7 Shows that helped me through anxiety and depression

1. Merlin. Merlin is the show that has done the most to help me get through some really bad days. There was a time when I was having pretty bad panic attacks. I could barely sleep. I could not bear to spend the night on my own bed; if I tried, I would start shaking. Thoughts so bad would overwhelm me. I started sleeping, or at least trying to sleep, on the couch. I would scour the web for whatever could distract me. That was when I found Merlin.

I mostly watched the early seasons, because I loved good Morgana, and my mind tended to calm down on relatively light episodes. When I think back on how bad things were for me at that time, I wonder if I could have survived those days without Merlin. Probably not. So really, it is not an exaggeration to write that Merlin played a huge part on why I am still alive today.

2. The West Wing. One of my favourite shows of all time, I once watched all seven seasons of The West Wing, then watched them again, with barely a break. The West Wing was my companion through some pretty tough times, and I still look back at it with fondness.

3. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I was doing yoga one afternoon when I turned on the TV and saw a rerun of School Hard, the episode that introduced Spike to the Buffyverse. That started my love of Buffy that lasts till now. Many, many times, Buffy has allowed me to immerse myself into its world when this world became too difficult.

4. The Vampire Diaries. I have not read the books but when The Vampire Diaries first arrived on our screens back in 2009, I was interested enough about vampiric tales that I gave it a shot. Whilst I stopped watching about two episodes into the fourth season, The Vampire Diaries still holds a special place in my TV affections. Recently, I binged watched the fourth and fifth seasons (I mostly loved the fourth season but I was only so-so about the fifth, especially the earlier episodes).

5. Gran Hotel. I discovered this Spanish soap opera in Netflix back in 2016. It was the period setting that drew me in; I stayed and watched all three seasons because it managed to distract me at a time when other shows were not. Gran Hotel is one of those shows better seen with a healthy dose of humour; some of the twists can be downright ridiculous. But there was a genuinely intriguing murder mystery. It took a few weeks before I snapped out of the funk I found myself in back in 2016, but when I was finally fine, I actually found the strength to do a bit of travelling. Given how debilitating my depression can be, that was a major win for me.

6. Teen Wolf. Like Gran Hotel, Teen Wolf was able to distract me at a time when other shows were not. I give a lot of the credit to Stiles, who had most of the show’s best lines, and the coach whom I thought was hilarious. I have not kept up with Teen Wolf past the third season but it is definitely a show I intend to return to soon.

7. Law and Order. Following a really difficult time in college, I found myself spending plenty of time on the couch. That was when I discovered Law and Order reruns. The cases were mostly interesting, and there was this comfort in knowing that the mystery would be resolved at the end of the episode. What finally got me to stop watching was a particularly disturbing episode of Law and Order: Criminal Intent. If Law and Order becomes available to me now, I’d probably watch it for old time’s sake.