Dr. Frasier Crane Helped My Anxiety
The Nineties sitcom Frasier has been the background noise of my life for decades. I remember being a small child, entering my parent’s room at bedtime with Frasier always on screen. It was the white noise that they fell asleep to and that I soon grew to associate with relaxation and comfort. Eventually, Frasier was no longer on before bed. I hardly noticed. It wasn’t until years later when I was in college when I rediscovered Frasier on Netflix. An unspoken need pushed me to begin watching it again, this time with my full attention.
It was 2016. I was a sophomore at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco with slowing growing anxiety. I could only handle one in-person class a week. I would muster all my energy from the previous week to get up Wednesday mornings and begin the hour and a half BART ride to Montgomery St. I shook. My whole body pulsed as if my heart was in my head. I felt as though at any moment my body would give out and fall dead on the pavement. Come to think of it, I still feel like this almost every day. However, this was one of the first times anxiety seemed to overtake my mind and spirit. I was desperate to find something to ease my mind, to find the courage to begin my day without the overwhelming feeling of giving in and giving up. I came up with the idea of listening to episodes of Frasier like a podcast. I closed my eyes on the train and listened to reruns of the sitcom and imagined the visuals that I had seen many times before. I would listen to an episode over and over again until just hearing the dialogue could consure the entirety of the scene in my head. It was my only coping skill that had pulled my mind away from the existential fear that has plagued me since before I could give it a name. Since then, Frasier has played a tremendous therapy in my life.
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I would like to preface this by stating that by this point I had gone to a professional psychiatrist, was going to therapy regularly, and was on an antidepressant. I am in no way stating that television shows act as a form of treatment for mental illness. It was just one of many coping skills I learned while in the proper care of physicians. No matter how silly this reality is, it is something that I find extremely personal and not something I try to advertise. My anxiety and depression is a part of myself I try desperately to keep to myself. It’s easy to see my love for Frasier as just admiration of popular culture. It is, Frasier is one of the most well-written and amazing spinoffs in the history of television. The characters are beautifully written and are hilariously done. However, I do hold more value to it. There is this weird connection between the sitcom and a sense of familial comfort that I can only explain with the fact that this show was a part of my nightly routine for years. I didn’t even miss it when it stopped, but seeing and hearing it again, especially at a difficult time, solidified it as apart of my self-soothing pacifier.
There is a humanistic want and need to relate to fictional characters. Personality tests uses them to categories the traits of people into the perfectly crafted humans that are created for entertainment. We grow so attached to these characters that we begin to develop a sense of self surrounded by our connection to them. These characters seamlessly invade our psyche and nestle softly in our hearts. People with anxiety and depression often have coping mechanisms that revolve around affection for fictional characters. The fact that a created world gives a sense of calm, makes those in mental distress search for themselves within it. Mental illness in general is a place of loneliness and isolation. Searching for relatable people in any form is a way to reach out and find a tribe. For me, this tribalism utilized he entirety of Frasier. The extended family quality of Frasier, Niles, Martin, Daphne, Roz, and Eddie all add to my admiration for each episode, story, and special. I do have an affinity with Dr. Niles Crane as anyone can tell from my Instagram. I occasionally post images of him on my story just because.
Niles Crane, for those that aren’t familiar, is the younger and more neurotic version of his brother Frasier. He is also a psychiatrist, a Jungian, who is both ice cold and warm of heart. He manically cleans every surface he touches, is prone to panic attacks, and is incredibly sensitive and loving depending on the subject of his affection. He is cunning and clever. He is well-dressed and polite. He is also incredibly anxious and manic and has such a huge heart that he tries to hide with intelligence and tenacity. Niles Crane is the best representation of the anxious yet personable human that I needed as a role model when I began watching it years ago.
I doubt the creators of this character thought about relatability when they created either Niles or Frasier, but that’s what makes them some of the most fully realized and crafted characters on television. The crux of this situation of course is that Frasier is a psychiatrist. He deals with mental illness. The whole show is helping those around him deal with the pressure and mundane struggles of life with humor and stupidity. Here I was trying to deal with my issues with both a real and fake psychiatrist. Both of which helped in ways that I didn’t expect. Even though I don’t face the same anxiety issues I found at that particular moment in 2016, 2020 brings its own anxieties that we are all struggling to deal with. Netflix took off Frasier a couple of years ago and my heart broke. It was a safety net for me that I loved knowing was there anytime I needed it. I spent two years without watching Frasier, until recently when I made the big decision to purchase a Hulu subscription. I again have my safety net, my family, and my coping mechanism available anytime I need. Is this healthy? I don’t know. I still watch it when I am feeling anxious. I still listen to episodes over and over again for comfort. And I would recommend it to anyone just wanting to watch one of the best television sitcoms of all time.
