The key message that made Inside Out 2 bigger than Barbie

Anxiety can be one of our most uncomfortable emotions, but Pixar’s sequel shows that anxiety doesn’t necessarily have to be something to be “solved,” but can also be something valuable.

WARNING: This article contains spoilers for the film Inside Out 2.

As fans know, the film offers viewers a first-hand look into the inner life of a young girl named Riley, whose mental headquarters is home to emotions personified as witty characters. Riley is now 13 years old and feels joy, fear, sadness, anger, and disgust, as well as anxiety, embarrassment, and fatigue.

Anxiety soon takes over HQ, driving Riley’s Joy (Amy Poehler) and friends to the “Memory Vault” with Riley’s deepest secrets. They must fight their way back to HQ and help Riley regain his sense of self, all the while struggling to navigate the social awkwardness of ice hockey camp.

like Its predecessorThe screenplay for the film is Scientific consultants provide inputensured that the production accurately captures the multifaceted nature of our emotions, and no doubt this is a big part of its appeal to adults as well as children: we can all empathize with the whirlwind of emotions Riley endures and learn to appreciate the role it plays in our lives.

Anxiety is arguably one of the most unpleasant emotions we experience. Physical symptoms like a racing heart, shortness of breath, and tense muscles can make us feel like we’re losing control of our body and send us into a stream of consciousness where we imagine the worst. But as the film shows, anxiety has a purpose: it makes us pay attention to the things that matter most to us. Even if we’re not in physical danger, anxiety alerts us to situations that are important to our self-esteem and future well-being, spurring us to act.

For an animated film, Riley Anxiety (played by Maya Hawke) is the ideal anti-hero: a bubbly redhead with a crooked smile, desperate to please and prepared for any and all threats to Riley’s self-esteem. The more her plans backfire, the more domineering she becomes, leading Riley to abandon her old friends and ruthlessly pursue a spot on her high school ice hockey team. She begins to believe that if she fails in this mission, no one will like her. This backfires, alienating her existing friends and ultimately putting her under so much pressure that she has a panic attack. We’ve all been there – trapped in a vicious cycle of anxiety and self-doubt, convinced that one disappointment or failure will be enough to destroy the whole world.

But even at her worst, Anxiety clearly has Riley’s best interests at heart. The havoc she wreaks on Riley’s mind — including robbing her of her “sense of self” — is all the result of a misguided attempt to ensure Riley will be safe and loved in the future. “I was just trying to protect her,” she says tearfully, before other emotions eventually convince her to cede control.

In real life, it’s easy to forget the fact that there are good reasons for anxiety, and being reminded of the benefits seems to be beneficial to our health. A one-year study of doctors and teachers In Germany, people who saw anxiety as a source of energy (those who agreed with statements such as “feeling somewhat anxious about a situation at work makes me more proactive in solving the problem”) were less likely to suffer from mental fatigue at the end of the year than those who saw anxiety as a sign of weakness or a threat to performance.

another experiment The research team recruited US students taking the Graduate Record Examinations, a part of the university entrance exams for advanced degrees. Before the mock test, some participants were given a short reminder that anxiety can have a positive effect on performance: “So if you feel anxious about taking the GRE today, don’t worry. If you feel anxious, tell yourself that being excited might lead to a better performance.”

They then performed better on mock exams and the real thing, especially in math, the subject most likely to cause them anxiety. The scientists called this change of mindset “reappraisal” and noted that it’s a way to “let go of the knot in your stomach,” an emotion that fits well with carefree joy.

There could be many reasons for this, but one simple explanation is that a negative outlook on anxiety only gives us more reasons to worry. When we feel tension building, we start to see it as a sign of impending failure. Viewing anxiety as a natural and beneficial reaction relieves us from this extra burden.

As Inside Out 2 teaches us, weCatastrophic thinkingShe “worst case scenarios” by imagining a never-ending series of negative events. Disastrous thinking is often accompanied by an overgeneralized state of extreme certainty. Despite there being no evidence that one event (Riley has no friends) will inevitably follow the other (not making the team), she comes to believe so. One of my favorite scenes in the film is when Joy tries to break Riley from this habit by pointing out all the positive outcomes that are just as likely (or unlikely) as the worst case scenarios.

In real life, practices like cognitive behavioral therapy can teach us to recognize our overgeneralized beliefs and question the evidence behind them. Do we really have good reason to believe that our worst nightmare is about to come true? Or, as Joy points out, is it simply one of many possibilities? Like Joy, can we view the situation and its consequences in a less frightening way?

By the end of the film, Riley’s anxiety has learned to work in balance with her other emotions — anxiety can help her prepare for the future without putting her on constant alert. Many of us, both children and adults, could learn the same lesson to enjoy a more authentic and satisfying life.

David Robson is an award-winning science writer. The Law of Connectionan examination of 13 science-based strategies for changing social life, is published by Canongate (UK & Commonwealth)/Pegasus (US & Canada). he Follow X and David Robson On Instagram and Threads.