Bipolar

disorder

Silver Lining Playbook: Bipolar disorder

Stacey Bilte
3/17/14
Abnormal Psychology
Eastern Washington University

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disorder

I selected a case study pertaining to bipolar disorder. The movie Silver Lining Playbook
illustrates a great outline of how someone is affected from this disorder and how they can cope
with a mental disorder appropriately. The story was envisioned through the eyes and life of a
guy named Pat suffering from bipolar disorder. The disorder developed as he was trying to get
through a broken marriage, losing his job and everything pertaining to his livelihood.
He was sent to a mental hospital at least eight months for his inappropriate actions. Pat
also received jail time for beating up a guy. Pat lost his teaching career from all the bad choices
he made during this time. He describes various issues and problems that he presents to his
therapist while meeting him on a regular basis.
One day Pat came home from work to hear his wedding song playing and the sound of
water hitting against the walls of the shower door. Pat looked on the floor and saw his wifes
lingerie on the floor. Pat decided to join his lovely wife Nikki and proceeded to walk into the
bathroom, this is when Pats life turned upside down. Nikki was not alone! Not only did Pat
walk-in on his wife, she was with another man. Nikki was cheating on Pat with a history
professor that teaches at the same school.
The history professor confronts Pat and tells him to leave. This is when Pat mentally
goes out of control. Pat starts to beat up the professor and would not stop. That was the first
episode he experienced being bipolar. He beat up the teacher and his wife told him to stop. He
said he almost beat him to death if not for his wife. From all the chaos that happened he is now
in therapy and taking medication for his illness. Pats wife Nikki got a restraining order and in
his delusion he thinks that she will take him back and that their marriage still has hope. Pat is
going to work on himself, do the things the therapist tells him in his recovery and do the things

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that his wife told him would make him a better person like work out, be more compassionate and
passionate. When he is released from the hospital his mom takes him home to live with her and
her husband, which is Pats dad.
The second episode that Pat goes through is when he read the syllabus that his wife wrote
and it says that there is no such thing as real love or something about how love is not real and Pat
gets so mad at three o clock in the morning he throws the book out the window and does not get
how this book is suppose to help kids. He ends up waking up both his mom and dad with all his
distress. Both of his parents try to calm him down.
Another episode he has is when he goes to his new therapist outside of the hospital
setting and at the office in the waiting room the song that happens to play is one of his wedding
songs, the same wedding song that played when his wife cheating on him. Pat has an
uncontrollable mood swing throwing the books and magazines all off the shelf causing all the
counselors to open their doors to see what is the matter. Pat starts to apologize and then meets
his counselor and thought he played that song on purpose. The counselor tells him he is going to
have to figure out a plan for when that song plays to not be triggered into a mood swing. He tells
the counselor the whole story of what happened with his wife and the professor. Pat tells the
therapist that he thinks he has struggled with bipolar disorder his whole life and he just did not
know that he was bipolar. But, that he remembers mood swings and having problems
concentrating and other characteristics. Pat tells the counselor two weeks before the incident of
his wife cheating on him he had a delusion that the history teacher was embezzling money and
then that happened with his wife and the same teacher he had the thought about. The therapist
sent him on his way. The counselor told Pat he needs to find a silver lining. Pats strategy is to
watch football with his dad and run.

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One of Pats friends invited him to dinner and Pats friend and his wife were trying to set
him up with a date. It is his friends wifes sister. Her name is Tiffany. Pat makes sure that
Tiffany knows this is not a date and goes on to tell her that he is married. They end up becoming
friends over time. Pat wants Tiffany to send his wife a letter and Tiffany will only do that if he
promises to perform in a dance with her. So he agrees. She actually does not give the letter to
Pats wife Nikki because she would be breaking the law with the restraining order in place. The
other episode Pat has is when he cannot find is wedding video and he has a bipolar moment with
his parents. A cop comes to the house with all the commotion because Pat blacked out and saw
the image of his wife in the shower cheating on him and accidently hits his mom and then his
dad and Pat get in a fight.
Tiffany and Pat go to dinner and when they leave the diner the song plays that triggers
Pat and his mind is swirling and the cop shows up. Tiffany tells the cop it was the kids fault by
the movie theatre for everything that was happening. Tiffany was mad that she opened up to Pat
and he just made fun of her and disrespected her so she said Pat is harassing her. Tiffany made
up a lie to get attention and then regretted it in the end. Pat and Tiffany end up resolving their
dispute and work towards the dance competition.
The story ends with Pat getting over his wife and falling in love with Tiffany. They both
have struggled through life but are now stronger from it. I am not sure what Tiffany has gone
through, it is a lot with her husband dying. I am glad Pat and Tiffany fall in love. They are good
for each other because they push each other to succeed in things they are not particularly good at.
Pat does end up performing in the dancing competition with Tiffany. They do not end up
winning but they are proud to have got a middle score of 5.0.

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There are two kinds of bipolar, bipolar 1 and bipolar 2. The people that suffer from full
manic and major depressive episodes are considered in the first category of bipolar. The DSM V
includes three things for the manic episode, The first is one week (or longer) period of
abnormally and persistently elevated, expansive, or irritable mood and abnormally and
persistently increased activity or energy, for most of the day, nearly every day. Step 2 is the
presence of at least three of the following: inflated self-esteem or grandiosity, decreased need for
sleep, increased talkativeness, or pressure to keep talking, flight of ideas or the experience that
thoughts are racing, distractibility, increase in goal directed activity or psychomotor agitation,
and excessive involvement in activities that have a high potential for painful consequences. Step
3 is significant distress or impairment, (Comer, p.198). Bipolar 2 disorder is more hypomania,
which means that the person experiences more major depressive episodes and very mild manic
phases. DSM V for bipolar 2 disorder is, One, presence or history of major depressive
episodes, presence or history of hypomania episodes, no history of a manic episode, and
significant distress or impairment, (Comer, p.198). Pat had weeks of mania, followed by a
period where he was not experiencing manic or depressiveness and then could all of a sudden be
depressed. He has bipolar 1 disorder. He has lots of mood swings being manic and he has less
depressive episodes. He has a hard time controlling his anger and stress about the situation he is
in. Towards the end of the movie he has a better grasp of his illness, excepts the illness and
works toward the success of functioning normally with his illness.
In conclusion, I think describing some of his episodes for his disorder gives an idea of
what he is going through. He has a lot of stress in his life with going through an ended marriage
and losing his job. The way the marriage ended was traumatic and I am glad I got to see what he
is going through having this disorder. The great thing about this story is that there is a happy

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ending. Pat ends up being able to cope with the disorder in a healthy way. I think sometimes
people forget what some people go through mentally because you cannot see their thinking,
where a physical illness is more noticeable and seems harder to cope with.

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References
Comer, Ronald J. Fundamentals of Abnormal Psychology. 7th edition. New York: Worth,
2011. Print.