Hollywood Therapists See Mental Health Effects of Dual Strikes

Depression, anxiety and feelings of “powerlessness” and “loss of identity” are taking hold during the entertainment industry’s ongoing work stoppage.

From The Hollywood Reporter:

Anxiety. Anger. Frustration. As the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes roll on, folks in Hollywood are feeling it all. “The strikes are hard on everyone,” writer and producer Joe Henderson tells THR. “It’s a weird time because there’s a mix of feeling empowered to fight for what we deserve and believe in — and feeling powerless because we don’t feel seen for the value we create. I vary between being depressed and being inspired. That’s the challenge.”

Psychotherapists who work with a largely Hollywood clientele say their patients are unsettled and triggered during the work stoppage. “What happens when people are under a great deal of stress like this, there’s a primitive defense mechanism — it’s called projection. That’s when people assign their unwanted feelings onto somebody else,” says Beverly Hills psychologist Jeff Blume, noting that this can be a factor in the acrimony now permeating the industry. “There’s a lot of blame — it’s the studio’s fault, or it’s the actors’ fault.”

Therapists say that many of their clients — such as below-the-line crew as well as lower-level workers at struck companies — feel a sense of helplessness right now, a feeling of being caught in the cross fire. Financial pressures are real — the Entertainment Community Fund (see page 34) has seen requests for financial aid skyrocket amid the strikes. But therapists note that creatives in particular feel activated by what they feel is disregard and contempt from the studios.

“The way I look at it is, everybody comes to Hollywood in search of an approving parent,” says Dennis Palumbo, a writer and psychotherapist specializing in creative issues. “I think what [the strikes] have done is illuminate for a lot of my patients that while Hollywood tries to put the creative person in the child role and the industry itself in the parent role, that’s not the role. It’s an employer-employee role, and employees have rights.”

These realizations are causing many to reframe the way they perceive the studios’ treatment of their workers. “It’s just frustrating that people we considered our studio partners, the CEOs of these companies, seem to be so unwilling to share with us the fruits of our labor,” says Rob Forman, Universal lot coordinator and co-chair of the WGA West LGBTQ+ Committee. “It has made people reconsider our relationships with these studios and look at little things we experienced in the last decade as streaming dominance took over. This is a relationship business, and it was an abusive relationship.”

I remember the strike of 1988. I had barely been a member of the WGA for a year when we went out on strike. That strike which lasted over 150 days forced me to sell my part interest in a Laurel Canyon house. The picketing and communication experience of that strike was amateur hour compared to this work stoppage. The Guild and strike captains have been remarkable in their organization and creativity to make the picket line as tolerable as possible. But the day after day after day experience … that’s wearing. Consider this from my friend Gary Scott Thompson:

One year of his life on strike. Others even longer. And yet this comment from the Hollywood Reporter article:

While problems likely will only deepen as the strikes drag on, therapists expressed admiration for their striking clients during these difficult times. “They [have] financial anxieties, creative anxieties, but I’m mostly struck by the solidarity that the writers and actors feel,” Palumbo says. “And how, to a person, everyone feels the issues are quite strike-worthy. I’m proud of them for that.”

Dennis Palumbo is a former screenwriter. He understands.

With the sides having met three times last week and scheduled to do so again this week, there is a flicker of hope that a deal with be forthcoming.

Until then…

#WGAStrong

For the latest updates on the strike and news resources, go here.

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