Ocd In The Movie As Good As It Gets

The movie “As good as it gets” tells a story of a man named Melvin who is diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). This disorder causes people to get into specific routines like checking things over, cleaning excessively, or can affects someone’s thoughts repeatedly. Individuals that are diagnosed with OCD can often have a difficult time controlling their thoughts or their actions which is demonstrated through their continuous behaviors. In the film being discussed, Melvin in a writer that is diagnosed with this specific disorder, OCD. Like discussed above, Melvin has rituals that he takes part in each day to go about his day seeking normalcy. Despite his rituals and his disorder, he is content with his life and can use coping mechanisms to handle …show more content…
For example, Melvin typically goes to a restaurant every morning to have breakfast and interact with a waitress he is friendly with. On one morning, that waitress is no longer there which triggers Melvin because his routine is thrown off and his behaviors become irate to the point he is kicked out of the restaurant. As discussed, his thought process was disturbed and his were uncontrollable, which lead him to act out due to his anxiety and OCD. Something interesting in the movie is how Melvin begins to not like the neighbor’s dog in his apartment complex because the dog is triggering to his OCD and anxiety. In the film, there is an intruder in the apartment complex who ends up hurting the neighbor that owns the dog Melvin is not able to tolerate due to his OCD. The neighbor than sabotages Melvin by reminding Melvin that he is owed a favor and the dog is now Melvin’s responsibility to take care of. This was a difficult task for Melvin due to his OCD and the triggering factors that impact his daily life. Aside from these two events discussed in the film, there are also signs and symptoms of Melvin’s OCD and