To have slight concerns about Inside Out 2

[Rainallnight]

We loved Inside Out. DC are 8 and 6. 8 year old is v emotional (this is relevant).

I’ve seen a trailer for Inside Out 2, and I’m a bit concerned about the Anxiety character. I’m not keen on the current tendency to label normal worries and discomfort as ‘anxiety’, and it’s not really an idea I want to introduce to the DC (DD in particular).

What do other people think? Anyone else share my mild concern?

(NB I’ve deliberately not posted this in AIBU because I’m up for a chat about this not a big row. Thanks)

And I realise I’d written the headline like it was AIBU despite making the point about AIBU!

I agree. I don’t like the anxiety character and I think it sends the wrong message. My husband has refused to watch it because he hates everything being labelled as anxiety and thinks it’s a load of shit.

I don’t think anxiety is a normal emotion to feel all the time or even weekly, it should be worry and not anxiety.

However, my daughter is nearly 13 and isn’t very emotional and never anxious (same as me and her dad) so we will watch it together.

I wish the word ‘worry’ was used for everyday issues, and ‘anxiety’ used only for the mental health illness, to keep the 2 feelings separate. It’s like when people feel unhappy about something but say they feel ‘depressed’. The mental health illnesses feel nothing like the general everyday feelings everyone gets, I know because I’ve been diagnosed with both. People who are worried because they have eg. an exam do not experience depersonalisation, derealisation and auditory hallucinations for a start! Using the words for everyday feelings trivialises down the actual illnesses, which will teach children to be less understanding of those who suffer with real mental health illnesses. But at the same time anxiety is a sliding scale.

I think it depends how the anxiety emotion is used in the film. I’m still going to take my DC to see it though, and hadn’t actually thought that deeply about it until I saw this thread.

Couldn’t agree more with this.

The word ‘anxious’ is misused. I fear we have gone too far to ever correct it.

My 19yo has G.A.D. and I'm hoping watching it will help her. I guess it depends how it is portrayed. Anxiety is normal, provided it isn't given sole control of the console.

We saw it today. Spoiler alert. At the beginning, anxiety was seen as great because she thought of all the consequences and tried to help her make the right choices. But anxiety got out of control and you see Riley having a panic attack as she does. Joy accepts she'll be less present in Riley's life now but that she still needs everyone and her sense of self is better when it's reflective of everything not just the good

Doesn't sound great if they are making Riley have panic attacks and Joy is less present. Sounds crap.

Presumably though they reach equilibrium by the end?

I thought the anxiety character was in the first one too?

Saw it yesterday. @SleepingStandingUphas already described it. its over a short time period in the child's life, she is anxious about a particular thing not in a general way. I felt the message was that anxiety is a part of life and a normal feeling but it cannot be in control and needs to work with all the other parts of us. Bad experiences and memories are as much a part of us as the good experiences and should not be suppressed or forgotten. I thought it was quite a positive message overall and a lovely movie.

My teenage nieces (15 and 17) watched it yesterday and loved it

I also think the word anxiety was more used in US than here, its recently become more and more common here so maybe the use is slightly different? An American may say 'I have anxiety about my exam tomorrow' where we would say 'I'm worried about my exam'. To me anyhow, the phrase to 'have anxiety' suggests more a MH issue than a fleeting feeling that comes and goes every day. The more common use of it recently seems to be confusing things.

We watched it today and I thought it was fantastic. I had severe anxiety, ocd and agoraphobia for the first 3 decades of my life and absolutely no idea that I had any of them as no one had ever ever discussed this with me or explained to me what was happening in my brain. I had cbt, counselling and psychotherapy to finally deal with it all. Mine was all as a result of an abusive home, bullying at school and generally a really difficult start. I thought how I felt was normal and I was just a crap person who couldn't deal with normal life. When Riley has a panic attack, Anxiety gets stuck to the console and can't move, it was such a brilliant way to explain panic attacks to children and I was in floods of tears seeing something I suffered from my whole life being shown so simply. It was brilliant. Children need to understand how and why we get the feelings we do, and Inside Out is fantastic at doing it. I don't understand why you would rule out a film based on the trailer and you're own issues about the word "anxiety". It's really important to understand anxiety and how it is a normal part of everyone's life, but you need to learn how to deal with it. I was never ever told about it, and spent such a large chunk of my life feeling so worthless as a result.

Not all of us suffer with anxiety or have it as part of our lives. I don’t feel pushing it on kids and saying is it normal is helpful either as I don’t see anxiety as a normal emotion. I never feel anxious, I never have. I am also not a worrier either. I don’t let things get to me.

Thats the reason some of us are wary about introducing anxiety to our kids.

Would you have the same problem with it if the character was in a wheelchair? After all, that’s fortunately not something everyone has experience of either.

You never, ever worry about anything ever? That seems highly bizarre.

Being worried or anxious about something (job interview/moving house/starting Uni) seem fairly normal life experience to me.

But you will have suffered with anxiety at some point, of course you will have, you will have been anxious about your driving test/exam/job interview and that's normal! Anxiety is a normal emotion and everyone has it whether you "introduce" it to anyone or not. Did you watch the first film? Where Joy tries to suppress Sadness the whole time until she realises being sad sometimes is okay and normal? They do a similar thing with anxiety. Anxiety helps us prepare for stuff and think about consequences, but is bad if you let it take over.

Also, by pretending anxiety doesn't exist or shielding people from it can be immensely harmful as I was trying to point out

I agree with you but it's not compulsory to see the film.

You are either really stupid or looking for attention. They are not the same things at all.

Exactly, it's perfectly normal to feel worried or anxious about certain things, I think it's a good thing for children to see it's perfectly normal to have those feelings

@PandaRosie I'd say you are pretty unusual then, I'm not a particularly anxious person or a worrier but I've still experienced worry or normal levels of anxiety over the years

Unfortunately you never know what's round the corner though so it may not be the case that you never have anxiety

I think the problem is the word anxiety. We all feel anxious sometimes but now people get diagnosed with anxiety. Loads of them, you see it on here all the time. "I can't do xyz, I have anxiety".

I had job interviews 6 months ago. No I wasn’t worried… what’s the worst that would happen ? They don’t like me? So what.
I didn’t go to Uni so never had to think of that.
Moving house ? What’s to be worried about? Iv already seen the house so I know I like it. If it falls throw then I’m pissed off I lost money but I’m not worried about it.

Mental health is no different to physical health - they both can completely debilitate a person and change their life completely.
Stigma around mental health comes from the people who refuse to accept or acknowledge that.

Hang on, either anxiety is something we all experience, driving tests etc. or it's a "mental health" issue so yes, we all can feel anxious but luckily for most of us we will never have to use a wheelchair.