Best movies like Louis Theroux: America's Medicated Kids

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Louis Theroux: America's Medicated Kids Starring Louis Theroux, and more. If you liked Louis Theroux: America's Medicated Kids then you may also like: Veronika Decides to Die, Vincent & Theo, Welcome to Me, The Wild Country, On the Edge of Innocence and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.

Faced with the challenging behaviour of their kids, more and more parents in America are turning to psychoactive medication to help them cope, even though the drugs, and sometimes the diagnoses, remain controversial. Louis travels to one of America's leading children's psychiatric treatment centres, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to get to know the diagnosed children and hoping to understand what drives parents to put their kids on drugs.

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Veronika Decides to Die

After a frantic suicide attempt, Veronika awakens inside a mysterious mental asylum. Under the supervision of an unorthodox psychiatrist who specializes in controversial treatment, Veronika learns that she has only weeks to live.

Vincent & Theo

The tragic story of Vincent van Gogh broadened by focusing as well on his brother Theodore, who helped support Vincent. Based on the letters written between the two.

Welcome to Me

A year in the life of Alice Klieg, a woman with Borderline personality disorder who wins the Mega Millions lottery, quits her meds and buys her own talk show.

The Wild Country

Uprooted from their comfortable home in Pennsylvania, James and Kate Tanner, along with their sons, Virgil and Andy, journey to the wild country of 1890s Wyoming to become farmers. Soon, they come face-to-face with tornadoes, bears and wolves. But through the hardships their love for each other endures, even when a local rancher sees the newcomers as "squatters" on his land, and will stop at nothing – including murder – to drive them out.

On the Edge of Innocence

Teenage Zoe Tyler suffers from manic-depression. With a musician father who is never around life seems hard. Zoe eventually lands up in a psychiatric ward for treatment. There she meets Jake, an unstable teenager with an anger problem. They fall in love and are soon separated by their doctors, psychiatrists and parents. Fuming, Jake suddenly sees a chance for escape and takes Zoe with him, along with a few other patients. After a trip around the country, Jake and Zoe must face up to their illness and their crime.

Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy

A pharmaceutical scientist creates a pill that makes people remember their happiest memory, and although it's successful, it has unfortunate side effects.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter

During a blizzard in 1964, Dr. David Henry delivers his son Paul with the help of nurse Caroline. But when Henry realizes his wife is also carrying a girl with Down syndrome, he hands the second child over to Caroline without his wife's knowledge. Henry's fateful decision yields grave consequences for his family over the next 20 years.

Framed for Murder

When a woman falsely accused of murdering her husband is released from prison after 8 years, she hires a private investigator, determined to find out who framed her. What she doesn't know, is that the killer is about to do it again.

Call Me Crazy: A Five Film

A psychotherapist helps a law student cope with schizophrenia in one of five interconnected tales dealing with mental illness.

Cured

Mentally ill. Deviant. Diseased. And in need of a cure. These were among the terms psychiatrists used to describe gay women and men in the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s. And as long as they were “sick”, progress toward equality was impossible. This documentary chronicles the battle waged by a small group of activists who declared war against a formidable institution – and won a crucial victory in the modern movement for LGBTQIA+ equality.

Family Life

A young woman, Janice, is living with her restrictive and conservative parents, who lead a dull working-class life and consider their daughter to be “misbehaving” whenever she’s trying to find her own way in life.

Side Effects

A woman turns to prescription medication as a way of handling her anxiety concerning her husband's upcoming release from prison.

The Devil and Daniel Johnston

This 2005 documentary film chronicles the life of Daniel Johnston, a manic-depressive genius singer/songwriter/artist, from childhood up to the present, with an emphasis on his mental illness and how it manifested itself in demonic self-obsession.

Mad Love

Matt falls for Casey, the new girl in school. She's fun-loving and eccentric, but there's a darkness to her whimsy that Matt can't begin to comprehend. When Casey attempts to commit suicide, her parents place her in a mental institution. Matt springs her out, and together the young lovers head on a road trip. They believe their love can "cure" Casey's problems. Matt starts to wonder, though, if are they inspired or misguided.

Thumbsucker

Justin Cobb, a teenager in suburban Oregon, copes with his thumb-sucking problem, romance, and his diagnosis with ADHD and subsequent experience using Ritalin.

What About ME?

Inside the dramatic search for a cure to ME/CFS (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome). 17 million people around the world suffer from what ME/CFS has been known as a mystery illness, delegated to the psychological realm, until now. A scientist in the only neuro immune institute in the world may have come up with the answer. An important human drama, plays out on the quest for the truth.

Helen

On the outside, Helen has it all – a loving family and a successful career – but when her suppressed mental illness resurfaces, the world crumbles around her. Crippled by depression, Helen finds solace through her friendship with Mathilda, a kindred spirit struggling with bipolar disorder.

Madhouse

A young psychiatric intern unearths secrets about the mental health facility in which he works.

Manic

Follows the fate of Lyle, a violent adolescent who, in lieu of prison, is placed in a juvenile mental institution where he encounters a group of equally troubled teens. This motley crew - abused, sexually confused, violent, and yet hanging on by their grit and anger - becomes Lyle's last lifeline as he fights to find meaning in a world that seems to defy understanding.

Death Saved My Life

On the surface it seems Jade has it all, including a successful marketing career, a heart surgeon husband who is admired and respected in the community, and a young daughter they both dote on. However, behind closed doors, her life is far from perfect.

Silver Linings Playbook

After spending eight months in a mental institution, a former teacher moves back in with his parents and tries to reconcile with his ex-wife.

Sylvia

Story of the relationship between the poets Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath.

To Write Love on Her Arms

The story follows 19-year-old Renee who has always loved fairy tales: the idea of a princess, a hero and a happily ever after. But Renee’s life is that of a darker tale: she’s a young woman battling addiction, depression and self-injury. In a creative blend of artistic fantasy balanced with harsh reality, the movie follows Renee on her courageous journey towards recovery.

The Living and the Dead

A descent into Hell is triggered when "Ex-Lord" Donald Brocklebank finds that he must leave Longleigh House for London to find a way to pay for the medical treatments for his wife Nancy. Alone, his over-protected, delusional, adult son, James, fancies himself in charge of the manor house with his terminally ill mother, and barricades the two of them into the house.

Infinitely Polar Bear

A manic-depressive mess of a father tries to win back his wife by attempting to take full responsibility of their two young, spirited daughters, who don't make the overwhelming task any easier.

Inside the Rain

Facing expulsion from college over a misunderstanding, a bipolar student indulges his misery at a strip club where he befriends a gorgeous, intelligent, outrageous woman and they hatch a madcap scheme to prove his innocence.

Children of Darkness

A significant number of American children and teenagers - from all social backgrounds - suffer from mental disorders, schizophrenia, autism and emotional problems, leading them to isolation from society while treating their issues in mental health facilities. But there's no end in sight for those young individuals when they face obstacles and mistreatment in inadequate places under the supervision of careless and inexperienced professionals. The documentary follows some of those public mental institutions and another private center dealing with troubled kids and reveals what's wrong with their procedures, and the irreparable harm they cause in those patients.

All She Ever Wanted

The Stockmans are the perfect couple...young, successful, and deeply in love...but they have one problem: They want children. Since Rachel suffers from severe bi-polar disorder that has to be controlled by lithium, she can't risk getting pregnant. But because of her mental health history, they are bad candidates for adoption. Finally Rachel gives up on the system, and does things her own way...she goes off her drugs and gets pregnant. The ensuing nine months get worse and worse for the young woman, as there are legal battles to end her pregnancy in order to force her back on the drug.

The Ultimate Playlist of Noise

After learning he must undergo brain surgery that will render him deaf, Marcus, an audio-obsessed high school senior, decides to seize control of his fate by recording the Ultimate Playlist of Noise — a bucket list of all his favorite sounds.

A Dark Place

When a young boy turns up dead in a sleepy Pennsylvania town, a local sanitation truck driver, Donald, plays detective, embarking on a precarious and obsessive investigation to prove the boy was murdered.

The Year Between

Inspired by true events, college sophomore Clemence Miller is coming home to the suburbs and a bedroom in her family's basement. After dropping out of school with a newly diagnosed mental illness, she now faces the challenges of bipolar disorder, the responsibilities of adulthood, and her damaged relationships with family and friends. Clemence struggles to figure out what it means to heal without driving everyone around her… well, crazy .As if reckoning with everything and everyone she has taken for granted wasn’t enough, Clemence has to wrestle with the thought that on top of it all, she might also just have a really bad personality.

The Other Tom

Elena is a single mother dependant on Social Services. Her son Tom has behaviour issues and is stigmatised at school as a "problem child". An absent father further complicates their difficult relationship. Tom is diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and given psychiatric medication, but a strange accident alerts his mother as to their side effects. When she refuses to continue administering the drugs to him, Social Services threaten to take Tom from her.

Bipolar

When Harry Poole tries out a new medication for Bipolar Disorder, he is reborn as "Edward Grey", a seductive but dangerous alter ego who dramatically takes over his life, changing the young man and those around him forever.

Fugitive Lovers

In a hopeful effort to evade gangster Legs Caffey, chorus girl Letty Morris hops a bus in New York bound for Los Angeles--with Legs close on her heels. Along the way the bus picks up escaped convict Paul Porter, who quickly allies himself with Letty. With the police in hot pursuit and Legs monitoring his every move with Letty, Paul is running out of both time and ideas.

Crazywise

Western culture treats mental disorders primarily through biomedical psychiatry, but filmmakers Phil Borges and Kevin Tomlinson reveal a growing movement of professionals and survivors who are forging alternative treatments that focus on recovery and turning mental “illness” into a positive transformative experience.

The Pittsburgh Kid

Unable to sign boxer Joe Louis to movie contract, Republic Pictures had to make do with the losers of Louis' heavyweight championship bouts. One of these was Billy Conn, who after being knocked out by Louis in the 13th round awakened to star in the Republic programmer The Pittsburgh Kid. The story finds clean-limned pugilist Conn (playing himself) being managed by pretty Patricia Mallory.

Vivien Leigh: Scarlett and Beyond

The life and career of two-time Oscar winner Vivien Leigh, who battled tuberculosis and manic-depression but always remained a star.

Behind Locked Doors

Behind the locked doors of a mental institution resides crooked politico Judge Drake, free from prosecution so long as he pretends to be crazy. To get the goods on Drake, private detective Ross Stewart has himself committed to the asylum as a patient. Meanwhile, reporter Kathy Lawrence, posing as Stewart's wife, acts as his liaison to the outside world.

Willowbrook: The Last Great Disgrace

A shocking exposé of the deplorable conditions and abuses from the Willowbrook State School for children with intellectual disabilities.

Louis Theroux: A Place for Paedophiles

Louis has gained access to Coalinga Mental Hospital in California, which houses more than 500 of the most disturbed criminals in America, convicted paedophiles. Most have already served lengthy prison sentences, but have been deemed unsafe for release. Instead, they have been sent here for an indefinite time. Spending time with those undergoing treatment, Louis wrestles with whether he can ever allow himself to believe men whose whole history is defined by deception and deceit.

The Not So Secret Life of the Manic Depressive: 10 Years On

Ten years ago, in an award-winning series, Stephen Fry first spoke about living with manic depression and began a national conversation about mental health. A decade later, we return to the subject to understand where he and thousands of others diagnosed with bipolar (as it is now called) are now.

Depression: Out of the Shadows

This PBS documentary explores depression, a debilitating disease that affects millions of Americans. Touching the lives of people from diverse backgrounds, depression still carries a stigma that causes some sufferers to go without treatment. Real people with depression talk about their experiences, and scientists offer commentary to shed light on the disease, including its diagnosis, treatment and current research.

Jon Richardson: A Little Bit OCD

Jon Richardson investigates OCD. Is he simply a demanding perfectionist or does he have obsessive compulsive disorder?

Manifest West

A coming of age story told through the eyes of a young girl whose family spirals out of control after they decide to live off the grid.

Mr. Jones

The story about the relationship between a manic depressive man, Mr Jones, and the female doctor who takes more than a professional interest in his treatment.

Touched with Fire

Two young poets with bipolar disorder begin a highly passionate, volatile relationship that threatens both their futures.

Faith

A devout Evangelical Christian struggles with his faith and against the insistent pressures from his family and community after a sudden and unexpected tragedy.

The Beautiful Risk

William, a respected artist who lost everything after his divorce, arrives in Montreal on a job prospect. When the job falls through he then is saved and forms an erotic friendship and exposes his soul with a young woman named Paulette.

Rats

The Brookedale Psychiatric Hospital is a crumbling institution which barely has enough money to remain open. Formerly a prison, it sits atop a warren of tunnels and sewage system viaducts. But Brookdale has a secret - a secret known by only one person. There's something living in the tunnels - something that's developed a taste for human blood...

Jellysmoke

After being released from a psychiatric ward, a young man attempts to lead a normal life.

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