When I was 13 and I'd hear a tree being cut down with a chainsaw it used to make me feel almost like I was being sawed in half myself. And when a real person is hyperventilating next to me, yes, I often start reacting the same way, which makes me a poor anchor for the person who needs me. And who sometimes gets panic attacks as a result of mine too.
I could never watch most movies with gore in them as a child because I'd always identify with the person suffering. This has changed a little about a few things since then - I enjoy Mortal Kombat and Kill Bill and Ninja Scroll and all that - but a few specific kinds of scenes still get me where I'm soft and squishy. Explosions from the inside, violence to animals, things having to do with bones or internal organs, any kind of sexual violence.
I start seeing spots, getting light-headed and wobbly on a semi-daily basis and I've fainted a few times because I stood up too quick, was too hot or "forgot" to breathe for too long (I was sitting or standing when it happened, at that), but not over the kind of thing you describe, as squeamish as I used to be and still am for some things.
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I could never watch most movies with gore in them as a child because I'd always identify with the person suffering. This has changed a little about a few things since then - I enjoy Mortal Kombat and Kill Bill and Ninja Scroll and all that - but a few specific kinds of scenes still get me where I'm soft and squishy. Explosions from the inside, violence to animals, things having to do with bones or internal organs, any kind of sexual violence.
I start seeing spots, getting light-headed and wobbly on a semi-daily basis and I've fainted a few times because I stood up too quick, was too hot or "forgot" to breathe for too long (I was sitting or standing when it happened, at that), but not over the kind of thing you describe, as squeamish as I used to be and still am for some things.