Emma Cisneros ’27

How Inside Out 2 Sympathizes with the Mental Health of Post-Pandemic Adolescents

Spring of 2024 was the first time I experienced a panic attack.

It lasted longer than an hour, and the anxiety that ensued lasted for two days. No physical pain I’ve endured before that point has ever really amounted to the emotional and psychological pain that I felt that night. I’d already been a declared psychology major. Ironically, I intentionally ignored my own mental health, which had deteriorated during the pandemic, until I just couldn’t. Healing from my own neglect has been a strenuous, difficult, and isolating process that I was constantly looking for reprieve from. Family movie night offered those opportunities for normalcy. Being fond of the first movie, I’d chosen Inside Out 2, a Pixar movie that paints a world where the human mind is run by personifications of our emotions; joy, sadness, anger, disgust, fear, anxiety, ennui, envy and embarrassment. The plot of the prequel centers around Riley Andersen’s emotions, joy, sadness, anger, disgust, fear who are trying to take back control from a domineering anxiety. An anxiety that distances Riley from her childhood friends and pressures her to be a perfect player in hopes of joining her high school hockey team, the Firehawks. The anxiety of the pressure Riley puts on herself overflows to the point of self-sabotage where even Joy quits and believes growing up means “you feel less joy.” Anxiety, who had believed she was helping Riley, finds herself in a whirlwind to fix the harm she’s actually caused, only to ensue a panic attack. And it made me cry. I cried out of relief, shock and gratitude for a kid’s movie that accurately portrayed my wretched experience with debilitating anxiety, with care and respect. Pitched and directed by Kelsey Mann, Inside Out 2 explores the complexity of mental health, particularly how anxiety frames someone’s view of life through friendships, perfectionism and self-acceptance. Amazingly, it addresses the importance of these issues with a simplicity that allows for both younger and older audiences alike to understand. Anxiety is illustrated as an antagonist, but not a villain, that functions to protect us but has the capability to debilitate us. Inside Out 2 exposes these realistic struggles, particularly relating to highschoolers transitioning into college who are dealing with the anxiety that comes with the change, drawing attention to the stresses of social isolation, depression and representation of the emotions young adults are experiencing in a post-pandemic climate.

Social isolation was a derivative of the COVID-19 pandemic that altered the educational environments of millions of high-school and college students across the US, depriving them of the connection that in-person education and interactions provide, and replacing those connections with digital screens. It’s true COVID-19 restrictions are no longer prevalent, nor mandatory, and regardless of digital learning, students have still received their education. But according to the 2020 research article, “Social isolation and psychological distress among southern U.S. college students in the era of COVID-19,” “College and university students are a unique group of young adults facing academic, interpersonal, and environmental stressors who have historically experienced high rates of mental health distress compared to the general population” (Giovenco et al. 2). Bring your attention to the word “historically.” Irrespective of the pandemic, young adults still face mental health distress. This fact is also reflective upon high school students, as stated in the 2022 research article, “Persistent anxiety among high school students: Survey results from the second year of the COVID pandemic”, “Adolescence is a development stage characterized by profound physiological, psychological and social change that could make them particularly vulnerable to stressful events” (Yin et al., 2). It becomes apparent that both college and high school scholars experience stress to a higher degree. And rightly so! The transition into adulthood is thwarted by evolving environments, relationships, and our own minds and bodies. The devastating effects of the pandemic has left them susceptible to mental distress by severing their connection to peers and educators. A support system had been lost and for that, young adults have and continue to suffer.

It’s important to acknowledge the damage social isolation has inflicted on the psyche of so many young adults across the US, resulting in an increase in anxiety and depressive symptoms. Media like Inside Out and Inside Out 2, sympathetically portray these arising mental issues expressed by college and high school students post-pandemic and accomplishes the invaluable feeling of being recognized. Directed by Pete Doctor, Inside Out revolves around a younger Riley Andersen and her personified emotions, joy, sadness, fear and disgust, and how she copes with the move from her midwestern home to San Francisco. Joy and sadness are lost in the recesses of Riley’s mind during the stress of the experience, leaving Riley’s behavior to be dictated by anger, fear and disgust, thus resulting in distancing herself from her parents and running away from home. Stealing money from her mother’s purse, Riley pays for a bus to return to her midwestern home and, it’s then, that her emotions, anger, fear and disgust realize they can’t make Riley feel anything. This is how Inside Out portrays depression. Depression is a feeling people often misconstrued as just being sad when, in reality, it is simply a lack of emotion. An emptiness. One that ran rampant through colleges during COVID-19, as a result of social isolation, as stated by the 2022 research article “Social isolation and psychological distress among southern U.S. college students in the era of COVID-19”, “7,012 completed surveys were included. Almost two-thirds (64%) of the students reported clinically significant depressive symptoms and 65% were categorized as lonely. An estimated 64% of students reported self-isolating most or all of the time”(Giovenco et al., pg 1). The importance of those face-to-face connections, that live education provides, is not lost within these statistics. Lack of intimacy and interactions with others has led to lack of emotions, a sense of detachment, like that of Riley’s depression in Inside Out, stress or, just as frequently, a struggle to cope and handle the stress. Anxiety.

As aforementioned, Inside Out 2 revolves around the battle against anxiety, an ongoing battle adolescents still face post-pandemic, the other emotions needing to ban together in order to stop her from hurting Riley. Setting up shop when Riley hits puberty, anxiety makes herself welcome to the befuddlement of the original five emotions. Like many young people, anxiety dictates Riley’s friendships, her need for self-acceptance and the perfectionism that results from that need. Inside Out 2 achieves a rare, artistic blend of animation and realism that reflects the state of anxiety the COVID-19 pandemic has left students in America, taking note of the widespread struggle, supported by the “COVID-19 dimensions are related to depression and anxiety among US college students: Findings from the Healthy Minds Survey 2020”, “About 19.65% (n = 3217) of the sample reported moderately severe to severe depression, and 32.68% (n = 5440) reported moderately severe to severe anxiety over the past two weeks. Overall, the proportions and means of the COVID-19 dimensions were higher among those with depression and anxiety than without”(Oh et al. 3). That’s 52.33%, more than half, of the total sample that reported mental distress, with more than half reporting severe anxiety! This study doesn’t encapsulate all college students and only covers a year out of the pandemic while students are still suffering the psychological effects of it. Adolescence is a stage in life that is defined by psychological and social changes that are already susceptible to stress. Inside Out 2 doesn’t shy away from these facts, rather embracing them and allowing the voice of a younger audience who may very well be dealing with the stress of these newfound changes and the anxieties that come from these changes. As acknowledged in the 2024 YS Life web article, “Inside Out 2 turns the spotlight on anxiety as a dominant emotion in teens,” “What this film also brings forth is the need to have a support system to deal with the debilitating feelings of anxiety. In the case of children who suffer from anxiety, their parents must equip themselves to support them” (Sachdev). In presenting media that bases itself off reality, such as, Inside Out 2, a space for conversation forms about why adolescents suffer from anxiety, and in turn they can be seen and supported, enabling them to navigate their anxiety. Inside Out 2 and media like it, represent the struggles of experiencing anxiety as an adolescent and gifts the portrayal to them as a form of acknowledgement and comfort they might not have received. But how well is anxiety portrayed in this movie?

Inside Out 2 and its predecessor has done what few films are successful in doing; accurately representing its audience while educating the person those audience members are sitting next to. Whether that be accurately depicting depression in relation to self-isolation or anxiety and how it affects one’s relationships, especially after being deprived of those face-to-face connections, Inside Out 2 is a well-researched representation that portrays people truthfully and makes them feel understood. Like its predecessor Inside Out, Inside Out 2 collaborated with experts that, with their provided knowledge, have made for a more true-to-life portrayal of anxiety that those who experience anxiety have been able to better empathize with. In accordance to this, as reported in the publication Crain’s Cleveland Business, the 2024 web article, “Local psychologist talks consulting with Pixar for ‘Inside Out 2,” “Damour, who also is a lecturer at the Schubert Center for Child Studies at Case Western Reserve University, has been working with the writers and director of “Inside Out 2” since 2020… In addition to Damour, the movie’s creative team worked with emotion scientist Dacher Keltner, a professor of psychology at the University of California Berkeley and the director of the Greater Good Science Center…Keltner told Vox, “They get it right. They take that science seriously”(Suttell). Movies don’t necessarily have to go the extra mile when considering the portrayal of their characters but Inside Out 2 handles the topic of anxiety with care and with regard for those who experience anxiety. The measures taken to include professionals that know how anxiety affects people offer a safe place that lacks judgement for those who need it. But, of course, anxiety varies from person to person. How does Inside Out 2 integrate the diverse spectrum of the emotion? The 2024 article, published by The New York Times, “What Does Anxiety Look Like? How Pixar Created the ‘Inside Out 2’ Villain”, reports an interview with people who have worked on the movie and how they went about portraying anxiety for people who experience it in varying degrees, as follows, “Anxiety for some people is really debilitating; they’re not activated by it, they’re paralyzed. Other people get really activated and kinetic. It was important that we start her at one extreme and then walk her to the other, so that everyone with anxiety could see themselves and their behavior in her” (Ugwu). Such a range to have for a character so that it connects to a broad audience goes to show how intricately and thoughtfully those working on this film navigated what most people would find, the sensitive topic of mental health. As someone who had my own struggles with mental health, watching Inside Out 2 for myself has made me feel acknowledged and understood when anxiety was on screen. The low bouts of anxiety to the chaotic whirlwinds are things I’ve experienced and regret that others have to experience it too. But if Inside Out 2 has taught me anything, it’s that we’re not alone.

Spring of 2024 was the first time I experienced a panic attack. The past ten months haven’t been easy but I never expected them to be. Sitting down and watching Inside Out 2 with my family, who couldn’t understand what I was going through, has brought them, and other families, to a point of clarity. Inside Out 2, in production since the COVID-19 pandemic, was fortified by the development of experts who study human emotion and displayed that knowledge with the delicate simplicity for an audience of children, adolescents and adults to understand, has granted those like me comfort and relief that we’re not alone in recovering from the effects of the pandemic. And, in doing so while transitioning into the nerve-racking stage of our lives, which is adulthood. Inside Out 2 exposes that universal connection that is human emotion and provides spaces for communication. It’s made me cry several times…and I can only hope others can also experience the same happiness that it’s brought me.

Works Cited

Giovenco, Danielle, et al. “Social Isolation and Psychological Distress among Southern U.S. College Students in the Era of COVID-19.” PloS One, vol. 17, no. 12, 2022, pp. e0279485–e0279485, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0279485.

Yin, Olivia, et al. “Persistent Anxiety among High School Students: Survey Results from the Second Year of the COVID Pandemic.” PloS One, vol. 17, no. 9, 2022, pp. e0275292–e0275292, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0275292.

Oh, Hans, et al. “COVID-19 Dimensions Are Related to Depression and Anxiety among US College Students: Findings from the Healthy Minds Survey 2020.” Journal of Affective Disorders, vol. 292, 2021, pp. 270–75, doi:10.1016/j.jad.2021.05.121.

Sachdev, Geetika. “Inside out 2 Turns the Spotlight on Anxiety as a Dominant Emotion in Teens.” YourStory, YS Life, 24 June 2024, yourstory.com/ys-life/inside-out-2-anxiety-in-teens-parenting.

Suttell, Scott. “Local Psychologist Talks Consulting with Pixar for ‘Inside Out 2.’” Crain’s Cleveland Business, vol. 45, no. 24, 2024, pp. 7-.

Ugwu, Reggie. “What Does Anxiety Look Like? How Pixar Created the ‘Inside Out 2’ Villain.” New York Times (Online), 2024.