We may be living in troubled times, but if you think that means that television shows with distressing subject matter would have trouble finding an audience, think again. Programming that traffics in gloom and doom, such as HBO's "Chernobyl," is resonating with large numbers of people, many of whom not only watch it, but binge-watch it.

Based on actual events, "Chernobyl" is the story of a nuclear disaster that took place in Ukraine in 1986. Despite the worrying subject matter and gruesome content, HBO said that it attracted six million viewers during its five-episode run. It also currently holds the number one spot on the Internet Movie Database's list of top-rated shows. Furthermore, travel agents who specialize in tourism to the area already report an increase in business, which they attribute directly to the show.

The program is not an outlier. Streaming services are currently full of shows that give viewers few reasons to be optimistic, such as Hulu's "The Handmaid's Tale" and Netflix's "Black Mirror," both of which depict futuristic dystopias that don't always seem all that far fetched.

"Chernobyl" is also not alone in bringing real-life horrors into our living rooms. The National Geographic Channel recently aired "The Hot Zone," a six-episode miniseries based on the 1994 book of the same name, in which an Ebola-like virus was discovered in the United States. It received an 88% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which called it "anxiety-producing … a sobering reminder of exactly how deadly a disease can be."

Why is such distressing programming popular? Is this a new phenomenon, or are streaming services simply catering to an audience that's always existed?

According to Patrick Davey Tully, a family therapist based in Los Angeles, viewers gravitate towards these shows to see their own feelings reflected back at them, which they find emotionally reaffirming. He said that there's really nothing new about this phenomenon, and that the only difference today is the emotional intensity of the programming.

"We used to watch soap operas, which are highly exaggerated versions of reality," he said. "Now, we have shows that dig deeper in terms of their stories, but the need is the same – the need to have feelings reflected back to us, so we know we are not alone."