To be unable to watch videos where someone gets (even slightly) hurt?

[ColdCashDivine]

Every now and again I'll scroll past a 'funny' video of someone getting hurt, nothing serious just things like falling over. It makes me wince and I can feel almost feel it. They go viral with people saying how funny it is, and I just wonder if my reaction is a bit odd?

It's even worse in real life, even with minor things like if I see someone has cut their hand I get shooting pains in my hand going down to my feet.

I studied a medical-y subject at university and we would do patient case studies and I would physically feel the symptoms. There was one patient case study about someone with a bad knee and my knee ached as I did that assignment. Cardiovascular patients would make my chest ache.

Does anyone else experience this? I think it's normal, but the reaction of people to those kinds of videos makes me question it?

(Not trying to sound holier than thou, I'm so delicate and empathetic and sensitive blah blah blah. Just genuinely curious)

I experience this. I don’t think it’s very common to be like this though.

I sometimes get an aching sensation in my core when I witness or think too intensely about someone I care for being severely hurt, but I've never had a problem with your average comedic video of someone hurting themselves. Sometimes it's funny, sometimes not. I might say "ouch" in sympathy, but they don't cause me physical or psychological discomfort to watch.

I don't like it either. There's nothing funny in someone getting (even potentially) hurt from my point of view.
I would never watch You've Been Framed for instance. I can't see any level of humour in it.

I get shooting pains in my legs when I watch those types of videos - but no one else in my family seems to. If you look up pain empathy, you’ll find articles about it which suggest it’s a real effect but no very common.

It's definitely a thing, but it's not something I have an issue with. I don't like watching people get hurt, but I could watch people creatively falling off horses all day. Probably because I'm so used to doing it myself

How do you feel about fictional injuries - people being shot / stabbed / otherwise twatted on tv?

My DH is like this, he hates watching anything where people are injured in real life. He can however watch films with characters being injured and it doesn’t bother him.

I get sharp shooting pains when somebody tells me about or shows me an injury. It's an actual physical pain and it's only started happening I'm the last 10 years or so ( I'm 50) It's bizarre, almost like an electric shock through my body.

Agree. I hate watching those programs where people fall/get hurt and it’s supposed to be funny. I actually have no idea why anyone would enjoy watching them.
Also, I get a really bad feeling in my stomach when I hear of someone getting injured.

I get this. If I watch skateboarders or stunts etc on YouTube etc hitting a fence / wall etc my legs etc hurt. I always have to turn off things like this. No idea why though so jot sure it helps. Also those weird you've been framed videos make me cringe.

@CaptainThe95thRifles I can get the same pains when watching something fictional but don’t always, and I can get them when someone tells me about being injured (ie. don’t need to SEE the injury happen). However, a bit like not being able to tickle yourself, I don’t think I could make the pains happen by thinking about an accident or injury.

There's a name for this.

I don't experience this myself but I absolutely hate seeing people getting hurt. It makes me feel awful, sick, guilty and I get a shot of anxiety that shots from my stomach into my vag.

How boxing is invented is beyond me.

@CaptainThe95thRifles

It's definitely a thing, but it's not something I have an issue with. I don't like watching people get hurt, but I could watch people creatively falling off horses all day. Probably because I'm so used to doing it myself

How do you feel about fictional injuries - people being shot / stabbed / otherwise twatted on tv?

I don't get it with fiction.

How are you in chapels?

I know this is going to sound weird but since giving birth 6yrs ago, whenever someone hurts themselves I get a weird shooting pain down below I had a difficult birth so may be linked to that?

I don’t like it either. I don’t find it funny just very, very upsetting. I hate to hear children cry too. The thought of them being hurt really upsets me.

I’m like this too, if’s annoying.

I tell myself this is why I’m not a doctoror nurse 🤣

I'll usually cringe somewhat at humans getting hurt; but absolutely cannot tolerate animals getting hurt.

I get a physical reaction to footage of people hurting themselves. It’s like a one or two second pulse of cold all over and it’s strongest down my spine. If it’s severe pain or an animal suffering I can also feel it in my stomach. There must be some sort of name for the biological process that causes it but I don’t know what it is! Must be common though, as we nearly all understand phrases such as spine tingling and gut wrenching.

Yes, what's strange is that I don't get it watching films or TV. Its almost like my body knows that's not real. It's when somebody describes to me what happened to them or shows me an injury. It's like an electric shock through my whole body.

I feel like I've found my people! I've brought it up to people in real life before and nobody has really understood what I meant.

It definitely feels like an electric shock kind of feeling alongside a pang of anxiety/fear. I also get it before someone shows me an injury, if someone said 'I've cut my hand' I would get the feeling.

I do get it with actors and films/TV shows but my threshold is a lot higher., e.g. I can tolerate watching actors fighting as I know it's choreographed and so I see it more like a dance than a fight. In real life I've had the feeling with someone showing me a paper cut.

I also hate You've Been Framed kind of video clips and yes, I think watching a boxing match would be awfully painful/uncomfortable. I guess the popularity of watching boxing matches kind of proves the point that some people don't react in the same way as us.

I can’t even watch You’ve Been Framed, why people think others getting hurt, particularly kids, funny is beyond me.

I can't watch real life things like the clips on social media, or You've Been Framed, but I am fine with fictional violence.

I'm even worse re animals. Can't watch even fictional animal suffering.

I was also fine with people being in pain when I worked in healthcare - although sometimes I could guess their pain before they told me about it, or if they were hiding it, because I'd feel 'something' at the same point in my body.

However, if someone cries in my presence, I will cry too, even if I don't feel emotional myself. Happy tears or sad tears. I think it's something to do with 'mirror neurons'? Might explain some of the other reactions too.

I have it too. It has a name...I forget though. Something like "Trauma aversion"

I have it so badly I struggle when family is unwell. I can't cope with seeing them.

I have this too OP and it's 1000× worse if it's animals or kids. My husband knows better than to show me those "funny" videos anymore! I saw someone have a bad fall on a sidewalk once and I burst into tears which just the most absurd thing to do! I'm sure the poor man thought I was crazy. I still tear up a bit thinking of it now. I didn't know there were other people like this too!

I'm like this, and I think that my parents are too. We didn't laugh at people falling over on TV or irl. I've been in 2 long term relationships in my life, and both partners have found it hysterical to see people fall over etc. Strange.