I unfortunately look a lot older than what I am, and because of that, I’ve experienced a lot of people online making fun of any picture of me that was posted online, I’ve also had people making very derogatory comments about me and my age online too. At first these comments shattered my self esteem and gave me depression.
However now, after two years, these comments don’t bother me at all. They have no affect on me. Sometimes, I respond to the comments with my own age-related, self depreciative jokes. The comments don’t make me sad, angry or ashamed anymore.
How did my brain go from feeling depressed and ashamed reading these comments online to my current “I don’t really care lol” state of mind?
In: 73
There are some great comments here, but I would also like to add that desensitization seems to also be an unwilling choice to stop caring or to give up.
Imagine going on dates with pure excitement and the expectation of meeting somebody amazing. If every date results in that person being after only sex, is insensitive to your wants and needs, or maybe just plain controlling or abusive, you will eventually come to the conclusion that you’ll never find what you’re looking for, and part of you gives up and just accepts dates are the way they are.
The same could be said for the school shootings in the USA. It was awful and terrible when we first encountered one. We had high hopes that something would be done and believed it would be done out of common sense and without question. As more happened, we began to lose faith in each other, the government, and maybe even ourselves a little bit. It’s still terrible, but many people have given up caring so much because we know nothing we do is going to matter.
I don’t think it’s fair to say that desensitization is entirely about being comfortable with something. In some cases I would say this is true, but in other cases, we are never really comfortable with it, it’s just something we have to accept and submit to. We might be comfortable in the sense that we can forget about it more easily as it happens more often.
That’s my take anyway, I’m sure there is a more scientific explanation.
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