Dead people don't surprise me?

Question

I'm not trying to sound insensitive here, so bare with me. Today, I saw a story on the news where this woman hanged her 4 daughters then herself (her 8month old daughter lived) in Texas. The rest of them died. When I see a story like this on the news, I am not really all that affected anymore. I just shake my head and continue what I was doing. Stories of the soldiers dead in Iraq don't really affect me like they used to (even though that is a real tragedy for all of us). Suicide bombs, a man putting his baby in the microwave. None of it surprises me. Is that normal? I feel that as long as my family is safe and secure, I'm okay. Not to say that I don't feel bad for the families of the Victims. I would hate to be in their shoes, but I was just wondering if anyone else experiences the same thing.

Answer 1

Well, you know how emotional I get, and I'm sort of feeling the same way. I think it's 24-hour news, non-stop pain and death...if you don't find a way to shield yourself from the pain, it WILL start to wear on your (and mine) already worn-out soul. You have to protect yourself so that you have some space when you need it in your own life...I just heard about the new thing in Japan, is mothers shooting their childrens playmates at the playground. You have to be invited to play with other kids, if you don't, you must play by yourself. A mother, whose child was snubbed, shot the kid who did the snubbing. She has gotten over 10,000 letters of support in prison for what she did. There were 10,000 mothers who felt like doing the same thing...really hard to process. It's a dangerous world, and if YOU are safe, you are WAY ahead of the curve...OXO...Kes

Answer 2

Yes. While these things are indeed horrible, we are inundated by so much constant horror that we've become desensitized so as to protect our own mental health. I don't think you're a bad person at all. I felt the same way w/ that crazed killer at the university here in VA a few wks ago. It happens with people in the health industry, in the armed forces, etc, etc. We just can't cry over every situation and save the emotions for things that touch us personally.

Answer 3

I feel the same why about 9/11. I didn't have any relatives or friends who died there so I felt nothing. I've been told I'm normal for this so I think u are normal for this too. As for the baby in the micro I feel disgusted by it but not panicked about it.

Answer 4

I get annoyed by the news media always asking "how do you feel about that" when interviewing an individual close to a tragic situation.
If such a thing were to happen to me I think I'd say "Hand me that microphone and bend over. Then I'll ask you the same question."
The point is, we ALL feel bad when there is a tragedy.
The world is full of tragic situations.
If we spent our time dwelling on all of them we would be in worse condition than we are now.
Get on with life!
The media pushes an agenda that is based on getting people to act on EMOTION rather than LOGIC.
Those TWO modes of functioning, using emotion and logic, are unable to co-exist in one persons mind at the same moment.
If the media didn't push their listeners to use emotion over logic, they would be unable to push their agenda.
People who THINK wont buy their B*** S***!
So they have to keep everything emotional all the time.