Eighteen theatregoers at Stuttgart’s state opera required medical treatment for severe nausea over the weekend after watching a performance that included live piercing, unsimulated sexual intercourse and copious amounts of fake and real blood.
Eighteen theatregoers at Stuttgart’s state opera required medical treatment for severe nausea over the weekend after watching a performance that included live piercing, unsimulated sexual intercourse and copious amounts of fake and real blood.
I have friends like this and with my lifestyle and history of emergency response, I can’t fathom it. Apart from trained hygiene precautions, my brain just never reacts to blood apart from it being an indicator of the next actions to take to keep as much of it inside as possible. I’ve had a shower off a firetruck to get blood off—clothes ruined, still washing blood out of my hair once I got home—but training kept those two alive in time for paramedics to arrive. That’s all my brain thought about. They found out and my buddy and I got a call from the hospital to meet them ♥️
But then I have another friend that gets queasy seeing a scratch and has passed out from a needle…
Some of us just have very different survival instincts. Fight or flight seem to both work very well so long as you’re one of the other. But they certainly can’t understand each other.
I had a friend in high school who got squeamish at the sight of blood, or at least that’s what we all thought. She went on to become a surgeon. Turns out, it’s the idea of people being in pain that got to her. Operating on someone who’s out cold was absolutely fine even if they’re gushing blood all over the place, because they can’t feel it.
I get the same impact, but different response. When I see people in trouble, I have to help. I even started surf life rescue at 12 after saving a few people over time while surfing. It hasn’t stopped and I did more and more, wanting to he a combat medic. The adrenaline that surges seeing trouble is uncontrollable. I do anything short of pure stupidity to save a life and realised it’s a rare trait to have it that extreme, so wanted to ensure it was being put to use.
I hate seeing trauma and my reaction is to fix it at whatever cost. So, much respect to your surgeon friend, I totally get her.
I used to think the cause of this was something about how you were raised or how repugnant any discussion of bodily fluids or medical stuff was in your childhood. Some of my friends can’t handle talking about any medical procedure at all, which I always thought was odd, but I chalked it up to childhood experiences. I’ve since learned that child rearing is not the cause, although I’m sure it has some influence.
My mom was a nurse, and we talked about all sorts of bodily fluids, medical issues, and, frankly, gross stuff while growing up. I developed a full tolerance for it. Similar to you, it just felt like a step on the way to treatment and healing. It does not bother me at all to see it or hear a discussion about it at the dinner table, no matter how gross. But, my brother, who was raised in the exact same circumstances, passes out when he gets stuck with a needle. Every. Time. I know that the response to needles and blood aren’t the same as medical procedures, but my point is that people react differently no matter their upbringing.
Clearly, some people are just made to react that way in emergencies. This is not throwing even a drop of shade at people who have to experience that queasiness, but I’m very grateful that I’m not one of those people. We just react differently.
Also, I 1000% respect people who work in emergency services. I don’t know if you still do it, but you guys have to deal with a lot of horrific injuries and people at the worst moments of their life. You’re absolutely essential, and I don’t think you get the recognition you deserve. <3