The Seattle Times: Among the tools that have helped Seattleite Saya Jenks manage anxiety most effectively, here’s one that might seem unexpected: improv. The theatrical art of performing or enacting scenes with no script has also helped her create community when moving between cities, recover from the social isolation of the pandemic and learn to “embrace failure” and be “OK with things not going perfectly,” she said.
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As someone with social anxiety who did a lot of improv after the pandemic, I can absolutely see what they are talking about in this article and I’m glad it IS being talked about. Following the pandemic, I felt extremely isolated and my anxiety had me on edge and the verge of spiraling every minute of every day. I had a very difficult time for a lot of my freshman year of high school, and I don’t know where I would be today if it weren’t for my theater teacher who practically picked me off the side of the street like I was a stray dog. The improv troupe was one of the first clubs I joined in high school and despite the club not being for freshmen, my theater teacher decided I was good enough and let me stay. I can say for sure that the 4 years I spent in that troupe allowed me to manage my anxiety better and also sort of channel it in a beneficial way. It also gave me a ton of life skills that I don’t think are easy to learn without improv. Now of course, I’m not saying its all sunshine and rainbows, there were a few times where my anxiety would kick into overdrive in a negative way because of improv and I’m not entirely healed to this day, but I can say for sure that for the most part it has had a positive impact and helped a lot.
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