7 Posts: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend - An actual diagnosis

Trigger warnings for mentions of suicide and other mental illness.  Spoiler warnings for season  3 of "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend". 

"Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" has been taking a hard look at some of the behavior that gets lauded as kooky in some romantic comedy and what it might mean to be a person who actually does these things.  Season 2 ended with Josh leaving Rebecca at the altar and Rebecca promising revenge and season 3 starts with us learning that Rebecca's initial plans for revenge are, well, they are not great.  After sleeping with Nathan, kidnapping Josh's mom, and then sleeping with Greg's dad after an accidental butt dial, Rebecca realizes she might possibly have ruined everything and goes home to her mom.  In case you couldn't remember where some of Rebecca's bad coping behaviors come from, Rebecca discovers her mom has been drugging her.  Rebecca ultimately overdoses on the medication in an attempt to commit suicide. In the hospital, afterwords, they are able to diagnose her with borderline personality disorder. 

Once Rebecca accepts the diagnosis, she goes all in on being the bestest patient.  I think the show does a really fabulous job of straddling the line between being humorous and yet serious, and I think this season has really tested that.  Rachel's borderline personality disorder is shown as serious, and yet, they also show how some of the tendencies and behaviors are the things that got her through law school and made her successful.  The idea of your strengths also being your weaknesses is often explored in superhero stuff and only played for laughs, haha, that neatfreak, in other shows.  

And, incredibly realistically, Rebecca's diagnosis doesn't solve her problems.  It just gives them context.  

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline has both resources and a hotline with English, Spanish, and hard of hearing options.