Why do people who get anxious easily watch horror movies instead?

Watching horror movies is often terrifying. However, for some people, watching movies can be a means of relieving stress. The same is true for some people with anxiety disorders who like to watch horror movies. How could that be? Didn't you just feel more and more anxious about thinking a scene in a movie could happen in the real world?

Watching horror films diverts anxiety

The feelings of anxiety and fear that arise when watching horror films are often disturbing because they can continue to haunt the mind even after the film is over. However, for some people with anxiety disorders, watching horror movies can be a lot of fun. Why?

Anxiety disorders usually cause a person to worry about many things at once. For example, problems in the scope of work, family, love relationships, health, finances, and many more; starting from things that have happened in the past and worrying about the future.

No doubt all these worries can prevent you from truly enjoying the day you are living. In fact, things that are worried or worried about will not necessarily happen. So, watching horror films can be a way to distract.

By watching horror films, your mind will be more occupied with focusing on the storyline rather than on the things that make you anxious. This means you can "escape" for a moment from problems or various aspects of life that make you feel anxious.

Horror movies will make you focus your thoughts and anxieties on one thing that has nothing to do with you.

Anxiety due to watching horror movies is easier to control

In contrast to excessive anxiety, which is a symptom of anxiety disorders, it can be easier to control anxiety when watching horror films with your conscious mind. For example, by closing your eyes or covering your ears when there is a scary scene.

Meanwhile, excessive anxiety due to anxiety disorder is quite difficult to overcome or control quickly because all the sensations come from your subconscious. Even someone with an anxiety disorder may never know what is making them anxious so easily.

When watching horror films, people with anxiety disorders realize that horror films are just fiction and that all the scenes in the film will not occur in real life. Therefore, instead of avoiding horror films, some people with anxiety disorders enjoy them.

What's more, the villain or ghost in the film is likely to end up dead or missing and the audience will feel like everything will be all right in the end. In people who experience anxiety disorders, of course this feeling is very helpful in overcoming anxiety.

Therefore, horror films are one way to train you to face a problem that is complex and involves emotions both physically and mentally in conditions that are actually safe and can be controlled.

Watching horror films is part of mental health therapy

Without realizing it, watching horror movies can also be used as mental health therapy for people with anxiety disorders, namely exposure therapy . You can use this therapy to treat fear or phobias and other mental health conditions.

If you have an anxiety disorder, this therapy allows you to deliberately approach or engage with something you are actually afraid of. With this, you can prove to yourself that you can deal with these conditions.

Therefore, when you feel anxious or scared easily, actually watching horror movies can train you to learn to deal with your own fears and anxieties.

However, please note that not everyone who suffers from anxiety disorders enjoys spending time watching horror films. In fact, maybe for some people horror films can exacerbate their anxiety if they are not really scary movie connoisseurs.

Therefore, you should still consult a doctor. This is especially so if anxiety really interferes with your daily activities.