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Health

How watching horror films can actually help some people manage their anxiety

Seems counterintuitive, doesn't it?

Photo by Nong V on Unsplash

Some people who struggle with anxiety find relief in scary movies.

The idea that watching "The Shining" or "Psycho" or "The Invisible Man" could make you less anxious might sound backward. Anxiety is basically fear, after all—how could making yourself afraid on purpose by watching a horror movie possibly help? Scare yourself to be less scared? Doesn't make sense.

Or does it?

One of the first things my daughter's therapist said when she started phobia treatment was that anxiety thrives on avoidance. The more you try to avoid what scares you, the stronger the anxiety over it becomes.

That concept forms the basis of exposure therapy, which can be an effective way of overcoming clinical fears. Instead of avoiding things that make you anxious, exposure therapy involves approaching what scares you step by step, little by little and processing your fear at each step. Eventually, your tolerance builds up and those fears become greatly diminished.

Watching horror films as an anxiety management tool isn't for everyone, but for those it helps, it can function as a form of exposure therapy. Basically, by putting yourself in a scary situation—but one that isn't truly dangerous and that has a defined time frame—you give yourself a place to practice managing your fear.

Jocelyn McDonnell, a therapist at The Family Institute at Northwestern University, told HuffPost that horror films can be a useful tool for therapists to help clients learn to tolerate and manage the physical sensations of anxiety, such as a racing heart, sweating and heavy breathing.

“A client could see that even though their heart is racing, and their muscles are tight during the movie, they really aren’t in any danger,” McDonnell said. “This realization could help them in future situations in which physical sensations of anxiety are present, because they could remember that even though their bodies are preparing for possible danger, it is likely just a false alarm.”

Kurt Oaklee, MA, MFT, founder of Oaklee Psychotherapy in San Francisco, explained to Healthline how watching horror can help us learn to cope with stress.

“[Horror] can actually teach us how to handle real-world stress better,” Oaklee said. “During a stressful film, we are intentionally exposing ourselves to anxiety producing stimuli. We usually don’t engage in the same unhealthy coping mechanisms that we utilize in real life. We learn how to manage the stress in the moment. This practice can translate to helping us manage everyday stressors and fears.”

(On a related note, a study published in January 2021 found that horror fans exhibited greater resilience during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Perhaps the exposure to stress in scary movies helped prepare them for the horror of a once-in-a-century global viral outbreak.)

There are other theories on why watching horror can provide relief from anxiety for some people, such as the post-adrenaline letdown that leads to relaxation, the sense of control a person has over the scary movie and even the realization that whatever the person is afraid of in real life isn't as terrifying as what's in the film.

Some people, of course, do not find any relief from horror movies and may actually find them more anxiety-producing. While some people with anxiety find horror helpful, people with anxiety are more likely than the general population to respond negatively to horror films, so it's wise to do what feels right for you and discuss the idea with a therapist if you're unsure.

Therapists may not be regularly assigning horror flicks to their clients as direct treatment at this point, but there has been an increase in research and exploration of horror's potentially therapeutic applications in the mental health world. The weekly podcast "Psychoanalysis: A Horror Therapy Podcast," co-hosted by a licensed therapist, looks at mental health through the lens of horror. There's even a full-length documentary on this subject, "Mental Health and Horror: A Documentary," that's currently in production. And there are many books and articles that delve into how horror can help people with certain mental health conditions.

Scary movies may not be for everyone, but they surprisingly might be right for people who already do daily battle with their own fears.

From Your Site Articles

anxiety management

Mental Health

Why therapists are sounding the alarm on big box therapy companies

Photo by Nik Shuliahin on Unsplash

A greater demand for therapy is putting strain on therapists and creating avenues that might not be all they seem.

Given the state of the world we have all been living in for the last two-plus years, it’s no surprise that therapists are in high demand right now, and have been throughout the pandemic. Many therapists have long waiting lists and are taking on more clients than they normally would just to meet the need. New private practices are opening frequently to provide quality mental health care that people so desperately need in these (still) unprecedented times. But something else is happening simultaneously. Large tech companies have cropped up promising mental health care, and even promising to get patients in with a same-day appointments. On the surface, this seems like it should be a good thing. After all, these companies are helping to meet the growing and overwhelming demand for mental health care, so we should make room for them, right? At least that’s what most would think.

I’ve been in the mental health field since 2006, and have been in and around mental health from a professional standpoint, and therapists have been raising concerns about these large platforms for quite a while. In fact, one therapist made it his mission to show his followers on TikTok what the fine print of one mental health platform’s terms and conditions said. Viewers were shocked to hear, and read, as the therapist pulled the information from the company's actual website in real time, that clients' information was being sold to third parties for advertising purposes. This wasn’t hidden in microscopic print, it was there within the terms and conditions in plain print. But some companies bank on consumers not reading the terms of their agreement. Many people will quickly scroll through to get to the bottom of the long legal information and click the button to simply move to the next part of the process.

This therapist did the reading for you in an effort to honor his professional ethical code and protect clients. The company fought back against the claims and changed the language, all very publicly on TikTok, but it was only the language that changed, not the terms. When the therapist pointed this out, the company continued to publicly feud with the therapist on the social platform.

Now, at this point you may be wondering why I’m not using this therapist’s name, telling you where to find him and calling out this platform. It’s because when the company continued to mislead its consumers and continued to have its feet held to the fire by this ridiculously brave therapist, the mega large platform sent a cease and desist with the threat to sue this small private practice owner. It forced the therapist to remove any trace of anything unappealing he had said about this company, and he is no longer permitted to discuss the disturbing things he uncovered.

As a therapist, I feel a duty to protect this other therapist from any further threat that may come from this mega company, and to do so, allow him to remain as anonymous as possible. Nevertheless, it feels important to reveal the lengths to which one of these companies is willing to go to keep consumers in the dark about its fine print items. Therapists have an ethical obligation to protect their clients from exploitation, and it would absolutely violate ethical codes to sell client data.

When you meet with a licensed therapist your information is protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which means we could get into trouble with our licensing boards and in some cases, depending on the level of breach, it could be criminal. Big box therapy companies seem to have found a loophole around this as the companies may not be billed as “therapy” but as lay counseling services, which is something anyone with life experience can do. A therapist who runs the YouTube account Private Practice Skills discusses this and why she was not comfortable putting her license on the line for a company that may not be bound by HIPAA. Privacy is a huge deal in the therapeutic relationship and you won’t find too many therapists willing to risk the privacy of their clients for any amount of money.

Money brings me to my next point. Many of these big box therapy companies such as Talkspace, BetterHelp, Happier Living, and so on, pay their therapists poorly. They seem to prey on therapists who have just recently earned their licenses and want to work for themselves, but may not know how to. Companies like these use the 1099 model to give therapists a sense of autonomy over their schedules, but in the case of at least one of these companies, therapists have had their pay affected by not responding to client’s texts in the middle of the night due to an arbitrary timeline the company has enforced. Let me be clear, the expectation to be readily available to your clients at all times is unrealistic and damaging to the client and the therapeutic relationship.

Bonus ranges for client retention.

TalkSpace therapist FAQ section

Therapists teach their clients skills that they are supposed to learn to utilize in between sessions with the hope that eventually they will not need a therapist to continually reinforce these skills as they will become a reflex. When a client is given access to a therapist whenever they would like between sessions it creates a reliance on the therapist to be an emotional barometer and regulator, which is not what a therapist is for. Most therapists’ ultimate goal is to work themselves out of a job. They want their clients to get to a point where they no longer need them. That’s a good thing. We welcome you back should something change, or we offer maintenance sessions on a spread-out basis like once a month or every six weeks until the client is feeling confident enough to be without a therapist.

Some of these platforms build dependency and often their policies go up against a therapist's professional ethics. One of these companies offers a bonus for client retention. Meaning if the client stays longer than what may be therapeutically necessary, then the therapist gets a monetary bonus. Does this mean all clients that stay long-term with this company don’t need the therapy? No. It means that some therapists may feel pressured to retain clients who are ready to discharge in order to receive a bonus.

The pay is so low for a licensed therapist in this situation that unless you see 30 to 40 clients a week, you're not making enough to make ends meet and pay off student loans. Seeing this many clients a week doesn’t leave room for administrative tasks that are required, and in a setup like these companies it is likely to be unpaid time. For every client, you have to have a treatment plan completed at the start of therapy and progress notes after every session. If they’re only being paid for the client contact, when are therapists supposed to do these tasks? There’s also finding resources to use in sessions, looking for assessments or referral sources, and other behind-the-scenes tasks that clients know very little about.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

I interviewed with one of these companies and declined the offer after explaining the ethical dilemma it would put me in, and the inevitable burnout I would experience. This particular company wanted its therapists to see 12 clients a day with a 30-minute lunch break. The average therapist in private practice sees between five and six clients per day. Some therapists choose to see up to 8 or 9 a day, but they are few and far between. The therapists that do choose that greater load, usually do so in order to take a day or two off during the work week. Twelve clients a day averages out to 60 clients a week, which is even more than some of the other platforms require to be considered full time.

When I made the company aware of ethical concerns due to the sheer volume of clients they were expecting therapists to see, I was contacted by the VP of the company. I again explained the concern, and while at first they sounded empathetic, the tone changed to indifferent and the call ended with no resolution. I’m still listed on the site as a therapist, which I discovered recently, though I’ve never been employed by them.

There is really so much more to dive into, and I could write a book about the concerns raised by licensed therapists about these big-box therapy companies, but the key takeaway is if you need mental health care it’s best to find a therapist in private practice. When money is an issue, many therapists offer sliding scale fees to make it affordable and some even offer pro bono spots. You can find therapists offering reduced rate fees on Open Path Psychotherapy Collective.

If virtual therapy is preferable to you due to time constraints, many therapists are now offering virtual therapy as an option. If you still can’t find a therapist, there is no shame in using one of these platforms because most employ licensed therapists and your mental health is our number one priority. One can understand the appeal and affordability of these large platforms and it's important to do whatever you can to look after your well-being. Just be sure to read the fine print.

From Your Site Articles

Will you swear with Gillian Anderson to help support mental health in young people?

Now's the time to swear your support for mental health.

Before she was chasing aliens on "The X-Files" and fighting for equal pay in Hollywood, Gillian Anderson was a self-described "confident f*ck-up."

She was 11 when her family moved from London to Grand Rapids, Michigan — a move that left her feeling lost and alone. As a result, she rebelled as teenager: She acted out, did drugs, and got into all kinds of trouble.

When she went into therapy, however, everything changed. "[Therapy] started a different path for me, and all the energy I was putting into self-destruction and ‘poor me, and nobody understands me’, I started to funnel into what I was going to do with my life," she told The Guardian.

Today, Anderson is a successful actress, writer, producer, and director who believes it's vital to start tackling mental illness and mental health at a young age.

Photo by Earl Gibson/Getty Images.

That's why she's pledged her support to MQ — a nonprofit organization working to improve mental health awareness and treatment for young people.

— (@)

1 out of every 4 to 5 young people meet the criteria for a mental health disorder that will affect them their entire lives. 8.1% of young people ages 12 to 17 will have at least one depressive episode, and 13.8% ages 10 to 24 will seriously consider suicide.

Despite these statistics, mental heath research has remained underfunded and under-prioritized. MQ is determined to do something about that.

MQ's mission is "to create a world where mental illness is understood, effectively treated, and ultimately prevented." The first step on that path is awareness.

And what better way to raise awareness than a bunch of celebrities swearing their support by actually, literally swearing it?

— (@)

It may be a bit vulgar, but it got your attention, didn't it?

While it's great that more and more celebrities are opening up about their own experiences with mental illness and mental health treatment, celebrity stories like Gillian Anderson's are the tip of the iceberg.

MQ also shares the stories of everyday people to show just how difficult getting mental health treatment can be — and how dramatically people's lives improve with the right treatment. In this Facebook post, Kirsty shares her story of enduring 10 years of experimental treatment before doctors realized she was bipolar and put her on an effective treatment plan. It's a story that is all too common.

Kirsty started self-harming when she was just 11 years old. She tells us her personal story of mental illness and why research brings her hope: https://bit.ly/KirstyStoryMQ
Posted by MQ: Transforming mental health on Tuesday, December 13, 2016

With the Affordable Care Act on the line, there could not be a more pressing time to fight for mental health support, services, and care. Find out more about MQ's work and take the pledge yourself here.

Family

How a simple blood test could improve life for more than half of depression patients.

If you've tried antidepressants to treat your depression, you probably already know this, but finding the right one can be a trial.

There are many different antidepressants out there today, and each works differently. Photo from Joe Raedle/Getty Images.

About 1 in 5 Americans will experience major depression during their lifetime. Antidepressant medication, either alone or in combination with things like cognitive behavior therapy or exercise, can be a powerful tool to help people live with depression — if it works.

Unfortunately, the go-to antidepressants don't work for more than half of the people who try them.

And about a third of all patients never find their perfect fit. This lack of response to the medication isn't anyone's fault — our bodies just work differently. But if you're looking to get help and worry about finding the right medication, a pretty amazing new tool could help.

If you've gone through this, you know the trial and error process can be physically, mentally, and emotionally taxing. It can mean weeks or months of wondering what each new thought means: whether those couple of sleepless nights are a new side effect or just run-of-the-mill insomnia; whether the medication is having any effect at all.

Is this a side effect or just restlessness? At 3 a.m., the line can be hard to see. Image from iStock.

Wouldn't it be awesome if we could skip some of that trial and error?

That's what a group of researchers in England is working on. Their research was just published in The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology.

Their idea is a premedication blood test that would help find the right medication faster.

Image from iStock.

Over the past few years, scientists have been figuring out more and more about how depression affects our bodies. This new blood test measures the level of two biomarkers — or chemical signals — that have previously been linked to poor medication responses.

What they found is that different people had different levels of these biomarkers. If you were above a certain threshold, you had a 99% chance that the go-to meds wouldn't work for you. With this test, these people could save the time they would have spent in the past trying meds that would never work for them to begin with.

This new test could help more than half of the people who suffer from depression jump weeks — or even months — ahead in their treatment.

Image from iStock.

It's not a crystal ball — patients and psychiatrists would still need to work together to figure out the specifics — but instead a frustrating period of trial and error, some patients could skip straight to different medications, combinations, or non-medication-based treatments altogether.

This might sound like a simple thing, but if you've gone through those weeks of trial and error yourself, you know how much a relief this would be.

Brian Dow of the nonprofit Rethink Mental Illness was reported by The Independent as saying, "We hope this new research creates a much needed shortcut to a future where it's no longer luck of the draw when it comes to vital medication."

The next step is to take this from proof-of-concept to clinical trial.

Now that the science seems to back up the idea, the next step for scientists is to actually try it out in a clinical setting and see if it truly does work better than current methods.

In the future, treating depression could become easier and faster, helping people avoid the hassle of trial and error and letting them focus on the most important thing: getting healthy.