We live in the golden era of the series: they have long ceased to be considered a low genre, the best cinematographers of generation work on their creation, and the format allows you to tell stories in detail and thoroughly – as this cannot be done in the movie. However, excessively, fascinating by viewing, we risk breaking away from the real world with its problems and joys. Especially vulnerable to those whose mental state leaves much to be desired.
Dependence on the series
I’m scared to stay alone with me. Probably to someone who has never suffered from depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder or anxiety, it is difficult to understand and imagine what things can throw out the brain. The inner voice whispers to me: “You are useless. You do everything wrong. “. “And you turned off the plate? – He asks at the most inopportune moment. – And you are absolutely sure of that?”And so for several hours in a row in a circle.
The series helped to drown out this annoying voice from adolescence. I didn’t look at them, rather used it like a background, while preparing lessons, or made something, or wrote-in a word, I did everything that was supposed to the girl of my age. Now I am sure: this is one of the reasons that I have not noticed my depression for years. I just didn’t hear my own negative thoughts. Even then I felt an inner emptiness and the need to fill it with something. If I had just thought about what is happening ..
There were days when I painted or made 12 hours in a row, swallowing the episode of the series behind the episode, and for the whole day, not a single independent thought appeared in my head
TV shows are akin to any other drug: while you consume them, the brain produces a hormone of pleasure dopamine. “The body receives a signal:“ What you do is right, continue in the same spirit, ”explains the clinical psychologist Rene Carr. – When you voroughly watch your favorite show, the brain produces dopamine non -stop, and the body experiences a high, almost like when taking drugs. A kind of dependence on the series arises – in fact, of course, on dopamine. The same neural paths are formed in the brain as with other types of dependence. “.
People whose mental state is not quite safe, sit on TV shows in the same way as drugs, alcohol or sex – with the only difference being that the series are much more accessible.
Psychological traps
In order for you and I adhere to the screens for a long time, the creators of the series use a lot of psychological tricks. It is especially difficult for people with mental features to resist them.
Fast installation
Let’s start with how these shows are shot and mounted: one scene replaces another, the camera jumps from character to character. Fast installation makes the picture more interesting, it is almost impossible to break away from what is happening. This technique has long been used in advertising to capture our attention. It seems that we should turn away to us how we will miss something interesting or important. In addition, “cutting” does not allow us to notice how time
flies.
Plot
Another “hook” that we come across is the plot. The series ends in the most interesting place, and we can’t wait to turn on the next to find out what will happen next. Producers know: the viewer is waiting for a happy final, because he associates himself with the main character, which means that if the character was in trouble, the viewer will need to find out how he will get out of it.
Fleet from reality
Watching the series helps us to drown out the pain and fill in the inner void. We have the impression that we live. For those who suffer from depression, this is especially important. But the whole point is that while we are running from real problems, they are accumulating and the situation worsens.
“Our brain encodes any experience: what really happened to us, and what we saw on the screen, read in the book or imagined – as real and sends to a piggy bank of memories,” explains the psychiatrist Gaiani Desilva. – During the viewing of the series, the same zones are involved in the brain as during the real events that occur with us. When we attach to the character, his problems become ours, as well as his relationship. But in reality all this time we continue to sit on the couch alone “.
The desire to “crawl into your sink”, cancel plans and move away from the world is one of the first alarming calls of impending depression. Today, when watching the series has become a socially acceptable form of isolation, skipping them is especially easy.
Vicious circle
Although the dopamine wave allows you to feel better and be distracted from problems, in the long term the “drunken” viewing of the series is harmful to the brain. We find ourselves in a vicious circle: the TV provokes depression, and depression makes us watch TV. Researchers from the University of Toledo found that those who watch TV shows are more stressful, are more often prone to alarm and depression.
What is happening to us today is understandable: work for wear (often unloved) leaves less time to communicate with loved ones and activity in the fresh air
Forces remain only on passive leisure (TV shows). Of course, each of those who suffer from depression has their own history, and yet it is impossible not to note the trajectory by which society moves. The Golden Era of small flickering screens is also an era of deterioration in mental health. If you move from the general to the particular, to a particular person, then the endless watching of the films moves us away from others, prevents us from taking care of ourselves and doing what would help to become happy.
Sometimes I think about how many ideas could be born in my head if I allowed my mind to wander, bored and fantasize. Maybe the key to healing all this time was inside me, but I never allowed myself to use it. After all, when we try to “block” all the bad things that are happening in our heads with the help of television, we block and good too.