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What's Eating Gilbert Grape Essay

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In this paper I will be explaining the different aspects of abnormal psychology and how it is frequently portrayed in the media. The movie I will be basing this off of is What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. It shows the life of a depressed, morbidly obese woman and one of her children who has a mental disability. There are many different ideas as to what is considered normal versus abnormal especially when it comes to the understanding of different disorders and their approaches to treatment. One of the main disorders I will be talking about is Depression. Depression is a clinical disorder that results in severe dejection. Some symptoms include: Absence of motivation and drive, disinterest in life, fatigue, and lack of social interaction. People with depression hold extremely negative views about themselves and feel that they aren’t worth anything. Not only are there mental symptoms, but depression entails multiple physical symptoms too. Some physical symptoms would involve headaches, dizziness, and indigestion. Although, most commonly, depression results in a lack of sleep and appetite. Treatment of depression first starts with the …show more content…

This movie is about the Grape family, which consists of four children and their mother, Bonnie. After her husband’s death and years of depression, Bonnie became morbidly obese and the laughing stock of their town Endora. Because of his mother’s condition, the oldest child, Gilbert, looks after his brother Arnie who has a mental disability. This can be a difficult task because when left unsupervised for a certain period of time, Arnie runs away and attempts to climb to the top of the water tower. Meanwhile, the whole town cheers as his family and multiple police officers try to get him down. At one point, this had caused him to get arrested. Then, while doing this, Gilbert also works at the local grocery store hoping to be able to help provide for his

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