Comment on If you know, you know
atomicorange@lemmy.world 10 months agoI think this one rings true to a lot of people who struggle with intrusive thoughts. It’s not about logic, it’s about that weird urge to do the worst possible thing. You get the urge to climb in because it’s scary. So scary you can’t focus on anything else. But maybe if you just did it, at least you could stop worrying about it.
dragontamer@lemmy.world 10 months ago
If people’s minds were so weak to give into intrusive thoughts, I’d have committed suicide maybe a year or two into my intrusive thoughts.
As I said before: what happens in this comic is unrealistic. People who struggle with undiagnosed depression can (and do), survive for years despite thinking about killing themselves every day, every hour, for years.
I know. I went through this. You don’t just “give up” randomly, though the feeling does wear you down and make you anxious over time.
atomicorange@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I totally agree, intrusive thoughts aren’t often acted upon.
I think the story is trying to capture what it feels like to have intrusive thoughts, how horrifying they can be, and is maybe a way for the artist to work through the idea of “what if those thoughts became so bad - through some supernatural mechanism - that we all succumbed to them?” It’s not meant to be realistic, but just to capture and communicate that feeling of dread combined with compulsion.
It’s kind of similar to Lovecraft’s way of telling stories. He tells you about horrifying and incomprehensible actions taken by regular people and gives some hints about their motivation. But he can’t really convey the full experience of cosmic horror so he leaves you to fill in the blanks. Some people are really affected by it, and for some it’s just too vague and speculative.