In this photo taken on Sept. 26, 2024, a passenger passes a soft toy to another person during a K-drama tour on the road between Seoul and Suwon, used to talk about personal experiences related to watching K-dramas. Used as a signal for. , – 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. , Photo courtesy: AFP
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 propel South Korean TV shows to the top of global viewership charts, but therapist Jenny Chang says there are deeper reasons why so many people are hooked.
With soap-like plot lines that deal with everything from earth-shattering grief to the joy of new love, watching K-dramas can help people overcome their emotions or trauma, she says. Which gives the shows a healing power that goes beyond their cultural context. ,
“We all have family pressures and expectations, struggles, traumas, hopes,” he said. He said that seeing heavy topics successfully managed on screen can change people’s ability to deal with real-world challenges.
For Chang, who was born in Seoul but raised in the United States, K-drama was particularly helpful in allowing her to reconnect with her roots—which she described as a child desperate to assimilate. Was rejected as.
But “the messages in Korean dramas are universal,” Chang said.
“Mental health is how you’re feeling, how you connect with others, psychologically, how your brain has been affected by things. That’s mental health. We see it in a Korean drama.”
‘Soften my heart’
Industry data shows that global K-drama viewership has exploded over the past few years, with many overseas viewers, especially in major markets like the United States, turning to Korean content during the pandemic .
Its data shows that between 2019 and 2022, viewership of Korean television and films on Netflix has increased sixfold, and Korean series are now the most watched non-English content on the platform.
American schoolteacher Jenny Barry discovered K-dramas through a family funeral when a friend recommended a series — 2020’s “It’s Okay to Not Be Okay” — that she thought would be her escape after tough times. Can help.
“There was something about it, the way this culture deals with trauma, mental depression, that really affected my mind,” said Barry, who traveled to South Korea as part of a K-drama tour organized by therapist Chang. Did.” AFP.
She said, “I started feeling sad when I wasn’t there. There were a lot of tears during that play, but it also made me see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.”
Immediately impressed, Barry said he has watched 114 K-dramas since discovering the genre, and effectively quit watching English-language television.
“They let me soften my heart,” he said.
Fellow tour member and American Erin McCoy said she had struggled with depression since she was a teenager, but K-dramas helped her manage her symptoms.
With depression, “when you live with it for so long, you just become numb and so you don’t really feel bad, but you never feel good,” she said.
“You don’t feel anything,” he said, adding that K-dramas have given him a chance to experience emotions again.
He said, “There are a lot of ups and downs in each one of them, and as I felt the emotions of the characters, it helped me connect with myself.”
“I feel like I’m able to express and experience emotions again.”
‘art therapy’?
The idea that binge-watching K-dramas can help mental health may seem far-fetched, but it matches decades-old psychiatric ideas, one expert said.
“From an art therapy perspective, watching Korean dramas may be beneficial for anxiety and depression,” Im Su-geun, head of a psychotherapy clinic in Seoul, told AFP.
First used in the 1940s, art therapy initially involved patients drawing, but evolved to include other artistic activities.
He said, “Visual media such as Korean dramas have important strengths that mesh well with psychotherapy.”
K-dramas – or television and cinema generally – can help viewers “gain insight into situations from new perspectives, promote healthy values and provide solutions to their issues”, he said.
This is unlikely to be prescribed by a doctor, he said, but if a physician recommends a specific play related to the patient’s case, it may be helpful.
For example, it could provide a roadmap for patients who are “facing specific situations, such as a breakup or loss,” he said.
published – November 22, 2024 10:47 am IST
