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Sensitivity to violence and gore

Discussion in 'Physical & Sexual Health' started by Pseudojim, Mar 2, 2011.

  1. Pseudojim

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    When i was younger, i could watch violent films regardless of realness or psychological intensity, surgery, all manner of movie-magic gore and actual human/animal insides being flopped about on a table (i was fascinated with a hospital show called RPA in australia when i was young, it was very graphic but as a nerd i loved it), etc etc... without any repugnance at all.

    As time has gone by, this has become less and less the case, to the point that now i absolutely cannot stand the sight of any medical shows whatsoever, even mildly real-ish violence forces me away from the TV. I can handle boxing, but even that makes me cringe at times. I absolutely can't even bring myself to look at the screen if there's UFC on, and when i went and saw Inglourious Basterds, I had to look away at the walls of the cinema a number of times. I watched "there will be blood", and the final scene in the bowling alley caught me by surprise. I was a wreck for several minutes after that, and was still thinking about it with revulsion days afterward.

    Psychologically themed violence is the worst of all. I was glad i was with my partner at the time when i went to see The girl with the Dragon Tattoo at the movies. Without the support i'd have probably had to leave.

    I can't even read overly violent books. My favourite book of all time (the chronicles of thomas covenant) has a rape scene early on. I went back to read it and had to skip whole paragraphs.

    My problem, if it is a problem, is that it seems to be getting more pronounced. Slowly but surely i'm just becoming really really sensitive. And i'm worried, where's the finishing point? Is there a finishing point? What happens if it doesn't stop? I love boxing, i love rugby, i'd hate to lose them, like i lost RPA.

    Strangely, conversely, i used to have a needle phobia but overcame that by becoming a blood donor... now they don't bother me a jot.... but i absolutely can't bear to watch anyone else receiving an injection.

    I've never been subjected to any violence really, the only conflict i've ever been in is a shoving match when i was 7. I can't think of any trauma or incident that could have triggered anything like this.

    can anyone help?
     
  2. TheJoker

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    How was your stress level recently? Maybe you feel too uptight? i was a guy who stood next for hours to some dead guy for 3 months.Now some movie as you mention affects me more than that.But i had too uptight days & nights recently.It usually happens to people who had stressful time.I think thats why old people can't watch such movies while young ones run to theathers :icon_bigg
     
  3. Pseudojim

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    It's not exactly a recent thing. It's been a slow decline, through periods of stress and leisure both. I think it started when i was around 15, that's when RPA started to gross me out and i eventually couldn't watch it any more.
     
  4. Toneth

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    I have that same feeling, i used to not mind it, but now it totally grosses me out, lol
     
  5. Holliepop

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    I have something like this, especially with gore. It's weird because even though I don't have to fastforward the movie or close my eyes, because it isn't that scary, I can still feel the pain.

    So for example, amputation of a limb? My limb in which has just been amputated on screen starts to hurt. It's crazy, so I can't watch torture porn (which is just films with a load of violence ... like Saw or Texas Chain Saw Massacre) because I'll end up being in so much pain. >.<
     
  6. malachite

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    Something must have happened thing change for a reason, did you experience something bad or gross in recent years?
     
  7. Lotty

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    I used to have this. Whenever my mother wanted to watch CSI or ER, I'd leave the room immediately. When I watched Scary Movie 3 I switched it off when some monsterous woman came out of the TV and killed someone. Now I really like CSI, and I think Scary Movie is kinda funny. How I got over it? Kept telling myself it wasn't real, kept making myself watch. Telling yourself it isn't real helps. One day there was a police call on the TV. About a dead woman by the side of the road. She was killed. They showed a picture. Blood everywhere. I almost threw up. It was so gross.
    But had it been in a movie, I wouldn't have felt the same way. Then it wouldn't have been real. So it wouldn't have been scary.
    Good luck(*hug*)
     
  8. Toneth

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    oh, that hits a spot for me, I saw a really bad hit and run where a woman was crossing the street and yeah.... I guess I never really thought about it, but it pretty well coincides with when gore started to get to me.
     
  9. mnguy

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    Stuff like that can make me light headed and about to faint. I have to lie down. One time in biology someone brought in the lungs and heart from a deer and I got as white as a sheet and all sweaty and had to sit down, yuck.
     
  10. Bolin

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    I can't take blood and gore, and I have an extreme sensitivity to it. I find this really weird since my first video game was literally Mortal Kombat, and I'd experienced the gore and it wasn't a problem for me (when I was younger).

    Whenever I see something really gory, I get really sick (almost to the point of vomiting in extreme cases), and it seems like my body gets extremely tingly. Sometimes I even feel faint. Because of this, I hardly ever play any "M" rated games or watch bloody or gory "R" rated movies. But it's weird, because shows like CSI or House don't bother me, and they have a lot of surgery/murder scenes in them.