Watching Anime for therapy...can it work?

Anime as a form of therapy... good idea?

Total Votes:

[ 0 ]

This poll closed on July 6, 2004.
No longer accepting new votes.

[Aoinazuma]

I was reading another topic about anime influencing lives and I thought perhaps it could be used as a form of therapy. To fight depression the patient should watch happy and silly anime. To raise one's confidence maybe the patient should watch anime with heroes. What do you think?

[firewoodXGP]

NO!! that would never work!

[Vampire Guinea Pig]

If you want to laugh, watch Excel Saga or Dragon Half.

[Defected_Doll]

I can't se how it would work?

[[ Metamorphoze ]]

It works. -_- Saiyuki made me see the reason of living.

But I'm strange. ._.;

[Pocket Door]

I remember watching anime after I had my wisdom teeth out.

I laughed so hard I popped a stitch! ^_^

[Aoinazuma]

If you think it won't work can you explain why? I truly feel that anime has the power to change a person. It has made me become a better student biggrin

[Keels]

On one hand, I want to disagree with you, and say that anime should not be used in place of professional help. In fact, I think I *will* say that.

Anime should not be used in place of professional help in severe cases.

Now, on the other hand, I can understand the merits of what you mean. For a long time, anime was my main/only source of entertainment. I didn't really have any friends, had just moved to a new city where I experienced MAJOR culture shock, no one liked me... etc, etc, etc. It appears that also around that time I developed a fun little thing called bipolar disorder. ^^;; Anime, as stupid and obsessive as it sounds, was the main factor in keeping me well and remotely healthy during those years. It kind of 'saved my life', if you may.

Some other people will say that's stupid, and I agree with them... living for anime is a pathetic concept, I think. But I'm grateful that I was able to find something that sparked such a passion in me.

...And I'm making no sense.

[Julaylia]

Yes..I've done it before is the reason I know..I was feeling depressed and my psychiatrist was this close to washing her hands of me.."Too deep of an issue" or something she said..I watched a few episodes of a few different anime where the characters were undergoing similarities of what I'd been having troubles with and it pretty much made it all get better for the most part..I wouldn't suggest it for everyone. Just those who are..I don't know..Anime crazed like me.
I think, on one level, it could work. If the characters of the anime in question are going under similar pressures that the one watching them is like was my case..A large part of it was helped by watching Inu-Yasha believe it or not. The relationship troubles being the area there..Shaman King (thanks to Yoh..^^ wink got me to relax a bit about stress and to calm down on the worrying over tests in school during the year while the Naruto manga (alright not neccissarily the anime in the sense of TV but it's still pretty much the same isn't it?) helped me to at least be able to accept myself a little bit better. It proved that, even though it was anime, there are people out there worse off than I was at the time I started to read it. And my friends and my half-brothers on here had been trying to point that out for a long time. I heard what they said but it never sank in.
So, overall, I think that, yes, anime could be used to help with problems in one's life.

[Emily_Browning]

How it work? xp

[A mali]

I use it for cry therapy. Some stories like Grave of the Fireflies are really sad.

[Darien Darien]

maybe some anime but not all anime can get very intense to be used for therapy

[Pawp Tawt]

I'm sure anime can be used in the same way for therapy as bibliotherapy can, or working with animals, etc, etc, etc.

[DeathAngel049]

It would probably work once in a while. sweatdrop

[Streamjumper]

In general I think its a bad idea. No offense, but part of therapy is getting people to deal with reality in a better way than they currently are. I don't really see sitting them down in front of one of the most unrealistic things helping too much with that.

I'm no psychologist, but that's the way I see it.