Girl, Interrupted

In the movie Girl, Interrupted Susanna Kaysen (Winona Ryder) spends two years in a psychiatric hospital after attempting to commit suicide and being diagnosed with Borderline personality disorder. Susanne life seems to come to a standstill the moment she enters the psychiatric hospital, and we only see glimpses of her past throughout the movie. One of the pivotal moments in the movie is centered around her "friend" Toby (Jared Leto). Susanna had a complicated relationship with other people, specifically she had no female friends and slept with all her male friends. At one point, she dreams of a memory of them discussing her dark thoughts on death after sleeping together. He had stated that he didn't want to die and that his birthday would decide whether he lived or died. The next morning his birthday is picked in the military draft, a week before he ships out he visits her at the hospital. He asks he to run away with him to Canada, telling her he doesn't want to die and that she's not crazy and doesn't belong in the hospital. Up until this point in the movie Susanna had vehemently denied being suicidal and maintained that she never tried to kill herself. She would argue that she had a headache and was simply trying to get rid of it by taking the pills. Yet, when Toby tells her she doesn't belong in the hospital its a turning point for herself as she finally admits that she needs help to get better. Throughout the rest of movie, she struggles to accept help from the doctors and believes they don't know what they're doing. After, finding someone she knew dead from suicide she begins to open up and accept treatment. One line in particular stood out as it described how shed been feeling and living until this point, she told a trusted nurse, "you try to hurt yourself on the outside so you can kill the thing on the inside." She slowly started to get better and finally began to feel again. It was important because throughout the movie she was different from the other patients at the hospital. Mental illness isn't something that's viewable from the outside and yet she had a better chance of getting better than the others. The movie depicted her struggle and was able to shed a light on the stigma that comes with mental illness since they it isn't usually discussed.

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