Anxiety and Disgust from Horror Movies?

[JooneBug37]

Hi, I am a teenager with OCD, Sexual Sadism and anxiety problems (I guess that could fall in with OCD). Sexual sadism is when someone gets sexually aroused by the pain and suffering of someone they find attractive. Recently, I’ve been viewing death scenes from horror movies on Youtube, mostly from “slasher” movies that don’t really scare me. The death scenes arouse me, because of my sexual sadism. I’m going to talk to a paraphilias expert about my sexual sadism, but until then I have another problem: fear and disgust from the horror movies. While searching, I discovered a very sick scene involving mutiliation and what I think was cannibalism. This scene traumatized me, but for some reason, I felt a desire to see it again. I have no idea why. After that incident, I started learning more and more about very dark horror movies with taboo subjects. This scared me very much. How should I deal with not only the fear and paranoia, but also the disgust from seeing these horror movies? Whenever I think of this, my mood instantly darkens. One of my main worries is that what if this actually happened? What if the violence I saw in the movie was actual violence filmed on a camera?

Horror movie deaths sexually arouse me, so they are basically porn for me. Is there any way to permanently refrain from watching this? I have heard that watching violent horror movies at a youbg age could have a effect on you.

[MyNameIsTerry]

I'm not sure they have quite enough understanding of the effects of such things on the developing mind yet as many people watch them who have no problems that have been encouraged by them. There have been various studies on younger people though.

If you know about philias then I'm going to take it that you understand about exclusive, optional and preferred. And that many philias may be viewed as odd but not concerning to most people, some refer to activities that can be illegal and some are now even quite openly common in society despite subjective disproval by the public. And that both the APA & WHO are in dispute over them and their terminology.

Therefore it's one to be careful about and needs a professional opinion.

Another reason I say that is because I've seen people go through worries over philias and trying to attach them to their OCD when they have been talking about OCD themes therefore a bit of Confirmation Bias.

So, there is sexual excitement involved as you say and that adds pleasure for you. This may also mean it's not really the content but the feeling it gives you. Hence needing the guidance of someone experienced in this complicated area so you don't start attaching negatives to yourself in order to confirm fears from within your OCD.

I think we have to be careful in these areas when we have OCD themes. For instance, I've always enjoyed action movies which bring excitement. I've also had a violent intrusive thoughts theme. But it doesn't mean I agree with the violence I watched but my OCD would obviously try that on with me "ooh, maybe you really are x, y or z".

The worry about them being real is obviously the anxiety part. Unless you are being some very dodgy black market stuff, that's not even a possibility to entertain. Every film gets licenced to grant it's cert and part of the job of censors is to challenge what they think is going too far for a variety of reasons. They won't let it through. So, they certainly won't be letting real violence or snuff through, which is going to be illegal anyway.

With you being young you are also navigating your sexuality to understand what you like. This is a confusing time for anyone and it's made harder these days by the easy access to porn, other adult stuff, social media, etc.

Philias are also a moving area. Homosexuality used to be one, for instance. Things like voyeurism, BDSM, can be in these categories too and these are much more acceptable in society now. And there are cultural elements to philias too.

[ana]

I personally think that you're just young and going through the changes young people go through. Most of us go through phases in youth, find things that excite and/or scare/intrigue us. I'd, however, advise maybe trying to limit the time you spend watching these horror clips. Maybe you could try and discover something else you like, a subject you can watch YouTube videos about, and slowly substitute the violent videos with the new ones.

[JooneBug37]

Most of the horro films really scare me BECAUSE they’re so taboo. However, I still feel an urge to watch the horror movies, probably because of curiosity and Sexual Sadism. I mostly have this urge when I’m worrying about them. I don’t think I can resist this urge for my whole life, which is bad, because I REALLY don’t want to watch the gaboo films.

[ana]

Perhaps you shouldn't label yourself as a sexual sadist just for liking horror films so much. :) I think you're just enjoying them a bit too much and are currently fixated on them. If you don't want to watch the taboo stuff, then you won't need to watch them.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Perhaps you shouldn't label yourself as a sexual sadist just for liking horror films so much. :) I think you're just enjoying them a bit too much and are currently fixated on them. If you don't want to watch the taboo stuff, then you won't need to watch them.

I agree with ana on this. I'm wondering whether you are labelling yourself thinking it's more extreme than it is? Many people are drawn to morbid stuff without it having a deeper meaning about who they are.

[Lavender12]

I personally think that you're just young and going through the changes young people go through. Most of us go through phases in youth, find things that excite and/or scare/intrigue us. I'd, however, advise maybe trying to limit the time you spend watching these horror clips. Maybe you could try and discover something else you like, a subject you can watch YouTube videos about, and slowly substitute the violent videos with the new ones.

This is right. You can watch something else you like and try to avoid watching horror movies.