I had a panic attack when I watched season one of the Sopranos for the first time because Tony’s mom reminded me of my own.
My first viewing was couple of years ago and it came at a time when I started going to therapy specifically because of my mother. I knew my relationship with my mom was really bad but because I grew up very religious I was always taught it was a sin to blame/disagree with your parents so I swept all my emotions under a rug as a teenager/young adult. I had been only going to therapy for a couple of weeks the first time I watched either episode four or five of the show. There was a scene where Livia was victimizing herself/being unappreciative and while watching on my bed I started to get lightheaded. The room felt like it was spinning. I felt like all the blood had been drained from my body and it was hard for me to breathe. I realized it was a panic attack and eventually calmed myself down but I realized that watching Livia triggered my attack. It was the first time I’ve ever seen someone else behave like my mother does in my entire life. The complaining, the manipulation, it was like a spitting image of her and it came at a time when I first began deeply contemplating just how severely my mom negatively affected me psychologically and emotionally growing up. To this day I’ve never had anyone tv/movie character cause a reaction like that. God that show is so good.