SEOUL, Nov 22 — If you’ve ever binge-watched an entire season of a K-drama like "Squid Game” or "Crash Landing On You”, one Korean-American expert has good news: it’s likely improved your mental health.

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

With soap-like plotlines that tackle everything from earth-shattering grief 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, conflict, trauma, hope,” she said, adding that watching heavy topics being successfully managed on screen can change people’s ability to navigate real-world challenges.

For Chang, who was born in Seoul but raised in the United States, 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 in Korean dramas are universal,” Chang said.

"Mental health is how you’re feeling, how you relate to others, psychologically, how your brain has been impacted by things. That’s mental health. We see that in a Korean drama.”

Art therapy?

The idea that a K-drama binge can help with mental health may seem far-fetched, but it chimes with decades-old psychotherapy ideas, one expert said.

"Watching Korean dramas can be beneficial for anxiety and depression from the viewpoint of art therapy,” Im Su-geun, head of a psychiatry 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 align well with psychotherapy,” he said.

K-drama—or television and cinema generally—can help viewers "gain insights into situations from a new perspective, fostering healthy values and providing solutions to their issues,” he said.

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

For example, it can provide a roadmap for patients "facing specific situations, such as breakups or loss,” he said. — AFP