Really sensitive to images....

Post Reply New Topic

Wonder if any of you have the same problem..I have noticed it since I was a kid...Sometimes I notice that certain images will produce really negative reactions in me...Today I visited the new super happy fun land location after a week of not seeing it..to find that one of the new murals (painted by this art collective)...is this really disturbing gruesome spooky evil ghost thingy....and I got really really upset...(overreacted...started crying)....Not happy with the prospects of having to live for 5 years in this building with this creepy demonic looking ghost on the wall....I wish I had some kinda little bit of control over what kinds of murals got to be painted.....The only guideline that Flakey gave the muralists is "No pornography"

It reminds me of when I was a kid and i used to go with my dad to work, and there was this cardboard cutout of a man in a trench coat in the ladies room that I was terrified of....the scary ghost mural invoked the same kind of feelings....

I am sensitive to images but I usually experience this is a positive way, like Malevich making me feel really euphoric...



I do remember seeing an image of a man in a russian prison camp wearing a straight-jacket which made me feel physically ill for hours, none of my family understood why.

I have an intense phobia of St. Basils' Cathederal (you know, that hideous building in Moscow). I figure it's because there are so many shapes and colours going on at once coupled with how big it is. It gives me serious creeps if I even see a picture of it. I have to look away during the credits of 'QI' because I know it's there and will bother me throughout the show. This phobia has sort of leaked into other large, elaborate buildings but it's St. Basil's that started it.

In my opinion, I think that St. Basil's Cathedral looks very nice, with each dome painted in different colors. The onion-shaped domes are a characteristic of Eastern Orthodox churches, and this is true in most parts of the world. Intellectual rambling aside, I can totally relate to how you feel. When I was a kid, I was afraid of the chandelier in the foyer of my childhood home. The chandelier was fairly small, but scared me sh*tless. The whole thing looked like a glass barrel with light bulbs inside, surrounded by a lot of metal decorations. Every time I went to the kitchen at night, I'd cover my eyes and run. During the day, it was more tolerable, although I still looked down at the floor while walking by it.

And like in your case with the cathedral, my fear spread to other chandeliers, such as the ones in other rooms. If I saw a chandelier in someone else's home, I'd pause at the entrance, as if deciding whether or not it's a threat. If the room was dark and the chandelier was similar to the "original" one, I'd freeze up in fear. Ironically, I had no fear whatsoever of going to the lighting department in a home improvement store. There could be dozens of chandeliers hanging on display, and I'd feel nothing. Ditto for restaurants, community centers, or any other public spaces. I'm still wondering why. Not to hijack the thread, but does anyone have a guess?

I figure it has to do with my overall sensitivity.....i guess...
I don't like the ghost because it looks like an evil spirit...completly negative and void of comfort. It makes me feel negative...

I have never really had a negative reaction to chandaliers, though I dislike unshaded light fixtures. The one in my current..soon to be former...bedroom are frosted glass spheres...and Flakey and i have nicknamed them the evil glowing balls of death because they are so intrusive and glaring to look at.

oh yeah...and ceiling fans....I used to be pretty paranoid about ceiling fans...I had the constant fear that they would fall.....maybe your fear of chandaliers had something to do with the fear of them falling....

When i was a kid, robots sent me screaming in the other direction. There were always a few remote control lifesize ones at fairs and carnivals. they scared me like crazy.

Not too many images are that offensive to me now, except for commercials for animal rescue organizations. i cant watch them or i cry.

I also cant stand those pictures of hobo clowns. they look so dirty and filthy. I see them and i think 'child molester' or murderer.

Bratz dolls kind of piss me off too.

I am totally with you on the Bratz dolls....way worse than Barbie even...

Weird, I thought it was just a quirk of mine... When I was around primary school age the image of this huge wooden barrier-thingy from the movie Pooh's Grand Adventure haunted me. The mental image of it would make me cringe (though it was supposed to be scary, at least for little kids). I also used to see faces in the wooden doors in my old house. The one in the bathroom looked evil and was part of a landscape of similar stalagmite-looking evil things. I think that negatively affected my hygiene. (My quite neurotypical sister also saw them, though, after I showed her.)

A lot of other images will provoke milder weird emotional reactions, but I guess that's normal.

poopylungstuffing: I was also paranoid about falling ceiling fans. I haven't felt that way for years, though.

I don't think it's the falling, because I wasn't afraid of ceiling fans, in any kind of room. In fact, I thought they were cool. If it was spinning, I'd look at it, watching the blades spin, without feeling a trace of fear or anxiety. When I first saw one at my relatives' place, I even said: "cool; I want one in my room". Maybe it's related to the aspie/autistic fascination with spinning objects, or maybe ceiling fans looked very non-threatening, compared to chandeliers. But because AS was unheard of back then, my parents were perplexed: why chandeliers and not ceiling fans?

Mainly I have been worried about ceiling fans falling on other people....
I like to watch ceiling fans too...I focus on one blade and see how long I can follow it.....we just have some wobbliyl unbalanced ones and for a couple years I had a paranoia about them falling on the people in the audience....one of them actually did manage to spin apart...I think we were out of town and left the ceiling fans on, and came home to find the thing that the blades used to be attached to spinning around and the blades were scattered all over the room...

I wish I could appreciate the beauty of it, I recognise that it's probably a very beautiful building but I just can't get past the fear and really look at it.

And I LOVE chandeliers, almost to the point of obsession. I've been looking for one since I moved to my new place and finally found one in Ikea that I like but they didn't have it in stock. Now I have to wait 2 weeks for it and I'm getting impatient. I have no idea why I feel happier with a sparkly chandelier in my bedroom but I do. This one is full of dangly crystal things, you'd probably hate it

Hmmmm.... nope, sorry, I have no guess. Phobias are very strange things. I'm only just beginning to analyse why I have the St. Basil's one. After listening to people's theories for years that it's something to do with a past life (which I don't believe in) I think I'm finally there and that it IS to do with sensory overload.

I'm much more susceptible (having intense reactions, both negative & positive) to images than words (and my reaction to words can vary depending on whether reading or hearing them said). There are many aesthetic/visual features that I find creepy, hideous, disturbing, or otherwise unbearable-yet other people are unperturbed, don't notice or react-so my perceptions are in the minority. I can't sufficiently block out or ignore things that bother me.

I can't stand ads about the plight of animals (I get fixated on how upset I feel & frustrated at not being able (lack power & resources) to fix the massive problem of animal mistreatment, misfortune, and so on. Imagine that it's considered "normal" to have those reactions about suffering of humans (such as in charity ads)-but I have this emotional/sympathetic connection with animals instead (or at least I'm much more vulnerable to non-human suffering).

When I was a kid I was sensitive to images but now I am not I used to me sensitive to music as well like for axample the theme music to the 9 o'clock news in England used to freak me out.

Not really sensitive 2 images.