K-DRAMA FOR MENTAL HEALTH

If you have ever binge-watched an entire season of a K-drama like Squid Game (2021) or Crash Landing On You (2019 to 2020), one Korean-American expert has good news: It has likely improved your mental health.

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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 said, 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 Ms Chang, who was born in Seoul but raised in the US, K-dramas were 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, Ms Chang said.