Here are a few movies about anxiety. Anxiety can be incredibly difficult to manage and it gets easier to cope up when we find a person whom we can share the same symptoms. But, then it’s difficult to find that person. So then why not find a movie with which we can relate.
For someone who might be struggling with mental health issues, movies can provide an escape when they are going through a rough patch. Also, representing raw and complex characters on screen who have their own struggles is comforting, reflective, and most of all, reassuring.
Here are a few movies about anxiety which will help you relate when anxious.
“The Perks of Being a Wallflower” (2012)
“The Perks of Being a Wallflower” will always top best movies about anxiety any day. An introvert freshman, Charlie is taken under the wings of two seniors who welcome him to the real world. Charlie has anxiety and depression and is afraid of participating in social life, losing important people in his life and making friends. He always considers himself as a wallflower who is just watching the lives around him instead of having one of his own. This movie shows how wonderful it is to have friends who have a similarity with us.
“Melancholia” (2011)
Critics argue that Melancholia is one of the greatest movies about anxiety depression and mental illness that has been made, ever. “Melancholia,” Justine excellently portrays the “acute anguish and the paralyzing hollowness of depression,” according to The New York Times.
Two sisters find their already strained relationship challenged as a mysterious new planet threatens to collide with Earth. Here the destruction of Earth is a metaphor. It shows just how destructive. The destruction of Earth is a metaphor. Melancholia tells the euphoric story of depression in conjunction with the fate of our world. In part because of the depression that causes the lead character to feel like everything is pointless, impulsive and self-indulgent. It’s hard for her to think about the consequences.
“The Hours” (2002)
Academy Award-nominated adaptation, “The Hours” portrays the lives three generations of women who are reading “Mrs Dalloway,” all of whom, in one way or another, have had to deal with suicide in their lives. Each woman has their own struggle with depression and identifies with various elements of the novel. Starring Hollywood powerhouses Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore and Nichole Kidman all of the different generations whose lives are interconnected by Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs Dalloway. The three stories are equally balanced throughout the film, focusing on how each character goes through cycles of feeling out of control and having their lives in shambles forcing them to rebuild.
Woolf (played by Kidman) struggled with depression and mental illness while writing this novel in 1920s England.
The Hours is not a traditional view of mental illness or depression. However, it still stands as being one of the most provoking interpretations. The Hours has always been making its name in best movies about anxiety and depression.
” A Beautiful Mind ” (2001)
Mathematician John Nash, who died May 23 in a car accident, was known for his decades-long battle with schizophrenia—a struggle famously depicted in the 2001 Oscar-winning film “A Beautiful Mind.” Nash had apparently recovered from the disease later in life, which he said was done without medication.
A Beautiful Mind is a breakthrough of historic proportions. Although John Nash’s story has been fictionalized, with some edges smoothed over, the essential portrayal is realistic. The movie’s telling of the story of John Nash’s recovery conveys many myths about schizophrenia.
“15 Park Avenue” (2005)
Faith in Indian cinema was restored with Aparna Sen’s 15 Park Avenue (2005). The film stars her own daughter, Konkona Sen Sharma, as well as Waheeda Rehman, Shabana Azmi, Shefali Shah and Rahul Bose.
The movie moves around Mithi played by Konkona Sen Sharma. Mithi, according to her doctor, is schizophrenic. She believes that her real address is “15 Park Avenue” where her husband, along with their five children, is waiting for her return. The best thing is that 15 Park Avenue isn’t just about one schizophrenic character but also the family which is not much seen in any other movies about anxiety. It’s not just about Meethi’s mother (Waheeda) who is willing to resort to anything, to cure her. Her elder sister Anu (Shabana) kept her own life on hold to take care of Meethi.
“Touched With Fire” (2015)
The definitive work on surprising links between manic-depression and creativity, from the bestselling psychologist of bipolar disorders Paul Dalio Touched with Fire captures the intensity of their romance with the flow of beautiful highs and lows.
Two people, each having bipolar (expertly played by Katie Holmes and Luke Kirby), meet in a psychiatric hospital and fall in love. They bond over poetry and other artistic aspects, yet they trigger each other’s manic illness that naturally causes much concern to the people around them.
“Michael Clayton” (2007)
Attorney Michael Clayton (George Clooney), a “fixer” a high profile New York City law firm, but an attorney having a bipolar episode triggers the action in this movie.
Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson) rants in court against the huge corporation his firm is defending in a class-action suit, the firm sends Clayton to handle the situation. Clayton knows Edens has bipolar and has stopped taking his medications. When Edens later says his phone is being tapped, Clayton dismisses it as paranoia. After Edens is found dead, Clayton’s suspicions grow and he begins to investigate the corporate cover-up.
“Silver Linings Playbook” (2012)
If you’ve seen Silver Linings Playbook, you know exactly why it has to make in best movies about anxiety list. Though the movie faced some criticism for dramatizing mental illness. Conveying bipolar disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder, among other conditions, Silver Linings Playbook is a unique romantic dramedy. The entire movie attempts to redefine what it means to have a mental illness, constantly playing on that stigmatizing term: “crazy.”
In the film, Pat (Cooper) is a man with bipolar disorder who returns to his parents’ home after being released from a psychiatric hospital. Pat’s wife leaves Pat after Pat beats the man she was cheating on him with, and then Pat seeks to get her back with the help of the widow Tiffany (Lawrence), who is suffering from an unnamed mental illness.
“Shutter Island” (2010)
Shutter Island is a 2010 psychological mystery thriller directed by Martin Scorsesem stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Teddy. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane . Teddy Daniels and Chuck Aule, two US marshals, are sent to an asylum on a remote island in order to investigate the disappearance of a patient, where Teddy uncovers a shocking truth about the place. Analyzing different scenarios, clues, relationships, Daniels starts to question his own sanity.
After twists and turns that lead to the discovery that Teddy is actually a man named Andrew Laeddis, a man who murdered his wife, who had bipolar disorder after she drowned their children. He was admitted to the mental hospital shortly after, and his experience as a U.S. Marshall was allowed by the doctors as a form of role-playing therapy. Although such an experience would seem to virtually guarantee the development of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, somewhere along the way his symptoms tipped into the very real but much less common psychiatric condition known as Delusional Disorder.
It’s adequate it to say that “Shutter Island” is not the most encouraging cinematic portrayal of mental health. Some people also debate whether or not Andrew was actually suffering from a mental illness, but Shutter Island showed exactly how badly people suffering from mental illnesses were treated in the 50s. The poor conditions of the mental facility us a dark look into how inhumane mental health facilities were.
“Girl, Interrupted” (1999)
Based on Susanna Kaysen’s memoir of her 18-month stay in a mental institution, starring Winona Ryder as Kaysen. Kaysen who is checked into a mental institution during the 1960s after she has a mental breakdown and overdoses at the age of 18. Along the way, she meets and best friends other young women going through similar situations, but becomes especially close with a woman named Lisa, played by Angelina Jolie.
Girl, Interrupted provides a raw, visceral look at borderline personality disorder, a widely misunderstood condition. Although intense with graphic depictions of self-harm and suicide, the film’s overall message is hopeful with Susanna gaining a healthier, happier outlook on her life.
“They Look Like People” (2015)
Suspecting that people around him are turning into evil creatures, a troubled man questions whether to protect his only friend from an impending war, or from himself.
“Benny & Joon” (1993)
The romantic-comedy Benny & Joon follows a young man named Benny, who cares for his younger sister, Joon after their parents tragically pass away. Joon’s condition is never defined in the movie, but she is shown having hallucinations and delusions that have made it impossible for her to live alone. Joon finds her soulmate in an eccentric Buster Keaton fanatic named Sam.
Benny & Joon is a particularly sweet film because of its portrayal of a healthy, loving, and supportive relationship that defies the troubling stereotype that people with mental illnesses cannot maintain such relationships.
This is surely going on my Netflix’s to-watch list !!
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