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Improvisational theater can reduce anxiety in teens who struggle socially
- EndXA 8y agoThe original study is available here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0197455618301928 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S01974... Here is the abstract: Adolescents who have Social Anxiety Disorder do not receive the support they need. Improvisational theater involves regular exposure to social performance situations, and is recognized as a potential psycho-social support to enhance well-being and symptom reduction. The current study examines whether participating in a school-based improvisational theater program predicts reductions in symptoms of social anxiety. A total of 268 middle and high school students who participated in a ten-week school-based improvisational theater program completed surveys in a single group pre/post design. Adolescents who screened positive for social phobia at the beginning of class reported reduced symptoms of social anxiety at post-test. This change predicts increases in social skills, hope, creative self-efficacy, comfort performing for others, and willingness to make mistakes, along with marginal decreases in symptoms of depression. Given that no prior study has examined school-based improvisational theater training and its relationship to social anxiety, this work offers an important early contribution to the empirical literature on improvisation and mental health. School-based improvisational theater training offers an accessible, non-clinical alternative for addressing social anxiety problems among adolescents.
- gowld 8y agoNote that this study doesn't differentiate improve from other performance activities like musical performance, drama/theater, or speech and debate.
- godelmachine 8y agoI wanna do improv since past 2 years, but there's nothing in Pune city.
- mrkurt 8y agoImprov is one the most fun and useful thing I've done. I don't think I had any diagnosable social issues, but it's made me better socially. It's also made me better at presenting and pitching. And it's given me something to spend time on that's not work or tech related.
- liotier 8y agoIn public speaking, I used to turn red, sweat and babble... In business school, a three day seminar with theater actors made me realize it didn't have to be like that - it unlocked my attitude and set me on a self-improvement path... I am now at ease speaking anywhere anytime - it took a few years but improvisation with actors has been key to start heading there.
- magicnubs 8y agoIt didn't really give any indications as to how it works in the article, but the people I've known with the worst social phobia have been those who've been most scared of potential (or imagined) social punishment, usually because they feel there is a "script" that they will have trouble following in a social setting (e.g. responding to something "the wrong way", or not having the "right" answer ready for a question, etc.) Seems like it makes sense that if you're constantly places in scenarios with no script and no right or wrong answer, it would help alleviate the anxiety over not knowing "what everyone knows" you're supposed to do in [situation], and that being confident in what you say is like 50% of being seen as a socially capable person.
- jetrink 8y agoWhat I remember from middle school and early high school is the pressure to be funny in group settings. In terms of social status, that skill was at least as important as being good at sports. Failure was immediate and so public. My jokes were met with confusion, silence and people looking at their shoes. The most excruciating part was waiting for someone else to pick up the dropped ball and restart the conversation. It only took a few experiences like that before I stopped trying. Improv could help you learn what is funny to your peers and also how to participate in a way that keeps the conversation flowing.
- wpietri 8y agoAs a socially anxious person who took improv classes in my 20s, I found them hugely useful. The biggest thing I took away were specific attitudes. Like "yes and", where you accept what the person you're talking to starts with and then build on it. Or the the way to succeed is to make many attempts to start something going (what improv calls offers), to follow up on the ones that show promise, and not to worry about the ones that fall by the wayside. Or to not get in your head, to stay present in the moment. And yes, it definitely trains you that there is no "right" way to have a conversation. I think the main difficulty is that normal conversational success can be different than improv success. In improv, you want funny. Funny can be good in normal conversations, but most people are after other things. Understanding, support, connection, reflection. New improv people can be fantastically annoying if they use it as just another way to hide and deflect.
- Wohlf 8y agoThis basically confirms my experiences, the way I improved my social anxiety and public speaking was with (forced) immersion therapy from the public speaking and communication I had to do in college, and at work to a lesser degree.
- ericcholis 8y agoOn a smaller scale, I know many introverts who worked retail or food customer service which brought them out of their shell.
- blablabla123 8y agoIt would be nice if Software Engineering jobs would involve more human interaction. With all this Scrum I have the impression the Engineer is supposed to only work on tickets, have no meetings ideally because it's more efficient when Product people etc. do that. Kind of a bad trend IMHO...
- the_af 8y agoMany flavors of Scrum have daily standups where you must (briefly) talk to the rest of the team, and also involve doing pair programming where you are constantly discussing something with another team member sitting next to you. (This last part actually saps my energy and is something I don't enjoy about agile methodologies...) The problem is that highly technical and focused conversation seems nothing like aimless conversation in social situations.
- blablabla123 8y agoI also think that for most mundane tasks pair programming is more of a burden than an improvement. For really difficult tasks that take hours to just imagine the solution, it can be actually productive to sit together and solve it that way.
- bsenftner 8y agoWhen I was in middle school in the late 70's I was exposed to "Interp" - dramatic interpretation, a form of debate that is dramatic and improvisational. My school never developed its own team, but I envied the schools that did. Looks like it is still going strong: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNDZ9yblPpI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNDZ9yblPpI
- aetimmes 8y agoWhen I was in high school, that superset of debate and Interp events was called forensics, and joining my high school's team was one of the best decisions I ever made. Memories for life and public speaking skills to go with it.
- bsenftner 8y agoI can imagine the revolution if this ever went mainstream. Talk about getting kids out of their social anxiety shells.
- ham_sandwich 8y agoI keep seeing anecdotes about the unreasonable effectiveness of improv. Many people say it’s in the top 2 or 3 subjects they’ve studied and learned, regardless of their background/profession. Maybe it’s time to look into studying it myself, I’d be happy if people shared any recs on how to get started.
- Spooky23 8y agoYou really should. I got schnookered into joining a drama club in high school and it was probably one of the best school experiences that I ever had. The ability to stand in front of a big room and not be anxious was both liberating to me and profoundly useful. I cannot even imagine the opportunity that I would have missed had I not had that confidence. As a side benefit, it’s alot of fun, I wish I had kept it up!
- ddingus 8y agoSame. Great experience. Same with music. The performance arts can crack an awful lot of inhibitions.
- gowld 8y agosnookered https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/snookered https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/snookered vs schnookered https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/schnookered https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/schnookered I hope you weren't drunk in high school. Would a drama club allow alochol?
- wpietri 8y ago
- chrisco255 8y agoWorks for adults, too.
- starpilot 8y agoThere's an entire self-help book on this: Improv Wisdom, by a Stanford instructor who teaches improv.
- kyoob 8y agoI'm a believer in these findings. I do wish that the model for learning improv in the private sector was different. As it is, adults have to move to cities where theaters are offering classes, then pay out for the classes (which can run up to $300-400 per 8-week class in the bigger schools). It's expensive, is the point, and this creates a barrier for people of a certain class. I'd love to see it offered in more high schools, or as a free-or-cheap activity akin to soccer or community theatre. Don't even get me started on the level of privilege needed to pay through enough class levels to let one of the theaters audition you for their non-paying staff performer spots.
- gowld 8y agoSeems like a great opportunity for a improv school graduates to start improv schools. I doubt there is an improv cartel propping up prices.
- aetimmes 8y agoIt's not as though improv teachers are walking around buying luxury vehicles, though. The classes are as expensive as they need to be for the instructors to eat. There's nothing stopping people from starting up a community improv troupe without formal training from a teacher, just as you don't need someone with an MFA in Performance to start a community theater group. There are enough books out there on the art form that a dedicated group could learn the necessary techniques on their own. And high-level youth soccer can be way more expensive than even UCB-level improv classes.
- ken 8y agoI've looked at acting classes, and even beginning classes are much more expensive (2-5x) than any other type of classes I've taken, like martial arts, music, or dance -- even private lessons. Do dancers not need to eat? Do musicians not study as long to become competent teachers? Why is acting priced so different from every other art?
- aetimmes 8y agoSupply, demand, and upside. Movie stars get paid orders of magnitude more than top martial artists/musicians/dancers, so more people try to be actors, so there's a larger market, meaning instructors can charge more. Also depends where you're looking. The professional acting scenes in LA/NYC tend to choke out the hobbyist scenes (why see a community theater show in Manhattan when you can get sub-$50 tickets to a Broadway show from TDF?), so if you're looking for acting classes in those areas, they're directed at and priced for professionals.
- mythobit 8y agoI wonder if this is limited to improvisational theater or if something like a roleplaying game, where the person has to act out a role with no script, can help as well. I would think that they get to perform the same sort of social interactions and while still being "low cost".
- Verdex_3 8y agoI was wondering the same thing. I feel my time playing various role playing games has helped the issues that I've had with social anxiety.
- amelius 8y agoI'm guessing that the best script for people with some kind of anxiety is: acting that you simply don't care. That way, you don't look stupid, just a little uncooperative or disinterested. From there you can build on confidence, thus keeping your head from overflowing with negative thoughts, and actually making a more interesting performance.
- viggity 8y agoI know this is a bit tangential, but my 2nd grader has had a string of "public speaking" assignments and it struck me as being odd (ie 7yo is kinda young for something like that). But apparently it is a bit of a trend in schools and they very much do it that early on purpose. It builds up confidence slowly before social awareness really kicks in. I thought it was a brilliant idea.
- philwelch 8y agoI'm told that most people fear public speaking more than they fear death. I'm not wired that way[1], but it seems like a logical thing to help people overcome at a young age. [1] Which isn't me saying I'm a badass or anything; I just don't especially fear public speaking in particular.
- tombert 8y agoI never did improv, but in high school, the way that I got over a lot of social anxiety was learning to be funny; making my peers laugh was a good enough way to break the ice and has really helped me in my career. Granted, in high school the only trick to making a joke is to imply something sexual or say a swear word, but the principles still basically holds. Picking up a few joke books was really helpful to me, so I suspect that taking a class might be even better.
- teej 8y agoI’ve forgotten many of the leading roles I had in plays during school but I remember in fine detail the first big laugh I got during an improv lesson in drama class.
- schnevets 8y agoIf I learned one thing from my 201 class at Upright Citizens Brigade theater, it was that I'm not as funny as I think I am and that I should stop those "funny-man" impulses from high school. Humor has a way of controlling the conversation and tone. Improv is about sharing and cooperating over that control. You share a stage with 15 other folks who want to relish in that limelight, and you quickly learn what happens if you don't cooperate. I only bring this up since improv helped me think about social situations in a very different lens. It's like taking up a recreational sport - you'll think you're fit until actually pushed into a challenging environment.
- sjg007 8y agoWorked for me and it was my favorite class in middle school.
- donatj 8y agoThe thought of even trying that is giving me anxiety.
- twoquestions 8y agoYou too? My whole body tightened up more than a max-effort deadlift just reading the article.
- sannee 8y agoParticipation was voluntary, which likely skews the results. I can't imagine signing up for anything similar to this myself...
- Symmetry 8y agoI feel like I got a lot out of my college LARP group for similar reasons.
- taurath 8y agoImprov is absolutely wonderful for social anxiety - the point is to say "yes, and" and every time someone just gives a hard "no" the entire scene stops and everyone can feel it. Social anxiety for many is the fear of social/phsycial consequences for expression - its a perfect "safe" environment by which to learn to express yourself.
- ionforce 8y agoI'm an active participant in improv and I'd like to disagree right here. If you have someone who is really being off the rails and is JUST expressing themselves and not really listening/collaborating... It's essentially the same as a `no` to everyone else's idea. I have a hard time reconciling these things. Where it "should" be safe for "everyone" but not if you're too crazy! I think some people really get off on the expressive/generative part of improv and not so much on the listening/collaborating.
- taurath 8y agoI suppose that there are quite a few people who express their social anxiety by having pressure of speech, which it'd be a downside for, but for myself and most others who go "quiet" out of deference or fear its been very helpful. If the person doesn't do well at passing the ball in a conversation, often times they can fix that pretty easily by having it explained to them, and given what would normally seem way overly direct/aggressive advice usually works well for those people.
- user68858788 8y agoI'd take an improv class as an adult if it weren't so nerve wracking.
- echelon 8y agoYou should do it! I took a year of improv as an adult (30's) and found it an incredibly valuable experience. It benefitted my communication skills tremendously and reduced the anxiety I had talking to strangers. "yes, and" helps with the communication protocol. You're more constructive and work harder to clearly communicate your points. "you don't have to say anything clever" takes you off the spot and reduces the pressure. If you're less comedically included, you can still heighten the stakes by interpreting what's going on and going along with it. The audience just wants to see human drama, and the most truthful thing is how you feel about what's happening. Just to do it -- it's that easy. There are no expectations. Improv teaches a meta language. Your intent, what you're going to do with the scenario, how you feel about each other and the world around you -- none of this has to be spoken. You're having a dialog with your scene partner(s) and communicating to them in realtime outside of the actual words that you're speaking. This is especially important, because so much of real life communication is non-verbal. Improv opens you up to that whole world. There are no wrong choices. Yes, there are more optimal choices, but there are no bad ones as long as you follow the simple rules of improv. You don't even need to worry about that until you become serious about improv as a hobby. You'll find analogs to all of these points in your own communication with friends, peers, superiors, et al. Improv is one of the best courses on human communication. It's also cheap, fun, and highly effective.
- wenc 8y ago> Improv teaches a meta language. Your intent, what you're going to do with the scenario, how you feel about each other and the world around you -- none of this has to be spoken. Thanks for articulating that insight. I've looked into improv off-and-on for years but have not found the clinching argument on its value-add in my situation. I'm fortunate enough to not be prone to social anxiety (I'm a people-connector type and am actually drawn to strangers), and public speaking doesn't faze me, so I haven't really been able to see how improv would fit into my life. But improving non-verbal communication is a meta skill that I could get behind. I'm still not sure how "yes and" would apply in improving daily conversation though. Do you have any positive experiences to share?
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- maxxxxx 8y agoI often have social anxiety and I can confirm these findings. Some years ago I did an improv class. First I was really scared but we did a lot of exercises where you really had no pressure to be funny but funny situations just developed without anyone trying. I learned to say "yes" to new things and go into the unknown without being scared. It was super low pressure and very supportive and I would rate it in the top 5 of life transforming experiences for me. Others are travelling without preparation, joining Toastmasters and picking up martial arts.
- kertoip_1 8y agoI've never encountered with "improvisional theater". How does it work? What practically is "performing without a script"? You stay on stage and say anything that comes to your mind?
- nmca 8y agoI'd suggest watching scenes from "Who's line is it anyway" on youtube to familiarise yourself.
- zck 8y agoYou know when kids play make-believe? Where one kid is a knight, and the other is a dragon? That's improv. Improv can take a lot of forms -- there's one style that's basically "make up a movie, complete with narrated camera moves". There's another that's "a series of unconnected scenes". My team is doing one now that is basically an improvised podcast or radio play. Simply "standing on stage and talking" is bad form, because it's not especially interesting. How many tv shows are just people talking? None; people are doing _something_. Sometimes those people are very active, like if they're riding a dragon into combat. Sometimes those people are less active, like if they're a radio host talking to callers. But never are people just standing: they're adjusting the radio microphone, or flipping a page to read off of.
- arkh 8y ago> You know when kids play make-believe? Where one kid is a knight, and the other is a dragon? That's improv. So, role playing games?
- doitLP 8y ago“Make someone do something they’re afraid of at a level they can handle and they get better at it and less afraid”. Not surprising. This is how I conquered my deep fear of flying. I took some flying lessons and even had the instructor do stalls and other scary stuff and I was 95% better afterward. It’s so much easier to take a drug or blame biochemistry than to face your fears. I think it’s underrated in today’s world where there’s a handy diagnosis for everything. Note: not casting aspersions on people with serious issues. But when 20% of the US population is supposed to have anxiety disorders, something doesn’t make sense.
- philwelch 8y ago> Note: not casting aspersions on people with serious issues. But when 20% of the US population is supposed to have anxiety disorders, something doesn’t make sense. That's what happens when a culture undermines the virtues of independence, competence, stolidity, and maturity while venerating childishness. It's what happens when a culture overvalues safety and the avoidance of suffering and undervalues character. Coddled children turn into adults who lack the skills and experience to deal with hardship. Exposure therapy is hard work. It requires calmly distancing yourself from your fears and anxieties, believing that they can be overcome in the first place, strategizing about how to overcome them, and carrying out actions that are genuinely terrifying to you. It requires valuing freedom from your own emotional limitations over freedom from discomfort. It requires preferring being capable over being comfortable. And that's a hard mindset to cultivate if you were raised in a society where parents sometimes get into legal trouble for letting their kids walk to school or sit outside in the car while they're grocery shopping. 20% of the US population does have anxiety disorders, because the US is suffering from a psychiatric epidemic.
- hiker512 8y agoThis is also a regularly used method by psychotherapists. At least in Germany (and I guess all over Europe at least).
- eeZah7Ux 8y agoNot so fast. Facing fears can be beneficial or lead to deep traumas depending on many other factors.
- xkfm 8y agoI've found improv to be frustrating (but not anxiety inducing) in the sense that you can "yes and" a topic to a place that's difficult for someone else to pick up. Almost like you're playing catch, but you tossed the ball to a place that makes it too hard for your friend to catch. Another example would be writing a comment (even this one) and consciously making sure it's easy to reply to, rather than just expressing myself. I suppose it's like having a binary tree, and trying to pick a node that's not too far down the tree. I find myself having to take a step back and consider what I'm going to say and if it makes sense (in general) for someone else to continue off of rather than just talking.
- schnevets 8y agoI work remote, and I am certain that improv can help a virtual team read eachother on calls and engage in "groupthink". I don't know how I can alter a class so it's Zoom-ready, but maybe this research will help me convince some Guinea Pigs at my company.
- pixelpp 8y agoI think VR can be used for this also. Emotional and social intelligence training is the best use of this tech.
- 333c 8y agoI'm somewhat skeptical of these results. I'm a member of an (amateur) improv group. When I improvise, I often feel more nervous because I'm thinking about several things at once: acting, supporting my partner, finding the "game" of a scene. In this way, I can get "stuck" in my head much more than I would in everyday life. While it certainly feels great to have a good show or practice, it can feel pretty crappy to have a show that goes poorly. If I had problems with anxiety, I'm not sure that improv would help.
- zck 8y agoI imagine the idea is not to necessarily make these kids completely comfortable with doing improv, but use some of the improv skills in their daily life. So if they're able to do improv in front of a class, giving a speech might not feel as bad as it did before their improv experience. Or they might be able to go to the beach when before they were too anxious about being seen in a bathing suit. Kind of an exposure therapy, but where the exposure isn't directly the situation they're anxious about.
- josephg 8y agoI’ve been taking improv classes for most of this year and I disagree with your conclusion. You don’t heal from anxiety by hiding from anything scary. You get better by doing things you feel anxious about (and then not dying). And as for presence - if you’re getting stuck in your head while on stage, it becomes much harder to listen and be present to your scene partner and the needs of the scene. In my experience there’s a limit to how good your scenes can be if you’re in your head about them. Improv for me has helped my mental health in lots of tiny ways - I’ve gotten better at visibly failing. I’ve gotten better at expressing negative emotion and I’ve gotten a lot more present. I feel like improv theatre is a microcosm of normal struggles; a lot of the long term issues that we face come up in improv too. And on stage you get the chance to face those demons in a safe, supportive environment surrounded by friends. Being in your head is exactly this sort of developmental challenge. Your improv will (long term) get better if you get out of your head with it and instead be more present and intuitive. And that’s really important in regular life too. For people who struggle with that, what a perfect place to practice. Personally I highly recommend doing some improv classes to anyone smart and creative who wants to push themselves and grow. It’s hard in the best way.
- biII_cosby 8y agoThis is likely saying killing yourself will cure your depression. It will but at what cost.
- garrickvanburen 8y agoWorked for 25-year-old me.
- Tade0 8y agoMy take is that theater, or taking the stage in general, helps tremendously. I remember being such a shy child that in school I couldn't even get myself to stand in line to the sink in which all the others were washing their hands before lunch. My mother sent me to acting classes when I was eight or so and this experience changed me forever. It's the sheer adrenaline of being at the center of attention with your group that does this - just about any social situation becomes manageable after that.
- SeanFerree 8y agoExcellent article
- brolester 8y agoThis is likely saying killing yourself will cure your depression. It will but at what cost.
- vokep 8y agoUh...I don't think these are even at all a little bit close. The second sentence, maybe, there is a cost of attendance and maybe the anxiety experienced at first, but...uh...those are both within life...killing yourself costs exactly at least 1 life. I think improv is a better deal, much cheaper!
- thanatropism 8y agoThis was basically folk knowledge when I was growing up in Brazil. Theater classes for teenagers were like 40% attractive people who want to make it as actors/60% awkward teens. From a basic trust in the scientific process (but also noting the limits of scientific psychology) I figure that social anxiety and the like are serious mental illnesses. But I immigrated as a three-year old and didn't know the language/make any friends for a while, so my social skills always lagged. Theater lessons (some of which was improv, but we wrote our own sketches for a capstone play for our own families) sort of helped me balance that. If there was any anxiety it was secondary/symptomatic of some underdeveloped stuff, much like people develop math anxiety. In retrospect, I attribute it to the "growth mindset" phenomenon: beginners make fools of themselves onstage whether they are awkward or easygoing, so you realize that being-comfortable-in-your-skin is something you can learn rather than something you were born without. Maybe this is what people are going to "hackathons" for - in a pressured time-boxed situation people are less likely to look down on the less math/programming-literate and help them instead.
- ChuckMcM 8y agoI read the headline and basically said, "You have checked in on the local High School's Drama club right?" At least in the Bay Area, Drama Club seems to be a safe place for socially awkward teens.
- diminoten 8y agoThat's how it was a decade ago on the east coast as well, when I went through it (tangentially, admittedly). 5-7 well adjusted folks who are looking to act for attention (nothing wrong with that, to be clear), 25-30 folks who feel weird in their own skin and see drama club as a way to bond with people like them.
- Dowwie 8y agoTeens? How about adults!?
- nothrabannosir 8y agoThis is a bit far out, but if anyone here lives in London and wants to try their hand at this: I run improv workshops. Usually for actors , but I’d love to do a HN session or two :) if there’s interest. I will definitely make sure to tailor it 100% to be approachable by even the most awkward introverted IT’ers among us; I’ve been in the business for long enough to know how. No pressure, guaranteed. Sitting and watching for the entire workshop is also fine. No charge beyond a few quid pp to cover a room. beyond that we just need an evening and some snacks. My contact is in my profile; reply here or drop me a line—would be a lot of fun to make some magic happen!
- rjplatte 8y agoYou mean, interacting with people in 'safe' real life helps with anxiety about interacting with people? Shocker!
- braindongle 8y agoWet blanket researcher: No randomization, purposive sampling, high attrition, this is not great science. Doing randomized trials for this sort of thing is difficult but necessary. A correlational pre-post study is a good start!
- binarynate 8y agoIf anyone's interested in checking out improv musicals, check out the excellent and hilarious Off Book podcast: https://youtu.be/Ivf58k53nu0?t=132 https://youtu.be/Ivf58k53nu0?t=132
- anonytrary 8y agoIt can also make them really annoying at parties. But hey, I guess they got over their anxiety, so that's good.