Movie Therepy

Ok, so I joined psychforums for my gambling addition, but I also have Bipolar, diagnosed and been on medicine since 1995. Anyway the reason for my post today, is a just saw a great movie, Silver Lining Playbook. It had three characters that all suffer some form of mental illness, but was a great love story. I know movies aren't real, but it was good to see an Oscar nominated movie that portrayed people with mental illness as normal people with an entertaining story line.

Part of my recovering program for Gambling is to watch movies when I have the urge to gamble. It also helps me with my Bipolar. If I can't sit thru a movie without getting restless, then I realize I may be getting manic. If I can't enjoy a good movie, I may be getting depressed. I just thought I would share my coping skills of watching movies with the forum. I hope it helps someone else, if they need a coping skill.

I agree with your review of Silver Linings Playbook.

Me and hubby go to the movies nearly every week. It's a great escape and lots of food for the imagination. We are each from a different cultural background so we watch movies from each culture and explain them to each other. It improves our closeness and understanding of each other.

OHAI! New guy here

Other than sleep, movies are my greatest escape. If I'm not already too deep in a down phase, I can lose myself in a good movie and forget about the world for a while.

I haven't seen that one yet. I'm not really into romance movies! But I do love cinema and TV!

It's interesting what you say, hardknocklife. When I'm watching something and can't follow the plot, or zone out for big chunks of time it's a sign I'm getting hypomanic. I'll just follow my imagination instead of the movie. On the other hand, when I'm depressed it's hard to enjoy anything I watch. Sometimes I have a knee-jerk response of laughing at something funny and something immediately kicks in inside me saying "What are you laughing at? You have no right to laugh!". It's a way of identifying my mood. Sometimes I just don't know how I'm feeling!

Thanks for sharing your coping methods and this movie. I might give it a shot.

I personally didn't like silver linings playbook. I thought it was really slow moving.

I do however enjoy watching movies to change my mood, or even to match my mood to help me make more sense of things.