Awakenings

            What will you do when you have a close family member who suffered with psychological disease? Will you stay away from him/her and send him/her to a hospital without giving any caring and love, or will you stand beside him/her and provide courage and patience when he/she needs? The movie “Awakenings” makes me reflect and question myself, “How much effort do I willing to put in in order to deal with abnormal people, regardless of who the person is?” I started to question myself when I see how determined and enthusiastic the physician in the movie, Dr Malcolm Sayer is in finding the ways to treat and cure his patients. He is unwilling to give up but trying very hard in searching for the method to cure epidemic of encephalitis lethargica, a disease that leads the victims to stay in statue-like state without being able to speak and move, even though his perseverance is being teased by other physicians. After many attempts, he finally finds out that the medicine, L-Dopa (specifically for Parkinson’s disease) could play miracle effect and bring the patients back from “coma” state. Even when the Leonard, the first patient who inhales L-dopa, shows side-effects and signs of relapse, he never gives up but keep doing researches and experiments to find a better solution. Although he fails in the end and all the patients who receive the treatment return back to the “coma” state, he manages to create a miracle for them to wake up and enjoy a short period of normal life. Besides, Leonard’s mother has portrayed a love of a mother towards her son and how selfless she is in taking care of her son who does not respond to her for many years. How strong she is to pass though all these suffering experiences alone, yet still willing to stay positive in hoping her son would recover. The determination and optimism shown by both characters in this life-affirming movie had enlighten me to hold hopes towards life and never abandon any lives even under difficult conditions.

            Moreover, I have learned that we should always treat patients as a human-being, no matter what type of diseases they are suffering with. Leonard in this movie has revealed the longings of a person towards freedom and being treated equally. However, his wishes of being a normal person are being deprived by the doctors as they assumed that he is still not qualified enough to blend himself into the real life which he has missed for many years. To some certain of degrees, I agree with the doctors as he is still under observation and having a walk without the accompaniment of professions could be unsafe as accidents could happen anytime since he has not interaction with people for several years. However, I disagree with the doctors’ ways in treating him as a “dangerous” subject rather than a human-being. They should at least discuss and make agreement with him by allowing him walking outside with someone following him from far. This way would be much appropriate than they strictly reject his request and isolate him from his friends after he shows uncontrollable madness due to the side-effects of the drugs. The action of isolating him also displays people’s cruelty to eliminate perceiving harms when they find out someone could endanger their lives. Everyone in this world should be treated equally. We should not see patients as burdens and look down on them, but in fact, we should provide more cares and respects in order for them to feel that they are as similar as us. 

            “Awakenings” is a very interesting life-affirming movie as it portrays the idea that life does not always have a happy-ending. People in this world will experience difficulties and the unfortunate one will not be able to overcome the obstacles. Life is short and we cannot predict what will happen in the future. To prevent any regrets, we should cherish what we owned and be active in our lives. Besides, this movie displays another part of the world: the life of patients who have been diagnosed with psychological diseases. Some of them lose consciousness and need to spend the rest of their lives staying at the medical hospital, with the visitation of the family members in some periods of time. Some of them who are marked as “dangerous” will be “imprisoned” and guarded in their rooms. All of them are not allowed to interact with the outside world unless they have recovered. These scenes bring me to mind of the prisoners, who are also being locked and wishing for the visitation from the love ones. However, these patients have done nothing wrong but suffered with the diseases. People spend too less patience and empathy on them, but treat them as “highly-danger” creatures. Hopefully this movie could create awareness among people to change their negative mind-set about mind illness patients and provide more care and tolerance towards them.