If you've ever watched an entire season of a K-drama like “Squid Game” or “Crash Landing On You,” a Korean-American expert has good news: It's likely to improve your mental health.
High production values, top-notch acting and attractive stars have helped South Korean TV shows to the top of global viewership charts, but therapist Jenny Chang says many people are deeply hooked. There are reasons.
She says that watching dramas with soap-like plotlines that deal with everything from earth-shattering grief to the joy of new love can help people reconnect with their own emotions or process trauma. Help can, she says, give the shows a healing power that transcends their cultural context. .
“We all have family pressures and expectations, conflicts, traumas, hopes,” she said, adding that seeing heavy topics successfully navigated on screen can change people's ability to navigate real-world challenges. can
For Chang, who was born in Seoul but raised in the United States, K-drama was especially helpful in allowing her to reconnect with her roots — which she rejected as a child. was, which he was eager to absorb.
But “the messages in Korean dramas are universal,” Chang said.
“Mental health is how you feel, how you relate to others, psychologically, how things have affected your mind. This is mental health. We see it in a Korean drama.
Soften my heart.
Global K-drama viewership has grown over the past few years, with industry data showing that many foreign viewers, especially in major markets such as the United States, have turned to Korean content during the pandemic. Attracted.
Between 2019 and 2022, viewership of Korean television and movies on Netflix grew sixfold, its data showed, and Korean series are now the most-watched non-English content on the platform.
American schoolteacher Jenny Berry discovered K-drama through a family funeral, when a friend recommended a series — 2020's “It's OK to Not Be OK” — that she thought might help her through a tough time. is
“There was something about it, the way this culture deals with trauma, mental depression, that really struck a chord with me,” says Barry, who is part of a K-drama tour organized by therapist Chang. went to South Korea, said. AFP.
“I started to grieve when I wasn't. There were a lot of tears during that play, but it also made me see that there is light at the end of the tunnel.”
Immediately hooked, Barry said he has watched 114 K-dramas since discovering the genre, effectively giving up watching English-language television.
“They let me soften my heart,” she said.
Fellow tour member and American Erin McCoy said she had struggled with depression since she was a teenager, but K's drama helped her manage her symptoms.
With depression, “when you live with it for so long, you just become numb and so you don't necessarily feel really bad but you never feel good,” she said.
“You don't feel anything,” she said, adding that the K-drama allowed her to experience emotions again.
“Each of them has a lot of highs, and as I felt the emotions of the characters, it helped me relate more to my own,” he said.
“I feel like I'm able to express and experience emotions again.”
Art therapy
The idea that K-drama binges can help mental health may seem far-fetched, but it chimes with decades-old psychotherapy ideas, one expert said.
“Watching Korean dramas from an art therapy perspective can be beneficial for anxiety and depression,” IM Su-geun, head of a psychiatric clinic in Seoul, told AFP.
Art therapy, first used in the 1940s, initially involved drawing patients, but evolved to include other artistic activities.
Visual media such as Korean dramas have important strengths that align well with psychotherapy, he said.
K-drama — or television and cinema in general — can help viewers “gain insight into situations from a new perspective, develop healthy values and provide solutions to their problems,” he said. .
It's unlikely to be prescribed by a doctor, he said, but it can be helpful if a doctor recommends a specific play related to the patient's case.
For example, it could provide a roadmap for patients who are “experiencing certain conditions, such as a fracture or loss,” he said.