Anxiety Has Entered the Chat

Let’s talk about our feelings.

We’ve recently entered a new era of ✨honesty✨ and I don’t know about you, but I am 100% here for it. As a millennial on the cusp of Gen Z, I’ve had the unintentional honor of watching our society shift its view on mental health and how we (as its people) get to respond. We’ve gone from not allowing ourselves to emote at the risk of looking or feeling weak to almost sharing TOO much about our mental health issues. Heck, a lot of us are just finding out that the weird things we thought were normal all our lives are actually symptoms of certain mental illnesses or neurodivergence! Sleeping too much? Having trouble keeping up with your daily tasks? Do you find it hard to be in crowds of people or around loud noises? Did you find that throughout your childhood, you would consistently put things off like packing for college, applying for jobs, or simply cleaning your room and the people around you would call you a procrastinator? And even though you AREN’T doing those things and you’re just sitting on the couch watching TV, your mind is just constantly thinking of that ONE THING you are supposed to be doing, but you don’t know where to start because there are so many different options and all the thoughts just start swirling around in your mind until it eventually just shuts down and you don’t end up doing that one thing you kept putting off? Yeah… Me either… 

My point is that there is such a plethora of information being tossed around the internet and, yes, you shouldn’t believe everything you read, but this information overload seems to (mostly) be intent on one thing: to show that people are not alone in how they feel.

As someone who has been dealt a Life Card™ full of anxiety and depression, I’m no stranger to the importance of understanding my mental health. I have been in and out of therapy since I was a child, but AS a child, I never really understood just how different my mind worked compared to that of an average child. I knew I had anxiety. I could understand that from the panic attacks I would get as soon as I was left alone (I’ve since grown out of that - I def need my alone time now) - it was all being presented physically. Mentally, I couldn’t (or wouldn’t?) understand WHY I was feeling this way, what my triggers would be, OR how I could prevent myself from feeling that way again. I only ended up ignoring everything.

After my childhood therapist helped relieve me of my childhood anxiety, I was able to gracefully live out my teenage years with… even MORE anxiety. I may not have had panic attacks anymore, but looking back now, I certainly still experienced physical anxiety without even knowing what was happening to me. I had stomach aches galore, I felt so nervous all the time, I would barely eat because I didn’t really have an appetite, and the list could go on and on. Again, I didn’t realize at the time that I was even experiencing anxiety. I thought everything I was going through was just a normal thing that all growing kids went through. La la la, nothing wrong here!

A turning point for me was when I went to college because I began listening to music about mental health, I read books about it, and I took a psychology class to understand more, but you know what? None of those compared to the actual mental health awakening I experienced by watching Pixar’s Inside Out.

That’s right. A movie made for literal children opened my eyes probably more than even my therapist could. (I’m now realizing that’s because I’m a VERY visual learner)

I cried twice during that movie: 

1. BingBong… need I say more? 

2. The climax of the entire movie - the part when Joy realizes that Riley NEEDS Sadness to function.

I can’t fully explain why that clicked a light on in my brain, but it did. It changed my entire perspective on how emotions work. 

It's is now 2024 and it's sequel, Inside Out 2, has just been released. You KNOW that I saw it the opening weekend. The introduction to Anxiety in the clip that was premiered during the Superbowl was more than enough confirmation to me that it was going to be just as important as its predecessor and BOY was I right.

Disclaimer: there will be spoilers of Inside Out 2 coming up. If you have not seen the movie yet, I highly suggest watching that first and coming back to our discussion afterward. 🙂

Riley is a teenager now! Yes, I’m well past that point in my life, but it brought back so many memories (cue little, old Nostalgia with her teacup hehe). She’s reaching the age of puberty and we all know what that entails… so it’s no surprise that we are introduced to a new set of emotions: Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment, and Ennui (or boredom).

Riley has just been told by her best friends that they will be attending separate schools the following school year, which is absolutely devastating news for any 13-year-old. They are all attending the same hockey summer camp, but when faced with the decision to spend more time with her best friends or go off on her own to make new friends, we see Anxiety take control. She quickly makes a decision for Riley to go make new friends while Joy argues that’s not what Riley would do, but Anxiety is just thinking about the future. If Riley stays with her best friends instead of making new ones, she won’t have any friends at her new school!

I mean, it’s MAYBE 15 minutes into the movie at this point and I’m already sitting in my theater seat, eating my popcorn, thinking “Huh, is THAT what’s happening in my brain?” 

Eventually, Anxiety decides to completely destroy Riley’s original Sense of Self, which Joy had been so carefully curating, sending it to the Back of the Mind and ultimately taking control of Riley.  Anxiety plans to create a new Sense of Self for Riley so she is prepared for her new school. She uses the whole team in Imagination Land to imagine all of the horrible scenarios that could take place. What if she makes new friends? What if she doesn’t? What if her new friends hate her sense of music? What if they hate her sense of humor? What if she doesn’t wear the right clothes? What if she gets a red streak in her hair like everyone else? What if she doesn’t make the new hockey team?

All of this… just to be prepared for the future.

Anxiety uses these possible scenarios to influence EVERY decision she makes for Riley. Then, those decisions/memories are sent to Riley’s Belief System, which eventually becomes her new Sense of Self. Some of these beliefs include: “If I’m good at hockey, I’ll have friends” or “If I make the high school team, I won’t be lonely”. Before Anxiety’s appearance, Riley’s Belief System sounded more positive and self-assured: “I’m a good person” and “I’m a good friend”.

There was no question!

We, as the viewers, start to see doubt creep its way into Riley’s inner beliefs. She starts to believe that she’s not good enough. We see her start to question her place in the world and the people around her. Anxiety doesn’t see this though, it’s always “What’s next?” or “What can we do better?”. 

The pressure starts to set in regarding Riley’s spot on the high school hockey team when her new friends inform her that the scrimmage at the end of summer camp is somewhat of a tryout in the eyes of the coach. She’s gotta impress or risk not making the team and, therefore, not having any friends in high school.

What does that mean? Practice, practice, practice. Anxiety makes the decision for Riley to choose practice over sleep - making her wake up before everyone else to run drills. She has to prove herself or it could mean the end of her dreams. 

Or so Anxiety thinks… 

During the final scrimmage, we see Riley refuse to give up control. She doesn’t include her teammates in certain plays, she hogs the puck and she ultimately earns a penalty when she bodyslams her best friend during a play. This is when things start to unravel for Anxiety.

In her panic to regain control, Anxiety creates a physical whirlwind while she is racing around the control console in Riley’s mind. And we see Riley, sitting on the bench of the penalty box, having an anxiety attack in the form of shallow breathing, gasping for air, clutching at her chest, etc. Joy sees everything unraveling and makes the brave decision to fight her way into the whirlwind that Anxiety has created. Once she reaches the center, we see Anxiety clutching the control switches - frozen. As Joy tries to get her to let go, Anxiety says “I'm sorry, I was just trying to protect Riley”.

And that’s just it, right? Those of us who experience anxiety are literally just trying to protect ourselves from the unknown. But it becomes our detriment if we ONLY listen to our anxiety.

In the end, Joy calms Anxiety enough to stop the crazy whirlwind and Riley finally catches her breath. However, we see a light start to emanate from Joy at this moment and Sadness is the one to point out that Riley wants her. She takes control once more and Riley has a breakthrough - apologizing to her friends for giving them the cold shoulder, apologizing to her teammates for ruining the game, and realizing that she can be a good friend while also trying to fit in. 

The moral of this whole story? Suppressing our emotions by sending them to the back of our minds will only hinder our growth. It will only hold us back! Being mentally healthy is NOT being happy all the time. It is recognizing every emotion we experience and accepting that we NEED all of them. 

We need Joy to experience happiness. We need Sadness to heal. We need Fear to keep us safe. We need Disgust to keep us healthy. Anger allows us to defend ourselves. Embarrassment keeps us socially aware. Ennui becomes our escape when things get overwhelming. Envy keeps us motivated and yes, we need Anxiety to keep us prepared. 

Embracing all of our emotions is natural! It will definitely be uncomfortable and most likely you will feel frustrated or confused, but ignoring or suppressing everything will only create more chaos (or the whirlwind). 

This is why Jamie and I try to remain honest about our own mental health issues. We both struggle sometimes, but accepting the struggle is probably the biggest step you can take to get better. We will continue to write and sing and talk about mental health because it is important. YOU are important.

If you’re looking for something relatable to listen to, please check us out on all streaming platforms as L!LAC.

Try to take it easy on yourself too.

Sami

If you are in crisis, or you know someone who is, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline or dial 911 in case of emergency.

• Call or text 988.

• Chat 988lifeline.org.

• TTY users, use your preferred relay service or dial 711 then 988.