Seoul, South Korea:

If you’ve ever watched an entire season of a K-drama like “Squid Game” or “Crash Landing On You,” a Korean-American expert has some good news: It probably improved your mental health.

High production values, top-notch actors and attractive stars have helped propel South Korean TV shows to the top of global viewership rankings, but therapist Jeanie Chang says there are deeper reasons that so many people are addicted to.

With soap opera-like plots that touch on everything from life-changing heartbreak to the joy of new love, watching K-dramas can help people reconnect with their own emotions or process trauma, she says, giving the shows a healing power that transcends their cultural context. .

“We all have family pressures and expectations, conflicts, traumas, hopes,” she said, adding that watching heavy topics handled successfully on screen can change people’s ability to face challenges. real-world challenges.

For Chang, who was born in Seoul but raised in the United States, the K-drama was particularly helpful in allowing her to reconnect with her roots — which she rejected as a child desperate to assimilate .

But “the messages of Korean dramas are universal,” Chang said.

“Mental health is how you feel, how you interact with others, psychologically, how your brain has been impacted by things. That’s what mental health is. We see it in a Korean drama.”

‘Soften my heart’

Global viewership of K-dramas has exploded in recent years, according to industry data, with many overseas viewers, especially in major markets like the United States, turning to Korean content during the pandemic.

Between 2019 and 2022, viewership of Korean TV and movies grew six-fold on Netflix, data shows, and Korean series are now the most-watched non-English content on the platform.

American schoolteacher Jeanie Barry discovered K-drama at a family funeral, when a friend recommended a series – 2020’s “It’s Okay to Not Be Okay” – that she said could help her after a difficult period.

“There was something about it, the way this culture deals with trauma and mental breakdown, that really struck a chord with me,” said Barry, who had traveled to South Korea as part of a K-drama tour organized by therapist Chang. AFP.

“I started to grieve even though I hadn’t been there. There were a lot of tears during this tragedy, but it also made me see that there was a light at the end of the tunnel” , she said.

Instantly hooked, Barry said she has watched 114 K-dramas since discovering the genre and has effectively given up watching English-language television.

“They allowed me to soften my heart,” she said.

Tour member and American Erin McCoy said she had suffered from depression since she was a teenager, but K-drama helped her manage her symptoms.

With depression, “when you live with it for that long, you’re just numb and so you don’t necessarily feel bad, but you never feel good either,” she said.

“You just don’t feel anything,” she said, adding that the K-drama allowed her to relive emotions.

“There are so many ups and downs in each of them, and when I felt the characters’ emotions, it just helped me understand my own more,” she said.

“I feel like I was able to express and feel emotions again.”

“Art therapy”?

The idea that bingeing K-drama can help mental health may seem far-fetched, but it echoes decades-old psychotherapy ideas, an expert said.

“Watching Korean dramas can be beneficial for anxiety and depression from an art therapy perspective,” Im Su-geun, director of a psychiatric clinic in Seoul, told AFP.

First used in the 1940s, art therapy initially involved patients drawing but evolved to incorporate other artistic activities.

“Visual media like Korean dramas have significant strengths that pair well with psychotherapy,” he said.

K-dramas – or television and cinema in general – can help viewers “see situations from a new perspective, promoting healthy values ​​and providing solutions to their problems,” he said. declared.

It’s unlikely to be prescribed by a doctor, he said, but if a therapist were to recommend a specific drama related to the patient’s case, it could be helpful.

For example, it can provide a road map for patients “facing specific situations, such as breakups or losses,” he said.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)