Movies that seem to trigger your Hypochondria?

[Natasha0717]

Hey all,


Just wanted to know if you have any particular movies that you really like to watch, yet they get you thinking about health problems, symptoms, doctors, death, etc.  I have two of them.  I really like these movies, and I always watch them when they're on TV.  You'd think I would change the channel on purpose, but nope, I watch them anyway...and then I get all freaked out.


Okay, the first one is Terms of Endearment. I enjoy the movie, I really do.  Its funny and cheerful and will take you back to the 80's.  Until Debra Winger innocently takes her little girl in for a flu shot (and she gets one too,) and that's when the doctor tells her he feels two lumps in her armpit.  From there, it all goes downhill, and she dies a slow, cancerous death with her mother by her side the whole time.  I always find her reaction a bit odd when the doctor tells her of these two suspicious lumps right at the beginning.  He asks her how long they had been there, and her answer was something like, "I don't know."  Almost looked as if she wanted to say, "And I don't care."  :laugh:   I would already be asking the doctor millions of questions!!


The second movie that always gets me is Steel Magnolias.  Watching poor Julia Roberts struggle with diabetes, attempting to have a child even when the doctors (and her own mom) told her NOT to, because her body wouldn't be able to handle it.  She has a cute little boy anyway, but then it turns out the pregnancy put too much stress on her kidneys, then she gets a kidney transplant (mom gives her one of hers,) all seems well, and then she slips into a coma....and eventually dies.


The "dying" part isn't what really gets me all worked up in these movies.  It's more of the hospital scenes.  And treatment scenes.  And people-coming-to-visit scenes while the doctors are saying there isn't much hope for recovery.  BUT...I will still watch these movies whenever they're on.  I don't know why.  Maybe to scare myself.  Who knows.  :huh:


Do you have any movies that you purposely avoid (or purposely watch, like I do) that seem to make your health fears/hypochondria even worse?

 

[Alexandoy]

I don't remember a particular movie but when I come to watch a movie or a tv drama with a sickness or ailment as the backdrop, I seem to feel something strange. One local tv drama last month featured dementia. The main character is a young man with dementia who keeps on forgetting things. It is not exactly related but I had difficulty urinating after watching that drama as if my kidneys have a problem. That is one reason why I do not watch shows about diseases because my mind seems to relate with the healthy imagination. Maybe it is hypochondria but I don't want to really admit it. And when I watch a sports show like skateboarding or basketball, my body feels somewhat energized. 

 

[Natasha0717]

I don't remember a particular movie but when I come to watch a movie or a tv drama with a sickness or ailment as the backdrop, I seem to feel something strange. One local tv drama last month featured dementia. The main character is a young man with dementia who keeps on forgetting things. It is not exactly related but I had difficulty urinating after watching that drama as if my kidneys have a problem. That is one reason why I do not watch shows about diseases because my mind seems to relate with the healthy imagination. Maybe it is hypochondria but I don't want to really admit it. And when I watch a sports show like skateboarding or basketball, my body feels somewhat energized. 

Hi Alexandoy, I know what you mean.  There is something called Empathic Illness, it's when you have a tendency to take on other people's symptoms, even their emotions.  It can happen just from seeing something on TV, or you can actually take on family members' symptoms while they are ill and especially if they are in the hospital.  This happened to me a lot when my Grandparents were going through health problems.  I would worry and read up so much about their symptoms, and imagine how terrible it would be to experience those particular symptoms...and then before you knew it, I was beginning to feel the same symptoms as they were.  Lots of numbness (Grandpa suffered a stroke,) breathing problems (when Grandpa wasn't breathing correctly,) chest pains (when Grandma would have a cardiac cath done to check out her arteries.)  There were times when I would leave the hospital after visiting them, and I'd be feeling just as sick as they were.  The mind is a very strange thing.  It does things that don't always make complete sense....or should I say, it makes you do things that don't make sense.  :unsure:  I truly believe parts of the mind have their own reasons for thinking and sending signals the way that they do, and it is something that we will never understand, nor will the professionals.  They can try, but I think it's just impossible to really get in there and see how the mind really operates.  It's the "mystery section" of our being, and maybe it's not even meant to be tampered with.