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“Make Me Suffer”: 40 Of The Most Painful Images Posted By This Online Community
Interview With Author
Don’t we all like torturing ourselves a little now and then? The most immediate answer will likely be a firm handshake. But when it comes to a tragedy we witness on our morning commute or news of violence on social media, we suddenly feel compelled by a strong, unexplainable pull to stare at the sight.
Scientists have been investigating why we can’t look away from disasters and some have suggested it’s the preventative mechanism that gives us crucial information about the possible danger. Another study even found that we react to and learn more from negative experiences than we do positive ones.
Given those strange workings of the human psyche, it’s only fair that a subreddit like Make Me Suffer exists on Reddit, and that it’s home to a solid 1 million members. The community’s description keeps it simple, yet harrowingly effective: “If it hurts to look at, post it.” Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
Scroll down for our interview with the amazing moderator team of the Make Me Suffer subreddit, who were happy to share some insights about their intriguing community.
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Sad Suffering
They will see again...and laugh, and make party...wherever this would be...
Shelter Workers Organize This Cat’s Birthday Hoping Someone Will Adopt Her, But No One Turns Up
A happy update! https://metro.co.uk/2020/09/12/remember-monique-the-cat-who-found-fame-when-no-one-came-to-her-birthday-party-shes-found-a-home-and-her-happy-ending-13260601/
Blobfish Are Not Actually That Ugly - Most Photos Are Taken After It Has Been Pulled Out Of The Water And Suffered Tissue Damage. Their Natural Habitat Is At Extremely Low Depths
I also looks a mess after being pulled from my natural habitat, the bed.
Bored Panda spoke to the moderators, u/hwhouston517, u/LovelyAGQ, u/DeathAngel11, and u/MattShea of the subreddit. Turns out, the subreddit was created by MattShea, a popular gaming YouTuber with over 2 million subscribers.
“It was originally intended for his YouTube series titled 'Make Me Suffer' for a place for his subscribers to submit posts that would 'hurt' to look at. The subreddit gained thousands of subscribers in the days after its creation, mainly being a place for memes and comics intended to make you disgusted or in shock (but not too extreme),” the mods told us.
The creator of the subreddit, MattShea, recounted: “One day I decided to make a video on an old flash game called 'Duck Life' which for some reason ended up being a very popular video. For obvious reasons, I followed it up with some more videos on the sequels, and made some jokes about how I was only doing it for the viewers. One of them said they were happy to 'make Matt suffer' so one day I decided to invite my viewers to post links and images in my Discord server of things that would 'make me suffer.' After a while, using Discord for the series become impractical, and I wanted to see how things would go if I gave people the opportunity to vote on what they deemed 'sufferworthy' or things they wanted to see me react to.”
My Dad Had A Car Wreck. He Went Without A Bone Flap For 6 Months
I hope he is well now, looks like a miracle he is alive, glad he made it!
P A I N
DIY Fanatic Proudly Shows Off Her Upcycled Drinks Trolley But Gets Absolutely Savaged For 'Ruining An Antique'
This is when MattShea realized it’d be great to create something to reach people outside his niche, so the subreddit was born. “I designed the subreddit to be largely independent of myself, so people wouldn't say 'hmm, I don't know this person so I don't want to be a part of this' when coming across the sub. After my viewers got things moving, the rest was history,” he told us.
As time went on, the subreddit strayed from its original purpose and users started posting irrelevant content. The mod u/LovelyAGQ recounted: “At the time, I had noticed that a lot of posts that didn't really fit had started popping up, and a lot of posts from fellow users poking fun at and complaining about how often repetitive, ill-fitting memes would get posted.”
Life
Aaand tears, full flow, check. Come here kitty, we will love you forever!
Good Idea
Siberian Seasons. Frost & Mosquitoes
At the same time, the subreddit was starting to explode with popularity, and Matt, not having enough time to manage the subreddit by himself due to his YouTuber career, added more mods to help the subreddit maintain its quality. “As the sub grew even more popular and as Matt focused less and less on the subreddit, the subreddit slowly strayed from being about him and his YouTube channel, to being about the users and posting what makes you suffer the most,” u/hwhouston517 remembered.
The mod u/hwhouston517 was added as a sub moderator along with a batch of others. In 2019, the subreddit had around 300,000 members then, and was exploding in popularity, gaining 50k new members every month. In comparison, today Make Me Suffer has a solid 1M members and is a constantly growing community with a lot of exciting—meaning compelling, but hard to look at—content.
Bubonic Plague
Nooooooo Jesus Nooo
Don't worry! I am pretty sure that is a teacher with the the twitter name hamacream. He draws pictures for his students and then erases them himself.
Keep Smiling, Nothing To See Here
The moderator team is a close-knit community with great and devoted people, u/hwhouston517 said. “As a moderator of some other large subreddits, I can definitely say I am closer to no other mod team than this one, everyone here is great and I love all of them, the mod said and added that: “We've had our ups and downs of course, but this is by far the most chill mod team I'm part of. We're also part of a very diverse team, more than half our active mods being LGBT+ and even having a couple transgender mods on board.”
Antheraea Polyphemus... Basically A Tarantula With Wings
Jogger's Nipple
They make bras for that, training bras. Theres a team now at the European football championship that has them under their shirts
Those bras are trackers. They track the footballers speed, acceleration, distance, etc.
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The same thing happened to my friend Andy when he was running a fun run at his office for charity Andy-60e81...8c2e9c.jpg 
Wear the wrong bra or undershirt and women can have this happen too.
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I'm no expert, but isn't there the methode of putting tape over them to protect them from the friction?
I think they also make nipple guards. Effective ones, not the Janet Jackson variant.
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THIS is why I don't exercise! That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.
Jogger's spontaneous diarrhea is also a thing. Pretty sure jogging is an unnatural gait. Generally, we either walk (when unthreatened) or sprint (when threatened).
Oh totally! The runner's-runs. Yep. I'd always empty the void before I jogged. I've been stopped by something knocking at my door and have had to make a very awkward looking slow walk home to relieve myself. Lol.
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They often have people on the sides with massive tubs of vaseline that runners can take a handful of as they run past and apply as they need on their chafing bits as they go.
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Now I understand why my dad used to put bandaids on his nipples when he jogged. This was 40+ years ago and I used to just giggle as a small child. Man was apparently quite smart!
OMG WHAT IS THAT? are they okay? does it happen to everyone who run marathons? i am so averse to running that I decided to be scared of ghosts or cockroaches. so u can understand my expertise in this area.
They sweat but the clothing traps the salt to their skin. Nipples cannot callus so they get rubbed to bleeding by the salt being grated against them. I had a similar effect wearing the wrong undershirt for a summer cosplay once. It hurts.
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So many Andy Bernards, so little time. Also, f*****g OUCH!
so that episode of The Office with Ed Helms nipple bleeding had some basis in fact.
Looks like some of those guys wear their bloody nipples like a badge of honor.
It seems to me as if these athletes are wearing the bloody stains as badges of honor and more power to them if that is the case -- even though it does turn my tummy. Otherwise they would have taken some of the many steps possible to avoid it.
The looks they are giving is completely adrenaline related. No one wants this to happen, this isn't any honour, it fking hurts. It also happens to women in the same circumstances.
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They used to make a product for surfers called belly jelly. Incredible shaffing for when you used to mix sand with the wax on your surfboard put on for traction to steer your board with.
OMG!!! Why wouldn't they wear band aids or something to prevent that
I don’t understand? Is it. The rubbing? Or do vessels just pop in the glands? Why are their nipples 🩸 bleeding? !!!!!!
I saw this at the end of the Loch Ness marathon and had to ask. Ouch.
Ewwww that looks painful, they say runners should smear their nipples with Vaseline or any good thick cream before a run.
I'm a woman with a large bust. I don't get runners nipple but if I run more than 25k I start bleeding below and in between
I'm having a hard time with my youngest, who likes to scrape her teeth on my nipple while she unlatches... I can't imagine this...
Jesus wear pasties (sp?) the things used by burlesque dancers on stage or cotton wool & band aids or something., ANYTHING ..
Just imagine how this would have been interpreted in the Middle Ages!!
There's a lubricating gel called Glide that runners can use. FYI. Rolls on like deodorant.
Yes! I've got some great pix of that - Vaseline or the little round bandaids work well.
Happens on bike too. Hunger, dehydration, acidic legs? Fixable. But it's ok give up because of sore nipples and noone will make fun of you. The very first time it happened to me was very...surprising. I didn't bleed like that, but the pain is...very special
True Pain
Most importantly, we tried to figure out just why, according to the moderators themselves, so many people feel that unexplainable pull to look at unsettling pictures. The creator of Make Me Suffer subreddit, MattShea, said that humans are a bunch of weirdos. “We seem to enjoy being uncomfortable when it's something that we choose. Scary/gory movies are a great example of that. And as the origins suggest, people also like seeing other people being uncomfortable. We've also seen time and time again that nothing seems to foster engagement on the internet quite like negative emotions,” he said and added that it’s perhaps that's what made the subreddit so popular.
Meanwhile, another mod, u/DeathAngel11, believes that an answer to the question may forever remain a mystery. “But one thing will never change—Uncomfortable situations are a daily part of life that we all face. Sometimes a little bit of laughter and an appreciation for our morbid curiosity in a healthy way is just what we need.”
Honey Coming Out From Power Socket. Guess What’s Behind It
Yeah.. I Think Face Swap Was A Bad Idea
Well This Is One Way To F*ck Up A Test
The mod u/LovelyAGQ shared another illuminating explanation. “I personally think it is down to human nature. We have a natural inclination toward the morbid in one way or another, and while everyone has different limits, everyone gets some enjoyment out of satiating our morbid curiosity in that sense. Without having to put ourselves in danger or worry about someone else's safety, we can view 'morbid' or unsettling content online.”
The mod continued: “It's like that saying about 'watching a car crash, you want to look away but you can't'; We have effectively been able to replicate that feeling on this subreddit in the most fun and enjoyable way possible. We are all happy to continue doing this, and happy to keep people entertained!”
Fish Skin Can Be Grafted Onto Burns. It Recruits The Body's Own Cells And Is Converted Into Living Tissue Over Time
Scorpion I Just Happened To Find In My Bra Before Putting It On (Teaspoon For Scale)
I Have Become The Cat Toy
On the other hand, the Make Me Suffer subreddit is a lot less extreme than some others: “even our neighbors at r/MakeMeSufferMore are a lot more... well... unsettling than ours,” u/hwhouston517 told Bored Panda. “Since gore is banned here, it helps us keep the focus that this subreddit, as MattShea put it himself, was originally meant for 'fun suffering.' The subreddit was never meant to be too extreme, instead as a place where you could suffer and laugh at the same time. Though it's evolved a lot since the subreddit was focused about him, we are glad that it's kept its purpose of appeasing the people who like fun situations and moderate gore at the same time, as weird as it may sound.”
The moderator team also wants to thank their subreddit users, amazing subscribers and the readers of this article. “We are so grateful that they regularly provide such stellar and amazing content. We appreciate your time and the readers' time in taking an interest in us,” they said and added: “Happy suffering!”
Don’t Like Spiders? How About A Zombified Spider Reanimated By A Fungal Infestation?
I Have Seen Your X-Ray Posts So I Bring You Face Mris
Giraffe With A Damaged Vertebrae
Dr. John Mayer, a clinical psychologist at Doctor On Demand, has been researching what happens to our brains when we see destruction and he identified that a particular process in our brains is the one to blame. “A disaster enters into our awareness—this can be from a live source such as driving by a traffic accident or from watching a news report about a hurricane, a plane crash or any disaster," he explained to NBC News.
"This data from our perceptual system then stimulates the amygdala (the part of the brain responsible for emotions, survival tactics and memory). The amygdala then sends signals to the regions of the frontal cortex that are involved in analyzing and interpreting data. Next, the brain evaluates whether this data (awareness of the disaster) is a threat to you, thus judgment gets involved. As a result, the 'fight or flight' response is evoked."
Baby In Stomach During Mri
Ah Yes, The Drowning Seat
Dental Practice Heads
Incredibly, "Witnessing violence and destruction, whether it is in a novel, a movie, on TV or a real life scene playing out in front of us in real time, gives us the opportunity to confront our fears of death, pain, despair, degradation and annihilation while still feeling some level of safety."
This phenomenon is also experienced in other situations, like standing at the edge of the cliff or when looking through the glass at a lion at the zoo. “We watch because we are allowed to ask ourselves ultimate questions with an intensity of emotion that is uncoupled from the true reality of the disaster.”
My Foot After Wearing A Wet Boot With A Hole In It For 10 Hours
Yikes
Cursed Cutting Board
The Water In Our School
Hooded Seals Inflate The Inside Of Their Noses To Impress Females
I Don't Know About The Rest Of You But I'm Offended
Sacrificed His Hand In The Name Of Science
The Growth Of A Tick In The Span Of Two Weeks
Cockroach Cake
I am kind of impressed at the realism, but extremely relieved they don´t grow to be that big.
No Words Needed
Another potential album cover - you can almost hear the teen angst
The Amount Of Cicadas In My Pool Skimmer After One Day
And to think, they waited 17 years to greet the sunshine then ended up as pool sludge. Awwwwww......
Good Old Cassette
Well, whatever makes you happy, I am sure the dogs dont mind being taped 🤣
Mosquito Collection
Note: this post originally had 61 images. It’s been shortened to the top 40 images based on user votes.
To all of you brave souls who made it through... have some unsee juice D7Mc16BUYAA9gMY.jpg 
What an awful and depressing post... the whole thing. Isn't it bad enough with everything going on in the world, someone puts this garbage together. I come to boredpanda to take my mind off things and this is exactly what I hate seeing.
Does anyone else feel tiny little bugs crawling all over them from all the bug posts?
It's so funny that this subreddit was started by the YouTuber called MattShea as a joke with his community. He wanted his community to post suffer worthy pictures and he'd make videos reacting and suffering. Never would he thought that it would grow this much, let alone make it to big sites like Bored Panda. Time flies, it sure does.
To all of you brave souls who made it through... have some unsee juice D7Mc16BUYAA9gMY.jpg
What an awful and depressing post... the whole thing. Isn't it bad enough with everything going on in the world, someone puts this garbage together. I come to boredpanda to take my mind off things and this is exactly what I hate seeing.
Does anyone else feel tiny little bugs crawling all over them from all the bug posts?
It's so funny that this subreddit was started by the YouTuber called MattShea as a joke with his community. He wanted his community to post suffer worthy pictures and he'd make videos reacting and suffering. Never would he thought that it would grow this much, let alone make it to big sites like Bored Panda. Time flies, it sure does.
