From time to time, we all think of how unfair the world is and how much we’d like to remove all the suffering there is. The truth is, we cannot do that and we have to find ways to live in these difficult times, with all the ups and downs.
Or we can do the opposite and embrace the sadness and despair. We can look into the eyes of whatever it is that causes us pain and stand strong. In fact, there’s this whole corner of Reddit titled “Make Me Suffer” that does exactly that.
The group which is home to a whopping 1.1M members is dedicated to sharing pictures that capture anything from wholesome suffering to sad moments of reality. Scroll down through this new batch of “Make Me Suffer” examples below and be sure to check out Bored Panda’s previous feature with more pictures from the community.
Meanwhile, to find out more about our inner fascination with dark material such as serial killers to violence to disasters, we reached out to Helen Marlo, a licensed clinical psychologist and Jungian psychoanalyst who provides psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, and consultation. Helen is also a Professor of Clinical Psychology and the Department Chair at Notre Dame de Namur University. She was happy to share some very interesting insights into this compelling topic.
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“First, most of us are painfully aware that darkness, what some call evil, exists. We may satisfy some human, psychological needs when we engage with it through the news, movies, or documentaries,” Marlo said.
Marlo argues that “when watching another story, and in particular, these dark and traumatic stories, we witness another person’s narrative. Narrating one’s own story, especially if we have a story that includes trauma, is emotional and hard.”
Meanwhile, “watching another’s story can give us a sense of gaining understanding or relief for ‘free,’ because we are hearing about another’s story but not doing any of the hard, psychological work to create our own story.”
Oh Hell No
Marlo explained that “it is a little like someone who reads a self-help book and imagines they will get better by reading about another person’s process. This is especially true if the story that we are fixated on has personal or traumatic meaning for us.”
Moreover, becoming immersed in another’s dark story can be a vicarious version of what psychologists call, ‘identification with the aggressor.’ “Rather than being the victim, one identifies with the aggressor and their story, and can displace unthinkable, dark impulses onto the person they are viewing, who may be doing things they may not be able to think about but wish to do.”
Marlo explained that “they may also feel more powerful, safer, strong, dominant, and in control by viewing another doing unthinkable things but they are watching and don’t have to act it out in their real life where it would have negative consequences internally and externally.”
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South Shore Vet Clinic: "This Tick Has Been Hanging Around For Us To Show People For A While"
"After months in a sealed container with no additional feeding she laid eggs. This gives you an idea of how long a tick can be dormant and how many eggs one female can lay."
Killed. The word you're looking for is killed (regardless of the dumb bg censoring). If I hear "unalive" one more time online, I'll just throw myself from the top of the building
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Oh wow, this is larger than the tick my dad found. It was the size of my fingernail. So what did my dad do? He put it in a jar and kept it as a pet. He named it Albert. A few weeks later, Albert had babies. That was when we decided to rename to Alberta. Few weeks go by and we notice that the babies were eating Alberta! We move to Colorado about a month later and guess who my dad brought?!? The freaking tick!!!
I hope that at some point he unalived Alberta's babies. Releasing them could introduce different types of tick related illnesses that may not exist in the area that you moved to.
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Food source for wildlife. Population control through disease vector. Everything has a purpose.
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Robert A Heinlein came up with the idea of a gadget that could be tuned to individual creatures or whole species. Set it to "tick" and "disintegrate". We'll all wear one on our belt.
The scientist in me is fascinated and wouldn't mind seeing this in person. The wimpy little girl in me is currently crouched in a dark corner, rocking and whimpering.
OMG!! I now have the heebee geebies SOOOO BAD. I'll never get to sleep if my body doesn't stop feeling things all over me.
Thank You for the PSA for the Anti-Tick Campaign. I am now taking a submerged bath in DDT
Poor thing. There's never any reason to purposefully cause unnecessary suffering to any living being.
And this being at a vet's office makes it even more disturbing. It might explain why so many animals are sent home from the vet with fleas and ticks that they didn't originally have.
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You're not the only one. No living creature should be sealed in an airproof container and kept for weeks just to see what might happen. People working at an animal clinic aren't supposed to watch anything suffer just for kicks.
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Do tics actually add something to the ecosystem? Like, is there something that eats them at all? Are they a link in the chain that forms the circle of life? Or did they develop out of pure hatred and keep existing out of spite?
I do know that possums eat them! That's all I can tell you though..
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NEVER, I mean, NEVER walk in the bush without boots and long pants !!! And....When you get back, look for ticks on your pants .
We usually just throw them in a vial of alcohol to kill them. Sometimes we name them.
And, IIRC, a tick can sit on a branch, waiting for any random mammal to pass by, for YEARS.
burn the entire building down - no one is safe with that blood sucker
There are two kinds of people in the world: Those who would keep an alive tick like this and or find this interesting, and those who absolutely would not/do not.
They are an important food source for reptiles, birds, amphibians, etc.. Their presence is surprisingly a good sign of a healthy ecosystem.
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I quickly killed the photo. I am terrified even at the idea of seeing one of these dirts ! Did you know that some ticks run after their prey? My God, they disgust me.
The Jungian psychoanalyst argues that “by watching about another’s story, we may gain a sense of control, understanding, or vicarious mastery over our own aggressive fantasies and anxieties about evil, whether we imagine ourselves in the role of the perpetrator and/or victim.”
This could explain Netflix’s hugely popular docuseries “Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” (2022). Arlo argues that the Jeffrey Dahmer story, for example, gives us at least one version of a real-life story of a serial killer.
“We may feel as if we have a better understanding of senseless violence and the irrationalities of evil by becoming immersed in learning about one person’s story. His story is a mixture of elements—some common and some uncommon—which enables us to compare and contrast this story with our own life story and our own fears, wishes, and/or fantasies.”
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But how can we explain our fascination with this kind of raw, violent, and unpleasant material? Well, Marlo says we can look for answers in the psychological mechanism of displacement.
“We all can feel some sense of vulnerability in knowing we could be the target of random violence or evil. We may feel a fascination and some voyeuristic pleasure in seeing another’s story and hearing how it happened to someone else. I am not suggesting that many of us wish harm on another person or even get sadistic pleasure in others’ suffering, although some people do.”
The Jungian psychoanalyst continued: “Rather, knowing that humans can hurt and inflict suffering on one another, and that irrational and uncontrollable things happen, becoming engrossed in another’s dark misfortune can help us feel less vulnerable and find some relief.”
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Surprisingly, watching such stories may, actually, increase our empathy for others’ suffering. “In the story, we might imagine this misfortune came from natural consequences, poor choices, genetics, karma, bad luck, or the fickle finger of fate. And becoming fascinated by another’s story may help us feel, irrationally, that we can protect ourselves from it; or are inoculated from it and/or that we can learn from it and escape this misfortune.” So in the end, it likely has a completely opposite effect than the material itself.
Another explanation for our fascination with the dark side of life can be found in a basic law of psychic behavior known as “compensation,” Marlo told us. “This is especially true when we are surprised by someone that we may not think would be utterly fascinated by stories of dark news. The law of compensation posits that when one attitude and approach to life is overdeveloped in consciousness, then a corresponding compensation emerges from the unconscious to help bring the psyche back into balance.”
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Marlo argues that “this other side compensates for thoughts, perceptions, and emotions which fail to reach consciousness because we may dissociate, repress, or defend against them in a variety of ways.”
She gave an example: “a pacifist may have flashes of violent imagery, thoughts, and dreams that they banish from awareness. These flashes can be their psyche’s way of raising their awareness about this other side of life, to gain more balance, and become more whole. The pacifist may become fascinated by these dark stories as a way of bringing some of the dark, aggressive, combative energy into their otherwise peaceful life as a pacifist.”
Marlo recounted how she had a patient who loved watching true crime. “In her professional work, she had to be very responsible, personable, kind, and empathic to many underserved people. Watching true crime helped her have an outlet from her otherwise kind and generous life spent serving other people.”
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Dad Almost Drank Him But They Def Touched Lips
The Brown??
And if you ever wondered if something’s wrong with you because you’re drawn to dark material, you’re not the only one and it can also be perfectly explained. Marlo argues that being human also means having dark impulses or undeveloped, “hurt part of ourselves that Jung called our Shadow.”
Marlo explained Jung’s theory of Shadow further: “We all have a shadow that expresses itself in moments of pain, stress, and unconsciousness. Typically, objects of fascination on crime shows or social media are people whose shadows are big; out there; exposed for our viewing.”
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Think of it as a public display of impulses that most of us usually keep inside and underground, Marlo argues. “It can be fascinating for us to see others’ shadows out there whether their shadow is familiar or foreign to our self. In addition, we stay fascinated with their story because it gives us an opportunity to see what happens when one lives out this dark side—something that some individuals could not even imagine let alone dream of doing.”
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Note: this post originally had 117 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
My wife had to ask me if I was okay as I couldn't breath after reading this. I may have broken a rib laughing.
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You know that feeling when you want to hit the page back button, but can't and just keep scrolling ... I just had that feeling over and over for the past few minutes.
Same, I know I should not have read this post but I couldn't help it.
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Regarding the comments, I'm obviously not the only one feeling uncomfortable right now, so I‘d really like to know: What is your default sensation while looking at posts like this? For me it's always a tingling in my feet.
Idk, came straight to the comments to confirm I should NOT look at this list! 😅 (Tingling in feet is a flight response though, I think? Like you want to run away...)
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Who hurt you BoredPanda, who hurt you? This has to be one of the more disturbing things that has been posted on this site.
This post was a train wreck, on top of a car wreck on top of plane crash, you just couldn't look away. 🤦
I should not have read that. I'm still shuddering and trying not to puke.
Go ahead. I've already vomited so you won't be alone (it was the mold behind the fridge that did it for me).
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Nothing. Don't worry about it. Eat these chips, you don't need more trauma.
Load More Replies... Then throw it all outside and stomp on it, right? That's the next line, right??
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BP tricked us with showing the tamest pics on the main page & then showing us these horrors!
I made it to the end! It's time to go to bed now and my retinas have been burned and my brain is fried. I'm calling work, maybe it's not too late to take that overtime since sleep isn't happening.
My wife had to ask me if I was okay as I couldn't breath after reading this. I may have broken a rib laughing.
Load More Replies... You know that feeling when you want to hit the page back button, but can't and just keep scrolling ... I just had that feeling over and over for the past few minutes.
Same, I know I should not have read this post but I couldn't help it.
Load More Replies... Regarding the comments, I'm obviously not the only one feeling uncomfortable right now, so I‘d really like to know: What is your default sensation while looking at posts like this? For me it's always a tingling in my feet.
Idk, came straight to the comments to confirm I should NOT look at this list! 😅 (Tingling in feet is a flight response though, I think? Like you want to run away...)
Load More Replies... Who hurt you BoredPanda, who hurt you? This has to be one of the more disturbing things that has been posted on this site.
This post was a train wreck, on top of a car wreck on top of plane crash, you just couldn't look away. 🤦
I should not have read that. I'm still shuddering and trying not to puke.
Go ahead. I've already vomited so you won't be alone (it was the mold behind the fridge that did it for me).
Load More Replies... Nothing. Don't worry about it. Eat these chips, you don't need more trauma.
Load More Replies... Then throw it all outside and stomp on it, right? That's the next line, right??
Load More Replies... BP tricked us with showing the tamest pics on the main page & then showing us these horrors!
I made it to the end! It's time to go to bed now and my retinas have been burned and my brain is fried. I'm calling work, maybe it's not too late to take that overtime since sleep isn't happening.
