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Have you ever felt like you wanted to scream at the top of your lungs? Last month, a group of mothers in the US did just that. They decided to get all their pandemic frustrations off their chests by shouting in a group in the middle of a football field. But how effective is this in helping your mental health?

Behaviour and data scientist, Professor Pragya Agarwal, decided to start screaming with her daughters to help them cope with the stresses of lockdown. She joined Emma Barnett on Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour to discuss why she introduced her twin daughters to this practice.

Dr Rebecca Semmens-Wheeler also joined us to explain the benefits of screaming and whether it is actually the healthiest way of making yourself feel better.

“I was intensely researching and writing my books while parenting through the pandemic, and I was increasingly aware of how much stress and anxiety I was building up,” says Pragya. “My children were at home, suddenly cut off from their friends at nursery and the outside world and they didn’t have many ways to articulate their own anxiety and anger around their situation.

“We would sit in the car and scream. Or we would run around the garden and scream. Or we would run up and down the stairs screaming. And then we would flop on the floor laughing and it really helped us bond as well.

“I wanted to create a space where they could express any frustration and stress about their situation, while also giving me the space to scream into the void without feeling guilty as a bad mother. This was a way of letting go for a few minutes during the day. A free non-judgemental space.

“From a young age, girls are supposed to be 'all things nice' and they have to learn to suppress loud voices, screams, rage and fury. This was my personal rebellion, to give a message to my young girls that ALL of their emotions are valid. Expressing emotions is healthy; repressing them is harmful for our physical and mental health.”

So, can screaming be good for your mental health? Professor Pragya Agarwal, author of Hysterical: Exploding the Myth of Gendered Emotions, and Dr Rebecca Semmens-Wheeler shared the pros and cons of screaming.

“Screaming can be cathartic in the moment, helping to express and release emotions,” says Rebecca. “This can especially be the case if those emotions have been repressed. Primal therapy, which is the first recorded context of using screaming as therapy, was used to help people who have experienced childhood trauma.”

“When children are at school, they are being told to sit still, behave a particular way and young children can build up stress which can be released in the form of meltdowns or insomnia,” says Pragya. “Giving my children the chance to scream was giving them an avenue of healthy release of the emotions they were suppressing through the day.”

“Screaming with other people could engender a sense of common humanity, which has been identified as a component of self-compassion,” says Rebecca. “This helps us to feel that we are not alone and recognising this can lead to a sense of greater strength and ability to cope with challenges.

“It is also worth considering that other activities, such as singing in a choir, could have a similar effect, and indeed, singing has been shown to overlap with screaming in the beneficial effects. This bonding can lead to the release of feel-good hormones, endorphins and oxytocin.”

“Another benefit of screaming with others, especially for women, could be a reclamation of the right to express emotions in the face of long-standing judgments from society,” says Rebecca. “This includes the notion that women have a tendency to become hysterical and over-express emotions.

“Even with expressions of pain, research shows that women’s pain is taken less seriously than men’s and they are less likely to receive appropriate medical treatment. I'm not saying that screaming is a solution to everything, but to be able to reclaim that narrative is really important so we can express our anger.”

“In teaching our girls to not demand the space for their feelings, we are not teaching them how to stand tall and assert themselves,” says Pragya. “I wanted to show my children that femininity is not making ourselves smaller, instead we can stand tall in warrior pose, raise our voices demanding to be heard, and feel strong and empowered.”

“Screaming can add to your strength,” says Pragya. “There have been proven benefits of screaming in ancient Chinese medicine and also in Primal scream therapy which John Lennon and Yoko Ono practised. Research has also shown that shouting can increase strength and tennis players, for instance - when they grunt loudly or scream they have more power in their shots.”

“Screaming is fun,” says Pragya. “It can help release tension in the muscles and this relief can result in release of endorphins in the central nervous system which can lead to reduction of pain and increase of pleasure.”

“However, it’s good to be aware that screaming also activates the limbic system in the brain, which is involved in emotions such as fear and anger,” says Rebecca. “This then signals the release of hormones, adrenaline and cortisol, which increases heart rate, perspiration, and breathing rate. This is also the case when you hear screaming – it can be a stressful experience as it evokes a sense of danger.”

“Screaming to release emotions probably needs to be done with caution,” says Rebecca. “It might feel good and have a cathartic effect, but it is not necessarily a healthy emotional regulation strategy. It can be likened to using dynamite to blow something open; it’s broadly effective but lacking the subtlety and awareness that is required to thoroughly process emotions.

“Therefore, it would also be wise to consider other techniques such as psychotherapy, mindfulness, self-compassion, and even reflecting on the structural, systemic, or personal issues that underlie the difficult emotions needing to be expressed.”

Listen back to the full interview with Professor Pragya Agarwal and Dr Rebecca Semmens-Wheeler on Â鶹ԼÅÄ Sounds, where you can also listen back to any episodes of Woman’s Hour you may have missed. Join the conversation @bbcwomanshour on and .