User blog comment:ShawnCognitionCP/Community Question: Why You Love Horror/@comment-27123304-20151026200838

I could write a thesis on this. I don't know....well, I shan't write my usual essay-length comments or show as much restraint as possible.

I think it allll goes back to the fact I am a cradle Catholic. Demons, exorcisms, what have you....it's always been present). Also, I don't go into deep sleep very much at all and have always spent most of my sleep in REM. It makes for a lot of dreaming and for (not to sound like a character in Nolan's Inception...I do have dreams/nightmares that I can control. I never have feared nightmares. Most of the time I took on a 3rd person POV and enjoyed the nightmares as if it was my brain's own cinema Horror special!) As a 'third culture kid/individual' as they call it now, moving around (Argentina > Dubai>US etc) the supernatural in the form of different beliefs etc. also fascinated me. A cartoon version of Around the World in 80 Days featured a ritual by followers of Kali while Phileas Fogg was in India. I was disappointed that there was no follow through and darker stuff. I was 7. Things like my obsession with Tolkien and his concepts of say...Ringwraiths were just things that filled me with a dread that ws ok....I could feel it, have an adrenaline rush but given that words don't eaily form images that aren't abstract (I love linguistics and have a vivid visual memory but I have integration issues and I systemise far too much)....I also am hyperlexic and just went through every book I could get my hands on since Istarted reading.. I dislike very few genres and am the kind of person that holds little expectations so I can at least enjoy something that is D level (enjoy being used in a broad sense.) The moveing was hard and eventually I was severely depressed, anxious and in and out of ED treatments. I did what came easiest and escaped. From fantasy to sci fi and war films/series. And of course, horror. I am VERY much someone who startles easily (hypersensitivity does that) and my memory is good enough that a single viewing of Ringu and The Ring still create pseudohallucinations when I go try to get a glass of water at night (night owl.)

But I can't get ENOUGH of it. I love the thrill, the unkown, the forbidden, the idea that my pain maybe isn't bad at all, not even a slow torure compares to 'worse than death' horror concepts. Psychological horror by far is my favourite. and just....Well, I've rambled off a lot here but....As a 30 year old who is in and out of hospital from chronic illness or bed bound a lot of the time/most of the time. I appreciate SOMETHING to get my amygdala, my adrenaline anything going and add to my brain's catalogue of stories (I entertain myself by creating new stories from bits of other as I fall asleep....no copyright infractions there, I'm sure.) I should state I am superb at research but my creative writing has never been developed as it's not what comes naturally and I avoid it as much as I can XD

PS. I cannot do scary pop up +that most find old/cheap. I just cannot. Gore, horrible images that are still/no sound. Fine. I've had my gross anatomy lab in med school no big deal. Also, oddly enough I have no fear of pain really (have enough of it already) or being homeless...death etc. I am scared of nonsensical things popping up at me....I'd last all of a day by myself *sigh*