Reign over me
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Reign over me
Reign over Me is a movie that centers on a man named Charlie Fineman. Charlie lost his three daughters and a wife during the 9/11 terror attack. Having also lost his parents when he was a little child, and also losing his aunt who cared for him, Charlie became stressed and decided to force himself to forget everything about the past. He even quits his job as a dentist. Fortunately for him, he came across one of his old roommates, who is also a dentist, has a beautiful wife and kids, but he constantly felt that something was not alright because he had no guy friends who he could share his problems with. Although Charlie does not seem to remember Alan, Alan tried to explain and narrate many memories until Charlie eventually recognized him. The two guys soon rekindled their friendship and started spending time together and doing what each other was interested. Although Charlie would have problems with his behavior sometimes, Alan understood him and even helped him to deal with his loss by advising him to be rehabilitated. He even referred Charlie to therapists to little success. Eventually, Charlie was rehabilitated after he attempted suicide, and Alan realizes the value of his wife and children and goes back with a renewed sense of appreciation.
In the movie of Reign over Me, mental illness has been portrayed through Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), severe and complicated grief, and anger. Through PTSD, it was clear that Charlie had a mental illness. The PTSD led Charlie to extreme isolation, repression of his memories, changed perceptions on his real being and serious disorientation of his thoughts (Fahey, 2017). Charlie would occasionally experience feelings of hopelessness, guilt for survival and even recurring images, feelings and thoughts of guilt. Charlie was also affected by severe and complicated grief. After he lost his whole family, Charlie decided to leave and job as a dentist and even forget everything about the past. This is extreme grief that shows that Charlie was suffering from mental illness. Charlie’s mental illness was also portrayed by his anger. Through his old friend Alan, there are instances when Charlie would become angry and easily violent (Fahey, 2017). He was completely unable to control his temper.
The mental illness that Charlie went through really affected his overall functioning. First, Charlie was a dentist, but he stopped working as he tried to forget his past. As much as Charlie could try to forget everything, it is not normal and even logic that he could forget memories and things that he was doing in the past. He just made illogical decisions which were an indication of mental illness. Also, Charlie started telling people that he had no family and also tried to avoid his wife’s family (Fahey, 2017). For sure, a person without a mental disorder cannot around revealing to everyone that they have no family. The worst was trying to avoid the closest people in his life and showed that indeed, Charlie had a mental illness. Finally, Charlie also became fond of listening to music all the time, which was evidenced by his use of headphones throughout an attempt to forget everything. When he first encountered Alan, Charlie shows loss of concentration and memory by taking a lot of time to remember his old friend (Fahey, 2017). Loss of concentration and memory is one of the main signs that a person has a mental illness.
Trauma impacts one’s functioning and development by reducing one’s ability to interact with others as well making one feel worthless. It can also cause emotional fluctuations like being sad, loneliness, anxiety, and irritability, being violent and even becoming angry very fast (Regehr & Sussman, 2014). Charlie showed all the mentioned signs, and therefore, it is clear that in addition to other mental problems, Charlie had trauma.
Social support from friends is always key to avoiding depression and stress. A good friendship usually has many benefits such as improved self-esteem, self-worth, reduced levels of stress, increased happiness, as well as feelings of purpose and belonging. A good friendship is always pivotal to getting over the negative impacts caused by traumatic events like losing one’s family. In the movie, Reign over Me, good friendship has been portrayed to positively as Alan understood Charlie’s character and tried to help him by spending time with him and advising him to seek rehabilitation so that he could get over his loss.
Treating trauma and grief can have many benefits. Treatment of trauma helps the affected to mitigate serious negative impacts that develop and become worse over time (Regehr & Sussman, 2014). It also helps the affected to lead a better life that would be impossible without the treatment. Also, one becomes capable of regulating his or her feelings which is essential for recovery if the person had already developed grief and trauma. I think people with grief/loss/sadness/PTSD can be assisted by providing them with social support, talking to them, showing them why they still matter, and encouraging them to adhere to their medication (Regehr & Sussman, 2014). At extreme cases of the above effects, we can try and rehabilitate the person to avoid cases of attempted suicide like witnessed with Charlie in the movie “Reign over Me.”
In conclusion, trauma/grief/loss/anger can have detrimental effects on the affected. The movie, “Reign over Me” has presented the negative consequences that one can go through if not taken care of through social support. If it was not for Alan, Charlie would have been severely impacted by the trauma and grief he developed after losing his family. Therefore, social support and treatment of trauma/grief/loss/sadness is key to the recovery of those affected.
References
Fahey, P. (2017). Movie Review of Reign Over Me. Sight & Sound, 17, 5.
Regehr, C., & Sussman, T. (2014). Intersections Between Grief and Trauma: Toward an Empirically Based Model for Treating Traumatic Grief. Brief Treatment & Crisis Intervention, 4(3).