Next to Normal Coming to Broadway!! — Page 7

Like she says toward the end, the problem is more in her SOUL than anywhere else. So she first has to work through that, and she can't necessarily work through it if she's on a million different kinds of medications and treatments.

Wow. What a completely ignorant statement.

Sorry, that was kind of repetitive of what I said before, but it really is true I think. If you just look at it as a plain case of bipolar disorder, I think you're kind of missing the underlying message of the show, which is that sometimes you need to be able to feel what's real before you jump to being medicated, even if what's real is painful.

Being on medication is what helps people suffering with bipolar disorder feel "real."

Let me draw a comparison to a PHYSICAL illness with this mental illness, and you can tell me how you feel about it.

Let's say someone is diagnosed with cancer (a physical medical illness) and their doctor tells them they need to start chemotherapy and radiation immediately in order to successfully treat their illness.

The patient says, "I'm not going to jump right to chemotherapy and radiation. I need to treat my SOUL first. I need to feel REAL with this tumor being a PART of who I am."

What do you think would happen to that patient?

A mental illness is the same as a physical illness. They are both medical. The difference is that with the physical illness, you can SEE the illness (whether it be a tumor or a scrape on the knee).

The stigma associated with mental illness in our society is such that you don't NEED medication to treat your illness the way you would with a physical illness, because you can't SEE the illness.

But the truth is that the illness is JUST as real as a physical one, and it needs to be treated with medication in order to save the patient's life, just the way the chemotherapy and radiation would save the cancer patient's life.

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AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH GUYS I AM SO EXCITED

I think the issue is sort of a middle ground; yes, mental illness is an illness that often needs to be treated with medication. BUT I think the whole thing about the scar being in the "soul" speaks to the idea that it's not always the end-all solution to just treat the chemical imbalance and cover up the problem with drugs. You can't always kick it with drugs alone -- because if there's an event or an issue that triggered the problem, then that does need to be dealt with, too.

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Can someone talented make an amazing tshirt on cafepress right now? for real.

David Stone said the Balcony would be closed off at the Longacre for NTN. It will be limited to about 800 seats to make it more intimate. That means Orchestra and Mezz.
Should be very nice. Heard big improvements were done to make NTN really worth seeing on Broadway.

Alright first off let me start by saying WOOOH!!!! I am so pumped that this is getting a chance on Broadway! I have been routing for this show since i heard the demo of sherie and norbert!

Anyways.... I just read through this entire thread and have a few things i would like to say.

First off, the comparison between mental illness and physical illness was understandable but i don’t know how accurate it really is. I mean i definitely agree with the idea that medication is an excellent solution to physical illnesses, a cancer patient can not rely on a good support system alone to get through their illness but that is where it can be slightly different from mental illness. With the help of intensive therapy sessions one can understand a method of coping with the illness at hand. I do understand that this is not the sole solution but it is an alternative. I personally believe that as Dr. Madden suggests "Psychotherapy and medication work best in tandem" saying that the two options work best together. There is not really a therapeutic solution to cancer, one must rely on the medications available.

***SPOILERS***

Ok anyway…. Back to Next to Normal.

As for Diana’s illness and how it started and what it can be classified as, I do think that it is a difficult thing to pin point. As a lot of others have been saying a person can not just all of a sudden become bipolar with delusional episodes, there has to be a life event and more than likely a genetic predisposition to the disorder. For those of us who know the show we know what the life event that caused the episodes to begin was, and I do believe that there is some genetic component in it. It hasn’t really been mentioned but looking at Natalie’s behavior I think there may be signs that her life may be heading towards some type of mental illness, the ways that she is coping with the situations in her life are probably not the best choices! Oh and the whole genetic component, I don’t know if this is in the Arena version but I know the 2ndStage one during my “psycho pharmacologist and I” when they cut to a flash back of Dan’s 21st birthday and Diana is telling him that they are going helicopter skiing, is it just me or could that have been a version of a manic episode? Or maybe I am just looking too much into this and she was just pumped for his birthday. But if that is what the writers were trying to show it shows that she had the disorder long before the traumatic event!
But it is hard to show how the ups and downs are in her life in just a two hour show, but I truly think that the writers, directors and cast do an incredible job showing how difficult it is to deal with a loved one and their disorder. They show not only how it affects the person suffering the illness, but also their immediate family members (how Natalie has so many issues and is in a way obsessed with perfection so she does not turn out the way her mother did, Dan just wanting the woman he fell in love with back) and even the doctors (when Diana attempts suicide he reads the report and seems so upset, and tries as many alternatives that he can).

***SPOILERS DONE***

Oh and to the person who said that they looked to Diana and followed in her footsteps stopping their medication, I am sorry but what? Why? This is a musical…. This is not based on a true story, it is a highly likely situation but still. How do we know that she didn’t move out and kill herself the next day? Her doctor told her that that was not a good idea. Just saying I think that is kind of ridiculous that people would look to this as a way to get advice for dealing with their illness. I think that they way this musical portrays the way that people and their families cope with mental illnesses is very good but I do think that people should follow the advice given to them by their doctors and not a broadway musical.

Ok clearly I feel a little too strongly about this show…. Soooo sorry for the major ramble and I am sure no one really wants to read any of this!! Haha I just was really thinking about the things that people were saying and wanted to voice my own opinions.

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jordangirl, i definitely see where you are coming from!! And am so glad to hear that you agreed with me!! haha But ya i do understand how it would be difficult to get that point across in such a quick little snipet, but i did think that it added something to it!

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Cheno, I know that you love the show and you sound like a nice person, but Foster is RIGHT on all counts, and perhaps, they should have made the mom in N2N suffer from post-traumatic disorder instead of making it into a manic-depressive mishmash. Please read about bipolar before you suggest that maybe intensive therapy is enough, because this is NOT true, medication is essential. As much as I like this show, the misinformation about bipolar disorder in this thread (stated as opinion, when it's really science at this point) is really upsetting to me, because many people I love suffer from this. Honestly, at this point in time, the suggestion that there's a mind-over-matter approach to this illness reminds me of how, fifty years ago, people thought homosexuality was caused by overbearing mothers! Thank God we're way past that point....

Ok sorry to be beating the dead horse but i just wanted to clear something up.

April Saul, (first of all thanks for not being rude its kind of rare on these boards at times) Now in the point that i brought up about mental illnesses being able to be treated with therapy, i was not talking about bipolar disorder. I was just showing another side to someone's argument who said that mental disorders are the same as physical ones and need to be treated with medication! I do know a good amount of information on bipolar (I am a neuropsychology student) and about the neurotransmitter imbalances (like serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine)! but i do know that in some cases (not necessarily bipolar) talking through things with a professional can help! I defininitely realize that some cases are due to chemicals but at the same time some are due to a painful or traumatic event and if a way to cope and understand the event is found i believe that there can be true healing with that rather than with a method of just correcting imbalances, where true healing may never occur. And this is kind of what i think may have been Diana's problem. She never really wanted to try and open up to Dr. Madden. I mean we do see how the medications are definitely on the right path to helping her, and i do believe that she should have stayed on them and then really given the psychotherapy a try. I do definitely believe that the treatment option that she needs is a mixture of both.
I am sorry if this comes off as argumental (not my intentions) and way besides the point, but just wanted to clear my earlier opinion up.

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So the $25 tickets are clearly going to be some sort of rush or lotto.

^uh oh, I'm not liking the odds of starting previews only two weeks after tickets go on sale...

Hope you're right! Also, I was just looking at the telecharge page.

"Tuesday @ 7pm, Wednesday - Friday @ 8pm, Saturday @ 2pm & 8pm, Sunday @ 3pm & 7:30pm

Beginning May 25:
Tuesday @ 7pm, Wednesday - Friday @ 8pm, Saturday @ 2pm & 8pm"

So after May 25th, are they only doing 6 performances a week...? That can't be right.