First off, I’m sorry it’s been a while since I’ve written anything. With all the changes and uncertainty that we’re living through right now, it’s taken all of my energy and mental resources just to keep going with the bare essentials.
Secondly, I want to talk about something I’ve always done but that I’ve noticed taking on another layer during the pandemic. For as long as I can remember, from a time before the term ‘binge-watch’ was even a thing, I have enjoyed watching episodes of my favourite tv shows and even films back-to-back, and repeat-watching them over and over and over.
This is quiet a common thing for autistic people to do, and while everyone will have their own reasons for doing it, there is an underlying foundation to it; routine. Routines are important to autistic people, they help us to manage the world around us, they give us structure, they provide us comfort. And like so many things which benefit autistic people (e.g. weighted blankets, fidget spinners), it has been found to appeal to neurotypical people too.
Since the advent of streaming services and the popularisation of ‘binge-watching’, there have been studies into the phenomenon, the conclusions to which have been very insightful, especially when you factor in the current state of the world and the increased levels of anxiety everyone is facing.
In the pre-coronavirus world, when I was going through times of stress or change, I would often re-watch a beloved films or favourite episode(s), and since the start of the pandemic I have found myself almost incapable of watching anything new or unknown – much to my dad’s annoyance seen as he has waiting for me to watch the blu-ray of The Joker that he loaned me for months.
It turns out that the rational behind this is twofold; the repetition is a soothing routine in and of itself, and, as studies have found, the repetitions are calming because the stories and their outcomes are already known, making you feel safe in an unpredictable world, as well as offering comfort by helping to recapture feelings.
Autistic people have known these benefits for years (perhaps without being able to adequately verbalise them), and more recently people with anxiety have also embraced them. And since the start of the pandemic, a lot of neurotypical people I know who do not have a diagnosed anxiety disorder have found themselves re-watching tv shows they loved from years ago. When I’ve spoke to them about it, they weren’t sure why they had started doing it, and you could hear the lightbulb go on in their minds when I explained the positive mental health benefits of re-watching.
So if you’ve found yourself re-watching things more than usual, just know that there is nothing wrong with that, and that it is one of many ways that you are managing your own mental wellbeing in these unprecedented times.
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