Screaming as therapy is all the rage right now (literally)

From contemplative silences, meditative reflection, and hours spent huddled over your journal, wellness has come a long way. Currently, though, it's in its big and loud era. Chicago is leading the charge where primal screaming in public spaces seems to be taking over as the new healing trend. So the question is, are you in?  

Let it all out                           

Have certain days just felt… too much? You know the type: nothing seems to be going according to your mood board, and that to-do list just doesn’t seem to be getting shorter. People are breathing down your neck in a hundred different ways, and those who are in your corner don’t seem to get it. Blame it on collective burnout, or the fact that we’re processing our emotions through matcha and memes, but maybe our bodies are in need of something more visceral. We may not know what to do with noise inside our heads, but maybe we can do something about it together. The trend of getting together to release a scream might come across as a little unhinged, but it can’t be denied that it predates contemporary therapy measures.

 

So here's how it goes: Every Sunday evening, a group meets to release three cathartic screams at Chicago’s North Avenue Beach. Manny Hernandez, the founder of the Chicago Scream Club, explains how it all began in an interview with USA Today. “I was having a real bad day with my partner. One day we’re walking by the lake, and I just asked her if she wanted to go scream by the lake. She agreed. There were a few people sitting by the lake, and I told them what we were about to do, and asked if they wanted to join us. That’s how four people joined us, just on a whim. Afterwards, a few people cried. I looked at my girlfriend and said, "this is something that we got to start.” 

Would you join one?

Social media is amplifying the movement. While the idea has been around since awhile, the gathering of forces to make it into a full-fledged movement is just gaining traction. Think of it as group therapy, minus the awkward moments of forced-sharing. You’re witness to someone releasing their trauma, and they are witness to you. Yet, in that moment of togetherness, there’s no pressure to explain what anyone is going through.

A screaming club isn’t encouragement to descend into chaos. Let’s talk science: screaming can actually help regulate the nervous system, by activating the sympathetic nervous system (that’s fight-or-flight) and then quickly shifting the body into parasympathetic mode, or the rest and digest phase. So basically, a good scream can reset your entire system. Screaming also requires no intellectual processing. On days where your everything seems overwhelming, sometimes you don’t have to know why you’re screaming. You just have to let it out.

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