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Triggered anxiety


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Last night I was on Pinterest and discovered this beautiful artwork from a Korean graphic novel called Aisha. It’s the prequel to another comic called Aishas secret. It’s about two twin girls and the romantic relationship between one of them, Aisha and the son of her evil stepmother. From what I could work out.
But in the prequel, they are children and the other twin is being sexually abused by her adoptive father, though she doesn’t understand and thinks it’s a game.
I have never read the comic, nor intend to, I just like the art and yet I’ve got this high anxiety that Aisha will also be led into the abuse. It isn’t real, none of it actually happened, it’s just drawings and I’ve no emotional connection to it and yet the anxiety is very uncomfortable. I’m also being fuelled to find out and I don’t want to.

 

Rape and sexual abuse are massive anxiety and distress triggers to me, though I’ve no idea why as I’m thankfully not a victim myself. I don’t know how to lower the anxiety and just enjoy the artwork. I’m developing my own art style and look to other artists as inspiration and this artist is particularly talented. Any advice?

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I get this kind of triggered anxiety a lot, I’ve got a more recent one. I get overwhelmed by the compulsion to go look and check if I’m right or not or for clues. I’ve just had another bought an am trying to ignore the compulsion. Does no one else get this? Or have any words of any kind? It’s almost always something to do with sex. The most recent one, Aishas secret, it’s implied she sleeps with the brother her twin is engaged to, he doesn’t know she’s a twin and thinks it’s his fiancé who has actually been murdered. She removed the top of her dress and stood over him in her bra and her dress around her waste but it’s never made clear. But she is actually in love with the other brother, who is blasé about whatever happened, the fiancé is later accidentally poisoned by his mother who thinks the twin she killed has come back, not knowing it’s the other one. In the end the twin ends up with the brother she likes and they grow old together.

I don’t understand why someone being implied that they might have willingly slept with someone is triggering me so badly but it’s causing me massive anxiety.

Edited by Phili
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:confused1:     You're looking at this to be inspired by the skill of the artist, right? So why are you focused on the storyline? Get your focus onto the artwork and ignore the story.

Remember that you choose what to focus on. If you don't like the story, tune it out and look only at the lines of the drawings , how they are formed etc. Whatever it is you want to take from it, think only about that.

If you can't do that, then find an alternative source of inspiration. Be sensible.

 

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4 hours ago, snowbear said:

:confused1:     You're looking at this to be inspired by the skill of the artist, right? So why are you focused on the storyline? Get your focus onto the artwork and ignore the story.

Remember that you choose what to focus on. If you don't like the story, tune it out and look only at the lines of the drawings , how they are formed etc. Whatever it is you want to take from it, think only about that.

If you can't do that, then find an alternative source of inspiration. Be sensible.

 

I can’t help myself, the anxiety builds and I can’t get it out of my mind, I’m only interested in the male lead Sean. My brain won’t let go and I don’t understand why

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5 minutes ago, Phili said:

You think it’s OCD related?

If you're fixated on it and can't get it out of your mind then probably - yes. Likelihood is you're ruminating on the bits that upset you instead of focusing on the reason you're looking at it (the artistic skill.)

 I don't like classical art nudes. The way I see it it's very anti-feminist. It annoys me that they sexualise women. But I'm able to look at a classical painting and consider how the artist made the brush strokes to create the folds of the cloth, how shade and detail created perspective etc. and not dwell on the fact they painted nude women. I don't allow myself to ruminate on the anti-feminist angle afterwards. I simply keep my focus on the art and not the subject and don't let OCD get involved.

You could do the same.

Not ruminating is a matter of choose to focus on something else and being determined not to dwell on it. No matter how many times your brain goes there 'automatically' you divert your attention elsewhere - again and again and again, until your brain learns to focus on what you want to focus on. It's just practice, not rocket science.

You can apply it to this, to your health concerns, and to any other topic your OCD latches onto.

Refocus

Refuse to ruminate.

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6 hours ago, snowbear said:

If you're fixated on it and can't get it out of your mind then probably - yes. Likelihood is you're ruminating on the bits that upset you instead of focusing on the reason you're looking at it (the artistic skill.)

 I don't like classical art nudes. The way I see it it's very anti-feminist. It annoys me that they sexualise women. But I'm able to look at a classical painting and consider how the artist made the brush strokes to create the folds of the cloth, how shade and detail created perspective etc. and not dwell on the fact they painted nude women. I don't allow myself to ruminate on the anti-feminist angle afterwards. I simply keep my focus on the art and not the subject and don't let OCD get involved.

You could do the same.

Not ruminating is a matter of choose to focus on something else and being determined not to dwell on it. No matter how many times your brain goes there 'automatically' you divert your attention elsewhere - again and again and again, until your brain learns to focus on what you want to focus on. It's just practice, not rocket science.

You can apply it to this, to your health concerns, and to any other topic your OCD latches onto.

Refocus

Refuse to ruminate.

I wish it was that easy. My brain isn’t that focused, I struggle to focus long enough to eat most days. I am trying though. It doesn’t help that I have a crush on the male lead Sean lol

classical nudes were not meant to be sexualised, they were a study of anatomy. Depending on how far you go back of course, more modern classical nudes were more about sex and beauty than those of say the renaissance. Some artists, like Michelangelo, considered the female form inferior and was dedicated to the beauty of the male anatomy, though he was gay so that might be why he appreciated the male anatomy more. 

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2 hours ago, Phili said:

I wish it was that easy.

Hey, I never said it was easy. But if you have trouble focusing then you need to practice. And practice. And practice. And in time you will develop the ability to focus more easily. If you can think long enough on one track to fantasise about Sean then you're capable of thinking in a focused way on anything. You just have to want to do it, so try to be interested, be curious and it will help to stop you losing concentration.

2 hours ago, Phili said:

classical nudes were not meant to be sexualised, they were a study of anatomy. Depending on how far you go back of course, more modern classical nudes were more about sex and beauty than those of say the renaissance. Some artists, like Michelangelo, considered the female form inferior and was dedicated to the beauty of the male anatomy, though he was gay so that might be why he appreciated the male anatomy more.

I never knew that. Thank you for educating me. :)

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