As Good As It Gets Psychology Analysis

As Good As It Gets in my opinion gave a true depiction of what it is like to live with Anxiety Disorders. Three different characters were able to depict anxiety disorders in their lives. Anxiety Disorders affect the everyday person in all aspects of life. At some point during the movie, each character displayed symptoms of anxiety which often was associated with depressive tendencies too. My initial thought after watching the movie was how they managed to normalized anxiety. By normalize I mean, no one particularly acknowledged and labeled themselves with the disorder to the other character. It reminded me of real life interaction with people, most look at the struggles and attitudes of people as just being struggles and attitudes. The deeper picture an understanding of one’s life and the stress they endure does not always manifest. Like Melvin, to meet the needs of his OCD he portrayed himself to be extremely selfish to get his needs met. …show more content…
Although Melvin’s compulsive activities are accurately depicted, his rash and rude attitude are not characteristics of OCD. Hopefully someone watching this movie without a clinical background would recognize that as well. Melvin wore gloves in public, refused to use silverware while eating at restaurants, his hand washing ritual, not stepping on cracks on the sidewalk, etc. Meeting the needs of his daily routines and interacting with people made him out to be a difficult and mean person. A lot of time was dedicated to completing everyday tasks which I never put much thought into before when thinking about with people with anxiety, specifically OCD. It really puts a hold on their lives. In Melvin’s case, it really damaged his relationships with people from his therapist to his to his