Bipolar Disorder can be one of the mood disorders about which the most myths circulate and, certainly, it can be complicated to understand.
However, the world of cinema and documentaries has several examples that help to understand what this type of emotional and behavioral problems consists of.. They can be a good way to learn how bipolarity arises and how it is presented through the actions of the people who experience it.
Below you can see a list of documentaries and movies about Bipolar Disorder, which capture different facets of your symptom picture. They are not ordered by quality or age.
1. Biutiful
A Mexican and Spanish production directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu and starring Javier Bardem. In her The relationship of a young man with death is narrated with a melancholic and subtle tone
2. Crazy love
This film stars Drew Barrymore and Chris O’Donell tells the romantic relationship between two young people, marked by the emotional ups and downs typical of Bipolar Disorder and the way they flee from family and mental health institutions.
3. The Flying Scotsman
A review of the history of Graeme Obree, a well-known Scottish cyclist who has Bipolar Disorder and, despite the problems this entailed, he managed to become an elite athlete.
One of the clearest descriptions of Bipolar Disorder that can be found in a movie, thanks to the work of Richard Gere. Here, he represents a man with strong emotional ups and downs and sudden mood swings who maintains a complex relationship with his psychiatrist (Lena Olin).
5. Stephen Fry: The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive
A television documentary divided into two parts, about the way in which this English comedian, writer and actor experiences his mental disorder This, specifically, is a mood disorder known as cyclothymia, which is a mild form of Bipolar Disorder.
6. Van Gogh: painted with words
A docudrama about the life of the famous Dutch painter, played here by the famous actor Benedict Cumberbach The way in which the phases of Van Gogh’s tormented life are presented are a good description of the symptoms of Bipolar Disorder.
7. The Hours
A film structured through 3 different eras and 3 different women that each one of them stars in and that, in some way, are united by the work of the writer Virginia Woolf.
8. Normal Life
Like other films about Bipolar Disorder such as Crazy Love, This focuses on the relationship of two people, one of whom experiences bipolarity In this case it is about a police officer and a young woman whose mental stability is compromised.
9. Wilbur wants to commit suicide
Wilbur is a man who, at first glance, appears to lack no charm or humor. However, the idea of committing suicide is gaining more and more strength in his life the product of a pessimism that follows him wherever he goes.
It is not in itself a film about Bipolar Disorder, but one of the characters who appear in it has this mood disorder This is one of the lawyers, Arthur Edens.
11. Blue Sky
This film talks about a marriage formed by a woman with mental instability who evolves into depression (Jessica Lange) and a US Army soldier who, in addition to suffering great pressure at work, is increasingly socially isolated.
12. The good side of things
A story that explores the personal side of those who experience this disorder firsthand. Two people with relationship problems meet and, without realizing it, they see that despite being very different, the experiences they have had to go through cause them to find themselves in adversity.
13. Two worlds
A metaphor about the unstable character that occurs in people with bipolarity.
14. Go for it
This film, filmed in the 80s, reflects the stigma of the disorder and adds the doses of humanity that patients had to squeeze out to cope with a hostile environment
