Anxiety and Joy in Inside Out 2

By Michael Woolf

 

Anxiety seems to be having a moment, with the emotion taking center stage in Pixar’s new hit Inside Out 2. The sequel brings back the central emotions of the first movie, but adds new ones—anxiety, embarrassment, and envy—as Riley hits puberty at age 13. Like the first iteration, much of the action centers around the imaginative portrayal of the control room at the center of Riley’s mind and the conflict over which emotion should have primacy. While the first movie focuses on memories, the second delves deeper into the mechanics of how these memories become beliefs, and how those beliefs lead to a sense of self.

The movie is concerned with the key questions that are worth pondering over a lifetime– what makes for a unified sense of self? How do we manage anxiety? How can we truly be who we are, when there is social pressure to become someone different? Perhaps the most striking claim of the film is that it is all of our experiences that shape us—not just the good or the bad. We need all of them to make us who we are meant to be. As Joy remarks near the end of the film: “every bit of Riley makes her who she is, every messy, beautiful piece of her.”

Anxiety IRL

In contrast with Riley, the adult characters are shown as keeping their anxiety at bay – in both cases it emerges from a back room and is a secondary emotion, but this depiction does not correlate with reality. Anxiety disorders are currently the most common mental health issue that Americans face, with about 20% of the population currently struggling with anxiety.

I myself have suffered from this mental health crisis. I was diagnosed with OCD about 18 months ago, and had to change everything about my life. Like Riley, I felt as if anxiety was continually at the control center of my mind, wreaking havoc with its easy conjuring of the worst case scenario for every encounter. It was only through a meditation practice and a lot of therapy that I was able to change my perspective and achieve a true sense of peace for the first time in 10 years. Watching the film was profound because it put into an image what it felt like to have anxiety running the show – a literal whirlwind of activity, but also paralysis.

Although it can sometimes seem like anxiety is a particularly modern phenomenon, the truth is that anxiety has been around as long as humans have. For instance, Martin Luther was consumed by anxiety during his time as a monk. He describes a scrupulous life filled with vigils, prayers, scripture reading, and daily confession, but he could find no relief from his anxiety. He writes, “My conscience could never achieve certainty but was always in doubt and said: ‘You have not done this correctly. You were not contrite enough. You omitted this in your confession.’ Therefore the longer I tried to heal my uncertain, weak, and troubled conscience with human traditions, the more uncertain, weak, and troubled I continually made it.” One of my favorite depictions of Luther, a play written by John Osborne, describes Luther as rushing to the confessional every time he “breaks wind.”

But Luther eventually did find relief from his anxiety, and he did it through changing his perception of God from one who knows our every fault and stands ready to damn us, to one who really and truly cares for us. For at least some people suffering from anxiety, theology and how we think about God, the world, and our place in it can have a real effect on whether or not we find healing.

One of the more profound parts of the movie comes when Joy admits that she “do[es]n’t know how to stop anxiety.” That admission frees the characters to actually solve the problem. As counterintuitive as it may seem, giving up a sense of control, and working through the vulnerability of not knowing can be a true balm to the anxious spirit. Admitting that I didn’t know how to solve my anxiety problem was what allowed me to get the help that I needed. I waited the average that people with my condition usually do—10 years—before I got the specialized therapy I needed to find healing.

 

Healing in houses of worship

If the movie is correct, then religious communities have a role to play in helping people experiencing change find a true, unified sense of self. Inside Out 2 argues that our experiences and memories create our sense of who we are. That’s a heavy burden for religious spaces – are we sure we are creating safe spaces where people feel held and cared for by others and the Divine? Do we create spaces free from judgment?

Unfortunately, anxiety can be taboo in churches. In a 2007 study, over 30% of people with mental illness had a negative experience in a church setting, with respondents saying that they were told that sin was the cause of their mental health struggles or that they were the victim of demonic possession.

Houses of worship ought to be places where people can talk about their anxiety, and where they can find healing. Finding community in a religious setting is positively correlated with mental health outcomes, but too often, religious communities are uncomfortable or unwilling to engage with a growing mental health epidemic.

Luckily, here are some exceptions. The Texas Tribune reported on different Texas churches that are expanding their mental health services and partnering with secular mental health providers. Likewise, major traditions like Reform Judaism and the United Methodist Church provide resources for congregations and leaders to engage with this pivotal issue. Hopefully, the tides may be turning.

In our society, there are millions of people who, like Riley, have anxiety running the control centers of their mind. I certainly know what that feels like. Houses of worship have a role to play in addressing our mental health crisis; they can either help or hurt. It is my prayer that our communities will create safe places where, as the movie states, we can be our messy, beautiful selves.

All work at The Commons is published under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.  https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

The Rev. Dr. Michael Woolf (he/him) holds a Doctor of Theology (ThD) degree from Harvard Divinity School. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Tennessee – Knoxville with a BA in Religious Studies in 2011 and completed his Master of Divinity degree at Harvard Divinity School in 2014. Michael is also an ordained American Baptist Churches USA and Alliance of Baptists pastor currently serving as the Senior Minister at Lake Street Church of Evanston in Evanston, IL, a progressive congregation with a commitment to social justice and interfaith dialogue. He also serves as Co-Associate Regional Minister for White and Multicultural Churches with the American Baptist Churches of Metro Chicago region. Before that, he served rural and suburban churches in Massachusetts.

He currently teaches theology as an Adjunct Theology Professor at Lewis University. He also teaches American Baptist theology, polity, and history for the American Baptist Churches of Metro Chicago and has served on subcommittees addressing racial justice and white supremacy in both the Alliance of Baptists and the American Baptist Churches USA.

Michael’s first book, Sanctuary and Subjectivity: Thinking Theologically About Whiteness in Sanctuary Movements, is part of T&T Clark’s Studies in Social Ethics, Ethnography and Theologies series. The book focuses on white supremacy within a progressive, interfaith social movement and includes an autoethnographic chapter from Michael’s experience as a white pastor in the New Sanctuary Movement. In paying attention to the narratives of recipients of sanctuary, Michael proposes a reorientation of the discipline of practical theology using Judith Butler’s theory of subjectivation. https://www.michaelcaseywwoolf.com/