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It’s Kind of a Funny Story

It’s Kind of a Funny Story tells a story about Craig Gilner, who is a sixteen-year-old teen who is contemplating suicide by jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge. Instead of going through with jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge, he decided to seek help. Throughout the film, it is revealed that Craig has a lot of pressure from school, friends, and family. He is uncertain if he had made the right of staying, mostly because his friends might find out when he doesn't show up to school. The movie closes with saying that while his stay didn't cure his depression, it helped him a lot, and he can get through the rest of his life with the guidance of his family and friends.

Attractive

The movie revolves around Craig and his Depression. The film never goes into depth about his case of Depression as Craig brings it up himself that he has been having depressed feelings. He used to take Zoloft, which is used to treat depression, which he appeared to stop taking, hence the suicidal thoughts that were happening.

Depression is a major depressive mood disorder, which is a common and serious mood disorder, that causes the individual significant impairment or distress in important areas of functioning. Those who suffer from depression encounter persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness. Individuals who have to endure depression show various symptoms as trouble concentrating, and making decisions, feeling fatigued, worthlessness, hopelessness, digestive problems, persistent empty feelings, loss of interest in things once enjoyable, overeating, or appetite loss and suicidal thoughts or attempts.

It’s Kind of a Funny Story was consistent with showing the proper symptoms that pertained to the mental disorder, in this case being Depression. The film brought up the diagnosis from the beginning of the film, and you were able to connect the symptoms to depression. Craig’s thought process and actions connect with his diagnosis of depression. At the beginning of the film, Craig considers jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge instead he decided that he needed help, and he goes to the hospital and tells Dr. Mahmoud that he wants urgent help, he signs Craig up for a five day stay in the hospital's psychiatric floor. He had a hard time making decisions for himself as he let others influence him, which was a cause of his stress as he didn’t want to disappoint those close to him.

Once he meets the lead physician of the psychiatric floor, Dr. Minerva, he confesses all the many stressors he faces in his life like his friends, school, and family. All he wants is to be accepted and good at something without disappointing his parents. Craig’s attitude and the way he carries himself shows the signs of depression. He had an unhappy mood most of the day as he sees his life as a living nightmare. He isn’t happy and feels that he’s a disappointment. He mopes around thinking that what he has experienced is some of the hardest hardships once can endure. Believing that only bad things happen to him as those who are in his life are seen as perfect.

I would have to agree with the statement that It’s Kind of a Funny provides an authentic portrayal of people with depression. I decided to go with agreeing instead of strongly agree due to the fact that the film depicted hardships and multiple symptoms that an individual with depression could encounter but I think it didn’t depict that many symptoms.

Attractive

The criteria I will use to rate the attractiveness will focus on Craig’s personality traits. Throughout the film, there was a mixture of positive and negative personality traits from Craig, as it altered with his Depression. At the beginning of the film, he wasn’t able to handle his feelings for things, as he felt a constant sadness. He was a teenager who didn’t want to disappoint his parents, in this case, his dad as his dad wanted him to follow his footsteps.

These feelings of worthlessness and hopelessness overwhelmed him and pushed him to contemplate dying from suicide. He felt as no one would understand but he understood that he did need help. Craig’s negative personality traits are only present when he was feeling doubtful. This was shown at the beginning of the film, as his negative personality traits soon decreased when he was started to realize what was causing all his stress and empty feelings.

Craig is a quiet, caring, and artistic individual. At the beginning of the film, he is pictured as a quiet kid who doesn’t seem like an individual who doesn’t get to express himself. He lets others decide for him, as he feels if he hasn’t made an impact. He wants to make the people around him happy instead of thinking of what makes him happy, but it causes him stress. This is seen in the film when all he talks about is trying to get into the elaborate summer school program that could get him to be like his dad. Once he can express himself through art, he sees that it’s something that makes him happy. This is seen when all the patients were required to participate in therapeutic recreation therapy and were able to create something that he enjoyed doing.

I could see the audience understanding the struggles Craig faces as teens tend to face those kinds of struggles of finding themselves and wondering what they're good at. He is smart, creative, and has positive personality traits lead out of his depression which made his happiness and likes come out. But his feelings of worthlessness, hopelessness, and suicidal thoughts, are likely to lessen the audience's sense of his attractiveness.

People, who see the movie and don't know much about depression, are is likely to leave the movie feeling that people with depression just mope around and feel sad for themselves but once receiving the correct treatment can help manage and or help to get on to the right path. I agree with the statement that It’s Kind of a Funny provides an attractive portrayal of people with depression. Craig is a typical teen trying to find himself through this crazy path called life.

Friendly

The criteria I will use focuses on Craig’s family, friends, and the mental health professional and how they reacted towards him having depression. His parents didn’t pay much attention to him as it seemed, they expected certain things from him, as he had an intelligent little sister where they spent most of their time focused on. In the scene where Craig was contemplating suicide by jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge, he envisions his family there on the bridge with him, talking to him about everything going on except for his emotional wellbeing. They went on how he should think about what he’s doing as it will affect his sister and that he didn’t consider the money they spent on that bike and he was going to leave it there. Never did they bring up Craig's wellbeing.

Most of this stress came from his dad, as he wanted Craig to go to some elaborate summer school program. His friends are some of the coolest kids in school, as Aaron doesn’t need to study and is a complete chick magnet. Aaron’s girlfriend Nia is Craig's dream girl as he had a crush on her for years but always got ignored.

Once he was admitted to the hospital his mother seemed more worried about him compared to his father. She was encouraging when he decided to get help, she told him “This is the bravest thing you’ve ever done. You made the right decision coming here.” She thought it was brave for him to get the help he needed and encouraged him to finish his stay.  

Aaron and Craig had a conflict in their friendship, but towards the end of the film, Aaron opened up to Craig expressing sometimes he feels overwhelmed and has had depressed feelings as well. Craig realizes that he isn’t as perfect that he thought he was, which gives him a feeling of relief as its not only him feeling stressed. After Craig is discharged from his stay, Aaron and Craig begin to have a stronger friendship as they both understand each other.

Dr. Minerva, who is the mental health professional helping Craig though out his stay in the hospital's psychiatric floor. She was able to talk to him and guided him in a way that would help him realize what was wrong. He was able to find what made him happy and realized that he doesn’t always need to make those around him happy by doing what they want.

I would have to agree that the film did show that someone did care for the main character who was living with a mental illness. In this case, being Craig and his family, and friends. Dr. Minerva did what she thought would benefit him in the process of his stay. I didn’t rate it a strongly agree due to the fact Craig didn’t have a strong support system from the beginning.

Hopeful

The criteria that affect the audience's awareness of the possibility of a positive outcome for the character are changes in Craig’s symptoms, and changes in his personal life. With the appropriate treatment, Craig was successful in addressing the major problems that he was facing and what he needed to do to confront them.

Craig was successful in addressing the major problems that contributed to his depression and suicidal thoughts. Which was the constant fear of being seen as a failure in the eyes of others. We can see Craig’s symptoms improve throughout the movie once he was able to pinpoint what was making him unhappy, once he did it helped him improve his ability to function and live a productive life.

Once getting admitted to the hospital's psychiatric floor his journey to recovery begin, slowly but surely. It was a time for him to reflect and get away from his worries even though throughout the film he was fearful of his friends finding out that he was in the hospital for depression. He needed to accept the fact that all those worries were a part of being a teen and he needed to do what made him happy instead of worrying what others would think about.

His symptoms soon started to decrease as he started to gain interest in something new, in this case, art, he didn’t bring up having trouble with appetite anymore, to where he was making his own decisions. By the end of his stay, he became more hopeful, as his thinking changed his view on things. When Craig found an interest in art, he found that art made him happy and he felt as if it was something he was good at. It made him realize that he should do what he wants to do rather than what everyone else wanted or expected from him. Once he made those transitions it is revealed that he started pursuing his purpose of becoming an artist which his dad understood, as it made him happier. He was able to embrace himself. This changed his life forever as at the ending of the film it shows how Craig was enjoying his life from school, family, and friends.

I would have to agree that there was a positive outcome for Craig. It’s Kind of a Funny Story ends saying that his stay didn't cure his depression, but the time in the hospital's psychiatric floor helped him out, and he was able to get past the remainder of his life with the encouragement of his family and friends. The film ends by screening how he moves on to live his life Noelle and his loved ones. He switched schools to pursue what he enjoys. He had a meaningful life despite the obstacles he faced, he overcame them and was able to love himself and finally do the things made him happy.

Helpful

In It’s Kind of a Funny Story, we see Craig meet with a mental health professional (MHP) during a few scenes in the movie. Dr. Minerva, who was Craig’s therapist, helped him understand what he was expressing were things that he could change. All the sessions shown were short, yet they appeared to be professional and insightful, but it may reinforce a misunderstanding that seeing someone to get help is a quick thing to do when in reality it’s not. This was in five days, and it showed Craig feeling better which in reality it wouldn’t only take five days.

Dr. Minerva helped him through the process, she would take the time to listen and ask questions regarding his day to day life and it would continuously lead back to his family and the fear of being a failure. She made it clear to Craig that it was important for him to have a strong support system and in the end, he realizes that other people around the world have it harder than him. He realizes that he doesn’t have a reason to be upset about the things he’s going through. She had him do therapeutic recreation therapy where Craig discovers his passion for art and ultimately life itself. I would have to agree that It’s Kind of a Funny Story provides a helpful mental health professional who acted professionally and ethically. Dr. Minerva was professional and insightful was the way she communicated with Craig. She was able to keep the relationship professional by strictly catered to him. She was able to get him to think and question what he could do to help himself as he felt constant pressure from others around him to be something that he doesn’t want to be. She didn’t tell him what to do, instead she helped him by guiding him to think about what he wanted instead of worrying about what others would think.

References: 

Truschel, J. (n.d.). Depression Definition and Dsm-5 Diagnostic Criteria. Retrieved from https://www.psycom.net/depression-definition-dsm-5-diagnostic-criteria/

Signs of Clinical Depression: Symptoms to Watch For. (2019, September 17). Retrieved from https://www.webmd.com/depression/guide/detecting-depression#1-2