Movies are a source of entertainment. Mostly you’ll find that movies are over an hour long and involve a whole story plot. There are many genres of movies: action, horror, kids, documentaries, animation, etc. Each different genre can offer you all sorts of feelings and theories. Movies are often fun, and entertaining and can even be a learning source for some people. However, movies can affect people as well emotionally so this means movies can have good and bad effects on people with mental illnesses.
The effects movies can have on the brain
According to scientific research, movies can affect us differently depending on the genre of movies you watch. For example, if you’re watching a scary movie the brain will release cortisol which is known as the stress hormone. This can cause you to feel stress during the movie, especially during the scarier parts. The brain will also release dopamine which will send off feelings of pleasure during the movie, so if you are watching a nice movie that gives pleasurable vibes when you are watching it, you will feel that.
Positive effects on the brain
Besides the fact, that the brain releases certain hormones to help you feel emotion toward the movie, there are also other positive effects on the brain which can be good for the development of your brain.
- Can cause pleasurable feelings when watching the film.
- Children can learn from movies, this develops their minds.
- Increases your mental focus.
- Improves memory.
- Can enhance your senses.
- Teaches your body to cope with stress.
- Can make children more creative.
- Can teach you to deal with difficult situations.
- May help reduce negative emotions.
- Bring family and friends together making you less at risk of mental illnesses such as depression caused by loneliness.
- Can help you learn new things such as skills that you can use in your everyday life, such as cooking.
- Helps your mind focus on other things and escape reality.
Negative effects on the brain
Sometimes movies can have a negative impact on the brain, mainly doing the opposite of what you would like, and can even trigger some people’s mental illnesses such as giving flashbacks and creating stress and this is because movies can give ideas through your emotions causing emotional triggers.
- Can be the cause or trigger of stress.
- Can trigger memories of past trauma such as violence, sexual abuse, death, etc.
- Could start making you feel more anxious or nervous whilst watching the movie.
- Can make children believe violence is fine to do.
- Make you believe that drugs and alcohol abuse is ok because of seeing others do it on the screen. This typically is for the younger teens.
- May make you more nervous to express yourself.
- Lower your self-esteem and confidence by showing certain things like how women are ‘portrayed’ to look like, make-up, dresses, etc.
Why are movies good for people with mental illness?
Movies can bring you and your family together, be a great way to see your friends during the hard times with covid, this makes it so that you are less lonely. You need that support bubble during your hard times with mental illness, spending time with your friends and family can reduce that loneliness and allow options to talk to them about what is going on.
Besides allowing you to spend time with people, It is a great way to sit and relax and there are many genres of movies you can watch which can be set for a certain mood. Are you in the mood to relax? Need to relieve stress? You can watch an animated movie that has a nice story that is relaxing maybe a film like “frozen” because it has a nice vibe and music which can be a good way to relieve stress and bring the family together to start singing. Maybe you need a giggle “we’re the millers” gives off a really fun story along with amazing actors.
Movies are just amazing to relax, you can sit down and watch a movie at the end of a hard day. It is important to take the time for yourself and try to enjoy yourself every now and then, movies are free as you can get them on NetFlix and there are so many you can choose from. This just helps you to reduce all negative feelings and maybe become a new coping method besides other things. Self-care is important, so always take the time to focus on yourself, especially with your mental illness.
Why are movies bad for people with mental illness?
Movies can give you a misunderstanding. What I mean by this, people are portrayed in certain ways and it can cause you to feel that you are not good enough. Perhaps movies are the reasons you have triggers for mental illness which I will talk about a little bit later. Some films can display violence, abuse, drug and alcohol abuse, etc. This in return can make you feel like violence can solve anything, especially for kids and teens. Seeing certain women or men who look amazing or young can also lower your self-esteem, making your confidence drop “I don’t look like this, I must be ugly then” I have felt this way myself in general because I didn’t look like a celebrity. This in return can cause bullying in school which is a huge trigger for some people’s mental illness.
Movies affect mental illness easily, it can be the trigger for someone’s anxiety, maybe they have PTSD which then can cause them to have a panic attack because they can relate to something in the film. A good example of this is, that someone who has been to war can be triggered by maybe a war scene in a film. It can be awful to see, but this can happen and that’s because of the stress past trauma has caused.
