The new trailer for the new movie Inside Out 2 is out since a few days ago.
For those who have not seen the first movie or for those who do not remember, the main plot revolves around personifications of the basic human emotions: happiness, sadness, anger, disgust, and fear. Each of them is a different character living in the head of the human that they ‘regulate’, so to say.
The first movie is very wholesome and has a good message behind it. Long story short, all the emotions are important. It is a crucial lesson to learn in general, since many people do not allow themselves to feel sad, angry, or scared. Feeling sad is something very far from the ideal happy live that we all strive for, that we all see posted on social media, right? Feeling scared shows weakness, and feeling angry shows impatience or disgrace.
This is what many people grow up to believe. However, as the movie very masterfully shows, all these assumptions are only that: assumptions, far from the truth.
Ultimately, the movie sends the message that all the emotions can and should coexist combined, because it’s ok. It’s ok to cry, it’s ok to feel sad, it’s ok to be scared, and it’s ok to be angry, disgusted, and happy.
The truth is, emotions tend to come in response of events, and they are natural responses that most of the time make sense. For example, fear is a response to perceiving something that is menacing and the mind interprets it as bad for you.
In the second movie, new emotions come into play because the girl (whose brain contains the emotions) hits puberty. It is an interesting take because puberty indeed comes with many new emotions for the mind. The movie hints us that these emotions will be envy, embarrassment, and anxiety. The personification of the latter appeared in the trailer as an anxious little women full of baggage in her arms (nice touch displaying anxiety carrying heavy loads).
However, for some people this raised a question. Is anxiety really a basic emotion that resides in the brain?
In big terms, anxiety is a response of the body that creates dread, fear, and restlessness. It comes with a physical reaction that vary from person to person, and may be sweat, dizziness, digestive problems, palpitations, etc.
The thing is, while fear is one of the basic emotions that is present in many every-day processes and events, anxiety comes a bit different. The logic is the same, is like a response that your mind sends to your body to let you know that something is wrong. But that process can also be part of anormalities like mental disorders. In fact, anxiety is present in many of them.
So, is anxiety an emotion that should be considered natural to have for someone’s puberty? That is object to debate, in my opinion. In any case, it is very interesting to see how they tackle anxiety in Inside Out 2 and if they treat is as something that the main human character has in particular, or if they assume that everyone in their puberty necessarily has anxiety.