Stress Center Peer Support

Hello, I am a grown woman. Last night I watched a scary movie, The Ring. While I have seen this movie before and enjoy thrillers every once in a while, I became terrified and kept "seeing" the movie scenes happening to me in my house or just happening. The continuous replay of terrifying images and thoughts wouldn't leave me alone until I did something about it- I ended up with all the lights on in the house, all mirrors turned backward, and sheets over tv and computer screens. Finally, once this was done, I felt safe, stopped crying, and could go to bed. I have done this before. I am ashamed of myself in the morning when I wake up and see this silliness; it seems so ridiculoud after the fact. Does this happen to anyone? If so, what do you do about it? Oh I should mention that I have always been afraid of mirrors; I rarely look into them.

Don't be ashamed,

The TV can imprint powerful wrong images on our minds,I try to be careful of the images I watch.Most of all any negative evil images even though the movie is about good and evil,I don't like to see it played out on TV it gives me a bad feeling.The good things are that they are only on TV and the images only last for a short time.Do what you have to do !!

Sincerely,Sit

Hey, Cutting Girl. You chose a great movie to be scared by. (I love The Ring).

If you can't get the images out of your head, you might have OCD. I was terrified of a movie called The Fly and I've only gotten over it in the past year.

I have a suggestion (aside from therapy and/or medication). Go rent the DVD and watch all the behind-the-scenes footage of the filming and how the film was made. Don't watch the movie itself, just watch the creation of it. When you see a dozen cameramen surrounding Naomi Watts as she's in a fake well, the movie will lose its power over you.