Inside Out

My daughter went to see Inside Out and told me she thought of me while she watched it, so I went to see it, and had to process it for a few days before I could write about it.

The show is good:entertaining, fun characters, the parents are both living, the conflict of moving is one that many kids can relate to, good art, etc.

After the movie, one of the kids said, "We have movies showing us how cats feel, how cars feel, how dragons feel, and now a movie that shows us that our feelings have feelings."

And I thought, "And you think you are confused."

This movie made me sad because where Riley's key memories are: Family, Honesty, Goofy land, Imagination land, and Hockeyville, mine would look incredibly different. I would have: Child traded for drugs, Battering land, Medical Neglect Land, Polygamyville, Starvation Island, Never fit in anywhere, Abandonment, etc. I'm glad she had a good childhood, but in comparison, my childhood was incredibly messed up.

However, I loved Joy, and like Riley's Joy, my Joy is loved by everyone in my system.

The section of the movie where Joy is not at headquarters and the other emotions are trying to do her job happens often in my head. That is usually when no one comes out and all feelings are muted. She is a place holder only. So if you are with me and I seem drugged and emotionless, just know that all my others are in hiding and are inaccessible, and you are seeing no one.

Riley was unaware of the conversations her emotions were having, but now that I am co-conscious, those discussions are all part of my internal dialogue, and I can hear them all the time, so there is a lot going on in my mind - all. the. time. Unless, everyone disappears and then the silence just about kills me because without my others nothing can happen because no one is just a placeholder. She just keeps track of what is happening but she doesn't act on it.

I liked Sadness in Riley's mind. We need sadness. We need all our emotions. When they were down in the abyss with all the forgotten memories and all was dark, I though of Annie, my alter who has repressed memories. She is always surrounded by dark because she isn't allowed to remember her terror. She is shushed before she can share what happened.

Inside Out is a good movie, one worth seeing, but if you are a multiple, it may get things a bit stirred up in your system.