Megan Burbank you treat mental illness in a simplistic cartoonish way. The issue with mental illness is that it is hurriedly put away in a box labeled 'understood'. The whole issue with mental health is that it is so much much more complicated to treat than simply assigning a label and medicating accordingly. The issue with emotional distress is that it has to do a lot with trauma and upbringing, and to change distressing ways of feeling/thinking/acting involves so much more work than what society is willing to do for the sufferers. So the healthcare system just opts for the quickest, most profitable solution: pills. Everyday. For the rest of your life. Because your distress is an incurable illness of the brain. It's a simplistic way out of a problem that just doesn't go away, just lingers around, hopefully more quietly.

well look i used the terms she used to condemn a film to disagree with her viewpoint... and you choose an insult to disagree with my viewpoint. so maybe those meds did not work all that great for you?
p.s. the movie looks hideous i agree on that

Thanks for the review, Megan. Having come from a family where profound mental illness (bipolar, borderline personality disorder, chronic severe depression) was minimized and even romanticized as "an artistic temperament," I hear you. There's nothing romantic about being a child dependent on adults with severe, undiagnosed, and untreated mental illness. And there's nothing romantic about living with it yourself, either (PTSD and chronic depression here.)

I'm saddened that the film is feeding notions that feed stigma and memes that help discourage folks from seeking the help they need. Just thinking about the magnitude of the unnecessary human suffering that occurs due to fear of stigma and persistent beliefs not based in sound science makes me want to cry.

I wonder how Dr. Redfield Jamison allowed the title of her memoir to be lent to such a thing?! Her memoir was terrific - I'd recommend it to anyone who's experienced the disruption that severe decompensation can bring, because she's an exampled of someone who has recovered (a few times), thrived, and made an inspiring career path for herself (she's a psychologist whose work has focused on bipolar.) But she's also VERY clear that for her, medication is absolutely necessary to manage her illness, and it will likely be a necessity for the rest of her life.

Her memoir was part of what helped me get over the idea that one takes meds until you "get better" so you don't need them anymore - for some of us with severe, relapsing conditions that began in childhood or young adulthood, that's not something likely to happen. Depressions will, more likely than not, recur, but the right medication for you can help soften its edges so that you're less likely to slide into the pit of despair again.

Boo, hiss at this movie. =/