Really like this! Funnily enough the only movies I can watch are those really badly made shark movies (like think jaws but even more ridiculous). I think maybe it’s that they’re kinda ‘scary’ and gory in a pretty tame way, and also pretty predicable and just way too ridiculous to actually be scary in an uncomfortable way
I’ve also actually been thinking a lot about the term ‘maladaptive’ lately. Professionals have specifically used this to refer to my very extreme dissociative experiences which always seemed really weird to me. Like the whole point of dissociation is my brain and body protecting me from experiences that are too painful to be present in. Like how is that MALadaptive? And like, none of them ever considered that maybe I was still going through trauma now. It was always just that this was a thing my brain did that was bad and needed to be stopped, despite the fact that through all this time dissociation is and has literally kept me alive
Love to see others with this same tendency. I started doing this pretty early in my childhood with Jurassic Park on vhs and whatever x files episodes I could tape. This expanded to monster movies, and now here I am--sleeping to high tension films and shows. 🤗
i’ve been thinking a lot about this recently! i’ve found that watching criminal minds (ignoring all the propaganda) helps with my anxiety, because it gives me another explanation for all the fear sensations in my body. sometimes up-regulating through the emotion works. <3
Really like this! Funnily enough the only movies I can watch are those really badly made shark movies (like think jaws but even more ridiculous). I think maybe it’s that they’re kinda ‘scary’ and gory in a pretty tame way, and also pretty predicable and just way too ridiculous to actually be scary in an uncomfortable way
I’ve also actually been thinking a lot about the term ‘maladaptive’ lately. Professionals have specifically used this to refer to my very extreme dissociative experiences which always seemed really weird to me. Like the whole point of dissociation is my brain and body protecting me from experiences that are too painful to be present in. Like how is that MALadaptive? And like, none of them ever considered that maybe I was still going through trauma now. It was always just that this was a thing my brain did that was bad and needed to be stopped, despite the fact that through all this time dissociation is and has literally kept me alive
we love to complete the stress response cycle!
Love to see others with this same tendency. I started doing this pretty early in my childhood with Jurassic Park on vhs and whatever x files episodes I could tape. This expanded to monster movies, and now here I am--sleeping to high tension films and shows. 🤗
i’ve been thinking a lot about this recently! i’ve found that watching criminal minds (ignoring all the propaganda) helps with my anxiety, because it gives me another explanation for all the fear sensations in my body. sometimes up-regulating through the emotion works. <3
Thank you, that was truly enlightening and very well written. 🙏