Last night before bed, I watched a movie on Netflix titled Frozen Ground [2013]. The film is based on a true story. Robert Hansen is a serial killer who brutally raped and murdered between 17 to 21 women in the late 1970s and early 1980s in Alaska.

Pictures of the murdered women are shown at the end of the movie. For me, this was the most troubling piece of the film, seeing the faces of the women who had been killed by the two-legged monster. My struggle continued this morning, coming to a point in the form of a few questions. I’m not taking a census, but sometimes I contemplate the percentages. There are people in this world who feel too much.

Do you have the ability to connect emotionally to those around you, and if so, do you have a choice? Have you ever allowed yourself to establish a connection that is so incredibly painful, you’re immediately brought to tears, completely overwhelmed by thoughts, feelings, and images that are not your own?

When watching movies depicting emotional trauma, do you first need to prep yourself, engage a series of defense mechanisms, or possibly shut down your feelings altogether? Or maybe you’ve quit [highly emotional] movies, and cast them aside long ago in the interest of self-care.

Joseph Shanklin

August 29, 2020

20 thoughts on “The Empath [Painful Connections]”

  1. I don’t have a choice. A voice inside says ‘don’t look away. Be witness to evil’s existence and the horror of its work.’ Never gets easy. Evil comes in many forms.

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  2. I cannot look at those sorts of movies before trying to go to sleep. I get bad reruns all night long. But earlier the evening I will carefully consider whether or not I should watch. I have to confess that I watched all, yes all, the seasons of Peaky Blinders and that is not for the faint of heart.

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  5. I can read people pretty well, but I try not to get bogged down by the feelings I get from them.
    But … I am totally on the wavelength of animals, any of them, and I get so devastated by any cruelty. It’s as if I can feel their pain and know their thoughts.

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    1. In some of my research, I have found evidence of both flora Empaths, and animal Empaths. Although, not everyone believes in such things. I believe in these things, because I’ve seen such things. 🙂

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  6. Your post explains a lot of what I experience. I feel too much. It can get to the point where my pain for others paralyzes me with desperation.

    Sometimes I have to dissociate or detach myself from other’s trauma or else I will become so distressed that I become of no use to them, or myself.

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  7. “Pictures of the murdered women are shown at the end of the movie.” That would be very troubling for me to watch.
    I think that scary movies can be really scary and have fun watching them, but without being so cruel or evil and showing us cruelty. Like I like Jeepers Creepers, Halloween, Insidious, Saw (the entire collection)
    I hope you feel better.
    Sometimes we hear or see horrible things that makes us feel bad, horrible, uncomfortable. That is why I don’t watch just any video in Facebook either.

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