Inside Out 2

Release Date: June 14, 2024

Watch Date: July 21, 2024

“Disney and Pixar’s ‘Inside Out 2’ returns to the mind of newly minted teenager Riley, just as headquarters is undergoing a sudden demolition to make room for something entirely unexpected: new Emotions! Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust aren’t sure how to feel when Anxiety shows up, and it looks like she’s not alone.”

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   This movie was really, really hard to watch.

   Not because it was bad, let me be clear on that, it was very good. It does a very good job at depicting a stage of life that can be uncomfortable at the best of times, where things seem strange and you make choices that don’t seem to make sense even to you as you’re making them. It’s funny, the characters have continued to show growth since the first film, the concepts of having a sense of self are done beautifully. They focus on the emotions that didn’t get as much screen time in the first film, and that weren’t developed as deeply the first time. They show a natural progression for Riley as the years have gone by. It’s a very good film, and it’s a very good sequel.

   But it also depicts anxiety in a really honest, really well thought out way, and that’s hard for me, someone with General Anxiety Disorder. We walked out of the theatre, and Bob asked what I’d thought, and I told him that while I appreciated it, it was very difficult to watch my innermost struggles being laid out on a screen so easily and for all to see.

   Our son appreciated it, however, because now he knows what’s going on in Mommy’s head when her ‘brain is on fire’, a colloquial way I tell my children that things need to calm down because a panic attack is imminent if they don’t and a phrase they both respect.

   Bob told me that he could tell.

   Panic attacks suck. Having a life where you are always predicting the worst possible outcome from even the most minute decision sucks. Living on the constant edge of fight, flight, or freeze is a terrible thing. So to watch these anxious thoughts become an integral part of Riley’s sense of self, hurt. Is that what it looks like inside me? I’m having anxiety about a movie trying to express what it’s like to be a person with anxiety. My heart hurt for this little girl though, who needed to get things under control because if she didn’t she could end up like me – a lifetime of therapy, of trying different methods, of having to explain to your partner what you need to calm you down, medication.

   This movie was really, really hard to watch.

   By the end the Emotions seem to have understood what it has taken me a lifetime, and a good psychiatrist, to finally figure out – and one I still struggle with almost daily. Anxiety can be a good thing, and if you’re constantly trying to fight it, you’re going to wear yourself out. Anxiety is trying to help you, to protect you. It shouldn’t become the defining feature of your life, like mine, but it’s an integral part in keeping you safe, motivated, and on your toes. Thank you, anxiety, but I need to focus on this right now. Thanking my anxiety, a fun new thing my psych wants me to work on. I can’t control everything, but I can control whether or not I have studied for a Spanish test.

   All I can hope is that other people, younger people, who haven’t let it become their entire personality quite yet, will watch this and see that they’re not alone. They’re not freaks. Panic attacks happen. Anxiety is something everyone has. But you can breathe through it. You can find ways to cope. You are not alone. I wonder how much this film might have helped me if I had watched it at Riley’s age.