Cruel Instruction is an amazing depiction of life in residential treatment. I didn't expect anything realistic, nor did I anticipate the excellent cast. As many of us may think, this movie (watched on LMN) was a random find for me on my program guide; I set the DVR and thought it would make a good 'while i'm on the elliptical' movie. It was, but I now want everyone to see it.
The story follows this beautiful young woman who is truly misunderstood. Her learning differences make school nearly impossible, which seems to reduce her self-esteem. Other students pick right up on that feeling, and of course, bully her. She develops crippling anxiety (very authentically, heartbreakingly portrayed by Kelcey M.) and her parents dismiss her as being disengaged with school.
Her school "helpfully" suggests this residential center, a place where she can 'break her bad habits' and also "be surrounded by people just like her!". The parents are fairly decent, with Mom being much more competent than stepdad, who has no idea what mental wellness is. A loving oaf, basically, is what the stepdad is...with a healthy helping of hubris.
Moving on: the movie shows Kayla's journey through the horrors of this correctional-pretending-to-be-therapeutic facility. It's definitely extreme.
As a person who has been in residential mental health treatment before, I found so much to be authentic; however, the extremes were not present in my experience.
In my experience, the measures taken to 'fix' people with mental illness or addictions are draconian, although not all of them are illegal the way that this movie depicts. I truly believe that there is some good to be had in *most* places, but there is so much toxicity, and underhanded sneaky behavior by staff, you just start to feel exactly as Kayla does: convinced that YOU are the problem, and you must have done something wrong along the way to "deserve" to be where you are.
The no-talking-to-family rule is real; the rigidity of ridiculous rules is real; the earning of privileges is real, although in my case, they were legitimately necessary because of the nature of my condition.
The over-extended treatment time? Real and sadly common. The insurance is maxed before one is released, in most cases. In addition, coping skills and positivity can sometimes be amiss. It depends on the care providers; I was fortunate to have an awesome MD on staff, but 95% of the staff otherwise were horribly incompetent.
The more extreme actions of this movie were not experienced in my time; the "obs" room, or the "investment" room; we also did not have to ask permission to cough, but we definitely had the same type of rigid rules. The excuse is "someone along the line abused the privilege of X, so now we cannot have X for anyone." Makes sense, until you realize "X" is using a children's glue stick, or talking together without the 'nanny' in the room. (Some of us are pushing 45 or 50 years old.)
Bottom line: I can't begin to say how wonderfully this movie was made; the young women were phenomenal; the two main girls knocked it out of the atmosphere with realism, and the other cast members were excellent. Camryn Mannheim (sp) is incredibly easy to hate, she did such a good job.
Watch this movie, but be warned it is uncomfortable with some scenes related to both trauma/suicide, and physical violation of the patients.
