Story Time - A Beautiful Mind - A movie of 2001 - Psychiatry drugs are dangerous...

In the 2001 film A Beautiful Mind, John Nash (played by Russell Crowe) initially resists psychiatric treatment, viewing his delusions as real. After involuntary hospitalization, he undergoes insulin shock therapy (a now-discredited 1950s treatment) and starts antipsychotic medication, but he soon stops taking the pills because they dull his intellect and emotional capacity—he complains they make him feel "foggy" and hinder his mathematical work.

Later in the movie, after a relapse, Nash decides to manage his schizophrenia without resuming medication. He learns to rationally acknowledge and ignore his hallucinations (e.g., realizing the imaginary girl never ages), allowing him to return to work and achieve recognition, including the Nobel Prize. The film portrays medication as helpful initially but not the ultimate cure; Nash's recovery comes through personal willpower, insight, and support from his wife.

The movie takes significant liberties with reality. In real life, John Nash was hospitalized multiple times in the 1950s–1960s, received insulin shock therapy (which he described as torturous), and took early antipsychotics (like Thorazine and Stelazine) under pressure. 

In real life, he stopped all medication in 1970, refusing it thereafter because of severe side effects that blunted his thinking. His symptoms gradually remitted in his later years (starting in his 50s–60s), which he attributed to aging and rational rejection of delusional thinking, not drugs. Nash recovered without ongoing psychiatric drugs.

Here is a comparison of Nash's Reel Life vs Real Life vis-a-vis psychiatry medicines.

Feature	The Movie (Reel)	The Real Life
Hospitalization	Depicts one primary, traumatic stay.	He was hospitalized multiple times over several decades (McLean, Trenton Psychiatric, etc.).
Insulin Shock	Shown as a brutal, one-time "cure" attempt.	He underwent Insulin Coma Therapy (inducing comas with insulin) which was common in the 50s but eventually abandoned.
Medication	Suggests he took "newer" drugs in 1994.	Nash actually stopped taking all psychiatric medication around 1970.
Method of Recovery	He "decides" to ignore the hallucinations.	He described a gradual "remission of the mind," where he essentially chose to stop entertaining the irrational thoughts through sheer intellectual effort.

In the context of Bharat, we will have exponential rise of mental health issues with omnipresent wireless technology, increase in number of mobile towers, the proliferation of 5G, toxic work culture in many companies, corporate slavery, the irrelevance of degree and higher education offered by many colleges, outsourcing of kitchen to Zomato or Swiggy and both working parents with their kids being raised in creche.

It's time for waking up...