Bipolar Disorder in Modern Love

Modern love was my first introduction to bipolar disorder. Up until then, I had only heard of it, in whiffs, my vocabulary of mental illnesses limited to depression. Watching Anne Hathway in her literally dazzling outfit was when I was initiated into what bipolar disorder looks like and what the hell it really is. This was before I started studying psychology, and way before I understood what mental health truly entails. I re-watched it recently, equipped with a bachelor’s in Psychology and honestly, I am glad I got to learn about it this way. I love how they portray the contrast in the two moods, with the musical-like choreography to display mania and the dull, darker shades to depict a depressive episode, and how the two come about, without an announcement or a preparatory warning. They barge in, and don’t knock. That was something I remember taking away from the episode the first time I watched and I would definitely recommend this to everyone. 

Anne Hathaway in Modern Love

What I love about this episode of modern love is that it does not belong to a separate category called films on mental illness or psychological drama. It fits right in with the other episodes, showing that mental illnesses don’t show up in life in a neat, separate category, but instead mixed in with the other episodes of life (pun unintentional). Also, the fact that Anne Hathaway starred in it was why I began watching it and it honestly works like as an antidote to all the shame surrounding mental illnesses. 

In this episode the story belongs to her and her alone. The camera does not look at her through a sympathetic lens but simply as she is. There is no attempt to sugar coat or exaggerate the effect bipolar disorder has on her, which is pretty hard to do when a piece attempts to represent a mental illness or anything out of what society deems to be “normal”. 

The show addresses the internalised shame that comes with having a mental illness and just how hard it can be to open up to people about it or say it out loud. It not just depicts how hard it can be to deal with the symptoms and the extremities of bipolar disorder but also the fact that her brain is wired that way in the first place. This was something I truly appreciate now that I have the clinical knowledge of the illness and the personal knowledge of my own experience of a mental illness.

The walk through the history of dealing with bipolar disorder and not having adequate treatment to manage the symptoms accurately mirrors the case irl as well. I remember studying how the treatment for bipolar disorder is yet to evolve, with better alternatives to lithium medications, with less intense side-effects.

Scenes showing the different episodes Lexi goes through helped me place the knowledge of symptoms into its place, better understanding the disorder as a whole. The excessive talking, flight of ideas, increase in goal-directed activity all portrayed the scenes of a manic episode. The hypersomnia, lack of pleasure, profound sadness, and so on that we witnessed in Lexi did the same for a depressive episode. This is something that is hard to make sense of from a layperson’s perspective because of just how different the two episodes are. Sometimes it can be hard to fathom that someone you've seen in the height of their mania can sink into intense lows and I love that we get to see both in this episode. Honestly, it feels like a good introduction to bipolar disorder for the general public, and by that I mean the people who don't dig into the DSM 5 for a living. That's also another reason why I love that this is a part of the Modern Love series, because more people might stumble across it accidentally. This gives me hope for mental health representation that is less anomalous.

Sticking to the string of love that ties all the episodes together, this particular one shows how love can look like accepting someone as they are, in their best and worst extremities of their spectrum, mirroring Bipolar Disorder in that sense too. The title, “take me as I am, whoever I am” sums this up pretty well. 

My favourite part in the entire film is the last few minutes where she opens up about it to her friend. This scene magnifies just how much social support can help, especially when Lexi mentions feeling like an elephant has taken one of its feet off her chest. This addresses how hard it can be to share this experience with others, not wanting to be viewed a certain way or internalised stigma being the culprit, making it more isolating and in turn, more difficult. And also, the acceptance of the disorder by her friend, her support and her empathy is a solid ending to the show to instil more hope in the potential of social support. I voluntarily took away the pride-ish feeling that Hathaway’s character feels towards the end about her illness, feeling somewhat proud of my own diagnosis. The feeling towards her illness evolves over the span of one point something hours, making it a heartwarming watch. 

-written by Impana Jain