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The Perks of Being a Wallflower, is a 2012 film that looks at the reality of mental illness in high school aged students. This movie shows the reality of living through a mental illness and having to deal with people who do not understand or care to understand. This movie "normalizes" what Charlie goes through and shows him that there are people that care and understand depression, anxiety and PTSD. The main character Charlie is a 15-year-old boy who is just starting his freshman year of high school. Charlie seems to be a normal kid who lives in a suburban neighborhood with both parents and his older sister. During the beginning of the movie, we learn that Charlie does not have any friends. He writes letters every night to his Aunt Helen, who he says is his "favorite person in the world."

During the movie we learned of some traumatic events that happened in Charlie's life. His aunt Helen had sexually abused him as a young child (Charlie had blocked this memory out during the first part of the movie). Charlie also witnessed her car accident and her death, at the age of 7. These memories are what the beginning of the movie showed Charlie was seeing before we knew the detail of the sexual abuse. Charlie later described that he had a best friend who committed suicide months before their freshman year of high school. This event caused Charlie to fall deeper into depression where he tries to take his own life, sending Charlie to a psychiatric hospital. He was hospitalized for a few months and released back in time to start school.

He started to act out and use drugs and alcohol. All these experiences caused him to have flashbacks and physical symptoms such as his heart racing and sweating. He also talked about feeling numb and unnoticed by people around him. His reexperiences are often triggered by certain words, objects, or experiences.

Women tend to provide more information about their selves when seeking help, where men are less likely to fully open up. This is because of gender roles and men thinking that depression implies a lack of self-confidence and that they are weak (Helgeson 2022). Also, men and women symptoms present in different ways, which can also lead to over and under diagnosing between the sexes. Overall, The Perks of Being a Wallflower did a good job portraying what a high schooler may go through. It represented sexual abuse, bullying, violence and mental health in a realistic way. This movie would be a great resource for schools and all counselors. Parents would benefit from this movie to help them see and understand the symptoms so hopefully can be caught early enough for the child to receive the appropriate care.

Reference:

Helgeson, V. S. (2017).Psychology of Gender(5th ed.). Routledge.