Personality disorder in the movie Girl Interrupted - Essay Example

Personality DisorderThe movie “Girl Interrupted” provides a plot of a young woman who attempts to commit suicide and later spends almost one year in hospital. The girl is in a psychiatric hospital after being diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Borderline disorder is a serious disorder characterized by difficulty in emotions, impulsivity, emptiness and the ability of a person to develop stress. The disorder also makes a person to develop suicidal thoughts or desire to attempt suicide.

Further, a person with this disorder develops mood very fast and such moods shift after a few hours. Institutionalization of Suzanna is based on the fact that she takes a bottle of vodka and aspirin. In her argument, she indicates that the intended purpose of the drinks was to cure headache and not killing herself. While in hospital, she had several bruises on the hands and she said she did not have bones in the hand. The claim of no bones in the hands can be considered a self-mutilation, but for Suzanna, she exhibited all the signs and symptoms of borderline disorder.

Moods have the possibility of changing in an unpredictable and quick manner. Established relationships with other individuals become stable and behaviors are impulsive, which involves disordered eating, abuse of drugs and alcohol, overspending and reckless driving. As such, patients attempt to commit suicide as a means of relieving themselves of the emotional pain, which they develop because of the disorder. Further, patients exhibit brutal attacks and throw tantrums easily when their emotional state is offset by others.

Such behavior is illustrated in the movie by Suzanna who exhibits a violent sexual reaction to situations. She does this because of unstable environment and eminent physical abuse. Dangerous sexual behavior includes that of engaging in sexual intercourse twice in a day with different people, as well as with a married man. She also exhibits spontaneous behavior, which includes stealing the medical files, attempting to break out of the hospital and failing to take medications. Moreover, she facilitates the drugging process of a nurse and steals a guitar.

Physical abuse and unstable environment are the key factors, which have made Suzanna to develop the disorder. In addition, her parents have symptoms of the borderline disorder, which indicates why she developed the disorder. Nevertheless, for families that have such patients, they deal with the condition by attempting to remain calm and avoiding situations, which may trigger patients to react. Hence, when one is living with a borderline person there is a need to take extra caution since it is not clear when such a person will react.

Psychotherapy is a treatment option, which when integrated with cognitive behavior therapy aids in addressing the condition. Psychologists do not engage in the diagnosis of borderline disorder. Such occurs since individuals that suffer from the condition have several symptoms, which makes it complex for psychologists to rule that one is suffering from borderline disorder. Further, offering a clinical diagnosis for the disorder is challenging since it becomes complex to quantify the symptoms of the disorder.

Works CitedParis, Maine. “Why Psychiatrists Are Reluctant to Diagnose Borderline Personality Disorder.”Psychiatry 2008, 1. 2007.