The Silver Linings Playbook approaches many different types of mental diseases through the characters in the movie. The most apparent mental disease having to do with the main character Pat, brilliantly played by Bradley Cooper. The story begins with Pat in a mental hospital, which we later learn was because he almost beat a guy to death upon catching him naked in the shower with his wife. After eight months of treatment in the psychiatric ward, Pat's mother comes to take him back home. Being released from the mental hospital, Pat is determined to be more positive and change for the better, in hopes of having his wife, Nikki, return. As Pat goes to the court-mandated therapy sessions, we soon learn that he has bipolar disorder. .
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, bipolar disorder is "also known as manic-depressive illness a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels, and the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks. " Scientists have discovered that bipolar disorder can be acquired through genes but also environmental factors. The mood disorder causes the individual to experience depression and mania. Some of the symptoms during the manic phase are to be: overly talkative, little need for sleep, overactive, elated, irritated by advice, and much more. .
During Pat's first night at home, he is fixed on reading all the books on Nikki's teaching syllabus, and so, he starts by reading a book by Ernest Hemingway. He stays up all night (a symptom of not needing much sleep) to finish the book, only to get extremely upset at the unhappy ending. To express his distress over the ending, he barges into his parent's room at four in the morning to vent. Despite how many times his parents try to calm him down and tell him that it's a very inappropriate time to talk about the ending, Pat is unable to stop talking and is overly restless. The next day, while waiting for the therapy session, Pat hears the wedding song, the one that was playing when he caught his wife cheating on him.
