Becoming Elsa from 'Frozen' saved this woman from depression — is she on to something?

Elsa, the conflicted princess from Disney’s Frozen. (Photo: Courtesy of Disney)

By this point, we all know the refrain to the song “Let It Go” from the Disney smash hit Frozen: “Let it go, let it go / Can’t hold it back anymore / Let it go, let it go / Turn away and slam the door!”

But the character of Elsa continues, singing “It’s funny how some distance / Makes everything seem small / And the fears that once controlled me / Can’t get to me at all!”

For a young English woman named Kirsty Taylor, those lyrics took on a whole new meaning as she lived them out during her own struggle with severe depression .

“It’s impossible to describe,” Kirsty tells Yahoo Health, “The numbness, the loneliness. I barely left my room, really. It’s the most aggressive pain mentally and physically that I’ve ever been through in my life. It took me over a year to get over it.”

As soon as she saw the movie Frozen, things began to change.

Kirsty Taylor dressed up as Elsa. (Photo: Courtesy of Kirsty Taylor) 

“I saw it at the cinema six times,” Kirsty says, “Because Elsa was just such an inspiration. Just watching the film and watching her character helped me — she was battling her own demons and I could really relate to that."

“I thought, if she can do it, I can do it.”

Kirsty took her Frozentherapy one step further: In addition to singing the songs from the movie at home, Taylor also has started a business utilizing her now extensive collection of Elsa costumes and memorabilia to do children’s birthday parties in character every weekend.

Kirsty in her bedroom, surrounded by her Elsa paraphernalia. (Photo: Courtesy of Kirsty Taylor) 

“Becoming this inspirational character has really, really helped me get better,” Kirsty says of getting to be Elsa for not only pleasure but work. “Seeing how happy the children are that I’m there, it’s like I mean something. That I matter.”

Anyone who has seen Frozen and lived through the cultural juggernaut that followed knows there’s just something about Elsa.

Elsa is Nordic princess born with a power she can’t control: the ability to freeze anything in her path. Her parents force her to hide her power — using the mantra “conceal, don’t feel” — for the safety of her younger sister, Anna, who Elsa almost fatally wounded when the two were children. Elsa chooses to live her life in isolation, until one day she breaks free, freezes the kingdom, and flees to an ice palace she builds high in the mountains — while singing “Let It Go”.

Though Elsa’s younger sister Anna — who ultimately gets Elsa to return to her life as a princess — is the main character of the film, it’s Elsa who has captured the hearts and minds of most kids who watch the flick. Perhaps children, who are working though their own issues in the complex job of growing up, also relate to Elsa’s struggles to overcome her inner turmoil.

According the experts, Taylor is on to something.

“For people suffering from debilitating depression and / or anxiety (the two often go together), it is useful to have some strategies that allow them to engage with their lives.” says Art Markman, PhD, a psychology professor at the University of Texas. Much like in Kirsty’s case, Markman notes that left untreated, “anxiety and depression can cause people to avoid their life and to stay indoors or in bed all day.”

Kirsty’s means of coping with her depression is an example of a safety behavior, or something we do to help reduce the fear we’re experiencing. “Kirsty has created her own set of safety behaviors involving the character Elsa from Frozen,” notes Markman.

Kirsty says that a major turning point in her own depression, which the film Frozen helped facilitate was, that she had been trying to pretend that everything was ok — and it wasn’t. “I needed to accept that something was wrong, and that I was ill and I needed help,” she says.

Kirsty acknowledges that Elsa-as-therapy isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution to depression.

But she hopes that the attention around her use of Frozen to work through her own mental illness helps others who are struggling to realize that depression is nothing to be ashamed of. “People get ill in different ways,” says Kirsty. “Depression is just your illness. It’s something you can battle through. Doctors are there to help you. Counselors are there to help you.”

Markman notes that it’s important for individuals with depression and anxiety to continue to engage in therapy and not rely solely on safety behaviors, as “they do not eliminate the factors causing the problem, and so without those safety behaviors, the anxiety and sadness [can] return.” Markman emphasizes how important it is to “work with professionals on some kind of therapy involving behavior techniques, medication, or some combination to help…resolve the factors that are underlying the depression and anxiety.”

As she’s gotten better, Kirsty’s relationship to Elsa has evolved — she can now relate to the end of the movie as much as the beginning. 

“It feels incredible to be honest — to be able to look at Elsa and think I’ve come through the other end just like she has,” says Kirsty. “You watch the film and you see her progression: We begin with someone who is locked away, hiding her feelings and doesn’t want to talk about it with anyone. Then she comes out on the other end as this confident person who lives her life. I’ve been through the tough part, I’ve been through the journey. And now I’m where Elsa is in the sense that’s she happy in herself and is getting on with her life.”

“I can watch the film and just think, I made it. I made it through."