I keep getting sick and panicky and crying about Baby P - I know it isnt normal but I am & need help

[ifthatphoneringsonemoretime]

namechanged etc

When the whole Baby P thing first came in the news I purposefully did not read the newspapers about it as I knew I wouldnt be able to handle the details. I am empathetic to a fault and really internalise stuff like this and many other issues.

I have maintained my rule of not reading much about the case etc as I already knew my heartbreak wasnt going to change anything for the poor child and yet it could have a really harmful impact on me.

Anyway it is pretty impossible to avoid it totally and I have seen enough snippets & heard enough people talk at work that some of the horrific details have been filled in my mind.

I am finding the terror of it and the agony of a little child going through that almost impossible to shut out. I am crying in the night, feeling sick to my stomach etc. I have moments all my life where it feels like I am literally feeling the emotions of other people and this has hit me big. And if I could somehow make it better for poor Baby P by feeling this for him I would have done in a heartbeat but as it is it is doing no one any good.

I just wish I could stop all this madness in the world. But of course I cant. But I am really torn up and feeling all these terrible things & I just cant get it to go away.

How do I move on and how can I stop myself being so empathetic? Trust me I am in no way at all comparing my pain to his at all the whole point is I am intensely aware of the agony his little life was in and I am helpless. But my own mental health is taking a blow from it too and I just dont think that is good either. So what can I do to stop being like this horrible emotional sponge?

well i did wonder if you had contributed at all.

CarmelitaMiggs has a good point there.

I once spent a fortnight bawling with insomnia, because I couldn't get over a comment that a celeb had made on the Graham Norton show, FFS! (Woody Harrelson was talking about global warming and said that humankind had "basically flushed the toilet." It made me go cold and I couldn't stop playing out "Day After Tomorrow" type storylines involving my own family in my mind.)

Once I realised that this wasn't a glowing example of mental health, I sought some help.

As it happens I am now in the middle of a small real-life crisis. I'm finding that I'm handling the anxieties astonishingly well - thanks to earlier help.

Why give Custardo so much airtime? I am with you, OP, as irrational as it may be, I have been haunted by all to do with Baby P and others like him, I work for a children's charity but know the work we do is only a drop in the ocean.

i felt the same about baby P and was kept awake last night by another story of a little boy currently in the news its gripped my stomach and filled me with total sadness. there are some very good posts on here i liked GwarchodwrPlant sentiments and idea.

i just wanted to add something i discovered a while back. In Germany they actually have a word for this 'Weltschmerz' that translates as 'world sadness' its defined as

"psychological pain caused by sadness that can occur when realizing that someone's weaknesses are caused by the inappropriateness and cruelty of the world and (physical and social) circumstances.
Weltschmerz in this meaning can cause depression, resignation and escapism"

so basically it is a recognised cause of mental anguish.
i think it just means you are human unlike these monsters who do those things.