ARMY’s Post-Concert Depression as a Clinical Phenomenon
“It was 2:10 in the morning at the Naratel Hostel in Bangkok, Thailand. In room 3A, two distinct sounds could be heard — the iconic “Why are you running?” meme Jana is trying to add in a video of Lyen running, and Leanne, almost teary eyed, watching Namjoon saying Goodbye to Armys, which was the last video she had on her phone during the concert before it died. You can’t hear anything from Demie — she was lying on the floor of the room, fixated on her phone, probably scrolling through her timeline looking at all the fancams she can now relate to. This went on for a while. I was one of these women, I sat there on the upper bunk, quietly observing and typing this down.”
Post-Concert Depression (hereafter known as “PCD”), while a term that has continually been thrown around in fan culture for almost a decade and has been the subject of countless blogs attempting to explain it, has not been formally addressed in the community of abnormal psychology. While it is a psychological repercussion of attending a concert you got attached to, what are its overlaps with Major Depressive Disorder (hereafter known as “MDD” as discussed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (hereafter known as “DSM5”)? This would be, to my knowledge, the first attempt to evaluate it as a clinical phenomenon, and in the context of using the perspective of ARMYs.
A survey was filled out by ARMYs quantitatively and qualitatively sharing their experience of PCD. The majority of the respondents were 19 to 25 years old, 29.3% were 26 to 30 years old, and 17.1% were 31 to 35 years old. Concerts attended ranged from Seoul, New Jersey, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Bangkok, Pasadena, London, Taoyuan, Sydney, Oakland, Chicago, Manila, and Berlin. From this, the content analysis revealed a clinical description of Post-Concert Depression:
“The sudden, overwhelming, and rapid downward crash, characterized by a feeling of recurring emptiness, disappointment, longing, and heartache, after a very long-awaited fulfilling high moment, which often comes as a realization that the moment, and how fun and euphoric it felt, is truly over and is precipitated by the wish to relive the moment, followed by a fear of never getting the chance (or anxiety of having to wait to get the chance) to relive the moment again. It may also include the annoyance and regret of things you didn’t get to do during the moment, a self-inflicted withdrawal from the real world (usually by spacing out and ruminating about the event, demotivation to do anything, or an overall somber mood) caused by a denial of having to return to a normal life after such an event, and a tendency to talk about the details of the moment obsessively or crave for similar content.”
The DSM5 has an entire chapter dedicated to Depressive Disorders, and their common feature is characterized by depressed mood, diminished interest in activities, loss of energy, and feelings of worthlessness or emptiness, with differences in each disorder attributed to duration, timing, or presumed etiology. With MDD, symptoms prevail for most of the day, every day, for at least 2 weeks. It also includes significant disruption and distress in eating habits, sleeping habits, cognitive abilities, psychomotor abilities, and functioning in important social or occupational areas, in the absence of substance use or a manic episode. Such episodes can either be recurrent or chronic, and episodes that last for 2 years become known as “Dysthymia”.
Immediately after the concert, a feeling of joy and euphoria was very present, reported by 90.2% of the respondents. Other relevant feelings include “I don’t know how to move on from that experience” (63.4%), feelings of separation anxiety with BTS (56.1%), and feelings of sadness and exhaustion (46.3%). They often described it as “overwhelming” and “feeling alive” and reported being grateful and “on top of the world”, which were extremely manic responses. You may recall that a significant diagnostic feature of MDD is the presence of symptoms all day, nearly every day, for two weeks. For the respondents, only 17.1% of them reported feeling negative affect for most of the day almost every day. A majority of them (36.6%) instead reported feeling it once or twice a week, 31.7% of them reported feeling it every other day, and the rest (14.6%) reported feeling them very rarely.
In terms of diagnosing, the DSM5 suggests that a person may describe their feelings as “Sad, Hopeless, Discouraged, or Down in the Dumps” (p. 163) or report somatic complaints, such as body aches and pains. What is always present, to some degree, is a marked decrease in interest in hobbies and other pleasurable or social activities. For ARMYS experiencing PCD, this is the opposite.
There is a marked increase in interest in BTS-related activities and consumption of BTS content, as a majority of ARMY mention that watching their fan-cams from the concert, listening to playlists of songs performed during the concert, or staying updated on what the group is up to gives them a sense of relief from their separation anxiety. The physical ticket from the concert was also a source of comfort, as it serves as a significant token to remind them that they really went. These kinds of activities are usually associated with the motivation to keep going and get them excited to see BTS again in future concerts. However, some had less resilient coping styles than others, as a few reported stress-eating or oversleeping, lying in bed and crying, and even ruminating towards self-hatred.
A very small portion of the ARMYs that responded to the survey also felt guilt immediately after the concert and in the 2-week period after the concert (9.8%), but it’s not related to the feeling of guilt associated with MDD, which is characterized more with exaggerated self-blaming. On the contrary, ARMYs who have been to concerts reported to love themselves more and felt “alive” and “euphoric”.
What is also interesting is the difference in memory recall experienced by all ARMYs post-concert. Immediately after the concert, a third (34.1%) of the respondents remember some performances in the concert but not all of them, another third (31.7%) remembers the concert fully and vividly, while the other third (24.4%) have small hazy memories of it overall. The same patterns resurface across their memory and attention with no significant difference 2 weeks after the concert. Individuals with MDD also usually complain of memory and concentration difficulties, often leading to dysfunction in work or academic performance, but unlike ones experienced in PCD they are general and are related to day-to-day activities rather than a specific content or subject matter.
When asked to recall moments of the concert that left a special and indelible memory in them, most ARMYs actually mention moments leading up to the concert, such as falling in line, entering the stadium, and crying during the first performance. They share that it left a surreal buzzing feeling of actually seeing them for the first time, in person, after only knowing them through screens. Other ARMYs also notably shared emotions that they felt rather than specific memories, such as the feeling of belongingness, being home, and being a part of something bigger than themselves.
Depressive Episodes, the APA contends, can also be triggered by stressful life events. BTS concerts, while they can be stressful, are usually considered euphoric. This tells us that, because it is caused by a specific and identifiable trigger, and it does not cause any great clinical dysfunction and usually dissipates by itself, Post-Concert Depression is a normal experience when evaluated by the DSM5 standards. While it may not be a cause for clinical concern, PCD remains to be a notable aspect of the concert-going experience and is essential in understanding fandom culture in general.
“I think it wasn’t until I saw the iconic “To the biggest love, ARMY” that it finally sunk in that the concert was over, and all the exhaustion and excitement came crashing all at once. It was by far one of the most draining, exhausting, unnecessarily inconvenient experiences of my life. But I didn’t mind, I didn’t mind at all. And I would do it all over again and again and again.
As I turned off the lights in my bunk, I said Good Night. Jana said “Good Night Lyen” back, Demie said “Niiiiight Guys”, and Leanne mumbled something that sounded like Good Night. And I knew, right then and there, that the other girls in that room felt the same way as I did, and so did the other 40,000 ARMYs in that stadium.” — Taken from my Notes, April 2019
References
American Psychological Association (2013) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition. American Psychiatric Publishing. Washington, DC.
