If the last 10 months of this god-awful pandemic have taught me anything, it’s that screaming is cathartic. I’ve often found myself randomly screaming, mostly when I’ve been home alone, if only to relieve some tension from being trapped at home all the time. Millions of people all no doubt feel the same, and thousands of them found a way to just scream.
The Just Scream project has collected over 130,000 screams from October 2020 to January 2021. They asked people to call a number, scream in whatever way they felt, then hang up. It’s now over (they’re collecting messages of hope at the moment) but you can still listen to them over on the website. I listened to a few and I was impressed at how varied a human scream can be.
This reminds me of an ad campaign run by Promote Iceland that I gleefully took part in. You scream ‘to let it out’ and they’ll play back your scream through real speakers peppered throughout Iceland. They’ll send you a recording once your scream has aired.
Apparently screaming is also good for you. There’s a thing called ‘primal scream therapy’ that Kanye West is a fan of. I can totally imagine Kanye West being the kind of person to stand in a room and scream. It can help you release anger and frustration, as well as help you with anxiety issues.
Although you can’t just do it yourself and should hire a therapist who specialises in it. Because if you can think of it, there’s money in it.
Anyway, if you’re interested you can read a bit more about primal scream therapy over at Shape.com.
Speaking of the pandemic. In the U.K. we did a ‘clap for the NHS’ that became a bit of a cringe-fest (I’m all for supporting the NHS, it’s a wonderful thing, but I’m sure most NHS would agree that they’d rather have better wages for the hard work they do than a clap at your front door once a week), but I’m all for standing at your front door and just screaming loudly into the night. Although I’m not sure my neighbours would agree!
Now if you’ll excuse me…. AAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!