Oscar Worthy Films That Feature Mental Illness

Just in time for the 2011 Oscars is my top ten list of movies that feature mental illness. Many of these movies have won Oscars, while others should have, but didn't. As we roll out the red carpet and honor this year's best films, keep in mind that there's no shame in having a mental illness.

1. Ordinary People (Depression, PTSD, Suicide)
My absolute favorite movie of all time because it portrays the human experience of loss so well and it also features psychotherapy in a realistic way. Robert Redford's directorial debut. Mary Tyler Moore, Donald Sutherland, Judd Hirsch and Timothy Hutton wow in their performances.

2. A Beautiful Mind (Schizophrenia)
The true story of Nobel Prize Winner John Nash is told in this award winning film. Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly star. Directed by Ron Howard.

3. The Soloist (Schizophrenia)
This is the true story of Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, a former Julliard Student, who falls into the depths of schizophrenia. When reporter, Steve Lopez, befriends him, both of their worlds change. The ethical issues of treatment of mental illness are realistically portrayed. Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx offer great performances.

4. Canvas (Schizophrenia)
A young boy moves through the his mother's psychotic episode with the help of his father and friends. Joe Pantoliano, Marcia Gay Harden and Devon Gearhart are inspiring to watch.

5. Bird (Substance Abuse/Eating Disorder)
The true story of Charlie "Bird" Parker, Jazz legend, and his struggles with mental illness. Directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Forest Whitaker. Fantastic soundtrack.

6. Rain Man (Autism)
Dustin Hoffman delivers an award winning performance as a man with Autism and Tom Cruise as the brother who doesn't understand him.

7. Fearless (PTSD)
Jeff Bridges is unforgettable in his performance as a survivor of a plane crash as is Rosie Perez in this emotional tale of trauma, loss and recovery.

8. Lars And The Real Girl (Social Anxiety Disorder)
This film knocked me out with its poignant storytelling of a young man living in a rural Minnesota community. Ryan Gosling and Emily Mortimer star.

9. A Lion In Winter (Personality Disorders)

Various personality disorders as well as maladaptive defense mechanisms often seen in family dysfunction are presented in vivid language and breathtaking performances. Peter O'Toole, Katherine Hepburn and a young Anthony Hopkins dazzle in this award winning film. It's an oldie, but a goodie - and based on the life of King Henry II.

10. The Night Listener (Factitious Disorder)
Robin Williams and Toni Collette tell this true-based story from the experiences of author Armistead Maupin, and his connection to a mysterious young boy.

Do you have a favorite movie?

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Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a type of psychotherapy that helps you accept the difficulties that come with life. ACT has been around for a long time, but seems to be gaining media attention lately. Categorically speaking, ACT is a form of mindfulness based therapy, theorizing that greater well-being can be attained by overcoming negative thoughts and feelings. Essentially, ACT looks at your character traits and behaviors to assist you in reducing avoidant coping styles. ACT also addresses your commitment to making changes, and what to do about it when you can't stick to your goals.

ACT focuses on 3 areas:

Accept your reactions and be present
Choose a valued direction
Take action.

Acceptance
Whether it be a situation you cannot control, a personality trait that is hard to change or an emotion that overwhelms, accepting it can allow you to move forward. Obsessing, worrying and playing things over and over keep you stuck. In this sense, asking why can leave you helpless. ACT invites you to accept the reality and work with what you have.

Some acceptance strategies include:

1. Letting feelings or thoughts happen without the impulse to act on them.
2. Observe your weaknesses but take note of your strengths.
3. Give yourself permission to not be good at everything.
4. Acknowledge the difficulty in your life without escaping from it or avoiding it.
5. Realize that you can be in control of how you react, think and feel.

Defusion
Another aspect of ACT is the skill-set of learning how to cognitively defuse psychologically heightened experiences. Defusion involves realizing thoughts and feelings for what they really are, like passing sensations or irrational things that we tell ourselves - instead of what we think they are like feelings that will never end or factual truths. The goal of defusion is not to help you avoid the experience, but to make it more manageable for you.

Some defusion strategies include

1. Observe what you are feeling. What are the physical sensations?
2. Notice the way you are talking to yourself as these feelings are experienced.
3. What interpretations are you making about your experience? Are they based in reality?
4. Grab onto the strands of your negative self-talk and counter them with realistic ones.
5. Now re-evaluate your experience with your new-found outlook.

Summary

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is not a long term treatment. The ACT experience of reworking your verbal connections to thoughts and feelings, known as comprehensive distancing, can be extremely helpful in the treatment of depression, anxiety and many other psychological disorders. For a good reference on ACT, link here.

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Mirror-Writing: ?sihT daeR uoY naC

Mirror writing is the ability to write from right to left, reversing each letter so that when it's held to a mirror, it reads normal.

I'm a mirror-writer, and have been since I'm a kid. I'm not really sure how I got into doing this unusual thing, but it came very easy to me. I'd write notes and letters to friends, which required them to hold it up in a mirror to read it - or turn the page over and hold it up against a strong light if I didn't write on both pages. Silly and entertaining, I never really thought much of it until I read some research on the subject.

Mirror-writing has genetic links. Studies in neuroscience suggest that those who mirror-write have bilateral language centers, with one in each hemisphere of the brain. Approximately 1 in 6500 can mirror-write, the most famous of them all being Leonardo Da Vinci.

I found a reverse writing generator that comes very close to true mirror-writing. You can write regular text and then have it reversed, flipped or written upside down. The fun thing is seeing that no matter how the letters are arranged, our brains are wired to make sense of the words.

Have fun with it. ti htiw nuf evaH

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Tips for Broken Heart Syndrome

Profound emotional sadness doesn't just weigh heavy on your mind. It significantly impacts your body. The depths of despair can lower your immune system, increase blood pressure and heart rate - and cause significant muscle weakness, just to name a few. Stress from grief can flood the body with hormones, specifically Cortisol, which causes that heavy-achy-feeling you get in your chest area.

The heartache that comes with depression can increase the likelihood of a heart attack. In fact, a recent study showed that a person with a depressive disorder and a heart condition were 5 times more likely to die than a person with depression alone or a heart condition alone. The actual medical term for this deeply emotional mind/body experience is called Stress Cardiomyopathy. You might know the colloquial term better: A broken heart. What you might not know is that women are ten times more likely to suffer from Broken Heart Syndrome than men.

I've had a broken heart several times in my life. Not only did my depressive symptoms worsen during these very sad moments, I also noticed a heaviness in my chest and an irregular heartbeat. Sometimes it fluttered, while other times it felt as if it stopped or skipped a beat. A thorough medical work-up showed that I had an arrhythymia. Now on a beta blocker, I no longer experience the depth of my depression in my heart.

Experience is a great teacher. What I learned from those bouts of grief was that I needed to listen to what my body was telling me and to look at emotional issues more quickly than I had done in the past.

Tips for Broken Heart Syndrome

If you have heartache and you're in despair consider these tips:

1. Don't hold in your emotional pain. Studies show that expressing emotions greatly reduces the body's stress response.
2. Don't put a time limit on your grief. And don't let others set one for you either.
3. Make sure you tend to your physical needs. Softness, warmth and touch can be healing.
4. Don't ignore chronic aches or pains. Check in with your physician.
5. Eat well, making sure you choose healthy foods to keep you nourished during difficult times.
6. Keep a routine sleep schedule. If you require medication to help you with sleeping, modulating your moods or for cardiac management, don't feel ashamed. You're going through a significantly stressful time.
7. A broken heart leaves many people feeling stunned and stuck. Move. Get out of bed. Take a shower. Go for a walk. Feel the sun on your face.
8. If you feel fragile, limit your exposure to emotionally driven events. That doesn't mean to cocoon yourself away from people. Decide what social connections will give you support, and which ones may be too taxing.
9. Don't forget your spiritual side. Prayer, even meditation if you're not one for religion, can bring comfort to a broken heart.
10. Consider seeking a mental health professional if you need help healing from your broken heart.

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Understanding The Somatic Experience

Psychological issues will not only impact your mind, but also your body.

In fact, emotional traumas set into motion the emergency function of the sympathetic nervous system known as the "fight or flight" response. When pressed by a psychological issue, your brain will work to problem-solve, sending messages to your muscles and organs to be ready to fight the problem or flee from it.

Most times, you'll be able to work the psychological issue without great stress on your mind or body. Other times, the emotional trauma might be too overwhelming to work through. At these moments, the acute stress of the situation causes your body to hold onto the psychological wound. In essence, your body becomes the place where your trauma has been stored. These "somatic experiences" can take the form of numbness, sensations of hot or coldness, even physical pain, just to name a few. Often, the kind of body sensations you have can be quite symbolic of the trauma with which you have endured.

Somatic therapies take psychotherapy one step further by addressing the internal physical experience of the body when emtional trauma occurs. To learn more, check out Dr. Peter Levine's work in trauma psychology.

In my clinical work, and in my personal life, I always look at the literal experiences of emotional pain and also the symbolic levels of it. Body awareness and somatic experience are important aspects to consider.

Are you mind *and* body aware?

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