rather exhibits signs of minor depression, anger, and irritability. Pat’s episodes of hypomania include strict exercise regimen and an elevated ability to focus and read books from his ex-wife’s syllabus. If Pat were to exhibit symptoms of manic episodes, these activities would become immensely dangerous to his