I take every chance I get to share Bellingcat's pair of articles on avoiding vicarious trauma and maintaining mental hygiene when watching extremely graphic content because "OSINT" as a field is full of a bunch of idiot amateurs who think "work" is beaming snuff films into their eyeballs - ThreadSky

abeardedpanda.bsky.social • 94 days ago

I take every chance I get to share Bellingcat's pair of articles on avoiding vicarious trauma and maintaining mental hygiene when watching extremely graphic content because "OSINT" as a field is full of a bunch of idiot amateurs who think "work" is beaming snuff films into their eyeballs

Reposted from Sharon ♨️🇨🇦

yep: you should not expose yourself to material that could genuinely traumatize you unless it's part of your job

Comments

querydash.bsky.social•94 days ago

Many people don’t get that. It activates a totally different part of your brain: the lizard part, that just sees something TERRIFYING happening three feet in front of you (lizards don’t understand tech).

It saves that threat info and flashes it back at you for the rest of your life. Ask how I know

dvdbutler.bsky.social•94 days ago

Yup. Like you’d be just talking to a friend and then out of the blue you visualize their head having been blown off and and you can’t even remember what you were talking about

querydash.bsky.social•94 days ago

My brain has helpfully hooked a particular beheading up for audio, so every time I hear a similar sound… whammy.

And I did this as part of my job. Do not casually incur psych damage as a hobby! Bad life choice!

dvdbutler.bsky.social•94 days ago

I got lucky and saw my first bad thing at 16yo in a theatre parking lot

querydash.bsky.social•94 days ago

If you’re getting recurring flashes, enough to be a problem, I can’t recommend EMDR highly enough. Very good for rewiring.

dvdbutler.bsky.social•94 days ago

Will check it out

ampreferspm.bsky.social•94 days ago

EMDR is truly an amazing and effective therapy. Highly recommend!

energetic-nova.bsky.social•92 days ago

I can confirm my lizard brain activates in response

mooiest.bsky.social•94 days ago

📌

abeardedpanda.bsky.social•94 days ago

This one went up in the aftermath of the 2018 Douma chemical attack
https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/how-tos/2018/10/18/prevent-identify-address-vicarious-trauma-conducting-open-source-investigations-middle-east/

abeardedpanda.bsky.social•94 days ago

This one went up following the 2022 Russian full scale invasion of Ukraine
https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/2022/11/23/how-to-maintain-mental-hygiene-as-an-open-source-researcher/

zareenagrewal.bsky.social•94 days ago

Thanks for posting these

awesomeredshirt.bsky.social•94 days ago

📌

ianbobmorris.bsky.social•94 days ago

I want to see Russian equipment get destroyed but I don't want see the snuff

foxbat.gay•94 days ago

See unfortunately some of us can't see that without knowing in gruesome and horrific detail what is happening to the occupants, regardless of if it's visible or not.

madjackstan.bsky.social•94 days ago

If you’re not actively working on some sort of project, collating information for something specific or looking for something in the video it’s just masochism. That’s why their discord is so great because it tries to channel that energy. But like you said not without the necessary disclaimers.

captainmeap.bsky.social•94 days ago

Good articles, and invaluable for a lot of people who don't really know what they're getting themselves into.

My own two cents along the same lines, for whatever it's worth:

captainmeap.bsky.social•94 days ago

ampreferspm.bsky.social•94 days ago

Thank you for this warning and for writing it so beautifully. I always choose to avoid seeing or hearing when I can.

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