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Normalization of Anxiety in Society

How a Current Broadway Musical Has Led Me to Question Society

By Bec BreezePublished 6 years ago 3 min read
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In Manhattan, New York there is a space called the Theater District. It lies right next to Times Square and hosts countless plays and musicals. Right now at the Music Box theater, you will find a show called Dear Evan Hansen. This show touches on themes of mental health and social acceptance within yourself and in your community.

Now, if you're not familiar with Dear Evan Hansen, here is a brief synopsis for you:

Evan Hansen is a high school senior who suffers from anxiety and depression to the point where he is unable to connect with those around him. He is seeing a therapist who encourages him to write letters to himself about why the day ahead is going to be great. With lots of plot points and a suicide of a loner classmate, named Connor, Evan ends up in a huge lie about being friends with said loner classmate before his death. This lie, though not a good idea, gives Evan the chance to be a part of something; and he decides to start a project with the help of some other classmates to raise awareness, just get a conversation going about mental health and suicide.

One of the things Evan has to do in this process is give a speech at the memorial for Connor. Evan, being the socially anxious kid he is, is scared out of his mind. In the middle of "Disappear" when the speech is given; Evan is shown shuffling and dropping his notecards, falling to the floor in tears and the theater is silent. You can feel the tension from the audience—whether you deal with the fear of public speaking or anything really, everyone can relate to the feeling of facing your fear head-on.

Shortly after Evan's breathtaking speech, there is a 15-minute intermission. I spent those 15 minutes taking in what happened. Even though I knew the story beginning to end it still left me winded and in shock.

Next to me was seated an older couple. They weren't elderly, but they also weren't in their 302. The woman, who was sat next to me, had started crying like two songs in. The man, though, from what I could tell wasn't convinced this was going to be an emotional show yet. So, they were talking and I couldn't help but overhear a bit of their conversation about the speech.

The man said something along the lines that he's seen all of the card dropping, tears, hyperventilating before, and yea it's sad, but it happens. (He did like the use of social media in the show, though).

That got me thinking. Why have we let these things become so normalized? Why is the idea of someone having crippling anxiety not a crazy thing to hear or see? And if it's such a normal thing in our society why isn't there more conversation about it?

A few years ago I was professionally diagnosed with social anxiety, not to the point where I have to take medications, but to the point where I had to work on connecting more. Smiling at my friends in the hallways and saying hello to the person I sat next to in a class every day.

Until this show, I didn't talk about it. I met with a doctor (because at the time I was also being treated for tension headaches) every two weeks to talk about stress and anxiety. As far as everyone knew though, we just talked about ways to minimize stress: anxiety never even came up. I was embarrassed to talk about it. Until this show.

When I found this show it opened me to the idea that mental health is important and it needs to be talked about more. If this is such a normal thing in our society why is it not talked about more? Why do so many people find it so hard to get help?

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