Movie ratings for mental health

One of my friends agreed with me that it would be nice if there were mental health warning ratings for movies. Because sometimes I can't handle a suicide, suicide attempt, or a mental hospitalization in the movies I watch.

So here is a beginning. Obviously, if you don't want any spoilers at all, you shouldn't read my list. :)
If you would like to add movies to the list, please comment. Please note any suicides, suicide attempts, or mental hospitalizations/residential treatment. I'll add it to this list so that it is in alphabetical order. Thank you all so much.

Also, these warnings don't mean the movies aren't worth watching. They just might not be the right movie for certain times in someone's life (or they might be really helpful at some time in someone else's life).


Black Swan
  • Intense (I haven't seen it. This is according to a commenter -thanks!)

Extraordinary Measures (2010)
  • Intense, but ends well

Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (2009)
  • Mental health hospitalization for main character's mother
  • (I never finished the movie)

Girl, Interupted (1999)
  • Mental health hospitalization/residential treatment (main character)
  • Suicide (friend of main character)

Les Miserables (2012)
  • Suicide
  • (I never watched this one at all - heard from a friend)
Requiem for a Dream
  • Intense (I haven't seen it. This is according to a commenter -thanks!)
Silver Linings Playbook
  • Intense (according to a commenter -thanks!)
  • Deals with mental illness in the two main characters, basically mental illness is a/the main topic

Comments

  1. Marilyn LynchApril 14, 2013 at 7:55 PM

    I've seen various movies, over the years, that show attempted & completed suicide. Now, that I have made suicide attempts; I find, that watching such things, even if the whole movie was wonderful, is disturbing. I would never have gone to see "Les Mis..." had I known, Russell Crowes character ends his life, in such a spectacular manner. I feel, the movie industry could have left that out, or had it play a miminal part in the movie. Instead, I felt, it was glamorized. The movie plot, made it appear, that he "deserved it". Glamorizing suicide, I feel, is Not what the media should be doing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. SamApril 20, 2013 at 1:34 PM

    I think this list is a great idea. Trigger warnings for mental health are not nearly common enough. I found that IMDB has a huge list of movies tagged with the word "suicide," but there is no way to know without examining each how intensely each movie handles it. There are other lists of movies that have suicide trigger warnings, though most lists I've found focus on sexual assault. Wikipedia also has a list, though it is quite short: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Films_about_suicide

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AbigailOctober 18, 2013 at 10:27 PM

      Thanks, Sam. Good to know of the other resources, too.

      Delete
  3. L.June 10, 2013 at 10:57 PM

    Thanks for this. This is interesting! I'm a similarly sensitive movie-goer and when I saw Girl Interrupted....I seriously couldn't eat chicken for awhile without feeling sick to my stomach because of the connection to the abuse and the eventual suicide.

    Other things that dealt with concepts abuse/illness etc. I think Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan and even the recent Silver Linings Playbook were a little bit intense for me. Silver Linings was good and had a happy ending, but it did hit a little close to home in an uncomfortable way.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AbigailOctober 18, 2013 at 10:26 PM

      Thanks, L., for your input! Sorry it took me so long to get back to it.

      Delete
  4. TanviMay 27, 2017 at 2:38 AM

    Hi Unreasonably rational Team,

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    I would like to personally congratulate you as your blog Unreasonably rational has been selected by our panelist as one of the Top 50 OCD Blogs on the web.

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    ReplyDelete

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