"Inside out helps explain Mental Illness to Children"

Disney Pixar's latest animated movie Inside Out takes a thoughtful and poignant look at emotions and mental wellbeing, and how this affects one family.  We sent mental health campaigner Col, who has bi polar disorder, along with his wife and two children (Emily, 15, and Oliver, seven) to review the box office smash.

“Inside Out is simple yet effective way of explaining emotions to the young - and the not so young. It tells the story of an 11-year-old girl called Riley who moves to a different part of America with her parents. Inside Riley’s mind, her five emotions – Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust – are trying to make sense the change of life events that have been thrust upon her.

Joy tries to keep Riley positive about the change, whilst Sadness can’t help but tinge Riley’s memories of her old home with, well, sadness. But after Joy starts to isolate Sadness to avoid upsetting Riley, both Joy and Sadness get lost in her long term memory. Riley is left with only the three remaining emotions to guide her, leaving her feeling negative about her new home and life.

Riley’s happy memories of her old life slowly fall away, changing her personality and leaving her unable to feel anything and with a growing isolation in her new surroundings.

“The film is an ideal way to open up a discussion to explain mental illness to a seven year old"

After the film we chatted about it as a family, and seven-year-old Oliver recognised that he shows different emotions - that he has joyful ones and sometimes sad ones too. Oliver put it beautifully by saying; ‘Sometimes we feel sad but its ok Dad’.

Oliver has emotional problems which sometimes leave him confused or angry, so he connected with Anger. The film helped him recognise that these emotions are natural in all of us, and how different emotions play on our mood. It was the ideal way to open up a discussion about mental illness to someone as young as him.

My daughter Emily, 15, has a very good understanding of my bipolar disorder and asked if what she saw on Inside Out was what goes on in my head when I am experiencing a depressive episode, and I replied that the film made me recognise how I feel when my bipolar mood is in a depressive cycle. Emily thought about this for a while said that ‘without all your emotions to guide you, you are left feeling numb and unable to explain how you feel to others.’ Parts of the film mirrored changes Emily had experienced in her life.

“Without all your emotions to guide you, you are left feeling numb and unable to explain how you feel to others,” says Emily, aged 15

Inside Out is beautifully made, left us with lots to talk about and the way it explained emotions really struck a chord in our family, where one parent has a mental health condition. For me it was an ingenious way of explaining to children that this is how your mind copes with life and changes and there is nothing wrong with feeling the way we feel whether happy or sad angry or fearful or disgusted. Without these emotions we can’t be who we are. After the film I noticed that there were children talking to parents and asking them if that was what was happening to them. Those conversations had already started even before the credits had ended.

Inside Out will leave you with lots of happy memories and also a few tears. You and your kids will love it and maybe it will start that discussion in your family too.

Read the article direct at:

https://www.rethink.org/news-views/2015/08/inside-out-helps-explain-mental-illness-to-children