Hello everyone!
Today we’ll be talking about “Inside-Out 2”, as promised :). I personally like it even better than the first movie, because I think it’s more relatable for teenagers and adults than the first one, even though that teaches an important lesson as well!
Anyway, let’s get into it:
other emotions
In “Inside-Out 2”, Riley gets 4 new emotions:
image source: Inside Out 2: nel trailer ufficiale le nuove emozioni prendono il sopravvento | Nerdevil
(from left to right) Embarrassment, Anxiety, Envy and Boredom.
While I like the other emotions as well (especially Envy), I’ll be focussing on Anxiety in this post because she plays the most important role and I think she is the key factor that makes this movie so relatable.
summary of the movie
Riley hits puberty and the new emotions come into headquaters. As Riley goes on a 3-day Hockey trip, Joy and Anxiety have some disagreements, which leads to Anxiety throwing Joy, Anger, Fear, Sadness and Disgust out. She takes control of Riley, wanting to change everything about her. Throughout the movie, we can see Riley’s inner conflicts and how anxiety changes her actions.
effects of anxiety/what is she like?
When anxiety first comes in, she is pretty over-enthousiastic. In general, her movements and talking style are very fast-paced and she often gets ahead of herself, jumping from one thing to the next. She thinks of all possible negative future scenarios and tries to prepare for all of them.
There are of course some bad effects of anxiety that are shown in the movie:
- tunnel vision (Riley gets too focussed on scoring goals, even takes the puck from her own teammate and hurts her friend)
- Anxiety doesn’t care about values: “It’s not about who Riley is, it’s about who she needs to be” → she makes Riley do whatever it takes to reach a goal, no matter how morally wrong it is
- If unbalanced, other emotions don’t have room anymore. Everything is just about reaching goals; the passion and enjoyment behind them is irrelevant to Anxiety
But, you can also see how we can benefit from Anxiety:
- She thinks about possible consequences of Riley’s actions
- She makes Riley take her goals seriously (Riley jokes around with her friends in the locker room when coach comes in and doesn’t stop, because Joy won’t listen to Anxiety. Consequently, the whole team gets punished for it. But Anxiety makes her train and focus (she does take it a little too far, but the benefit is there, if balanced right))
- She sees potential and room for self-improvement
Anxiety attack
During an important hockey game, Riley gets a penalty. She is overwhelmed with having hurt her friend in the game, trying to fit in and feeling the need to score and Anxiety made her believe she was “not good enough”. Anxiety starts moving rapidly along the console, pressing buttons wherever she can, so fast you can only see orange streaks that build into a sort of tornado around the console that other emotions can’t pass. She is stuck in the middle of the console, glitching, so that Joy can’t even grab her anymore. I love this scene because it is so relatable to anyone who has ever had an anxiety attack before. First spiralling and then just being stuck in the same place, without any thoughts, just the emotion there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZWvyZb8zLc
But what this scene actually shows is that Anxiety cares. She panicks because she realises she has gone too far and that there are now too many things to be fixed.
The most important lesson from the whole movie is that your anxiety is not your enemy. Yes, Anxiety harms Riley. But not because she wants to. At the end of the movie, she tells Joy: “I’m sorry. I just wanted to protect her.”. Like all other emotions, Anxiety just wants the best for Riley. She wants her to reach her goals, to have friends, to be happy. She simply tends to get too hung up on one thing, so that she doesn’t see the big picture anymore. The only thing Anxiety needs is regulation. A positive way to utilise your anxiety is shown in the closing scene of the movie:
emotional regulation
Riley is waiting for the coaches message if she made the team or not. Anxiety gets worried and she starts pulling up possible future scenarios of what could happen if Riley doesn’t make the team. Then Joy steps in: She asks anxiety: “Okay, but none of that is happening right now, is it?” Anxiety agrees. Joy then says: “We can’t control whether Riley makes the team. But what can we control?” Anxiety remembers that Riley has a Spanish test tomorrow and that she needs to study. She uses her biggest strength here: she thinks about the future. But with the other emotions regulating her, there is no spiralling and anxiety can be used in a productive way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejkSBnZz-Wg
I recently wrote a post on emotional regulation as well, if you would like to check that out 🙂
What is Emotional Regulation? – Our Twenties and Us
As always, I hope this could help you at least a little to understand yourself better and I really recommend watching both Inside-Out movies if you haven’t already done so!
I will see you next week!
