How can I stop being so disturbed by this???

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There are two ways I know;

One is to desensitize, with any defence mechanisms in the arsenal.
Two is to take it in full force with unconditional acceptance, one by simply letting it through.



The first bit is mental, may require more mental stamina and control whenever it hits your face.
Maybe you get used to it or get numb, maybe you don't and it never gets easier.

The second is more or less the opposite, and it's tricky.
It's like trying to get overwhelmed without being overwhelmed the wrong way.
If only I can explain it, but all I know desensitization or suppression isn't a choice in this path.


Those are just... Options to consider.

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I hate all cruelty to animals. I've become upset just by being out on the road and seeing a truck crowded with cattle or sheep going to the market or abattoir. I once grew upset in the supermarket seeing blood at the bottom of a bag of chicken and chose not to buy it - I am not vegetarian but have been through vegetarian phases. So has my sister!

Most movies involving animals have a disclaimer you'll see during the screen credits which states "no animals were harmed during the making of this movie". They usually have animal experts used as consultants, and scenes are filmed under their supervision.

Indeed only sickos would find any pleasure at all in having animals suffer. I would probably have committed suicide if I had to work in an abattoir or in a butchery.

Any animal cruelty you see on film is all fake and staged. They create puppets to look like the actual animal when they torture it on film. They wouldn't actually set live animals on fire or have actors beat them or be cruel to them. They create robots and make them look like an actual animal and they are called puppets.

I have never seen the film and never heard of it until you mentioned it and it's an old film from the late 1970's.

AP, Your avatar reminds me a bit of a comic book story I had as a boy, called Scourge of the White-Eyes.

Horror should have a story to tell and not just be gratuitously violent for shocker points.

@XFE: I'd rather not go near it or know any more about it that what's been posted here...

Something traumatic along these lines also happened to me when I was in high school. I grew up in a very rural area where agriculture is big. My high school had, and still has, a large agricultural education magnet program. When I was a senior I took a floral design class that was taught by the same teacher that taught the ag classes. One day, when we were working on our nice flower arrangements in class, one of the ag students came in to our classroom and put a video in the vhs player. The teacher was ok with this and she went over and started watching it too. To my horror, the video was of a pig being brutally killed and butchered. It showed everything in graphic detail and was very bloody and gory. It was obviously real and was videotaped by one of the ag students. It showed the pig alive and well at the beginning. I wanted to look away but was so shocked I couldn't. I went to the bathroom and was sick. I don't know what the teacher was thinking, allowing this to be shown. The worst part is the students and the teacher were laughing at the video! I went home and told my mom, who was furious and horrified, but she said she was afraid that if we reported the teacher the teacher might retaliate by giving me bad grades, or friends of the students who showed the video might do something bad to me. I had nightmares and couldn't eat meat for a while after this.

^That's horrible and shouldn't have been allowed. More emotional and sensitive people can't handle that well. And most of us on the spectrum are thus, and have more empathy than most, although there are exceptions.

^I agree. But it was a long time ago and things have improved since then, with legislation being passed to protect animals of all kinds and prevent that sort of abuse from happening.

I know its terrible but you are not responsible for the evil actions of others. All we can do is be kind to the animals we have control over. I trust it didn't suffer too long. i also know how difficult it can be to get such cruel imagery out of your mind. Focus on looking for some of the cute animal videos clips available on You Tube. They should make you feel better.

I don't know if there is a way to full-on stop being upset or disturbed by something that is upsetting and disturbing. In the past year I've been trying to master "mindfulness" exercises in order to be able to independently shift my mind focus from something upsetting to something less so. Perhaps it's premature to recommend something that I haven't been able to master yet, but I can say that it helps. It takes practice, ultimately.

The first step is noticing/realizing you're having a thought that upsets and disturbs you, and to say to yourself, kindly, that it's okay to have those thoughts, and it's also okay not to. The hardest part is to gently box up and shelve the upsetting thought, or place it inside a bubble, or send it down a river on a leaf, or employ another mental image works for you. The idea is that it frees your mind up to think about something else in a way that is not against your will, or a mental battle between positive and negative thoughts.

I recognize that mind exercises can be extremely challenging. If two-years-ago-me had received the message I just wrote, I'd have probably rolled my eyes at the audacity and felt even worse because my mental train of thought can feel like such a powerful, uncontrollable beast. But if it helps in any way at all, I hope it can bring some mental relief.

Go online and find a picture of the movie director. And then...imagine him being fed alive into wood chipper!

Joking. But many a truth is spoken in jest.

I do relate. I was upset by a book (wasnt even the book, just reviews of the book) that came out like ten years ago. It was a then new history book about Japanese atrocities in China in the lead up to world war two. It haunted me for weeks. Happened to be seeing a shrink anyway so I could use the shrink to talk about it. That did help.

All that I can say is go ahead allow yourself to feel upset. Dont be be ashamed of being upset. Allowing yourself to be upset actually helps to stop being upset.