Inside Out 2: A Therapist's Perspective (spoilers!)

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

I feel like I've written about the original Inside Out (2015) film previously but just in case you're new here, I absolutely loved it. When it was released, I was in my first internship for my master's of social work program. It was with The Kearney Center up in Tallahassee working with people experiencing homelessness and learning about connecting residents with resources, or more likely, what to do when there are no resources available. To say you encounter a lot of different emotions in this field is to barely scratch the surface of what it is to work in mental health and social services.

But at this time in 2015, I was 1 year into addressing my own mental health issues. In 2014, I realized I had a lot of unresolved trauma and my relationship at that time was triggering too many of those memories. When it first hit, it felt overwhelming. Impossible. I thought I was weak...and my partner at the time liked to remind me of that opinion frequently. I mean, when your emotional compass never, ever really pointed north, how do you plot a course to a better place once you've decided you're tired of running over the same old ground?

Getting validation helped. Getting medication that bridged the gap that was caused by my lack of grounding skills helped a ton, too. Once I stayed calm enough to maintain access to my less extreme parts, I didn't need the medication anymore. I started going to yoga and riding my bike. Then I started a yoga teacher training class as well which further cemented my meditation and mindfulness practice. This started at the same time I started the social work graduate program and all of it happening at the same time...it just came together so flawlessly and it made sense.

So when I watched Inside Out the following year, I understood it on a level that my 2014 self never would have appreciated. My youngest loves that movie so much I have probably rewatched it 50 more times this year and I always saw something new. Since my approach to therapy is based on Narrative therapy and Internal Family Systems, I have used Inside Out to help explain to my clients how certain parts/emotions can go into extremes and essentially hijack an entire person. And it really helped clients understand the perspective, taught them how to use the parts language, and in time learned to trust their systems instead of fighting the uncomfortable parts (exiled parts).

My current husband used to hate Inside Out but after I explained the nuances, he came to appreciate it, especially after seeing how much our son loved the film and how easy it was to identify emotions with him since there were these characters he knows well. So when the sequel to Inside Out was announced, we were both excited and cautious. Sequels don't always hold up and there was so much respect for the first film in our family, I was so close to saying, "Nope, I don't want to watch it." In the end, I couldn't resist but the glowing reviews and broken box office records provided encouragement as well.

The film shows us the original five emotions and they are much more regulated than in their previous adventure, especially Joy and Sadness. They are a well-oiled machine, understanding the role each of them needs to play in order to fulfill Riley's development into a fully functional, well-adjusted human being. They are not afraid of stepping back and letting another emotion take the wheel. But, much like in the first film, Riley encounters information that requires...adjustment. This is hard to say because the perceived threat is just that, perceived. Nothing has even happened yet. Unfortunately, this development triggers the presentation of 5 new emotions: Anxiety, Envy, Ennui, Embarrassment, and Nostalgia.

I take issue with the idea that puberty was somehow the critical event that made these new emotions spawn into existence but perhaps that information is not critical to advancing the plot. After all, Riley exhibited anxiety and embarrassment quite frequently due to Fear in the first movie and thanks to Disgust, was also well-versed in sarcasm and envy. Did you know that when writing the screenplay for the first film, writers had identified 27 different emotions before settling on the five we've come to know and love? Yep, the web of human emotion is broad and complicated. But these more complex emotions get their own spotlight this time and, unfortunately all the ground gained by the original Five is immediately sacrificed by the newest system manager, Anxiety.

Oh, did you notice that I used the term "manager"? When clients are introduced to Internal Family Systems (IFS) theory, they are given three titles to consider and use when conceptualizing their system: managers, firefighters, and exiles. We try not to overwhelm clients in the beginning as thinking of your emotional system in terms of "parts" is like learning a new language. When a client identifies a manager part, they are identifying a part of them that is proactive. A part of them that recognizes certain metrics need to be met in order to protect the individual from criticism, pain, or remembering. They see themselves as the protector and while Joy was definitely the protector in Inside Out, she became much more relaxed in the sequel. Unfortunately, it can be argued that because she relaxed in this role, it paved the way for the rise of Anxiety. And Anxiety took the role of manager quite literally. Later in the film, you see her co-opt Riley's imagination and put them in "cubicles" to do work for her. Like an actual manager! It was very on the nose but also drove home the narrative of the kind of damage the worst kind of manager can cause.

Let's be clear: Anxiety is not a villain. Anxiety is never the villain but is very often misunderstood...as villains usually are. As the antagonist in this film, she makes clear her very simple objective: to make Riley the very best version of herself that she can be. In order to do that, she feels she needs to be prepared to address any potential barrier or eventuality that will make Riley feel, well, bad. Because Anxiety isn't wrong. The way I explain the role of anxiety to clients I work with looks a little like this:

What my graph above represents is the relationship between anxiety and productivity. If you have too little anxiety, your productivity will be low because there is no urgency, no anticipated consequence if action is or isn't taken. It's like being on a sailboat in the middle of the ocean but there is no wind to propel your craft. At the other end of the spectrum, it shows too much anxiety can have the same effect. You're too aware of all the potential paths and consequences. It can look a lot like decision paralysis which those with ADHD can tell you about until the cows come home but in this situation, there is too much information or the perception of too much stimuli to be able to take action. Ideally, we want people to find the sweet spot of anxiety, somewhere in the middle. Just enough anxiety to make something so important that it gets your attention but not too much that you become a nervous wreck about it.

A lot of Riley's decisions will determine the course of her life and being aware of those moments is very important to keeping Riley "on track." Unfortunately, Anxiety goes to the extreme...which is never good for any part we may identify.

Joy to an extreme is toxic positivity. Sadness to an extreme probably looks like severe depression. Disgust to an extreme is anti-social and judgmental. Fear to an extreme would be unchecked phobia of everything. And anger to an extreme is rage. None of these extremes would check the well-adjusted box. But, much like all of our managers/protectors, Anxiety thinks she is protecting Riley. That is until Riley's new core belief manifests itself and declares, "I'm not good enough." Then Anxiety realizes something is wrong BUT instead of backing off, Anxiety decides it's because she hasn't done enough so she just goes harder. There is no balance in Riley's system. All the uncomfortable mistakes Riley has made, and survived, have been ejected to the "back of her mind", prevented from contributing to her sense of self. Riley's system has encouraged her to gloss over those mistakes instead of allowing her "Self" to process the pain of being wrong, being awkward, being cruel, and regulate herself through the consequences. It continues until Anxiety becomes a veritable maelstrom, creating a vortex none of the other emotions can approach, much less penetrate, to help Anxiety regulate and move out of the extreme version of herself.

That is, until Joy realizes she is the only one who can give Anxiety permission to let go. Joy is the only other emotion that had previously stepped into the manager position and knows the pain Anxiety feels. Joy moved out of her extreme of toxic positivity, even allowing herself in this film to let the other emotions know that she also gets frustrated and angry, that she's tired of always being positive and no she doesn't always have all the answers. It's one of my favorite questions to ask in session: "If this part of you didn't need to be responsible for XYZ, what else would it like to do? What else could it accomplish, even if that is just resting?" Its powerful to watch Joy let the other emotions comfort her when she's honest about how she's feeling, something I am sure she learned from Riley trusting her parents with her sadness and disappointment in the first film. At one point in the sequel, Joy says, "Maybe this is what happens when you grow up, you feel less joy." And this quote hits really hard. It's not one that kids can understand...yet.

But I see Joy shifting from her glowing, always positive, "find the fun" self, and moving into something that looks more like contentment. Joy is easier to maintain as a child, at least it should be. As parents, we are guilty of sheltering our children from strife and pain as much as we can. But as children grow, they discover that not everything in life is going to always be perfect and negative emotions will be a larger staple of their remaining years on this planet. Those other emotions sure don't feel good when they move in and give no indication of vacating the premises, like ever, but they are normal. And it is so important to normalize experiencing them.

I love that, in the end, Anxiety is given a comfy chair and is gently reminded that things are okay and it is okay to trust Riley, but Anxiety is not bottled up or exiled. They acknowledge her role and ask her for her input so she does not feel like she has to hide or that she is "bad", which was Sadness's experience in the first film. They help the other emotions understand that they had the solutions the whole time.