Many people, over the years, have seen the film "Silver Linings Playbook." This film has sparked a lot of controversy with some missing details. "Silver Linings Playbook" is a film about a man named Pat who went to an institution, after he had an incident with the law. Pat's character was a man with anger issues who assaulted his wife's lover and almost killed him when he saw them having sex in the shower. In this film, Bradley Cooper's character is a typical OCD Italian family. We see this pattern when he comes back, after he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Cooper's character Pat is trying to find his "silver lining" and uses the word excelsior a lot because he is trying to improve his mental and psychical state, but he's surrounded by dysfunction himself. Pat Senior, who is the father, exhibits a ton of OCD symptoms, like superstitions during every game, putting items on angles in order to avoid bad things, and apart from his OCD, they have the same temper.

My opinion on the ideology is the psychology aspect of the movie being incorrect to most viewers. In the movie, Pat got sent to the institution because of the court, and was diagnosed as bipolar. To me, Pat was not bipolar, and I have a valid argument to support this theory. Pat was only diagnosed as bipolar because when people get violent, it was a common occurrence that the government ordered people to take bipolar medications such as, Lithium and Abilify, plus other medications because it was a scapegoat for people that had violent acts, even though this wasn't fair for people with bipolar and various other health issues that were getting misdiagnosed like I think happened in the movie.

I personally think that Pat had anxiety, OCD, and Post Traumatic Stress. We know he had a temper, but so did his father, and this movie pretty much showed the stereotype of Italian tempers. If we look at the big picture here, Pat was very compulsive, and doesn't think things through which is actually OCD and anxiety. Pat had a common OCD symptom, which is the need to tell, like in the scene when he accidentally threw his mother under the bus because he couldn't keep a secret. Pat also becomes very obsessive, and if you told him to move on, he wouldn't. We also see that he doesn't have bipolar because in the film, he never really took his medications and his moods stayed balanced with his hard efforts to control his temper. For example, he controlled his temper in the game scene while everybody else went to get into the fight over racism. Pat stayed out of it, but tried to help his brother and therapist.

Many people think that his temper while finding the wedding video was bipolar, but it was, in fact, a reasonable anxiety attack that was triggered by his surroundings and people. The thing about bipolar is that some mood swings change uncontrollably with no rhyme or reason. Pat's character was triggered after the dinner scene, and it was by something Tiffany said to him, so he went home with a panic attack, and was looking for something that meant a lot to him. Anxiety attacks can often lead to being short tempered and are often triggered from events, images, or words that somebody is exposed to. We also have more signs showing that he's more anxiety and Post Traumatic stress, and one example of this is when Pat hears "La Cherie Amour," it makes him panic. This song was what played at his wedding, and it also was playing when he found his wife with the teacher. One thing about that song is that it only starts playing in his head during an anxiety attack. People with other mental disorders will hear things at random times, and not only when they are having an anxiety attack. When Tiffany makes Pat feel harassed on the street during Halloween, it's when he hears the song or thinks about it again, and judging by the camera movements, you could tell he felt like his head was spinning too. As soon as Tiffany told the police officer that it was her fault because she triggered his anxiety, she comforted him, thus making him not hear the song anymore. I'd like to also add that, even though he got paranoid about his wife and the teacher plotting against him, it seemed somewhat reasonable. Was that really bipolar, because didn't it seem like he knew something was up? I think Pat knew something was up, even if it was a sexual affair, and his wife being unfaithful. I truly believe that this movie wanted us to think deeply about what was really going on in his mind, and I think it's anxiety, post traumatic stress, and some OCD because of his behaviors, symptoms, and triggers.

I believe the moral of this movie is truly the power of positive thinking, and that love can heal almost anything, but I am not advising people to stop taking medications or working with doctors, but with a positive attitude, a lot can change for the better if you work hard enough. We see that his heartbreak set him in a terrible place before he had to start the hard work to make his life better, and to my belief, it made him misdiagnosed, and negative for a while. His character and family treated him differently, like his father seeming distant in the beginning. He also had a brother who rubbed in all his successes, while pointing out Pat's downfalls, but Pat made it all better. Pat decided that he deserved a silver lining, and he worked very hard to be happy again. He chose to work out, work on relationships, work his brain, and he became friends with Tiffany. When Pat became friends with Tiffany, they could make light of their difficult pasts together, and in a way she helped him a lot. Tiffany helped Pat face reality, forgive himself, trust again, not judge as much, fall in love again, and pretty much heal as a person. I think the movie shows that when two people fall in love, it can almost make your troubles shrink. Tiffany and Pat balanced each other out, and could understand each other without judgment. In the film, Tiffany battled depression after her husband died, and she went through a lot after that, but Pat stuck up for her, and Tiffany taught Pat that it's okay to be flawed. I think after the scene, when Tiffany said, "There's a part of me that will always be dirty and sloppy, and I like that, but can you forgive, Pat?" It's the scene that we see him trying to move on from dwelling even more. If Pat really was bipolar, the power of love wouldn't have healed his wounds, but that is just my theory on the film. Tiffany helped heal his anxiety and post traumatic stress, while he helped balance her by listening to her as well. In conclusion, my opinion is that love and optimism can fix mostly everything as long as you’re willing to work on what you need for your own health, because "If you stay positive, you have a shot at a silver lining."