why are brains so ridiculous?

[ratcreature]

Mine currently responds to even slightly suspenseful moments in fiction, even ones that I know will be okay, like in romance, with a strong urge to abort and avoid in favor of weird displacement activities, like playing a some game or making a cup of tea or scrolling through Tumblr.

I already read soothing, fluffy things, what more does it want? These phases are very annoying, and disruptive for immersive reading.

Comments

[marcelo]

Ugh. Sometimes empathy goes beyond the call of duty and becomes harmful. (Insert Will Graham joke here.)

[sholio]

Yeah; while I don't have that problem exactly, I've noticed a shift in my own reading preferences lately, to wanting to be spoiled for whether the outcome of a story is going to be happy or not. I used to prefer being surprised and basically be okay with ambiguous/bittersweet endings (as long as it wasn't too horribly bleak) but oh man, now I just want everything to work out for everybody, and I get terribly anxious if I'm not sure.

[armadillo1976]

I thought it was just me, so in that sense I'm glad you are experiencing this, because it makes me feel not-alone. But also I hope this passes soon, both in you and in me, because yeah, this gets ridiculous. I now have to read episode guides and what not for every silly thing I watch. My husband, who watches with me, finds it incredible - we literally have to stop mid-scene for me to google what happens next. And we're not talking wild suspense here, no no. Somebody _might_ say something slightly unpleasant in the movie/series, this is what suffices to trigger it. Aaaanyway. Hope you get better soon in this regard and me too, because the amount of fiction and TV this eliminates is too much to accept.