If you subscribe to The Spectator, there’s a fair chance you are a committed reader. Of books, I mean. Books are your friends, they don’t frighten you. Even long books. But here’s a behavioral oddity that I’ve noticed in others, and in myself.
We tend not to read many books twice, but we do often watch movies twice, even more than twice. Of course, length may have a lot to do with it; movies are rarely more than two hours long; books can often take days to finish. But is there something more to it, something deeper? Down here on the beaches in Florida we now recognize something the psychologists are calling “cinematherapy.” Hardly a neat circumlocution but, we are told by writer Jennifer Torres, as workplace stress and burnouts rise, “taking mental health days to reset is becoming more common” – accepted even – and that rewatching movies “provides a sense of comfort and stability because the brain recognizes the familiar story, which calms the nervous system.”
It surely raises the possibility that one can become ‘addicted’ to TV – isn’t that a mental health issue in itself?
It’s not just something to do on a wet afternoon, when you might cozy down with a blanket and a cup of tea. Wendy Hixon, a therapist specializing in trauma, PTSD, anxiety and even grief, says that it can be more profound than that. Watching movies that you love can have a real impact on mood and stress and can help “emotional recovery.” It can be even more effective if, on an earlier showing, the movie helped you through a difficult season of your life. “The story, the characters, the feeling – all left an imprint…and, when you return to them, even years later, your body remembers.”
If, like me, you enjoy a few old movies and rewatch them often, it doesn’t necessarily make you odd. In one recent survey, more than 95 percent of those asked said that when they hit “play” on something they had already seen, “it acted like an emotional anchor, offering comfort and stability, because familiarity is itself calming.”
The very notion of cinematherapy probes the veracity of the concept of “mental health days,” a term invented as long ago as 1971. Is this a benign modern phenomenon, reflecting that we are more mindful now of how stressful modern life can be? Or is it yet another sign that we are losing the traditional resilience that characterized the buttoned-up, stiff-upper-lip culture of previous generations? (And served them so well.)
Whatever the reason, Torres is certainly on to something. She quotes no fewer than five mental health professionals down here who all practice cinematherapy, concentrating on films such as Jack Reacher, Groundhog Day, Lord of the Rings or Inside Out 2, several of which use comedy to confront such anxiety-provoking issues as “repetitive patterns in life,” “emotional avoidance” and “feeling stuck,” which seem to be the main symptoms of burnout.
Some people (we should probably not call them patients) even have whole shows that they watch regularly for what they say are mental health reasons. But this surely raises the possibility that one can become “addicted” to TV – and isn’t that a mental health issue in itself?
Another new health craze down here (but not for mental health) is the “infrared workout.” One example would be a cycle contraption in a wood-paneled room, in front of a 43-inch flatscreen TV mounted on the wall, from which a female trainer shouts commands for a 15-minute “Hot Blast.” On the cycle in the small room is someone following the newest “fat-slaying tool”: exercise under the influence of infrared light and, as a result, “dripping in 125-degree heat.”
This newest “fad” (if I dare use that word) is deployed as a “metabolism-booster” designed to stimulate the body’s regenerative powers and as a way to continue burning calories after the workout is over. There is some evidence that infrared light conveys benefits for some conditions, such as obesity and diabetes, but most of the results come from small-scale clinical trials that may not apply to wider populations.
Some clinics promote infrared light as deep cleaning of the skin, “penetrating the skin’s layers and stimulating cellular activity.” As to whether there are clear wider health benefits, the Mayo Clinic Bulletin says only “perhaps.”
One woman who gave it a go said that after trying a million other things, she lost 60lb. A man who also tried it described it as “intense” but he added that he wouldn’t call it fun. Perhaps this is why it is catching on. No one ever thinks losing weight is fun.
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