If you’re someone obsessed with watching or listening to true crime stories to ‘relax’ yourself or watch before going to bed, there’s a message for you from Dr Thema, a celebrity psychologist.
Or if you're someone who's been really curious and concerned as to why your friend loves binge watching crime stories, then Dr Thema's got you.
Dr Thema says there’s nothing really healthy about getting ‘soothed’ by violence.
Sharing a video of her conversation, she wrote:
“If violence is your favourite form of entertainment or your usual “soothing” activity, this may be a good time to start reprogramming your nervous system. Peace may be unfamiliar and feel boring, but you’re worthy of it”.
“'If your idea of relaxing before you go to sleep is to watch three episodes of Law and Order I would encourage you to think about 'why is trauma relaxing to me?'," Dr Thema asked in her recent viral video.
She explained the reason why people watch true crime to relax due to a sense of ‘familiarity’ and feeling ‘normal’.
“Some of us grew up in high stress so people mistake peace for boring. And it’s like to come home to yourself. You have to lean into the discomfort because it’s gonna feel unfamiliar.”
Some viewers thanked Dr Thema for explaining it so clearly.
“Oh she said that thing CLEARLY! I knew things were shifting when I didn’t spend my downtime, listening to true crime podcast anymore!” one wrote.
“When I started to heal, those shows I was obsessed with watching (had watched them for 20+ years since childhood and knew every dated case) became not only less appealing, but disturbing to me. For me, they were definitely related,' another wrote.
“'Personally I feel seen by trauma. I feel less weird or broken. I find it easier to observe trauma in art/entertainment in a way that’s less personal or emotional and think about how it applies to my life than I can when I’m experiencing it," a third wrote.
“Thank you. True crime was my go to relaxing time of the day. Now that I’ve progressed so much through my PTSD, I have found myself skipping over the true crime channels and watching positive videos instead.. whether they are silly animals or more often, people helping other people."
"People helping the homeless or people doing good deeds for others. I choose my peace more and more as I go on,” someone else added.
True crime fans also shared how ‘getting the justice’ was rather the main reason that made them watch true crime.
“As someone who used to decompress to law and order SVU, I don’t think that it was trauma that led me to it, or even attracted me to it…. I believe it was justice. The reality was (at that time for me), Trauma was almost everywhere in my profession, but justice was rarely seen. Thus, watching SVU was a way for my brain to see some form of justice in the area where justice is needed most,” one shared.
“I loved the justice being served unlike the real world “ another wrote.
