Analyze Scripts

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Episode 54 - Cult V. Cult Jan 15, 2024

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Welcome back to Analyze Scripts, where a psychiatrist and a therapist analyze what Hollywood gets right and wrong about mental health. Today, we are covering two popular documentaries that have recently been getting a lot of attention, "Escaping Twin Flames" on Netflix and "Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God" on Max. We discuss how cults prey on vulnerable people, some red flags to look out for and discuss similarities between these two cults as well as others. We hope you enjoy!Psychology Today Article InstagramYoutubeTikTokWebsiteDr. Katrina Furey, MD: Hi, I'm Dr. Katrina Furey, a psychiatrist.Portia Pendleton, LCSW: And I'm Portia Pendleton, a licensed clinical social worker.Dr. Katrina Furey, MD: And this is analyze scripts, a podcast where two shrinks analyze the depiction of mental health in movies and tv shows.Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Our hope is that you learn some legit info about mental health while feeling like you're chatting with your girlfriends.Dr. Katrina Furey, MD: There is so much misinformation out there, and it drives us nuts.Portia Pendleton, LCSW: And if someday we pay off our student loans or land a sponsorship, like.Dr. Katrina Furey, MD: With a lay flat airline or a major beauty brand, even better.Portia Pendleton, LCSW: So sit back, relax, grab some popcorn.Dr. Katrina Furey, MD: And your DSM five, and enjoy. Welcome back to another episode of analyze scripts. We are doing something a little bit different today. Usually we focus on fictional tv shows and movies, but we have decided to take a stand against cults. And we have decided that we will make an exception and talk about cults when they're in the media, because they are honestly just so atrocious. So we're going to try to walk a really fine line here and still be ethical. We're not trying to analyze anyone specifically in terms of the people that are talked about and the two documentaries we're going to be talking about today. But we want to use this material to talk more broadly about cults in general, again, because it is really pervasive, it's really dangerous, it's heartbreaking, and we see it a lot in the media, but there's still so much confusion about it. So, again, if you want to hear more, you can also revisit one of our older episodes about yellow jackets season two with Dr. Jesse Gold. We talk a lot about Lottie's cult. And so, basically today what we're going to do is I watched a documentary about a cult. Portia watched a different documentary about the cult. A different cult. And we didn't watch each other's documentaries. And we're going to tell each other about the different cults. Right? Did I explain that? Yeah. Okay, so do you want me to get started, or do you want to get started?Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Portia, why don't you intro yours and get started?Dr. Katrina Furey, MD: Yeah, not my cult, but the cult. Too short. Okay, so I'm going to be referring to a recent Netflix documentary called escaping Twin Flames. I think that's what it's called. It was only about three episodes. They're about an hour long each. Interestingly, I watched them on an airplane when we were flying down to Disney World. So it was like an interesting juxtaposition, like going to the happiest place on earth and then watching all of this sadness and heartbreak and intensity sitting next to my children. It's interesting. This documentary follows an organization which obviously they don't call themselves a cult, but they have some experts kind of weighing in who do call it a cult, or also a high control group is like another phrase used to describe cults these days. And basically it's run by these two people, Jeff and Shalia, who I was just looking up their Wikipedia before we got started, Portia. And they both have had different names throughout their lives, according to Wikipedia, which I just think is interesting. And they run something called the Twin Flames University. I had never heard of twin flames until Megan Fox and machine gun Kelly. Right. Like, weren't they all about twin flames? Had you heard of this before? A little.Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Like, it's like an extra. Like, that was my understanding of what. Or, like, not an extra, a soulmate to the right.Dr. Katrina Furey, MD: Right. Yeah. So I again looked it up on Wikipedia, because doctors use Wikipedia, too.Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Did you donate?Dr. Katrina Furey, MD: No, it's Christmas time. I'm a little stressed. But basically, according to Wikipedia, it says, the term twin flames was coined by the english novelist Marie Corelli in her novel of romance of two worlds. And since then, it has sort of evolved into a lot of new age spiritualism. Kind of focuses on twin flames. It's kind of like, it's my understanding it's like your soulmate, but even greater than that. So it's almost like meeting your counterpart and that you have to find each other in order to both achieve your full potential. That's kind of what it is. And then I guess these two folks started this twin flames university where you could take classes about bettering yourself and finding your twin flame. And again, like we talked about in our yellow jackets documentary, always be very careful when someone calls themselves a guru. Someday we'll have merch that has that slogan on it. Right. But just always be careful. And I was looking, and their class that they sold was over $4,000. That's a lot of money. A lot. But again, I see this. I don't know if you see it in people you're treating or evaluating, but I see a lot of people coming to me who are paying a lot of money out of pocket. They don't take insurance. They're also not advertising themselves as clinicians. They might advertise themselves as, quote unquote, life coaches or a coach of some kind, but you can charge whatever you want for whatever you're selling. And it's just interesting to me how some people get hooked and some people charge so much money. Anyway, what the premise of the documentary, Portia, is, is know. So these two people start this twin flames university, and they kind of use themselves as, like, we found our twin flame and this is how we did it. And look at how successful we are and how happy we are and stuff. And then people start joining, and it kind of becomes. I feel like they always become these MLM type things, right?Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Yeah.Dr. Katrina Furey, MD: Where it's like you buy in and then you become the teacher. Did you watch that documentary about the Nexium cult?Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Not that one, but Portia, I think I did the Lululemon. Not Lululemon, the Lula Rowe similar.Dr. Katrina Furey, MD: So the nextium was really good. Also, like, heartbreaking and awful, but it's a really good expose about typical cult psychology. But again, it's like we are up here on a pedestal. Typically, cult leaders are like, malignant narcissists who want to be idealized, and they want people to obey them no matter what. And they have this sociopathic flair to them. Again, I'm not analyzing anyone specifically or individually. I'm just talking about, in general, what we see. They have this sociopathic flare where, again, they kind of get off or get a rush from controlling people. So those tend to be the people at the top of a cult, and then below are people who are vulnerable to this type of influence. And I think that's where the psychology is really fascinating. Like, how do people get hooked and kind of. It's not always like someone waiting on the end of the road, like, hey, come sign up for my cult. No one would do it. Right? So it tends to be people who are vulnerable in some way. Whether there's been a history of trauma, I would say really common. If there's developmental or intellectual disability, if there is some type of mental illness that can be exploited. Like, I remember in my training, a colleague of mine was treating a patient with psychosis who was getting sucked into these cults. And for someone like that who's already struggling to tell reality from not reality, you can see why you're vulnerable to this. And other times, I think you can just think of it as an unclear sense of self, like someone who maybe is feeling a little lost or who's looking to feel connection or community or love. I think those types of people might be more apt to, I don't know, just, I guess, feel, like, enticed by someone saying, I have all the answers. Look how great my life is. Like, you can have this, too. If you pay me $100 million and do everything I say and change everything about yourself, isn't that great? I think people who have a really strong sense of self, who have more of a secure attachment style, probably will sniff out the bs and turn away and not be as easily manipulated as other people who maybe are struggling with that. I don't know. What do you think?Portia Pendleton, LCSW: I think that's pretty true. I mean, I think a generalization would be that people who tend to kind of fall into cults or even like mlms, it's like you're looking for something and then this organization is promising to deliver, and then there's this added layer of like, you're a family. And obviously that feels really strong in a cult as we know it. And then also we do see that show up in Lularoe and your team and your girl boss thing. So it can be obviously different levels of it, but totally.Dr. Katrina Furey, MD: I found a really interesting article that we're going to link to in our show notes because we know how to do that now on psychology today, that really explains cults, written by Stephen Hassan, a PhD I thought was like a really good, easy to digest description. And they also say you can see these dynamics not just in cults, but you can see it in mlms, you can see it in religious organizations, you can see it in schools, you can see it in families, you can see it in the workplace. Again, it's not like this phenomenon is unique to cults. I think it's just from the outside. Like when you're watching a documentary like this, you're just like, what? How on earth did these people stick around? And it's because it's so insidious and slow, right? Like we're seeing it in a three hour documentary. This has been going on for years. I think these people started this organization like 2007. It doesn't happen overnight, right? So usually the leader is really charming and charismatic and captivating in some way, but then there's a lot of nefarious things going on underneath. So we'll link to that because it's really interesting. And I think it's important just to note that these dynamics exist other places. And that's one reason we want to talk about it again, to sort of help educate and push out some information. So I guess with this one, with the twin Flames university. So again, the whole goal is like, sign up for this class. You'll become self actualized. I feel like that's another thing. All these cults sort of advertise like, you'll be your best self, and then that's confusing. Because I feel like Weight Watchers advertise this, too, and other types of self help advertise that. So how do you draw the line? But then you pay for this. And then as this documentary goes on, Portia, you meet different characters in it, and you meet, like, there was one. I was trying to just look up their names again really quick.Portia Pendleton, LCSW: So is this online mostly, like, the university? Like, I could sign up and take the class.Dr. Katrina Furey, MD: You could go right now. I went to the website, actually, to see if it's still there. And it is. So it is online. And then they started having in person meetups, which I think once you do that, then those connections are even stronger. Right? Like, now you're seeing each other in person, and it's like, this is our community. This is our. He did, the leader, Jeff did have a goal of eventually having an actual community. Like, we're all going to move to this place. I don't know if that ever happened or not, but so we meet a lot of different people involved. And one person involved that really struck me was this young girl named Marley. I think she was in her late teens when she got involved. And again, I feel like that's, like, the perfect person who's susceptible. Like a 17 year old with an Internet connection.Portia Pendleton, LCSW: You're really figuring out who you are.Dr. Katrina Furey, MD: Right, exactly. You don't have a fully formed identity yet because you're so young and you're just trying to figure it out. And we don't know anything about her background, so I'm not going to speculate, but basically, she was super young going to these classes. I don't know how she's paying for it. I'm not sure. And then what really struck me is basically, like, jeff and Shalia, the leaders would tell their participants, like, we know who your twin flame is. So, like, once you're self actualized enough, we'll let you know. Or we're going to help make the map. Yes, exactly. Like this ultimate puppeteer, right? This ultimate. And, like, they showed this scene where they were at the in person meetup, and they're all meeting for the first time, and they're talking to Marley and saying, like, well, is there anyone special in your life? Right? You know, they're showing this stuff, and somehow they have footage of it in real, like, they have the old footage. So someone was, like, filming all this, but then they're also showing Marley, like, present day, reflecting on the experience, and they're asking her, is there anyone special in your life right now? And she's kind of shy because she's like a kid and like, well, not really. And then Jeff's pushing her, like, are you sure? Are you sure? Sort of like, suggesting, like, he knows. And then she says, like, well, this guy has been texting me. And he's like, oh, that's it. That's it. This random guy who's texting her, and then that's her twin flame. Over time, she starts having a relationship with this guy. She moves in with him when she's really young. I can't remember the age difference, but there was a pretty significant gap. Not like 20 years, but maybe somewhere between five to ten years. And he had a criminal past. He was doing a lot of drugs. That's all we know. We don't know if there's any other trauma going on in the home as they're living together. I wouldn't be surprised if there was. And it just broke my heart that this young girl gets sucked in to thinking this is the person she's supposed to love, right? And you're just so brainwashed by it. So that was really captivating and sad. And then the other things that we see in the twin flames universe is we see a woman named Keeley, who's a key character in the documentary because she got in early and became, like, one of the teachers. So she was someone who was know. Jeff and Shalia are here. She's like the next level and trying to train other people. And how do you do the classes and stuff? And by the way, all these people are working for free. No one's getting paid. Eventually, Jeff and Shalia somehow incorporate to be a religion so that they don't have to pay taxes. And it's just like, again, all of this stuff is messy and very classic for so. But what's interesting about Keely in this documentary is that she comes in, she finds her twin flame very early on and is sort of put on this pedestal of the ultimate example of, like, look, it's not just us, Jeff and Shal…

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Episode 53 - "Frozen" Jan 08, 2024

Show notes

Welcome back to Analyze Scripts, where a psychiatrist and a therapist analyze what Hollywood gets right and wrong about mental health. Today, we are kicking off 2024 with Disney's 2013 smash hit "Frozen." This film has taken the world by (ice) storm, and we'd argue for good reason! In this episode, we spend time discussing perfectionism and "eldest daughter syndrome" while analyzing Anna and Elsa's sibling dynamic and their different reactions to early childhood trauma. It's so fascinating and fun to use these characters to explore anxious-avoidant attachment (Elsa) and disinhibited social engagement disorder (Anna). We also (once again!) discuss a character with nefarious intent and ASPD (antisocial personality disorder) traits - Hans! We talk about why people like Anna are more vulnearble to sociopathic manipulation and exploitation, and how you can protect yourself if you find yourself interacting with people like this. We are so stoked Disney depicted such complex themes for a new generation and we hope you enjoy!WATCH NOW ON YOUTUBEFOLLOW US:INSTAGRAMTIKTOKWEBSITE[00:10] Dr. Katrina Furey: Hi, I'm Dr. Katrina Furey, a psychiatrist.[00:12] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: And I'm Portia Pendleton, a licensed clinical social worker. And this is analyze scripts, a podcast where two shrinks analyze the depiction of.[00:21] Dr. Katrina Furey: Mental health in movies and tv shows.[00:23] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Our hope is that you learn some legit info about mental health while feeling like you're chatting with your girlfriends.[00:28] Dr. Katrina Furey: There is so much misinformation out there, and it drives us nuts.[00:32] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: And if someday we pay off our student loans or land a sponsorship, like.[00:36] Dr. Katrina Furey: With a lay flat airline or a.[00:37] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Major beauty brand, even better. So sit back, relax, grab some popcorn.[00:42] Dr. Katrina Furey: And your dsm five, and enjoy. Let it go. Let it go. We're so excited to talk about Frozen today. If you couldn't tell, that was not Adina Menzel. That was me.[01:05] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Wow.[01:07] Dr. Katrina Furey: I know she's basically my doppelganger when it comes to singing, but I know it's quite a shock.[01:13] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: But.[01:14] Dr. Katrina Furey: No, in all seriousness, I'm really excited to talk about Frozen. It's January when this is being released. It's very chilly in the northeast where we live, and it's just such a classic movie. I believe it's like the ten year anniversary of it being released, right?[01:32] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Yeah.[01:33] Dr. Katrina Furey: And obviously there's been a sequel, and there's going to be a third one coming out, I think, in a year or two. I can't remember if it's 2024 or 2025, but there's definitely a third one coming out. So if you've been living under a rock, this 2013 mega hit Frozen is a Disney movie inspired by Hans Christian Anderson's fairy tale the Snow Queen. Again, I just love using fairy tales to talk about mental health stuff and development and attachment and all the things. And it won, like, a bazillion award. It won an Oscar for best animated feature, best original song, which, you know, gave you a little preview of. It won a Golden Globe. It won a BAFTA award. It won two Grammy awards. I mean, just huge. And have you seen this before, Portia?[02:22] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Yes, I have. And I do really like it. Yeah. I really like frozen. The music is wonderful.[02:27] Dr. Katrina Furey: I do, too.[02:28] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Yeah.[02:29] Dr. Katrina Furey: So good. It's so good. The music is right on par for me with Encanto, where I don't mind listening to it. It really gets in your head. And I know I keep talking about my recent Disney trip, but it's just because it was so much fun, and there's just so much, like, frozen paraphernalia everywhere.[02:51] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Oh, yeah.[02:52] Dr. Katrina Furey: And it's great, right? Because everyone loves frozen, I think, also because it was, like, the Christmas time. So it was easy to incorporate. But, like, at Hollywood studios, they have a whole frozen sing along, which is great. There's some characters, and then there's some funny narrators, and then you get to sing some of the songs with the kids, and Elsa comes out, and all the little kids go crazy. You can meet Olaf, and it's just, like, adorable. And I just think one thing I love about this movie is it's just so different from the classic Disney movies where it's not like the girl finding her true love in a male partner. It's like the sisters and their love between each other is, like, what saves the day. It's so beautiful.[03:45] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: I didn't watch it, I think, for, like, a year or two. But it's so funny because I was like, oh, at the end, her sister saves her, not the guy. And I was like, oh, I wish that her sister could save her. So, obviously, that memory had stayed with me, but I don't know why I thought it was, like, my idea or I had this epiphany that, oh, it could be, like, family love or friend love, but obviously, Disney knew what they were doing, and I love that twist to it. I think it's, like, such a difference from the traditional Disney princess movies.[04:20] Dr. Katrina Furey: Right. And it's like one of those messages that, like, so glad children are seeing and internalizing these days. So I wanted to start, if it's okay if I take the lead, um, just talking, know, once again, their early childhood attachment styles.[04:39] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: I know.[04:40] Dr. Katrina Furey: Total shocker that we want to analyze the attachment styles of Elsa and Anna.[04:45] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Right.[04:46] Dr. Katrina Furey: Did that cross your mind at all?[04:48] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Yeah, it crossed my mind with Anna, with. And you're going to talk more about the types, but her disinhibited social. Right. She'll go with anyone.[04:58] Dr. Katrina Furey: Oh, my Gosh.[04:58] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: You guys are the best, or I'm in love with you. And they just.[05:01] Dr. Katrina Furey: Yes, yes, exactly. So, again, we see. Okay, so Elsa is older than Anna. We don't exactly know how much older, but I think, like, nicely displays, like, eldest daughter syndrome, which is not a real syndrome, but funnily enough, have you been seeing that thing floating around on Instagram? I love it. It's like, we do need to add it to the. It's just so funny. But anyway, we kind of saw that again with Kanto, with just. It's funny. So Elsa is a little older than Anna, but they're still pretty close in age enough to be, like, playmates and stuff. And we see early on that as they're playing Elsa has these powers that she doesn't know how to control, and it hurts Anna. And so, very early on, we see her parents take them to the trolls, which are really cute. I guess they're almost like the medicine men of Arendelle, who give them the advice, know, in order to heal Anna, they have to remove that part of her memory. And interestingly, it leaves that wisp of white hair. So there's always, like, a trace of it, right? It's always a trace of the trauma, even if you can't remember.[06:12] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: It's a good metaphor.[06:14] Dr. Katrina Furey: Yes, for repression, right? But then she forgets that bond with her sister, and then it's almost like the parents lock Elsa away from everyone because she can't control her powers. And I always just thought that was so interesting and so sad. And, gosh, really sends the message to Elsa that you hurt people you can't control. Right. Like, how did you interpret that?[06:49] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: I loved watching it, knowing that we were going to record, because I felt like I thought about it in such a different way. And with her, it was just like, exactly what you're saying with repression. But it's like, Elsa has to be so perfect and feel nothing, like a shell, which we're not wired to be, in order to not have any emotion, which will then kind of send the ice and snow all over the place. And so I think that's often, like, a message that some people get. You can't be yourself or your emotions are too big, and so then we tuck that all away, and then what happens? We explode.[07:24] Dr. Katrina Furey: Right, exactly. And also. Great. I just was thinking, like, I wonder if Elsa struggled with disordered eating and perfectionism. Maybe OCD.[07:35] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Again, we don't profile with those kind of disorders.[07:40] Dr. Katrina Furey: Right. She's at risk for those things. And even with wearing her gloves to prevent the ice, I could just see some OCD type behavior she could develop. We don't see that in the movie, but, again, being super analytical. But, yeah, just, like, even if you just use the ice as a metaphor for emotion. Oh, it's beautifully done. It is, right? It's so beautifully. So, like, basically, Elsa's emotions trigger the ice, which hurts her sister. And I think all siblings can relate to this, that sometimes they hurt your siblings. There's conflict. But, like, gosh, it must have been so hard for Elsa to be so locked away and so scared and to be trying to control it but not being able to yet. And it's like, girl, she just got to just let her grow up.[08:33] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: And the blame. Right.[08:34] Dr. Katrina Furey: The self blame the shame. Really intense. And then we have Anna, like, on the other end.[08:41] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Yes.[08:42] Dr. Katrina Furey: Who's also isolated but in a different way.[08:45] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Right. She doesn't know. Right. Like, she doesn't know why. It's just, like, everyone's treating us this way. That's just how it is. No one's explained it.[08:55] Dr. Katrina Furey: You don't get the sense, like. So they weren't let out of the castle either. Like, the doors were shut. They're all in.[09:01] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: The windows were shut. It's dark. It's, like, empty.[09:04] Dr. Katrina Furey: It's cold.[09:05] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Which I just think is whole movie's way of talking about isolation.[09:10] Dr. Katrina Furey: Yes. What that feels like. And so then even you have Anna. I'm like, did they each have a separate tutor? They don't have any friend. Did Anna at least get to talk to the staff? She at least would talk to the. Like, she could at least use some make believe or. But, like, she was also isolated but not alone in a room. She was, like, in a big old castle. But I got the sense she had more interactions with her parents or stuff. Like. But, like, not enough, I think, to develop secure attachment style.[09:44] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Definitely felt neglectful after Elsa had hurt her. And then when the parents.[09:52] Dr. Katrina Furey: Oh, the parents always have to die in Disney movies. And at that little show I was just talking about, the frozen sing along at Disney. That's one of the funny things they mentioned. They list off all, really, movies where the parents died. It takes him, like, ten minutes, all of them. Right. And I was trying to figure out how old were they when the parents died? It seemed like at least adolescence or young adulthood. But it's tragic. It's unexpected. It's in a shipwreck. It's really sad. So they barely had any social connection. Their parents were like, it, and now they're gone, and now they have to figure out what to do. Right.[10:41] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: And I'm wondering if the parents had been alive, still would know, and maybe any parents. No one gets it perfect, but I wonder if they would have helped Anna or, I'm sorry, Elsa later on with maybe taking her to the trolls again when she's an adult helping her. But it's like, regard will never. So, like, she didn't get any help in kind of trying to regulate her emotions. So first the message was right. Like, I'm bad. I hurt people. There's something wrong with me. But then the loss of the parents, which was obviously wildly impactful, but then there was no opportunity for her to receive a different, like, she.[11:22] Dr. Katrina Furey: It's like, just, like, compounded psychological isolation and alienation. Right, yeah. And then we see how each girl, Elsa and Anna reacts to then interacting with society, and they take such wildly different approaches. Right. So do you want to speak to that a little bit?[11:45] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Yeah, I thought. And again, the music is just so wonderful. I loved the whole song. When Anna is watching them open up the castle, right? She's running around, she's seeing the light. She's going through the gates. She's, like, dancing around everyone. She's so excited to finally get her needs met and be around a million people and talk to everyone and look at everyone, and then obviously, like, polar opposite. Elsa is so terrified of what she might do, what might happen. It's visible, which I think is great for kids. Like, Anna's like. And then Elsa's just, like, there with her gloves so tight, like, her chest, her body language.[12:27] Dr. Katrina Furey: Right. Just trying so hard to not feel anything, but actually feeling a ton of.[12:32] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Yeah, yeah. And I forgot that the guy who Anna meets was bad Hans. Yeah. Oh, my God.[12:43] Dr. Katrina Furey: Again, not to go back to that little show, but it was so funny in that little show at, like, they run through the plot and everything, and they put Hans up on the big screen, and the man narrator was like, he's literally wearing a red flag because he wears, like, a red. Oh, my God. I thought that was so funny.[13:02] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: And I was like, yes, that's hilarious.[13:05] Dr. Katrina Furey: He's such a good example of love bombing, right?[13:11] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Yeah. Like, a perfect example.[13:13] Dr. Katrina Furey: Perfect example of just, like, again, when we say love bombing, that's not, like, a technical term. Like, we don't use that diagnostically. It's not in the DSM. But it's, like, this way of interacting that people often with malicious intent, whether they're fallen, the narcissistic spectrum, the antisocial spectrum, or they're just manipulative. This way they relate to you to really suck you in. So love bombing might be really quickly praising you, idealizing you, buying you gifts, flying you on a private jet, proposing you love.[13:48] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Yes.[13:49] Dr. Katrina Furey: Mirroring back whatever you're interested in, they mirror it back to, like, oh, my God, me? Like, you feel like you've met your twin. Know stuff like that. Such a perfect example. And again, I was stoked that Disney is displaying this, as hopefully, all the children watching are internalizing this as a cautionary tale. Right?[14:10] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: And Elsa even says, like, you can't.[14:11] Dr. Katrina Furey: Marry someone you just met, which is.[14:14] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Totally accurate, like, day of. Right. Like, we shouldn't be doing that. And I think it speaks, know, on polar opposite ends of the spectrum, I think that's an appropriate advice to give. However, it's also Elsa giving that advice who's like, I don't know. She would never want to be with a partner, or that could never happen. And then Anna is so vulnerable to someone taking interest in her and talking to her that…

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Episode 52 - "Barbie" (Rerelease) Jan 01, 2024

Show notes

Welcome back to Analyze Scripts, where a psychiatrist and a therapist analyze what Hollywood gets right and wrong about mental health. Today, we are rereleasing our most popular episode of 2023 - Greta Gerwig's BILLION DOLLAR HIT "Barbie." We analyze the film's smart, timely, and campy explorations of femininity and masculinity. We loved exploring Barbie's evolution through a developmental lens and decided that therapists are basically "weird Barbies" helping our patients grow into their most authentic selves. We loved the sprinkling in of so many dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) principles, and the tender moments depicting evolving mother-daughter relationships. Plus, we could watch Ryan Gosling beach all day. We loved this movie and hope you enjoy this episode!InstagramTikTokWebsite[00:10] Dr. Katrina Furey: Hi, I'm Dr. Katrina Furey, a psychiatrist.[00:12] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: And I'm Portia Pendleton, a licensed clinical social worker.[00:16] Dr. Katrina Furey: And this is Analyze Scripts, a podcast where two shrinks analyze the depiction of mental health in movies and TV shows.[00:23] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Our hope is that you learn some legit info about mental health while feeling like you're chatting with your girlfriends.[00:28] Dr. Katrina Furey: There is so much misinformation out there and it drives us nuts.[00:32] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: And if someday we pay off our student loans or land a sponsorship, like.[00:36] Dr. Katrina Furey: With a lay flat airline or a major beauty brand, even better.[00:39] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: So sit back, relax, grab some popcorn.[00:42] Dr. Katrina Furey: And your DSM Five and enjoy. Welcome back to another episode of a podcast hosted by Two Wise Trees. If you didn't catch that reference, we are obviously talking about the new Greta Gerwig film, Barbie. And that was a line in the film at one point, and I just chuckled. Know, we have a podcast now and we're covering it. And we went to the movies all for this. And it was just funny.[01:17] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: And we are two trees basically rooted.[01:20] Dr. Katrina Furey: Firmly into the ground.[01:21] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Secure.[01:22] Dr. Katrina Furey: Secure. Stable. Nourishing. With our branches.[01:27] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Fruitful.[01:27] Dr. Katrina Furey: Fruitful. Nice. With our branches just growing and blossoming into the sky where it takes us. I know it could have been a haiku. So anyway, we are really excited to talk about this film today. As it stands right now, we are filming or filming we are recording this episode in late July, and I checked the stats yesterday. Barbie has grossed already over $500 million worldwide.[01:55] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: That's incredible.[01:55] Dr. Katrina Furey: Incredible. Especially because it's like double what Oppenheimer has grossed. We will also be covering that film a little later on. So that makes me really happy. Yeah, I was really excited when we went to the movies, Portia. And it was packed, packed, packed. Mostly women, but some men as well. And it was a matinee. We went at 01:00. And I just was like, see, Hollywood, you can make female driven material and you will still sell tickets.[02:29] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Everyone was so excited. There was a ton of people wearing pink. It was just so fun. And I felt connected to people in theater.[02:38] Dr. Katrina Furey: I know, right?[02:38] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Which I feel like I've never well, I did when I saw the last Harry Potter.[02:44] Dr. Katrina Furey: I was going to say Harry Potter.[02:46] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Everyone was clapping, everyone dressed up. It was emotional.[02:49] Dr. Katrina Furey: It was an experience. Right. And that's like the joy of going to the movies. And I think you had said to me that you hadn't seen a movie since before COVID and probably then two years before that. So long time. But totally, as you were saying that, it reminded me of when I would go see Harry Potter with my friends, like in high school and yeah, it was like a whole event. And this is totally what that felt like. We were a little bummed that there wasn't the Barbie box.[03:17] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Yeah, I think it's because we weren't.[03:20] Dr. Katrina Furey: In a major city.[03:22] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Yeah. Or even just like a big mega theater, because I know some people who went in another part of our state and they did have the box, but it was like a big complex, like.[03:32] Dr. Katrina Furey: Next to a mall, all that stuff. Yeah, well, it was still great.[03:36] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: I was bummed. Sorry.[03:38] Dr. Katrina Furey: I did bring a couple of my daughter's Barbie dolls, which was an interesting thing to be carrying around as an adult woman. We went to lunch beforehand and we had them and it was just interesting, I'll put it that way. Content.[03:52] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: And it was silly, but we were probably the youngest people at lunch by like 30 years.[03:59] Dr. Katrina Furey: Yes, at a minimum. And I was just curious what they.[04:01] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Were thinking 100%, because I don't think.[04:04] Dr. Katrina Furey: It was on their radar that Barbie was coming up. Although maybe, but I don't think so. And then here I am, just slept around with some Barbie dolls in my purse and we're trying to take pictures of them with our drinks. And I did feel weird.[04:18] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Yeah.[04:18] Dr. Katrina Furey: But you tell me this is what content is and we're really trying, and you held them.[04:24] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: I was like, yeah, it's fine. I'm not holding them.[04:26] Dr. Katrina Furey: But they were cute.[04:28] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: That's funny. So, first impact of the movie, what did you immediately think? Leaving it, just feeling wise?[04:36] Dr. Katrina Furey: Oh, my gosh. Well, I mean, I think I was so excited for this movie because I had a feeling it wasn't going to be like Stereotypical Barbie, right. Just because Greta Gerwig was attached. And I had a feeling it was going to be really smart and kind of meta. And that was what I was hoping for, was it would be a commentary on the female experience. And I felt like they totally delivered. I just loved the opening. I loved all of it. But I really loved The Know, where they show all the little girls playing old fashioned dolls and playing mommy and all this stuff. And then all of a sudden there's this big Barbie in her swimsuit and they just start smashing the **** out of these baby dolls. And I just was like, all right, I'm going to like this movie right away. It caught. I just I don't know. I thought it was so campy and funny, but also really know. I cried at the end when Ruth and Stereotypical Barbie were talking and like, wanted to become human, and they were talking all about the complicated human experience. And she said the thing about mothers, stand still so their daughters can see how far they've come. That's when it got me. So I just felt everything and I want to see it again. I already want to see it again.[05:58] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: I thought about it a lot after we left.[06:00] Dr. Katrina Furey: Me too.[06:01] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: And I felt like all sorts of emotions, which I think was I wasn't expecting that. I thought it would be like touching, maybe, and silly. I thought I'd laugh and maybe cry. But I thought about it for the entire weekend. I do want to see it again and I was just really touched and really moved, thinking of different parts. I think that's also why I want to see it again, because I think I'll pick up on maybe some more things or some moments, some things that I didn't catch.[06:28] Dr. Katrina Furey: Right. Yeah. I mean, I am astounded by the writing and the dialogue and how it is just so I feel like just really spot on in exploring the female know, by going from Barbie world to the real world, then back to Barbie world and just the way it sort of touches on the idea of feminism. And I was really surprised that they did such a good job because I think Barbie is so polarizing and they sort of addressed it in a really direct way, but then also just addressed the complex human experience that comes from being a woman in today's world. And I just thought especially right now in the political climate with the overturning of Roe versus Wade, it's just so great, I guess, to have something in your face on the screen that the masses are consuming. Right. I just really loved, you know, this.[07:27] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Movie has been being worked on for years and so one of the things I thought was kind of funny was the Supreme Court justices all being female and then in real life, Supreme Court Justices making some decisions that would probably not happen in Barbie land.[07:48] Dr. Katrina Furey: Right, exactly. And just it was so the it was just so witty and humorous, but so spot on. And I just am always so impressed, know, writers, directors, actors can really do like I feel like that's really hard, but is like a really smart way of using a mature defense mechanism, humor, to explore really difficult, complex, gritty issues. Right. And so for them to be able to do that also in such a visually appealing, campy, fun way was just really smart. I feel like there will be college classes analyzing this movie.[08:32] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: No, I agree. That's a good so I noticed a little flavor of dialectical behavioral therapy in something that Greta Gerwig had said in an interview that she said about the movie. So I'm going to read it. I'm interested in how life is complicated and messy and that there is nothing that's either or either good or bad, but it's mostly both. It can be all these things at once. And I think that is a what you said before and kind of narrates the human experience.[09:01] Dr. Katrina Furey: Right.[09:01] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: It's like everything we feel, all these emotions, everyone will experience know, excitement. And it's like that was that end scene where she's like, you just have to feel and it's like everything it's so overwhelming, right.[09:16] Dr. Katrina Furey: And also just so overwhelming to see stereotypical Barbie or Margot Robbie's character, right. Main Barbie, see that evolution, right. From feeling just good at the beginning. Like in Barbie.[09:27] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Everything's perfect.[09:28] Dr. Katrina Furey: Everything's perfect. And that's it. That's all, you know, to starting to realize something's off, like when her feet are flat, to becoming human and choosing that life. Right? Whereas initially, she wanted to go back to where things were just all good and everything was perfect. And then eventually she came to see, like, no, actually, I do want that richer experience. So as we were in the movie, I was jotting down some quotes because I'm a reporter, I guess you could say. And so some of these quotes that they said, I think, really speak to what you're saying. Portia when Margot Robbie said something like that felt achy but good. I think she was trying to describe crying and sadness. And at one point, she's and the release, the release of it, and she was I i just started crying. Like, first one tear came, then a whole lot came, I think, as people are trying to talk to her about what it's like to be human and she's really scared of change, I feel like, is everyone or just people with anxiety?[10:26] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: I think everyone is.[10:27] Dr. Katrina Furey: I think everyone. And then if you have an anxiety disorder that's probably a little higher or you might feel that a little more deeply, but at some point, someone says to her that's all life is, is change. And she says, that's terrifying. And I was like, whoa.[10:42] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Yeah.[10:42] Dr. Katrina Furey: I was like but I just loved watching her evolution and becoming a human and that whole video montage of women and their children and just women over life. And I guess I was reading that comes from the casting crew. Those are all, like, home movies. How beautiful.[11:03] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: I've watched that scene, obviously, I guess, Pirated online, like, multiple times where she's crying.[11:10] Dr. Katrina Furey: I have to emotionally prepare to rewatch it.[11:12] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Yeah. So like you've mentioned before, when Margot Robbie stereotypical Barbie is in Barbie land, at the beginning, it's all very happy, right? Like, Good morning, Barbie. Morning, Barbie.[11:23] Dr. Katrina Furey: Morning, Barbie.[11:24] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Like, you know, everyone's smiling. Everything is working perfectly. The outfits are immaculate and stunning, and I want them all in my you know, you see her kind of getting up for the day, getting ready, going, everything's falling into place.[11:37] Dr. Katrina Furey: I did love that there was, like, no water. There's nothing in her cup. It's just so funny. It's like she is the doll, right? And she's being played with. It's just, like, so funny.[11:45] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: No, that's so true. Because later we right. Like, the milk goes sour, and then when she's in the real world, the water goes all over and she's like.[11:54] Dr. Katrina Furey: Oh, I'm not used to anything coming out of that yet. When she was talking to Will Ferrell as the CEO of Mattel, that was funny. Yeah. But what was your thought from the get go of seeing all the Barbies?[12:04] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: It seemed really joyful and peaceful and like everyone's just saying what they think everyone's saying it in a kind way, but right when we see the scene in the Oval Office when somebody's complimenting someone else, they're not like, saying thank you or oh, no, that's not true. They're just saying, like, yeah, I worked hard, right.[12:29] Dr. Katrina Furey: When the Barbie won the Nobel Priest prize, she was like, I deserve this. I thought that was really interesting, too. There's a lot of diversity in the cast in terms of race, nationality, skin color, body type. Less so with body type, but it was there. I loved midge. I loved how they did pull in these random Barbies from the past that probably none of us have heard of but really did exist. And they were so funny.[12:54] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Like midge, the pregnant Barbie, total tongue in cheek because they're like calling out themselves, which everyone who was on the film, including Will Ferrell, I think he was like, this looks like a great script, but Mattel's never going to let us do this, right? And they did, and it was so like, I think what a huge risk that paid off for Mattel to let them kind of be poked fun at. And ultimately, I think it really landed well for them. Right?[13:22] Dr. Katrina Furey: But I just thought that was totally and so we had like midge, the pregnant Barbie, and they were like, oh, she didn't sell well.[13:30] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Pregnant dolls are just weird.[13:32] Dr. Katrina Furey: And then we had Alan played by.[13:34] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Michael Stera, who just right.[13:36] Dr. Katrina Furey: I guess it was like Ken's friend, who also didn't really sell well. But you see him just like popping in and out here and there and he's so funny.[13:43] Portia Pendleton, LCSW: There was a know, I think, hint maybe of that, like he could have been like a gay character. He also seemingly, at least throughout the film, it was very clear that he was like an ally to the Barbies. So I just thought that…

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Episode 51 - "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" Dec 25, 2023

Show notes

Welcome back to Analyze Scripts, where a psychiatrist and a therapist analyze what Hollywood gets right and wrong about mental health. Today, we wrap up 2023 with a special Christmas-themed episode analzying the Griswold family in "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation." We have a lot of fun revisiting this holiday classic and trying to figure out what exactly is going on with Clark Griswold!! And building on our holiday theme this month, we end the episode with our top tips for maintaining your boundaries and sanity during this cheerful (and stressful!) time of year. We hope you enjoy!WATCH PAST EPISODES NOW ON YOUTUBE!https://www.instagram.com/analyzescriptspodcast/TikTokWebsiteUnknown Speaker: Hi, I'm Dr. Katrina Fieri, a psychiatrist. And I'm Portia Pendleton, a licensed clinical social worker. And this is analyze Scripts, a podcast where two shrinks analyze the depiction of mental health in movies and TV shows. Our hope is that you learn some legit info about mental health while feeling like you're chatting with your girlfriends. There is so much misinformation out there, and it drives us nuts. And if someday we pay off our student loans or land a sponsorship, like with a lay flat airline or a major beauty brand, even better. So sit back, relax, grab some popcorn and your DSM five, and enjoy. Ho, ho, ho. Welcome back to this very special Christmas episode of Analyze scripts, where we're going to be covering the 1989 classic National Lampoon Christmas vacation. Portia, you have seen this movie? I have, many times. It's my favorite Silly Christmas movie. Okay, good. Yeah. Okay, good. It's a must watch. No, I have to say, watching it once again, I was like, I would be Clark Griswold with my crazy family, and you and Brian would be, like, over there. Happy, Margot. Yeah. Thank you. I love Margot, and I also just love Julie. Drive us so much. I just like how they're know, having their Margaritas. They're having their know. They don't have kids. They're just, like, hot trotting, know. And then there I am trying to hang Christmas lights. Well, I would say as a couple, sure. But then the family chaos, right? True. We do deck our halls here. So we are the brightest house in the neighborhood. I'm excited to see that this year. It's very fun. We do love the holidays. Invite everyone over. So I feel like Margot's a little, know, colder. I love when her and Tod are talking about, like, should we have gotten a, like, it's a little late, but go for not. I don't know. It's just like, the two houses are so paralleled opposite. Yeah. And the fact that they're, like, neighbors, like, they just must hate each know. Seems like there's a lot of. Oh, so we wanted to cover this episode because with the holidays, like, spoiler alert. Holidays are stressful. Did you guys know? But I looked up some quick stats because we're professional podcasters now. And NaMi, the National alliance of Mental Illness, estimates that 24% of people with a diagnosed mental illness find the holidays make their condition a lot worse and 40% somewhat worse. Let's talk about why that is. Yeah. Why do you think? I think that families often highlight things that are wrong, typically because there's so many people. Right? I'm going to use, I guess, depression. Maybe for an example, if you were going home for the holidays and you had pretty significant depression, but you were just going home to your parents and they were relatively supportive, it would be fine because it's just them cooked me. You're going home. You can chill on the couch. You don't have to really do anything. But it's like, no. If you're going to Aunt Sue's house and there's going to be 20 people there, it's overwhelming. Everyone is heightened. There's always tension. There's always some family member that someone's not getting along with, which impacts everyone. There's always stress, oh, we need to clean everything. I love that video. I don't know what social media site it's been on for years. It's like this guy dressed up as a mom and he's like cleaning everything and saying, we have to make it look like we don't live here. Like, oh, it's dirty, throw it away. It's like these people get so intense about patience are so high, so high. And we see that with Clark Grisml just like really wanting this unbelievably high, perfect version of the holidays, which is just impossible. Right. But I mean, just the expectations for the cooking, the cleaning, the finances, the gifts, like the travel behavior. Yeah. Children behaving like all of that. And then let's throw in some alcohol. Right. Which flows freely at most holiday events. And so then everyone's a little bit more loose lipped and we miss things, I think, when we're intoxicated. Right. So we make assumptions. It's kind of a recipe for diSaster. And I think, right, or the perfect SNL skip. Well, that's true. Or the perfect show, like the Bear. Right. So the Bear did an excellent portrayal of chaos on a holiday. If you haven't seen that show, please do watch it and then listen to our episodes about it. So I think, isn't it Thanksgiving or the 4 July or one of them that has the most, like, er visits? Maybe it's Thanksgiving because of the frying, the turkeys. People get stabbed. Like, there's family together. There's so much drinking, there's football. It's like Thanksgiving, I've heard, has like a higher ER rate. I know 4 July does for firework injuries, fire blowing, stuff like that. But yeah. And then, so you just add to it. That's just like baseline stressors, I guess. And then if you add into it, like, someone's struggling with a substance use disorder or anxiety, depression, eating disorder. Eating disorder. Like any of this stuff, grief around the holidays is really hard, especially if you've experienced significant loss around a holiday or let's say you don't have a lot of family. It's a reminder. Isolated. Yeah. It's a reminder of what you've lost. So holidays are really stressful, and it can be really hard to set healthy limits and have healthy boundaries with yourself, both in terms of concrete things, like how much money you're spending on gifts or stuff like that, and then also just, like, emotional boundaries with interacting with people in the family who might be hard to interact with. No, totally. The scene that the movie kind of, like, opens up with is them getting their Christmas tree. Right. So Clark, Ellen, and then the two kids, Audrey and Russ. So John Paulecki, who is in, you know, is little Russ. And then we have Juliet Lewis, who is now in one of our newer favorite shows, Yellow Jackets. Great cast. And then Ellen Griswold, Beverly Angelo. She was a bigger star at a reoccurring role in Entourage as herself now. And she's kind of this rough woman who's like a boss of a competing company. Nice. So obviously, Chevy Chase has been a lot of things, but we immediately see just, like, Chevy Chase's Clark Road rage and just, like, reactivity. Yeah. And, like, selfish streak. You're putting your family in danger. Yeah, exactly. And just, like, impulsivity, too, like, not thinking ahead or thinking things through. Like, they get there and no one has anything to cut the tree down with. And then they get it home and it doesn't really fit. Then we just cut it in half and we get the chainsaw out. It's just really interesting. He's an interesting character, to say the least. Yeah. Ellen seems to be always kind of trying to level head in, make him more aware of what's happening and his choices. And one of my favorite scenes for just comedic reason is when they're in bed that night and they have the sap stuck to their fingers and everything is sticking and just pulling like I just did. They're pulling the lamps and touching paper, and it's just so ridiculous. But if you've ever touched sap, it is impossible to get off. You can get it off with sugar. Oh, good to know. Yeah. Hot tip. But even then he's struggling. He can't do it himself. So he grabs it and takes it on, and then she gets to stop on her. And that's, like a perfect metaphor, I feel like, for that relationship, I don't know how she puts up with him. No, it's a lot. Yeah. All the characters kept saying, like, you're such a good dad. Just calm down. He needed a lot of reassurance. He did need a lot of reassurance, which I don't know what that's about. It seemed like he had some happy memories of childhood. Right. So he has two, you know, still married. They seem. Of the two sets of grandparents, they seem nicer and, like, less. Yeah. So Ellen's parents are very judgy. Francis and. What is his name? Frank. So Francis is played by Doris Roberts. So we've seen her in many, many things over the years. Like, something. Raymond. Everybody loves Raymond. Yep. The mom in that. So she's just like, immediately like, oh, you cut your hair. Oh, you smoking again? And we see Ellen responding to strEss, so she starts smoking. She also, before they even got here, was, like, in bed. In that scene in bed at the beginning, like, I heard everyone's coming. We could tell them all not to. And I was like, listen to that instant. Yeah. Would it be rude to ask them to stay in a hotel? You could just tell they were, like, bracing for it. I loved when all the grandparents got there, how they're just filling everyone in on their physical ailments. I got a bunion. Can you rub my feet? And Russ is like, ew, he wants to die. And then Audrey being like, I don't want to share bed with my brother. It's just, like, so funny. But, like, classic having everyone under the same roof. Oh, my gosh, the grandparents. I just love grandparents. And I personally can't wait to be older, I think. I don't know if I've told you, but I have three careers lined up in my mind. Tell our audience an elder one is to be an actress and be like the elderly grandma in all the movies. Like Doris, right? That's her name, yes. Another is to go hold babies at the hospital. Just be the person, like, in the NICU holding the babies. And the third, my favorite idea is I want to go sit at wedding dress shops and just tell all the brides, like, how beautiful they look every time they come out, just like, really sweet. That's either going to be creepy or sweet, right? Yeah. We'll depend on the bride. Yeah. And their personal history. Right. And I think if I can just be, like, the token loving grandmother with, like, muffins. You look beautiful. Cottage core, your little sweaters. Yeah, exactly. That'll be very nice. But watching this movie, I was like, ooh, I don't know. Yeah. All the grandma a little rough, and they seem to not like each other. It seems like the two grandparents don't get along. Yeah. And that creates a lot of stress for everyone, which I would imagine that being stressful. And also, I think it's lovely to invite people to stay at your house if you have the space, but if people have the means and if you don't, sometimes we got to make things work, and that's lovely, too. But if people have the means, we don't need to sleep on the floor. I don't know. I mean, I know that it's fun to wake up on holidays in the morning with people, but just come over. But is it fun? Yeah. Well, I think you really have to ask yourself that question. I think in this household, it's a no. Yeah. What about, like, Cousin Eddie showing up in the RV? So that was a twist. You could see, like, almost trauma. He's like. He can't believe it. He's just, like, speechless. He's kind of turning his head back and forth, back and forth. So they're all admiring the lights, which seems like it was a very stressful situation for Russ, who's one of his favorite lines of mind that I say frequently when, like, don't want to do something. So he's like, yeah, Dad, I got to do my homework. I got to feed the hog. He recites all these things that they don't have, and I just say that with my partner. We say it all the time. We don't want to do something. So he kind of backs out. And you see Clark lose his mind when the lights are not turning on. Right. He's kicking the Santa. He's having this big reaction, a little childlike. Right. It's kind of a temper tantrum, which makes me think that he doesn't have a lot of distress tolerance or, like, coping. Emotion regulation. Regulation. Strong point. Yeah. Also, it was a lot of lights. A lot of lights. Almost felt a little hypomanic at times. Right. Or, like, impulsive. Like, one thing you had mentioned, hyper focus. Yeah. Is like, does Clark have ADHD? Yeah. I mean, the data is. Think I'd love to do a Vanderbilt with him. Yeah. You added an additional symptom that I didn't see online, but I think it's true. Right. He's very impulsive. Very impulsive. Yeah. Like, with the road rage, with deciding to do this or to do that or just really going with it. The hyper focus. So he can't stop doing something, even at the risk of getting hurt. So that's when kind of some more potential traumatic brain injuries or TBIs come into our count of, I think it was nine head traumas during the entire movie. So he doesn't really give close attention or details. He makes careless mistakes. You see him stapling his little. Stapling his glove. He has so many. But then he doesn't just take his hand out of the glove. He's trying to rip the glove off. So again, decision making, trouble keeping attention or tasks. Doesn't seem to listen when spoken directly to. I can see that sometimes with his kids, he's just kind of looking away or like, how we would say, like, maybe La la Land. He doesn't name misses important details. He doesn't call his daughter Aubrey ever. He's like, oh, yeah, she's over there. Something. It's just weird. And is he being a jerk or is that inattentiveness? Trouble organizing, loses things, all the gifts. Right? He is digging around in the ceiling attic, and then he finds, like, ten gifts from years past. Distracted, forgetful. So there's a lot there where he very well could meet criteria for that. And I think he's also, at least in some ways, kind of a jerk. So, like, you can have ADHD and be a jerk. You can have ADHD and not be a jerk. So it's like a jerk and not have ADHD. Exactly. Diagram. Exactly. Yeah. No, I totally agree. It's interesting to think about does he have ADHD, and is this part of why he's trying to overcompensate? Right, because sometimes I think people will try to do that to make up for it in some way, but then the stuff they're trying to do to overcompensate, like, in this case, requires a lot of planning and organizing and execution, which is hard for anyone, but especially if you add in, like, an inattentive ADHD, he's also really hyperactive, so he's probably bumping around. Yeah, definitely. Even, like, the impulsive things he says to people and some of the altercations he would get into verbally, I think, could meet criteria for that, too. So he's this big family man, right? So there's a lot of things. That's how he kind of identifies himself. But then he's, like, flirting with that woman, Mary Lingerie place. I was, like, so turned off by that. Because then it's gross behavior. When his son comes over, he's like, suddenly like, oh, yikes. Because you don't want your son to see that, right? Because it's bad. I know. That's w…

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Episode 50 - "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" Dec 18, 2023

Show notes

Welcome back to Analyze Scripts, where a psychiatrist and a therapist analyze what Hollywood gets right and wrong about mental health. Today, we are covering one of our most favorite Christmas films, "The Grinch." This version came out in 2000 and stars Jim Carrey. In this episode we cover Reactive Attachment Disorder, Season Affective Disorder, Antisocial Personality Disorder and the impact of trauma and bullying in early life. We don't leave you feeling hopeless so we also share effective therapy for early childhood disruption and stories of healing. We hope you enjoy!WebsiteTiktokInstagramDr. Katrina Furey, MD: Hi, I'm Dr. Katrina Fieri, a psychiatrist. And I'm Portia Pendleton, a licensed clinical social worker. And this is Analyze Scripts, a podcast.Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Where two shrinks analyze the depiction of.Dr. Katrina Furey, MD: Mental health in movies and TV shows. Our hope is that you learn some legit info about mental health while feeling like you're chatting with your girlfriends.Portia Pendleton, LCSW: There is so much misinformation out there.Dr. Katrina Furey, MD: And it drives us nuts. And if someday we pay off our student loans or land a sponsorship, like with a lay flat airline or a.Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Major beauty brand, even better.Dr. Katrina Furey, MD: So sit back, relax, grab some popcorn.Portia Pendleton, LCSW: And your DSM Five and enjoy. Hi.Dr. Katrina Furey, MD: Welcome to our December edition of our podcast.Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Happy Holidays.Dr. Katrina Furey, MD: Happy holidays near and far. If you are an international listener, which we did just get Spotify wrapped info, right? We're global, so thank you.Portia Pendleton, LCSW: We are global. Guys, it's official. Our top three countries on spotify were America, Canada and Norway.Dr. Katrina Furey, MD: Who knew? So loving the northern European aisles. So we are really excited to kind of continue the December edition of some holiday classics. So today we're going to be covering The Grinch, the Jim Carrey version. So there's many versions, obviously. I think at least I'm more familiar with the Jim Carrey one. Then there's the cartoon, right? The original. And then there's the new cartoon, which is really funny and silly, too.Portia Pendleton, LCSW: And the new cartoon has some pretty sick beats, has some good music. And, of course, I think we were, like, going back and forth about, do we cover the original or the Jim Carrey version? And I was glad when you agreed we should do Jim Carrey version because it's so good.Dr. Katrina Furey, MD: Yeah. And there's a lot there.Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Yeah, just like the costuming, the makeup. Every time I watch it, I'm just looking at The Grinch, like, did he just take 10 hours to get in this costume every day?Dr. Katrina Furey, MD: Probably. I mean, that is a fun fact. All of their facial constructions, the nose for makeup every single day. So I went to at my dance studio growing up, the girl I don't know her name, I should have walked who was climbing up the mountain at the beginning with the boys to, like, the grim. Yeah. So she went to my dance studio.Portia Pendleton, LCSW: No way. Yeah.Dr. Katrina Furey, MD: So I don't know if she's been in things since, but that was always so exciting.Portia Pendleton, LCSW: That's like a hot take.Dr. Katrina Furey, MD: Yeah. Anyway.Portia Pendleton, LCSW: And Taylor Momson was so adorable as Cindy Lou. I know. And that's obviously, like, pre Gossip Girl, but then she went into Gossip Girl, and then she was, like, the lead singer of that really intense heavy metal band. And I'm not sure what she's doing now, but she's just so adorable and was really perfect for the role. And I just loved all their hairstyles, and I'm assuming they were wigs, but just super cool. And then molly shannon, of course I know. Who doesn't love her?Dr. Katrina Furey, MD: Some of the people when I looked up the cast list, I was like, oh, yeah, duh. That's them. But their makeup and costuming was so good that it just never even crossed my mind that that was my Shannon. But, like, hello, superstar.Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Hello. Oh, my God, we should do Superstars, by the way, side note.Dr. Katrina Furey, MD: Yeah.Portia Pendleton, LCSW: And then I vividly remember this movie coming out. I think I was in late middle school, early high school, and it was like a year when my family was having a hard time and that Faith Hill, Where Are you? Christmas song came out. And it really was like I remember just being like, this is how I feel this year. And even still, it really gets you and I think really speaks to how emotional the holiday season can be as we keep talking about and emphasizing in our holiday episodes. That is a fact that holidays can be hard for people of all ages and backgrounds. And I really loved that this movie and the Grinch story in general really speaks to the meaning of the holidays and that beyond the commercialization of it, it stirs up a lot of big feelings for people. And that's yeah, yeah. Vividly remember hearing that song as a kid and being like just like, oh, speaks to Know.Dr. Katrina Furey, MD: I mean, Faith Hill is such a wonderful artist. And I think know it came out with the album because Cindy Lou, right? Like, sings in her little beautiful voice, too, in the movie. But then the Faith Hill version, I think, was just like a tear.Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Yes. And it reminds me of that song. My grown up Christmas list. Have you heard that one? Yeah, similar, right, where you're just like it's just like really I don't know, something about Christmas music really gets me.Dr. Katrina Furey, MD: I'm a music crier, so if it is hallelujah.Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Yeah, I can easily a lot of the Christmas, even a lot of the church hymns, even not for a sad reason, they're just, like, really moving. Yeah, right. They're so moving.Dr. Katrina Furey, MD: Yeah.Portia Pendleton, LCSW: I was just going to say that reminds me. I recently was at Disney World, and they're doing a lot of their Christmas stuff right now. And I went to what they call the candlelight processional show. I don't know if you've ever heard of it's, at Epcot. So it's this big show that's been going on for 60 years, and they have a big choir, a live band, and then there's always a celebrity narrator who basically narrates the Christian Christmas story, right. And then they sing all the classic Christmas songs with a huge choir. So it's like really emotional, really beautiful. And when I was there, Chrissy Metz from this Is US was the celebrity. Narrator do you know who she is?Dr. Katrina Furey, MD: Yeah.Portia Pendleton, LCSW: I loved. This is us. I feel like in our giveaway, which we'll talk about then in our episode, a lot of people have recommended that to us over the years. But anyway, she was like, balling. She was just, like, so moved by the Christmas story and the big choir. And I think it's just like the music, right? It's, like, so moving.Dr. Katrina Furey, MD: I attended the online version, but a conference for eating disorders. And it was in the Renfro conference. Yeah, she was one of the keynote speakers, just talking about her experience. And it was like, a couple of people who've been very open about their experience in a larger body and just, like, fat phobia and being an advocate.Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Oh, wow.Dr. Katrina Furey, MD: Yeah, I was really impressed with what she had to yeah. We both kind of just saw her in two different ways than this is us. So she's getting around everywhere.Portia Pendleton, LCSW: That's awesome. And actually, I just saw on her Instagram she's coming to New Haven with I guess she's like obviously she's a singer, but I guess with her band or something. Cool. Hey, Chrissy. Matt's, like, we love you. Okay. Anyway, back to the grinch. There's a lot we could talk about. So what jumps out to so I.Dr. Katrina Furey, MD: Was, you know, using Google as one does when they're looking for movie fun facts and something that I didn't see, but did pop out at me when I was watching the movie. Which is kind of a controversial disorder in the DSM and kind of in I don't know its use, its treatment, but it's a reactive attachment disorder. So I thought of him kind of immediately the Grinch with attachment.Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Right.Dr. Katrina Furey, MD: Like, he kind of came from somewhere. We don't know.Portia Pendleton, LCSW: The storks in the sky. Yeah.Dr. Katrina Furey, MD: And he landed outside and then he was cold and alone. I don't know for how long, not a long period of time. But it makes me think of some disrupted attachment and some neglect. And then the two sisters kind of take him in. And then he kind of goes on to continue, though, to not fit in and not have these connections with his peers. And so I thought, just for educational purposes, we could talk a little bit about reactive attention. I've worked I think that's a great idea over the years with it. And again, it's not common. But unfortunately, with the DSM, the current version of it, we only really have two disorders that we can diagnose and bill with. So it's reactive attachment disorder and then the disinhibited social where did it go? Disinhibited social engagement disorder. So everyone really wants there to be way more attachment based disorders. It would be more gentle, I think, with explaining some behavior.Portia Pendleton, LCSW: So anyway, like, from childhood to adulthood. Yeah, I think totally.Dr. Katrina Furey, MD: And we've talked a lot about borderline disorder throughout our movies and TV shows. And there's a lot of talk about borderline often, but not always stemming from attachment issues. DSM, I think Sick should work on that.Portia Pendleton, LCSW: Yeah. And I think, too, there's so many different schools of thought in terms of psychological development or schools of thought in terms of how do you do psychotherapy? What's sort of your lens that you see things through? And attachment is a big one. That's one that I find myself just naturally gravitating towards. And I've noticed we talk about it a lot on our podcast, almost every character. You and I are really curious about their attachments. Like with the morning show, we were like, oh, finally we saw Corey's mom. We're just constantly wondering, how did people get to be this way? And I think those early years are so important, right? Like between ages zero and five. That really sets the stage psychologically for how you will relate to adults. Really. Like, those early attachments we talked about in our Harry Potter episode with your caregivers are incredibly important. And, yeah, we see the Grinch as a baby, but like an older baby, like six to twelve months, I'd say, based on his head control and vocalizations and things like that. Dropped off on the stoop. So what happened before then? If anything, it's cold. And then he looks totally different from everyone else. And he's super bullied. Like all those scenes with Martha May when he's so excited to give her the valentine or not the valentine. The Christmas angel.Dr. Katrina Furey, MD: Yeah.Portia Pendleton, LCSW: And even the teacher.Dr. Katrina Furey, MD: I know everyone's like that one scene. Slow laughing, right?Portia Pendleton, LCSW: They're like, yeah, even the teacher. It reminds me of Stepbrothers when the mom gets involved singing songs. Brennan has a know where. It's just like even the adult who's supposed to be protecting you in that.Dr. Katrina Furey, MD: Space is like adding to it.Portia Pendleton, LCSW: I think a lot of people, even if you have solid, secure attachment, can relate to feeling bullied or laughed at in school. But he really got it. And we really saw how that made him isolate. Totally. Right. Totally isolate. And it's interesting, right? I think comparing how the Grinch responds to that type of early experience know, in a future episode, we're going to talk about Frozen, how Elsa responds and then isolates herself. It's interesting parallels to me.Dr. Katrina Furey, MD: Yeah. And a common theme in some child movies. I just think it's know something bad happens, which I guess is just a good story. And then how someone responds to that something bad happening or hard or, you know, how they kind of manage to do it. And ideally, if it's a Disney movie, they coped well and kind of come out the other side. But we see that with a Grin.Portia Pendleton, LCSW: So, again, when we talk about attachment, again, it's a term used to talk about the connection between an infant and their early caregiver. Usually it's a parent, but not always. It can be a grandparent. It can be someone at an orphanage. Hopefully it's someone that's a good place to start, is we hope there's someone. Right? Hi, scribbles. So then we think about and we've talked about in a lot of our past episodes, like Harry Potter, you a lot of different ones about the different type styles of attachment. We think about secure attachment versus insecure attachment. And then in that umbrella of insecure attachment, we think about avoidant attachment styles versus anxious avoidant attachment styles versus a reactive type of attachment style, right? So when you have a secure attachment, the child knows and feels secure in knowing that their needs will be met by their caregiver. And this develops over time, like for human babies, when you cry, your mother comes to feed you, to change you, to hold you. As the baby gets older, the child begins to be able to tolerate waiting for mom because they've been able to internalize, like, even if I'm crying, I know she will eventually come to me. It's something called object permanence, where I believe it's around 18 months old, where kids can realize, like, okay, even if I don't see my mom, I know she still exists, and when I need her, I know she will hear me and come to get me, even if it's not immediate. So you develop this secure feeling like your needs will be met. When you have insecure attachment, you don't develop that. You can't count on your needs being met, and you react to that in different ways. If you have an anxious attachment style, you're always kind of like wanting it to be met and not really being able to trust, like, will it be met or not? You're always anxious about it. If you have an anxious avoidant attachment style, you have that anxiety and then you kind of avoid social interactions in adulthood, you might not pursue romantic partnership, you might have a hard time making long term friendships, things like that. If you have a totally avoided attachment style, you don't interact with anyone, and you're just like, I can't trust anyone. And then this reactive attachment style is having a really hard time soothing yourself. So I remember seeing this in some kids when I did inpatient child psychiatry rotations who maybe grew up in I specifically remember one case where the child grew up in an orphanage in Russia or somewhere like that and was adopted by a family who'd also adopted like eight other kids but adopted them at like age nine or something. And the kid was having a really hard time adjusting, and it was just like a lot of emotional dysregulation, really hard time feeling soothed, really hard time trusting that anyone is safe to soothe them. It's really sad to see. And so we think that kids with reactive attachment disorder have a really disturbed internal working model of relationships. It…

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Episode 49 - "Gremlins" w/Dr. Sulman Mirza (@thekicksshrink) Dec 11, 2023

Show notes

Welcome back to Analyze Scripts, where a psychiatrist and a therapist analyze what Hollywood gets right and wrong about mental health. Today, we are joined by our friend Dr. Sulman Mirza (@thekicksshrink) to discuss his favorite holiday movie "Gremlins." This campy 1984 thriller comedy horror follows the Peltzer family as they unwittingly adopt (?steal) the mogwai Gizmo at Christmastime. As a father and child & adolescent psychiatrist, Dr. Mirza shares his interpretation of this movie as an allegory for parenthood. We also explore themes of trauma, gender roles, and consumerism. We hope you enjoy!WATCH THIS EPISODE NOW ON YOUTUBE!https://www.instagram.com/analyzescriptspodcast/TikTokWebsite[00:10] Unknown Speaker: Hi, I'm Dr. Katrina Fieri, a psychiatrist. And I'm Portia Pendleton, a licensed clinical social worker. And this is Analyze Scripts, a podcast where two shrinks analyze the depiction of mental health in movies and TV shows. Our hope is that you learn some legit info about mental health while feeling like you're chatting with your girlfriends. There is so much misinformation out there, and it drives us nuts. And if someday we pay off our student loans or land a sponsorship, like with a lay flat airline or a major beauty brand, even better. So sit back, relax, grab some popcorn and your DSM five, and enjoy. Welcome back to another episode of Analyze Scripts. We are really excited to be joined again by one of our favorite guests. Don't tell the others. Maybe Solman Mirza, who is a triple board certified physician in Adult psychiatry and child and adolescent psychiatry and addiction medicine. Just in case you didn't catch our last episode that he was on, I'll share a little bit about him. He works with the largest healthcare system in North Virginia as the staff psychiatrist for an adolescent partial hospitalization program. He sees children and adolescents as outpatients there as well. He also has his own private practice, Luku Psych, where he sees adult outpatient patients with a focus on ADHD, autism, substance abuse issues, as well as being Blue Duns County's first Loudon, I was like, we're in the Northeast here. The first certified provider of bravado, the FDA approved intranasal eschetamine product for treatment resistant major depressive disorder. Dr. Mirza is also a certified provider in the National Basketball Players Association Mental Health and Wellness Program for the Washington Wizards. Begrudgingly realizing that the only way he was going to make it into the NBA was by being a doctor, which is super cool. That's a tough realization. Way to spin, know, way to find positive reframe. Yeah. And then, in addition to his clinical work, Dr. Mirza has a growing social media presence, which is how we found hiM. You can find him at the Kicks shrink with a following over 85,000 across TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, with an accompanying podcast as well, where he creates educational, entertaining videos and content with the goal of breaking down mental health stigma, combating mental health misinformation, which we also agree is really important, and rehabilitating the often negative image of psychiatry and psychiatrist. Often in movies, which we see really frequently. Yes. So he interviews leaders in the field, all while hoping to make viewers laugh and learn something, but also really like sneakers. Yeah. I'm curious, are you hoping for a special sneaker gift this holiday season. Well, it was my birthday recently, and I know. Birthday. Thank you. It's been like a month. Plus now it kind of flew under the radar because I was, like, bugging my wife. I was like, where's my gift? Where's my gift? And she's been like, along the way. She's like, sending me Instagram posts of this Pakistani artist who does custom artwork on Air Force ones. So she's like, oh, if you were to get a shoe like this, what kind of artwork would you like on there? Theoretically. Theoretically. And I was like, I'm still wondering because I haven't gotten it yet. And now it's like six weeks, seven weeks later, I'm like, what's happening here? So it's going to be like some Pakistani truck art on these Air Force Ones. I'm kind of excited for that. Yeah, that's really cool. Yeah, I love that. Do you have a big sneaker collection? Oh, Porsche. Do I have a sneaker closet? I have a sneaker wall in my basement. It's like over 100 pairs of sneakers. So people come down to the basement and they're like, whoa. And I have to tell them. I was like, I have some more hidden away in another closet, so don't worry. Do you actually wear them or are they for display only? No, I try to rotate through them. I try to spice up and wear a different pair every day or so. Cool. But I have my go to. I go to on a regular. And I bet you have a way of keeping them really clean. Yeah. So I've got the cases for them. So they come in the clearish display cases. Like a Beanie baby. Yeah. Container store has these boxes, essentially. So they sell them by the six pack, essentially, of them. So you end up spending just as much on the storage as you do on sometimes the shoes. I love the container store. Yeah. It's trouble. They have containers for everything, every shape, every size. Every now and then I go through these fantasies of just organizing my whole house. Right. Like a place for everything. And I have this fantasy, like, the rest of my family members will just do it and they won't. Of course, they won't make a good point about the Beanie babies, but I think we also used to store, like, furbies in those glass containers as well, which leads us to our movie today. Yes. So we're talking about the 1984 movie Gremlins, which was a smash hit at the time. It still is. It's like one of those classic movies, but totally. Every time I watch this. I think about furbies, which came after Gremlins, but I always wonder, how did that fly? Because they look identical. And I think they actually even came out with a gizmo. Furby at one point. That's, like, super hard to get now. Yeah, they were creepy. Esop. Furby's were creepy. Yeah. One of my friend's fathers, when we were eight years old, got really annoyed at her furbies for not being turned off, and he threw them all over the balcony. Down. Obviously, that was probably. He maybe had something else going on issue. But I remember she was devastated. So what I think about when I think of Furby's hope she therapy today, but I don't know. Talk about a core memory. Yeah, I'll say there's some issues going on there. I think that explains plenty of stuff there, but. So, Sullivan, give us your hot take on this movie. Why do you like it so much? What made you want to revisit it? Yeah, so Gremlins is one of my know, I remember way back when we had. When I was growing up, me and my sister in upstate New York and Summertime, our parents weren't big on doing stuff, so they're like, you guys just stay in the. Just, like, do nothing. They're like, here's some math books and some books to read and stuff. And then we'd be like, me and my sister hanging out. Be like, let's just watch some movies. And so we'd go through the whole VHS tapes that we had at home, and my dad would always tape stuff off the TV, so we'd have to fast forward through the commercials and blah, blah, blah. For the people who remember VHS tapes. Do you remember the rewinding machine? Did you have one of those, or did you do it by. We just rewounded in the VCR itself. So after a movie, you have to be like, all right, guys, let's wait around for another five or ten minutes to rewind this movie. But Gremlins Two was always in the rotation. Gremlins Two, which is, like, the worst of the movies. It's very cheesy and crappy, but I always kind of liked it for whatever reason, that was our rotation. Mighty Ducks Two was in our rotation, and Star wars was in our rotation. Sequel, not the original. It was very bizarre. But for whatever reason, that was the one that was there. And then I remember watching Gremlins one. I loved Gremlins Two, but I remember watching Gremlins one later and being like, oh, my God, this is so much better. And fantastic. And it's amazing. And then I watched it again a few years ago, and I was like, oh, I have a different appreciation for it now. And then I watched it again over the weekend. I was like, oh, another different appreciation and interpretation viewing on it. The other thing, too with it is when people always ask me, like, oh, what's your favorite Christmas movie? It's always, like, the time of year. We're getting there. Right? I don't celebrate Christmas. I'm a Muslim. We don't celebrate it. Kind of growing up. So for me, it was always like, my favorite Christmas movies are Gremlins, Die Hard, and Home Alone. Right? Yeah, Home Alone is universal. We all like that one. But that was, like, my thing. So I always appreciate it as, like, a non Christmas Christmas mOvie, I guess. Yeah. And there's a lot of controversy about diehard, whether it's a Christmas movie or not. I hear this in the ether. It's a Christmas movie. Yeah. I think we can agree. So what do you love about this movie? I liked it because one of the things I always like about movies is the practical effects. So this is, like I said, 1984, and I was two years old at the time, so I don't remember when it came out, obviously. But I love the class, the practical effects of it. I love that you created these creatures who are iconic. Right. What is it, 30 years, 40 years later? 40 years later. Oh, my God. 40 years later that we're still talking about them, that people are still clamoring for, like, a Gremlins three. I think there was just, like, a cartoon series on Max that just came out in the last year. Gizmo was super cute. Oh, my God. The cutest picture that's out there. I guess there's probably a lot of Shih tzus out there named Gizmo. Yeah, my cousin had one, and now I get it. Yeah. So that was, like, the appeal of it, and it was a great kind of send up of a lot of these classic kind of Christmas stories, too. Like a very obvious kind of send up of, like, it's a wonderful life. And just like, that dark kind of humor that's in there that was always appealing to me. And then more recently, I think we're talking before the idea of, oh, this is kind of like a metaphor for parenting and getting into adulthood and all that stuff. So say more about that. Yeah. When I watched it again over the weekend, and I watched it with my eldest son, my only son, but I have four kids. Right. So this was like, let me just watch it again. I always kind of originally thought of it as just a basic kind of horror movie, but like a comedy horror movie. Not a comedy horror, but a horror comedy, right? Yeah. And then nothing more. I thought it was a very superficial, pop, kind of culturish movie. And there it is. When I watched it again with the kid, right. I was like, oh, this is hitting different because it's a story of parenting. IT's a story of the ideas of what we're supposed to do, the rules that are there. And then what happens when you break the rules of parenting? You have the old grandfather in the beginning, and it's very kind of straightforward as a grandfather who's very wise. And these are the rules of here's your new baby, right? Here's Gizmo being the baby and a child. And he's like, this is what you're supposed to do. Again, the three rules are like, don't feed them after midnight. Don't get them wet and keep them out of sunlight or else they'll die, right? And we see this when you become a new parent, right, and have gone through it the four times, it's like everyone kind of telling you this is what you're supposed to do. And your own parents, right? The grandparents of the child telling you, these are the rules. These are the things you're supposed to do. Funny enough, sorry to interrupt, but our rules are the direct opposite. Feed them whenever they want, get them outside, except your parents maybe, who say, stay inside all summer and make sure you bathe them. Yeah. So it was interesting from that point of view. I hadn't thought about that before. And then as kind of this journey through, like, we're going to be cute and cuddly. Gizmo is fantastic. And we love him. And he sings these songs. He's like cooing and it's, know, he's so super nice. He's like, better than the dog, right? We think he's going to replace the dog, right? So it's like a new baby, a new child in the household. And then we get into adolescence, right? We get into adolescence, or even the terrible twos or whatever you want to say, where it's like, now we've broken the rules and now they are these gremlins, these terrible monsters who are just destroying everything. So that was what really struck me upon this more recent viewing. It was like, oh, this is what it's kind of like an allegory for. Wow, I never thought of that, but I can totally see that now. And I'm just thinking now about this scene where the mom, Lynn, I think was her name, is trapped in the house with the Gremlins who are trying to hurt her, and she kills them one by one in these very graphic, violent ways. And as she keeps doing it, you see this pleasure in her face that she's doing that. And I thought that was a really interesting depiction of her finding this sadistic joy in killing these creatures, given her role as the stay at home mom who doesn't really have a say and has all this husband who's off all the time with these wild inventions that don't really work. Terrible invention. And she's just like, yeah. She's just, like, stuck at home alone. I don't know. I thought that was interesting. Yeah. And it's interesting, too, because Billy, the main character, he's portrayed as, like, the perfect all American boy. He's, like, living at home, being there, works at a bank, has a dog, and he's hanging out with Mom. They're getting ready for the holidays together, super supportive, while dad is again, out being a terrible inventor on these road trips and absent all the time. And then again, all this stuff happens to him and the world. Kingston Falls gets burned to the ground. That felt like a little neglectful, just like with his even dismissing of the instructions when he kind of, I guess, stole his totally, and then laughing about it, like, oh, well, I think you got to do these three things. I was like, wow, you remembered them. I was impressed that he could then tell his son how to kind of do it. But then if you think about it in kind of, like, not the context of a movie, it's like you've got this bizarre creature that is not a dog or a kitten or a bird or a toy or a toy, and you're like, leaving it with your son, giving these random instructions that seem ridiculous, and then you're going off again, and it's like, well, right. Any danger? Oh, I probably shouldn't do this. Oh, this is a bad idea. It's like, there's none of that. I don't know. I think we see that, though, and I think stereotypically we see that with the busy working dad, who's not really physically or emotionally present, but will shower the children with gifts as sort of like a token of their affection, but then isn't even around to appreciate the children with the gift. And I think even beyond that, I would imagine a lot of parents feel that this time of year, at the holidays, there's just so much pressure and chaos and busyness. And it's like, does anyone sit i…

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Episode 48 - "Love Actually" w/ Julia Israelski, LCSW Dec 04, 2023

Show notes

Welcome back to Analyze Scripts, where a psychiatrist and a therapist analyze what Hollywood gets right and wrong about mental health. Today, we are in our Holiday era with the movie "Love Actually." We are joined by Julia Israelski, LCSW for this episode as we spread some holiday cheer by analyzing family dynamics, couples of course and any mental health disorders or themes we pick up on. You can expect our narrative on some eyebrow raising comments about bodies, love bombing and infidelity. Oh, and did we mention the cast!? We hope you enjoy!InstagramTiktokWebsiteHi, I'm Dr. Katrina Fieri, a psychiatrist. And I'm Portia Pendleton, a licensed clinical social worker. And this is Analyze Scripts, a podcast where two shrinks analyze the depiction of mental health in movies and TV shows. Our hope is that you learn some legit info about mental health while feeling like you're chatting with your girlfriends. There is so much misinformation out there, and it drives us nuts. And if someday we pay off our student loans or land a sponsorship, like with a lay flat airline or a major beauty brand, even better. So sit back, relax, grab some popcorn and your DSM Five and enjoy. Welcome back to another episode. We're so excited. Today we have a guest, my supervisor, who gives me great supervision, and another therapist in our community, Julia Israelski. And today we're going to be talking about Love Actually. So they've both seen it. I have not. Until now. I did watch it for the you had not seen this movie? No. Portia. Oh, my God. How? It's, like, one of the best movies of all time.There's so many people in it. It's, like, amazing.I I know. Know. Portia oh, my gosh. Yeah. I feel like this podcast has been, like, a journey for me to explore new classic genres and but all right, so I'm going to share a little bit about one of our co hosts today, Julia, before we get started, so you can know a little bit about her and all the amazing things she does. So Julia is Rilsky is a licensed clinical social worker, certified EMDR practitioner, and certified perinatal mental health professional and nearly 20 years of clinical experience. She currently has a private practice in Connecticut, where she specializes in interpersonal trauma, eating disorders, perinatal mental health, and parental stress. Prior to being in private practice, Julia was a clinical supervisor and oversaw the trauma program at a local community health center. Additionally, she has experience conducting forensic interviews and volunteering as a sexual assault crisis counselor. Most recently, she has been trying to spread her wheel of identity, which she created, which is really cool, to depathologize pathologize. Wow. Yeah. I can't seem to get it right. People that surviving these stressful times and to increase compassion for ourselves and others. So welcome.Thanks.Glad to be here. Welcome. Love act. Julie 2003. It's a little old. Amazing cast. Where should you start a rom.com? Yeah, right? It was kind of like coming out in the era of rom coms, I think. We haven't covered a rom.com yet, except maybe Legally Blonde. But I love this movie. I'm, like, in shock over. I'm having an acute stress response to Portia never having seen this movie. Oh, my gosh. It's so cast. I mean, I know that we'll get to our themes, but the cast was Rickman Rip, Harry Potter. Snape. Loved seeing him. Even though he's not a great character, he's good at playing the not great characters. Yeah, like villain era and then Emma Thompson, like, amazing. I was shocked to see her. Who else did you guys notice? Or who else? Liam Neeson. Yeah, I always love Liam Neeson. Laura Linney. Colin Firth. Just Keira Knightley. Yeah. And the little boy and the little girl were just adorable. Sam and Olivia, right? Was her name? I don't think it's Olivia. Oh, no. Did I get the name wrong? Oh, her real name's olivia. Her real name is Olivia Olsen. Gotcha. Anyway, but no, it is an all star cast. Sorry, Joanna. That's it. That's it. That's it. Thank you. And then, of course, we have Bill Nynee playing Billy Mac, which we just talked about him in a recent podcast episode about the best exotic Mary Gold Hotel. He was also in that movie, so it was fun for me to see him again in this movie, but, like, a totally different character. And I just loved him as, like, the aging pop star. Yeah, I didn't make that connection. So that's good. All right, so should we talk about couples? Should we talk about themes? What do we think? What's a good well, I think the whole premise of the movie is love, right? And I love how the movie begins and ends with those scenes at the Heathrow Airport, which I believe are all real. I don't think any of that's acting. I'm pretty sure that's all real. And I don't know if you guys knew this, but I think it was, like, 2021. I believe Britain recreated those scenes to talk about the pandemic kind of people being able to travel again and see their loved ones. And I know, right? It really gets you. And it was just interesting to watch all of that love. And it's just I don't know, like, Hugh Grant, we forgot to mention, like, the words he says at the beginning are just so beautiful. And I feel like it's just really timely to be talking about this movie and just the message in light of what's going on in the world right now.I think that was one of the things I wrote down, was like, that quote in the beginning and can't remember what it was right now, but it's something about going through most people see the hard and the pain and the bad, but there's always love and there's always good. And yeah, I think it's super important right now with everything going on right.To keep thinking about I think he says love actually is all around. And it reminds me of that Mr. Rogers quote, like, in times of stress, look for the helpers. Right, exactly. And so I just thought it was really poignant that we're talking about this movie kind of at this time in the month of December, as I think about Christmas and the holidays and families. And I think this movie does a good job kind of capturing people at different phases of life. All the complex interpersonal dynamics and relationships and so different forms of love, right?Like friendship love, parent child love, romantic love. Like, just so many different forms of love, which I thought was great.Right, exactly. Which we'll all see over the holidays whether we want to or not. So one thing that I had noticed, and I was kind know, texting a little bit with Julia and I don't know, Katrina, if you thought of this as watching it again, but I was just line after line, point after point of a lot of fat phobia. I thought that's why you wanted to cover this portia. Yeah. No, I know. No, I was like, no idea. I thought when we decided on this that that was one of the reasons you wanted to talk about it again. Because it's a lot directed at Natalie, who is not.Really in a larger.Like and I guess this is all subjective, of course, but it is weird to think like, oh, she's like the token, like, fat girl, but she's not.Yes. I didn't remember that at all from having seen the movie in the past. But then this time I was like, oh, wow, it's like all over the place.There's comments and I think that happens watching it, right? It's on you're playing with your kids or you're wrapping gifts or you're doing whatever, and you're not sitting down and watching it through a mental health lens. And after doing that with some things, we're like, oh, kind of over and over again at all of these icky moments. I think, unfortunately, it's a little bit to the times. I don't think that fat phobia by any means has gone away currently, but I think that's wildly inappropriate to have in a movie now. Even if it was a person in a larger body, it's just like it was just constantly happening. I don't know, I kept laughing and be like, are you guys did you know I so when this movie came out, I was in high school, so I think I picked it up because you're a high school girl, you're body conscious. And that was the time, I think, of maybe a little after the Kate Moss era, but not that much know. I think that was the time of Lindsay Lohan being in the news. Hillary Duff and Britney Spears. Like a lot of comments on women's bodies. Jessica Simpson. Like who's? Skinnier? Who's bigger? And so I feel like it is of the times that someone like Natalie would be called big or she kept talking about her legs being like tree trunks. I was like, we don't even see her legs. They're always in skirts. Like, what is going? But so I feel like it's like right on the times. But again, so icky to revisit, right? And then we even see Billy Mac talking about his manager. He keeps talking about how fat he is. It's just so weird, right? And then I think you even see that with Emma Thompson's character and then the hot young receptionist who's know flirting with her husband. They have different bodies, obviously. They're different people at different stages of life, different ages. But it was really interesting in way.Yeah.I think it's definitely within the times, even seeing Kara Knightley, it wasn't about her body per se, but I think with the comments and then just noticing her body, I know that obviously she's a very small person in a smaller body, but also one of the people who are highlighted at the time right. For being like maybe too or this is the ideal body. So I think it was just like an interesting comparison with the two. I know her, obviously from right, like Pirates of the Caribbean and stuff. Like the cast is mostly yeah, yeah. I think except for the American ones. And even when Colin goes to America to meet the hot girls, they're all like legit supermodels, right? But they all have similar bodies and everything. And I was just thinking like Aurelia, the Portuguese woman who Colin Firth's character falls in love with, like when he finally shows back up to propose, remember, the dad thinks he's wanting to propose to the other sister, who of course has to be know be in a larger body. So there is like a lot of fat phobia leading into this otherwise like super lovely movie. I feel like I also caught some homophobia, especially with Billy Mac and the manager. I couldn't tell if he really was in love with like in a romantic way or more like a familial way. And I wasn't really dad. Sorry, you go, Julia.No, I was just going to say the relationship was a hot the manager.Jerry, to say the least. Yeah. So Daniel to know stepson sam was initially, or know initially because it didn't change with him, but was like, I think really open to the idea if Sam was gay. Right. He was like, who do you who are you interested wear girl? I thought that feel so great. Also for 2003, which probably the movie was made in 2000, so that felt great. And then a couple of scenes later, an hour later, it was like, oh, now that we're a little bit homophobic, but again, feels kind of appropriate to the time. And maybe Billy Mac in that generation would have been more like that. Yeah. No, I agree. That's true. So I think we should spend a little bit of time on Sarah. So Sarah is at work, right. And she works with Carl. Carl. And Harry is her boss. That's like character played by Alan Rickman. So there's all these connections. So Harry is like trying to get her to talk to Carl, to hang out with him because she's in love with him and the whole office knows. I feel like that was inappropriate for a boss to intervene. Right. At first I thought maybe they were related like, is that his sister or something? And then I was like, oh, no, that's just her boss.Yeah, super inappropriate. I thought it was really, like, a nice little foreshadowy. I told Portia, like, I'm obsessed when I think of that movie, all I think about is the cell phone ring like, that, like and when he first goes over to her to say something about how she loves Carl, he's like, turn off your like, that was the first thing he said. And I thought that was just like so it just speaks to how long this pattern with her brother has been going on and how intrusive it is in her world. I just thought it was an interesting little hint to that.What do you think her brother has schizophrenia, by the way. She's sort of talking to him when he calls and saying, like, well, I don't know if I can talk to the Pope. Let me see. I don't know about the aliens. And I just think it's got to be incredibly hard to be the only surviving family member for someone with such a serious mental health condition. We see her go visit him in the psychiatric hospital. Almost looks like he's institutionalized, like he lives there. I think she alludes to her parents, no longer being around. I just think that's, like, an immense amount of pressure, and you can tell that she feels like she can't not answer or hang up the phone or we even see her, unfortunately, feeding his delusions by saying, like, well, I don't know if I can get a hold of the Pope. Let me see. And I think that happens, but it's such a tricky line to walk. I think, even for providers, that's tricky to walk. How do you maintain the sense of reality without challenging the patient too much, where they get upset and feel alone, but then it can be risky to sort of go along with kind of, like, collude with their delusion. So I really felt for her, it.Was like, Julia, what do you the when she had her moment with Carl and then the phone ring, and she's, like, sitting, trying to stay in the moment, but not and then she gets.Off the guy, and it was just so sad.I just felt so bad for her. It's like, you know, that pull of family versus your future and kind of where you like, the past and the future pole thing. It was sad.What would you work on her with in therapy? If she was your patient hungry? How would you do it?Well, I guess I would want to understand her history more. Where did she learn that she's responsible for all of this, and where does she learn her kind of people pleasing prioritizing everybody else? And then just how does that serve her? How does it not? And if there are other supports that could be involved with her brother's care that she could utilize more and just trying to help her feel less alone in it and see that she's a person too. Because I think that often, especially women grow up feeling like they're not seen right, like, in the world, in a lot of places. And it's easy to be easy to just go along with the flow and just do what people need you to do. And I just feel like that's sort of she's filled this role for her brother because no one else is there to do it. And she loves him, and it's like she doesn't even see that she's a person too. And I feel like that happens so often with women. So that's what I would kind of want to work with her on. It's like seeing herself as an individual also. And who is she and how can she exist and support her brother without one being more important? What about you guys? How do you approach it?That sounds good to me. Yeah, no, I mean, I think really just trying to see herself as your needs are also important, or you're allowed to do both. I think that's really hard for people who are taking care of a sick loved one in any terms of the word sick is just like, how can you also live your life and have needs and wants fulfilled while also assisting in a way that is helpful and beneficial to you and the person you're…

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Episode 47 - "The Morning Show" Season 3 w/ Nicole Nalepa Nov 27, 2023

Show notes

Welcome back to Analyze Scripts, where a psychiatrist and a therapist analyze what Hollywood gets right and wrong about mental health. Today, we are joined by WFSB morning show anchor, Nicole Nalepa, to discuss season 3 of "The Morning Show." In this season we see a different Alex Levy and discuss if people with narcissism can change. We get to see Cory's mom which gives us such great information for answering the age old question of nature versus nurture. Bradley and her brother continue to give us strong family dynamics to discuss and we finish up with the impact of power and money on a person's personality. Nicole answers all our questions about what goes on behind the scenes at a morning show (like what time she wakes up and if she does her own hair and makeup). Nicole also shares how she practices self care while covering traumatic stories and events. We hope you enjoy!InstagramTikTokWebsiteWatch on YoutubeMommyhood UnscriptedDr. Katrina Furey: Hi, I'm Dr. Katrina Fieri, a psychiatrist.Portia Pendleton LCSW: And I'm Portia Pendleton, a licensed clinical social worker.Dr. Katrina Furey: And this is Analyze Scripts, a podcast where two shrinks analyze the depiction of mental health in movies and TV shows.Portia Pendleton LCSW: Our hope is that you learn some legit info about mental health while feeling like you're chatting with your girlfriends.Dr. Katrina Furey: There is so much misinformation out there and it drives us nuts.Portia Pendleton LCSW: And if someday we pay off our student loans or land a sponsorship, like.Dr. Katrina Furey: With a lay flat airline or a major beauty brand, even better.Portia Pendleton LCSW: So sit back, relax, grab some popcorn.Dr. Katrina Furey: And your DSM Five and enjoy. And welcome back for another episode of Analyze Scripts. I'm Dr. Katrina Fury. Of course, I have my friend and colleague Portia Pendleton here and we are so excited to welcome a very special guest, nicole Nalapa, who is the anchor of Connecticut's number one morning newscast, Eyewitness News in the Morning, and the co host of WFSB's newest lifestyle TV show, great Day at Nine A. She came to WFSB in December 2013 and has been waking up Connecticut every weekday morning since. She wears many hats at channel three. Her newest role began in September 2022 when she was named the co host of Great Day at Nine A. Alongside Scott Hanley. She also hosts the weekly franchises, including Family Friday, What's Going On, the Bright Spot, and Three Things You Need to Know. And when you don't. She also has a podcast called Mommyhood Unscripted, which is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, where she tackles some of the biggest topics and least discussed issues surrounding motherhood, which, as a reproductive psychiatrist, I totally love. She's a mama, too and takes listeners along for the ride. And before coming into Connecticut, she did a whole bunch of things. She worked in Springfield, she did a lot of live on scene reporting, she had an Emmy winning newscast aired on CNN, and she also spent several months at CBS in New York, interning for the evening news with Katie Couric. Is that right?Nicole Nalepa: Yes, that's right.Dr. Katrina Furey: So we are so thrilled that she's here, a, because she's super cool, and B, because we're talking about one of our favorite shows, the Morning Show season three. And this is just, like, so exciting to talk to someone who's actually on a morning show, right? Like, I'm just dying to hear what is that? Like, how do you wake up so early? Do you like getting your hair and makeup done every day? Is it like the kardashians where you sit there on your phone and they're just fluttering around you? Do you do your own investigative work? What do they get? Right? Basically, I want to know all the things.Nicole Nalepa: Well, thank you so much, ladies, for having me on your podcast. I'm so excited to be here. And, yeah, it is exciting to talk about a show that has to do with this industry because so often I always say to my coworkers we have had so many laughs and so many funny moments and also emotional moments both in front of the camera and behind the scenes. So I always say this would make a great reality show but it's hard to right? Because in the news industry you need to be as unbiased as possible. But I swear we are real human beings. We go to the bathroom, we do everything else that you guys do.Dr. Katrina Furey: No way.Nicole Nalepa: But no, it was fun. I loved in The Morning Show came out, I was really excited. And of course, I Have to Admit, I Had a very hypercritical eye, too, because whenever you see I mean, obviously the process of how things happen, but whenever you see people who are trying to portray anchors or reporters, you have that anchorman like, Good Morning, San Diego. And that was the one thing when I Got Into business, I look back at my Old reels and old clips and stuff when I First Started out, and I said, oh, little Nicole, she was trying to be older and tried to get that news voice, and we were all feeling it out. Everyone does when you're starting out in the business. But I remember at Some point, something clicked. I think it was when I got here to Connecticut. At that point, because I had a few reps in, in Springfield, I was actually hired as a traffic anchor. Technically, here in Connecticut, I was going to be a reporter. But then their traffic anchor was leaving, and then they said, hey, you should work with this guy, Scott Haney. You know, the guy that ate cat vomit off the bottom of his shoe, alive on air. And I'm like, what? Well I've never heard of this guy but he know the most beloved meteorologist and on air talent probably in the state of Connecticut. I had no idea of his legacy until I got here from Massachusetts and I said wow, now I get know this is like the magic and at that know, doing traffic it was all ad living. I didn't have a teleprompter so I really had to think on my feet and working alongside him he's so zany and crazy and unpredictable in the best way possible and definitely in an unconventional news way. I would say that nothing is rehearsed, nothing is fake even in the newsroom excuse me, in the morning show and the newsroom, that's another great show too. They also have those fake laughs you see they're trying to elicit those emotions but they schedule it in I remember saying to myself I never want to fake anything. I don't want a news anchor voice, I just want to be me and it's work.Dr. Katrina Furey: That's so cool. Tell us a little bit about your take about the morning show like what it's getting right, what it's getting wrong?Nicole Nalepa: Yeah well so the morning show, that's from a network standpoint so that's big time right. That's new York. You're seeing all of these operations. There's a job for everything. There's a person behind the camera, there's a person that's running scripts. There's a person that's running you scripts. There's someone what was it? The anchor producer. Right. Someone's set to just produce the anchor.Dr. Katrina Furey: There's someone there's a junior and a senior one.Nicole Nalepa: Yeah. There's a big hierarchy. Yes. The booker. I wish we had a booker here on a local level, local TV news. It is quite the opposite. And just by way of we basically do five different jobs. That's just kind of how we've adapted into this industry, provided it's changed over the years. Like the that was definitely the heyday of before the World Wide Web really took charge and came through. And these phones, too, right. Have changed the way we get our news. So there were more bodies, I would say in, but I don't know even if you could see in our studio here, I'll turn you around, but we have robotic cameras. We don't have camera guys in our studio. We have literally a system that will tell the camera where to zoom in and who to zoom in on. So we don't have camera guys like the morning show. But obviously in New York, at CBS News, when I was interning there, they have camera that was that was accurate, I would say. And seeing the process. Right. And when breaking news comes in and how they're all kind know, just huddling up really quick. Yeah. How are we going to figure this out? We got to get it on. We got to get it on. That's very accurate. Yeah.Dr. Katrina Furey: How do you wake up so early?Nicole Nalepa: So that's one thing I love, seeing the morning show and how they portray the alarm clock. Right. They're always like and trying to hit.Portia Pendleton LCSW: Snooze and they have to get out of bed.Nicole Nalepa: And I love the shots. Right. The close up shots of them trying to put their shoes in the slippers and making their coffee. And that's very accurate as well. I think to work on a morning show, to some degree, you have to be a morning person. Whether you feel like you're a morning person or not, to some degree, you have to there are some people that can do it, probably, and some people that can't. Some people are more night owls. I worked overnight when I started in the business, and then when I came here to Channel Three, I ended up my shift was shifted. So I think I was working four to twelve when I first started here and then shifted back. And I don't know, to me, going from overnights to getting up early in the morning, I actually got to sleep finally, like when everyone else sleeps, when it starts out. So that was an upgrade for me. It's still tough, though. My alarm goes off at 230, so no 330 alarm like Alex Levy or.Dr. Katrina Furey: Bradley jackson extra hour of sleep.Nicole Nalepa: Wow. Yeah. And she probably has a driver, too. Most networks, they have a driver. They send a car and they drive you to the station. No, I'm driving myself. And I'm doing my own hair and makeup, too.Dr. Katrina Furey: No, it looks great. Yeah, you're really good at it.Nicole Nalepa: Thanks. That's another thing, another little myth I'll dispel. So we don't have any makeup or hair artists. Most local news stations do not. I think New York may still have hair and makeup. Maybe La. And I don't even know if Chicago does anymore. When I was interning in Boston about I mean, this is a little while ago now, but they didn't have hair and makeup. You that was, I think, probably one of the big expenses to go.Dr. Katrina Furey: That takes skill to do on air quality hair and makeup that's different from your everyday hair and makeup.Nicole Nalepa: It is.Dr. Katrina Furey: That's expecting a lot of you to be able to do that and be a journalist.Nicole Nalepa: I call it your clown makeup. I'm like, I have my clown makeup on stronger. Right? Exactly. Because these lights are very bright and you don't want to get washed out, but that's a skill. We do have these image consultants, most stations do, where they'll say, hey, this shade looks really good on you. And they'll show us some makeup tips and just recommendations, which is really helpful. Right. Because it's accentuating the parts right. And the features in your face. So I've learned over the years from multiple consultants at my stations, and it's been really helpful. But you have to have a thick skin, too, because you're looking at your face really early in the morning every day. And I learned that my face is not symmetrical like I always thought it was when I drew myself portraits in school.Dr. Katrina Furey: I think it's pretty rare to have a symmetrical face.Nicole Nalepa: Yeah.Dr. Katrina Furey: But I also appreciated that they were really honing in on how early the characters wake up, because that is hard. I remember in my residency training, doing, like, 24 hours shifts, night shifts, shifting between night shift and day shift, it was so hard on your body. It's just like your circadian rhythm isn't meant to do that. And I remember working overnight in the Er, and it was like, every night right around 03:00 A.m., I would get so cold and tired and hungry, and I had some senior attending tell me, like, well, yeah, your cortisol level drops around this time, so naturally you want to kind of hibernate. And so just thinking about you and watching the show, I'm like, It must be extra hard to wake up at that time.Nicole Nalepa: Yeah. I think before kids, I made it work and didn't get a lot of sleep. And then when I became pregnant, and then after my second pregnancy, I'm like, oh, God, I wasn't sleeping at all. That was the hardest I've ever experienced. So I appreciate my sleep now more so than I did in my 20s, when you remember being in your twenty s and just we can ride this out. We'll catch up on the weekend. I can take a nap when I get home.Dr. Katrina Furey: Yeah. Well so one thing that we thought would be interesting and portia, please chime in. Is, again, one thing that we or I find myself often telling my patients these days. I would say kind of always, but especially since 2020 with COVID and the election and the social unrest in our country and everything going on, we would talk a lot about limiting your news consumption to help limit how much traumatic material you were being exposed to that you're already thinking about throughout the day. And even, like, our diagnostic manual called the DSM, the way they define PTSD or post traumatic stress disorder, changed from version four to version five, which actually came out many years before 2020. But they adjusted it so that people who before then, you had to actually experience the trauma directly to be able to be diagnosed with a trauma disorder. Now they've changed it. So you can either experience it directly, witness it, like, via bystander, or experience it vicariously. And I believe that was done in part to capture a whole lot of other people who are being traumatized. And I know especially, like, in my training, we talked a lot about people in certain professions, like police officers, firefighters, journalists, newscasters, photojournalists, who are like, in the thick of it, like, we see Andre in season three. But I was wondering if you could kind of speak to that, because I feel like you can't limit it. You are reporting on it, and I just think that's got to be so hard. And I wonder, how do you guys take care of each other? How do you take care of yourselves? Is that talked about in the field? Is anyone looking out for you guys in terms of your own mental health? I feel like I hope so.Nicole Nalepa: Yeah, that's a great question. And I think that that's probably a question we don't always get. We always get the what time do you wake up in the morning? But of course, when we think of the serious and the more traumatic things that we cover, we don't always want to go there asking people those questions. Right. But I am so happy to answer that. I can only speak, obviously, from my experience, but from what I have experienced in covering some traumatic stories in particular, actually, the one that comes to mind when you were talking about this is the Boston Marathon bombings. I was there, maybe less than a mile from where they ended up finding the brother underneath the boat that was hiding at the you know, from the moment the bombs went off at the finish know we were wall. To wall coverage, obviously from up until when I got a call in the middle of the night from my news director at the time saying, we're sending you to Watertown. And that's where the staging area is. The brothers know, throwing Molotov cocktails at everyone. And it was just such a scary time knowing, like, okay, well, this is my job and I…

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Episode 46 - "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" w/ Dr. Devon Gimbel (Point Me To First Class) Nov 20, 2023

Show notes

Welcome back to Analyze Scripts, where a psychiatrist and a therapist analyze what Hollywood gets right and wrong about mental health. Today, we are joined by Dr. Devon Gimbel, a retired physician turned points travel consultant who guides us though the journey to India (hopefully in first class seats). As many of us travel this holiday week we hope to offer you some tips on better travel while we analyze these rich characters who find themselves in India at a "new and spectacular" retirement home. Aging, openness versus rigidity and grief are themes in this episode. We hope you enjoy!For more information on our guest: Point Me To First ClassWebsiteTikTokInstagram Youtube ChannelKatrina Furey MD: Hi, I'm Dr. Katrina Fieri, a psychiatrist.Portia Pendleton LCSW: And I'm Portia Pendleton, a licensed clinical social worker.Katrina Furey MD: And this is Analyze Scripts, a podcast.Devon Gimbel MD: Where two shrinks analyze the depiction of.Katrina Furey MD: Mental health in movies and TV shows.Portia Pendleton LCSW: Our hope is that you learn some legit info about mental health while feeling like you're chatting with your girlfriends.Katrina Furey MD: There is so much misinformation out there, and it drives us nuts.Portia Pendleton LCSW: And if someday we pay off our student loans or land a sponsorship, like.Katrina Furey MD: With a lay flat airline or a major beauty brand, even better.Portia Pendleton LCSW: So sit back, relax, grab some popcorn.Katrina Furey MD: And your DSM five, and enjoy. Welcome back to another super exciting episode of Analyze scripts because we have Devin Gimbal joining us. She is a double board certified physician and founder and owner of Point Me to First Class, a business that helps employed professionals, entrepreneurs, and business owners with high personal and or business expenses earn tons of credit card points to travel the world in luxury. And if you're listening to this episode, you might be traveling because it is the week of know, the busiest travel week of the, you know, if you're not in luxury, maybe you'll learn some tips for next time. Devin believes that your expenses are your greatest asset if you know how to leverage them. And she's on a mission to change the face of first class travel and help thousands of women travel more, travel better, and travel often using credit card points. So super cool. Thank you, Devin, so much for joining us.Devon Gimbel MD: Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to be here.Katrina Furey MD: I first learned about Devin by joining her Facebook group, the point me to first class group, and I have started my points accumulation and journey. I haven't redeemed anything yet, but do you want to just give Portia a little update? I guess because, Portia, I don't think you're quite in the credit card points game the same way I'm trying to.Portia Pendleton LCSW: Enter a I'm a baby.Katrina Furey MD: You're a baby. Okay. You're in your infancy.Devon Gimbel MD: Yes, well, it's fine. Everybody starts started. I tell this story in my own communities where I for many years was terrified of credit cards. I didn't have a single credit card in my teens, my 20s, even into my late twenty s, I was very scared of credit cards. I'd always been told that they're dangerous, you can get into debt. And the whole situation around that really frightened me. And I had no money growing up, so I was like, well, I have no money to spend anyway. Get a credit card. I don't know. I'm going to pay it off. So I avoided credit cards for a really long time. And it was only after I had actually completely finished all my medical training, finished my residency, finished my fellowship, that I started to just educate myself about personal finance in general. Just how can I be responsible financially? How do I make that transition from being a forever student, a forever trainee, into having a grown up job and being able to make really responsible financial decisions around retirement and savings and all of these things that they don't teach you, right? That they don't teach us, at least not when I went through school. No one talks about any of that stuff. And I didn't have a personal, familial kind of background in education in that. So it was all personal education. And in learning just about basic personal finance, as one does, you go on the internet, you end up going down all these different rabbit holes, following all these different links. I started falling into these travel blogs and points blogs where people were talking about how you can responsibly and really strategically use credit cards to earn points and then redeem those points, or use them to fly domestically or internationally, use them for hotel stays, and that you could actually save a significant amount of money, not just $100 every few years, but a lot more than that. And I have had a lifelong love of travel, but not the first class travel budget to send myself to all of these places. And so it seemed like this perfect match between. Here's an opportunity, again, very strategically and responsibly to leverage the spend that I was doing anyway, to run my life and to run a business and all of these things, to turn that into an opportunity to travel without having to spend cash on it, so that I could actually use my disposable income towards other things, like paying down my student loans and saving for a house down payment and all of those things. And so that is really kind of the short story about what credit card points are and how they can actually really be used to enhance your travel and your life experience without compromising you financially.Portia Pendleton LCSW: I love that I'm like in my baby phase, but I will say I am very pro, of course, responsibly. But I'm always telling my mother in law and other people, like, stop using your debit card, the grocery store, use your credit card. You're going to get 3% cash back on that card. Difference of points. But I just think it's so funny, too, if you have the means, right to pay off the credit card, if you're using it almost as cash, it's such an unknown, I think. Wonderful resource to be able to use 100%.Devon Gimbel MD: And you really hit the nail on the head that it really is a hobby to get into once you're already in a place in your life and in your finances where you are comfortable and able to pay off your credit card statements in full every month. Otherwise, it doesn't make sense. The math doesn't math in terms of getting value out of doing this. But I think it's something that anyone can learn about. And then you can take baby steps into this hobby based on what your comfort level is, again, where you are financially. But to not even know about this as an option is one of the things that I'm trying to get rid of. I think in the personal finance world, there are a couple of things that I think people just really accept to be true nowadays. Like, most people would not just leave a lot of cash in a bag in their house, right. Maybe for safety reasons, but also because it's going to lose value over time. Right. You move up a step from that. Most people also wouldn't leave all of their liquid assets in a savings account in a bank, right. Because again, over time, with inflation, you're going to lose value on that money. That's why we have these different vehicles to allow our money to grow over time. Right. There's the stock market, there's real estate investing. There's traditional retirement accounts. There's all these options. And I think in the world of personal finance, it's now very accepted that we would want to take our money, our saved money, and allow it to do some heavy lifting and grow for us. Right. And I don't think yet the same conversation is being had around our expenses that, like you said, to pay things just with a debit card or just with cash. Of course, that's a very responsible thing to do. And if you can also leverage something like a cashback credit card or a points earning credit card responsibly, to me, that's the same thing as really leveraging your money to grow for you on your investment side.Katrina Furey MD: Yeah, 100%.Portia Pendleton LCSW: And you might be able to go to India with your points exactly right.Devon Gimbel MD: Places you can go to. But I think today we are going to talk about India in particular.Katrina Furey MD: Right?Portia Pendleton LCSW: So, have you been, Devin?Devon Gimbel MD: Yes, I have. And actually, I have been to India twice, and I've never actually been to India using points, because the two times that I went to India, the very first time was when I was in medical school. And we had not a long break, but we had sort of a traditional winter break in medical school around at the end of December. And I remember, I think it was my second year of medical school, they had given us this offer where whatever module we were learning, I think it was like female reproduction or something like that, where if we studied ahead or we took the test early, we could actually have an extra week of winter break. I can't remember exactly what it was. I just remember thinking like, yes, it.Portia Pendleton LCSW: Probably was female reproduction.Katrina Furey MD: They're like, come on, let's hurry up. Let's get through this.Devon Gimbel MD: We don't need to know that much about it, right? Let's take a subject that's vitally important that most medical schools ignore or don't pay very much attention to. Let's just cut that one short. Right? But I remember thinking like, well, yes, because if I can have an expanded break, this is going to be a great time for me to travel. And I had always loved travel and international travel. I had just done it on the most shoestring of shoestring budgets possible. And that was absolutely true in med school as well. I was on complete student loan support when I went to medical school, so I had a ton of disposable income, but I could make it work. And so I ended up having a three week winter break in my second year of medical school. And I knew I wanted to go to India. I'd never been before. And so I went to India by myself for three weeks, and it was absolutely amazing. But I flew the economy of economy classes and took trains and buses around, and it was amazing and incredible, but I didn't know anything about points in medical school. And actually, the second time I went was years later. I actually went in early 2016. So I had my first child, my son, at the end of 2015. And when he was around three months old, I was like, I need a break. I need a solo vacation. I need to be somewhere that's just not kind of the routine of having an infant at home because it's very, very challenging and stressful. And like I said, travel has always been a really important part of my life, and I didn't do a lot of travel. The whole know that I was pregnant with.Katrina Furey MD: Sure.Devon Gimbel MD: And so I went back to India. Actually, I took my mom because she had wanted to go and didn't really feel comfortable doing a lot of solo travel. So I was like, this is know, let's go to India together. I've been there before. We'll go to some places. I've been some new places. And I knew about credit card points at that time, but I had not yet really developed my redemption abilities, my ability to find really great flights using points. And so I remember this too because I had been out of training for a couple of years. And for me this was a huge splurge because we bought the tickets using cash. And it was the first time in my life I bought an international flight in premium economy, which was like such a huge upgrade to me compared to flying in economy for twelve or 15 hours. And it was way better than being in economy. And I still remember though, on the flight home there was still the traditional three seats together. And I always pick a window seat. I'm a window seat person and my mom had an aisle seat. And this really polite, nice Italian gentleman was in between us like the whole flight home. My mom and I are flying in premium economy. This is very nice Italian gentleman in between us. And I just remember distinctly remember thinking one day, like one day I will be able to take this type of flight in business class. And that is actually exactly what points have done for me. So that actually may have been the last time I flew a long haul international class in economy or premium economy because since then I have only used points to fly internationally. And being able to do that and like I said, really kind of developing my redemption skills, learning how to leverage those points to book business class internationally has changed my entire travel experience. Oh my God. The flight for me always used to be like the thing that you tolerate to get where you're going, right? The destination is the point. And ever since I learned how to use points now, actually the flight itself is part of the journey. It's actually an enjoyable part of the journey, which it never was for me for many, many years.Katrina Furey MD: That's such a good, oh, nice, nice word choice, Portia. As we were starting this know, we started thinking about, okay, so what are our delusional goals for ourselves? And mine is that one day maybe we won't even need this if we get so good at using our credit card points. But mine is one day we'll get like one of those sponsors that's a lay flat airline. That's my dream is to lay in the lay flat airline. And I always say, like, I don't even have to go anywhere, just take me up, circle around and come on down.Devon Gimbel MD: But I bet, I bet that just.Katrina Furey MD: Makes that long haul so much better. And then you start your vacation feeling excited and good and not in back pain.Portia Pendleton LCSW: Absolutely.Devon Gimbel MD: That has been a big thing for me. I'm not that old. I'm in my early 40s, but I have noticed even from when I used to do, I mean, these ridiculous long haul flights. When I was in my. Remember when I was in residency, there were two years in a row where I was joining projects that were happening in Vietnam. And I remember distinctly flying from Boston, where I was doing my residency, of course, in economy, to Vietnam, where between the time changes and stuff, it ends up being like two days later from the time you left to the time you land, being in Vietnam for three days, getting on the airplane, coming home and then coming, know for residency, like your rotation Monday morning. And I remember at that point in my life flying literally, like around the world in a week. It was a little tiring, but the jet lag didn't really hit me physically. It was a little uncomfortable. It wasn't that bad. But as I've gotten older, and I think especially just the physical toll of the work that I was doing, which was not as laborious as being like a surgeon, which I think is a very physically challenging medical profession to be in. I'm a pathologist, but literally sitting at a desk in the same stature for 8910 hours a day for years and years and years, my body now, especially if I'm sitting in a really cramped space for a prolonged period of time, my whole body just starts hurting. And I think a lot of people can probably relate to that experience. Certainly people who might have chronic medical conditions or other physical conditions with their bodies, it can be very hard to sit, especially in those shrinking airline seats that we have now that are smaller than I remember them being when I was in my do again, like a 1012, 14 hours flight, it ca…

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Episode 45 - American Horror Story - Delicate - Part 1 Nov 13, 2023

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Welcome back to Analyze Scripts, where a psychiatrist and a therapist analyze what Hollywood gets right and wrong about mental health. Today, we are taking a deep dive into the newest season of the longtime Emmy winning show, American Horror Story. This season, Delicate, depicts a women, Anna Victoria, played by Emma Roberts, who is undergoing fertility issues. Anna is a famous actor who receives in vitro fertization (IVF) with all the spooky and horror elements that are associated with the show. Listen to our take on Kim Kardashian's performance and the accuracy of their depiction of IVF. Dr. Furey takes this lead in this episode with her expertise in pregnancy, IVF and postpartum care. We hope you enjoy!Youtube VideoInstagramTikTokWebsiteCNN article on new postpartum drugDr. Katrina Furey MD: Hi, I'm Dr. Katrina Fieri, a psychiatrist.Portia Pendleton LCSW: And I'm Portia Pendleton, a licensed clinical social worker.Dr. Katrina Furey MD: And this is analyze Scripts, a podcast where two shrinks analyze the depiction of mental health in movies and TV shows.Portia Pendleton LCSW: Our hope is that you learn some legit info about mental health while feeling like you're chatting with your girlfriends.Dr. Katrina Furey MD: There is so much misinformation out there, and it drives us nuts.Portia Pendleton LCSW: And if someday we pay off our student loans or land a sponsorship, like.Dr. Katrina Furey MD: With a lay flat airline or a major beauty brand, even better.Portia Pendleton LCSW: So sit back, relax, grab some popcorn.Dr. Katrina Furey MD: And your DSM five, and enjoy. Welcome back to another episode of Analyze Scripts, the podcast. We are so excited you're joining us for our second YouTube episode. That's right. If you are just listening, you could also watch us on YouTube. Please don't do it while driving, but otherwise, please head on over to Analyze Scripts podcast. Today we are talking about the latest installment of American Horror Story, Delicate. We're going to talk about Part one. Part two is set to come out in early 2024, but I am really excited to talk about this episode. What did you think? Portia, I know you're not super into spooky things. I was really impressed that you watched this just right off the bat. What are your thoughts?Portia Pendleton LCSW: I thought it was intense in the way, I think, because as a woman who goes to the gyn and who potentially will or will not experience the birthing process or the pregnancy process, I felt like it was a little traumatizing. But in a way that I want to hopefully be clear. And I think you can do a.Dr. Katrina Furey MD: Better job at this.Portia Pendleton LCSW: But this is not a normal experience. This is in so many ways horrific. And there were so many moments that she was invalidated, and I thought that that was just, like, bad. I mean, in this whole experience, that's already really scary and sometimes daunting and can be painful just to add this obviously extra fictional layer to it. But it was hard to watch.Dr. Katrina Furey MD: Totally. So if you've been living under a rock, American Horror Story is a series on FX that's been around for many years now. I think next Halloween, we're hoping to cover season one because that was a really good season. But it's a really cool show by Ryan Murphy where it's usually the same sort of crop of actors. And the story each season is know, there's been, like, the clown one, there's been like the murder house one. There's. Yeah, you know, so it's all really interesting. And so we see Emma Roberts as the star of this season, she's playing an actress, Anna Victoria Alcott. And the whole plot, to sum it up real quick, of this first part of the season, is she really wants to have a baby, and she's struggling to get pregnant. So we see her and her husband Dex, who previously had been married, and we believe his wife died that now at the end of part one, we're not really sure, but they're struggling to get pregnant, so they're going through the IVF process. At the same time, her career is taking off, she's campaigning for an Oscar, and we come to find out there's something afoot. There's some sort of evil plot at play in regards to her baby. We don't exactly know what it is yet, but we see some flashbacks to someone else agreeing to give their baby away to these people in weird black crow outfits to be able to have power or money or something that they want. And it seems like this is going that way. Like, how much do you want a baby? How much do you want an Oscar? Right, right.Portia Pendleton LCSW: It's like this cabal that's been around for centuries, apparently. And I don't know. I think obviously, we're missing so much that I hope we get from season two. But I have so many questions. Right? Like, is the husband involved? Is he not? Is the know Kim Kardashian? Yep. Siobhan. Is she involved? It seems like she is with those little supplements that look like blood. Obviously the Doctor is involved. But I have so many questions that I'm excited to hopefully get answered, even though it will be. Yeah.Dr. Katrina Furey MD: In part two, I think my biggest question is, why is Kim Kardashian playing? Like, why? It was so Portia. I'm sorry. Like, I thought Kim Kardashian did a pretty good job on SNL. I'm not going to lie. I was like, well, she was kind of funny, but in this, I was just, like, cringe.Portia Pendleton LCSW: And I think it's because.Dr. Katrina Furey MD: I also.Portia Pendleton LCSW: Don'T know if it would matter if she was better at acting because she's still Kim Kardashian, which is like, I think her being and persona and aura is just so powerful. And she was playing somewhat of a similar person, so it wasn't this crazy stretch. But I think it's just so hard because we know her from 20 years of reality TV that I can't see past that. So regardless, even if she was, I don't know. I can't tell. Is it poor acting or is it just like, I can't see her in another way.Dr. Katrina Furey MD: I think it's both acting, but also why her? I've got to imagine there's so many good actresses out there that could have done a great job in the role. And it's not like American Horror Story has been doing badly as far as I know. Maybe the ratings have been down. I don't think they've been down that much. Why? I just feel like it's to use her for her following and to get eyeballs on the screen. But it honestly annoyed me. I would say of all the stuff we've watched so far, I felt like this was the worst, just in terms of. I didn't like it that, like, in terms of the acting and stuff like that and the storyline, I liked all the mental health themes. I'm excited to talk about them, but I was just, like, even Emma Roberts acting I didn't think was great. I don't.Portia Pendleton LCSW: I mean, I just didn't love it. And I don't know if that's because it's not my favorite genre, but I finished the episode last night, and I started it when it came out. It's been difficult to kind of get through the episodes. I love Emma in other shows, so I don't know, it just kind of fell flat and for a couple of reasons. But I did watch the last episode in which I think it's the last one where she eats the raccoon, and I was literally, like, going to throw up. I couldn't look at it.Dr. Katrina Furey MD: That took me by surprise. Yeah, same with me. It was like. And the episodes weren't that long, so you could just think you'd, like, plow through them, right? Like, morning show succession. You. I am like, can't wait to watch the next one. But this one, I was, ugh. And I just think it's because Kim Kardashian was not very sorry.Portia Pendleton LCSW: She wasn't.Dr. Katrina Furey MD: She wasn't. I'm sorry. And I get a little angry that she gets all these opportunities when there's probably so many good actresses out there dying for an opportunity. Like, it just.Portia Pendleton LCSW: I feel morally opposed to it. I wonder if it was for shock value. You know what mean? Like, there's been a lot of bad feedback about it, and I think they've had to have known that even, like, she auditioned or in the acting and, like, Kim, you're great at a lot of things, and maybe this just thing isn't for you. Good for you for trying. I don't know.Dr. Katrina Furey MD: She had such so much dialogue. I really thought she'd be in it, but, like, peripherally. And she was really in it, trying to act, and I was like, I don't know if we need that much.Portia Pendleton LCSW: Something that I'm wondering, too, is that this whole thing came out while the sagstrike was. Is going on. So I think that's also interesting because I didn't see any promotions for it from Kim or anyone else. And I just thought that there's been other bigger hits that have still done well despite not having the actors. And so I just. I don't.Dr. Katrina Furey MD: Let's.Portia Pendleton LCSW: Let's get into the mental health theme. We both didn't give it five stars.Dr. Katrina Furey MD: It's on our face. Okay.Portia Pendleton LCSW: Yeah.Dr. Katrina Furey MD: But there's a ton of mental health themes, I think, as it relates to IVF and the journey to motherhood and just being a woman. I think. So before I dive in, I want to hear about your perspective, Korsia.Portia Pendleton LCSW: I would say that I felt like they did a good job at portraying just, like, the emotions related to having a miscarriage or the difficulties with getting pregnant and the stress that accompanies that. And ultimately, the loss is different for everyone. I think it's unique to the woman carrying the pregnancy initially and then potentially losing it or carrying a full to term. So I thought that Emma was able to portray that well. I think she is a mom, so I think that she probably kind of pulled on some of her experiences through that process. What's scary, what's exciting, the ups and the downs. So I liked that aspect. I thought that was pretty realistic, maybe. And, like, going to a clinic.Dr. Katrina Furey MD: Right?Portia Pendleton LCSW: Like, going to a separate place to receive the IVF procedures. I didn't love the red. Right. Red gloves, red walls. It was like all, like, first of all, why would you ever have a Red Glove? Obviously, they did it in the movie for a reason. But is there blood on it or not?Dr. Katrina Furey MD: Do you think the red is for visual effect with the movie? The vitamins were red. No, they're not. I think that's all just for visual effect and very in line with the AHS genre, I would say. But certainly that theme of red and even the progesterone that she was supposed to take, I believe that's what it was that she had to keep in the fridge, came in these glass vials, and it's like, that's not what it looks like. Right. But whatever. It's for visual effect, so I get it. But, like, the vitamins that Siobhan gave her, that look like blood, that's obviously not B. Twelve. And also, why are you relying on Siobhan to know if this is safe in pregnancy? Just call your OBGYN. I mean, it turns out this guy is involved, so you shouldn't trust him. But in general, I was like, okay, I think that it's really important to point out that, and this is like one of those things that goes without saying, and yet we need to keep saying it, that IVF is incredibly stressful under the best of circumstances and capital T trauma in many circumstances. I'm not even going to say in the worst circumstances because I think it just is traumatic. Quite literally, it's very invasive in your body. It's very stressful emotionally. I think upwards of 40% of women going through IVF experience a mental health condition, mostly depression and anxiety. But I also see PTSD and I see OCD happen a lot around IVF. And that makes sense, right? I mean, because it is, like, traumatic to lose a baby, to have a miscarriage, to have a stillbirth. It's very stressful to always be in that cycle of uncertainty and waiting. Waiting to get your period, waiting to not get your period, waiting to take the pregnancy test, waiting to ovulate, tracking everything. I mean, it's just so unbelievably stressful and can be really all consuming. And you can see how it can lead to things like PTSD, how it can lead to OCD after the fact. Right? Because it's normalized to check the pregnancy test, check the ovulation strips, check this, check that, and then when the baby's here, you don't want to lose it. So you're still checking. I see some women weigh their baby obsessively, or sort of, like, obsessively track the baby's eating, peeing, pooping, like those sort of things. It's hard to let go of that and feel secure. So it's incredibly stressful. And I did really appreciate, even though I didn't love it as a viewer, I really appreciated this being on our screens in such a big way. Right. Like, just a woman going through IVF and just showing how stressful. I really appreciated.Portia Pendleton LCSW: Yeah, I think it's important to highlight because it's common. Having a miscarriage is wildly common. Having infertility issues is common. I think one of the biggest. What would I say, like, supports or positive reinforcers of this experience is having a support system, which I feel like she didn't have.Dr. Katrina Furey MD: Her husband.Portia Pendleton LCSW: Her husband got worse over the season with, just, like, me being really suspicious of what was actually going on. Especially within the last episode with the conversation with his mom and her kind of coming in. So I initially kind of liked him and then I was like, what is.Dr. Katrina Furey MD: She's like, Anna Victoria has been targeted. I feel like there was this evil plot all along and they're choosing her because she's like this famous actress to somehow have this baby. They're going to make a black crow or something weird and evil. But I didn't find her husband to be that great.Portia Pendleton LCSW: No. And I think it's hard because I guess you could look at it from two sides. All the stuff that's happening to her from just a black and white on paper perspective seems a little outlandish. Or all of a sudden all this stuff is happening. So it's like, as her paranoia is growing, but it's like you either believe her or you don't. And if you believe her, you're in on the plot that something nefarious is going on and all of this is happening and it's real and she needs to be protected at all costs. And if you don't believe her, she's going crazy. Right? She is, but you're dismissing her and invalidating her and making things worse. Can you maybe speak to, does this happen within pregnancy or IVF due to.Dr. Katrina Furey MD: The hormones and stuff?Portia Pendleton LCSW: Like, do people become paranoid? How does this play out in real life?Dr. Katrina Furey MD: So, no, I was so annoyed. But yet I think it's actually a good depiction because I feel like people say this to women overall. Like, oh, it's your hormones. Even like PMS. Right. We just so invalidate women's experience by chalking it up to hormones. And yet at the same time, it's like, okay, you're not acknowledging, like, yeah, these hormones actually do have an effect. So help me out here. Which is so infuriating, but women are most likely to experience a mental health situation or a mental health challenge during their childbearing years. And why is that? We know that in men, they…

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