A Interesting article on dealing wit stressful images all day long....

And a lot of it just boils down to the person and if they are wired to handle it. Like a lot of people on here, going back to my earliest days, I have a news background. And that means you dealt with death a LOT. You don't have to do all these "things" or techniques to 'steele' yourself, you just compartmentalize and "shrug it off", as bad as that sounds. I'm not trying to sound morbid or like I don't have a heart or feelings, but I've seen suicide victims that shot themselves in the head, fatal car wrecks with the deceased still inside, I've even shot someone getting killed in front of me(racing accident). You just have to keep going. But I can't watch them drawing blood from my arm at the doctors office. Go figure...
 
Many of us have a news background, many of us have war zone history none of us are the same. I think that it is fair to say that regardless of your background and the personal experiences you may have, anything that helps to insure your mental health is crucial. In our current news environment, horrid, graphic images arrive hourly if not more often and in an overwhelming quantity to broadcasters and media services. Glad you have found a way that works for you and all the best on your next blood test, I hate 'em too.
 
BrianMurphy said:
Many of us have a news background, many of us have war zone history none of us are the same. I think that it is fair to say that regardless of your background and the personal experiences you may have, anything that helps to insure your mental health is crucial. In our current news environment, horrid, graphic images arrive hourly if not more often and in an overwhelming quantity to broadcasters and media services. Glad you have found a way that works for you and all the best on your next blood test, I hate 'em too.
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Something I didn't think of while I was writing my original response, in pretty much all my exposure, I was always shooting. I was actively working, documenting and capturing the imagery of the scene and situation. I had a job to do. I wasn't just a "consumer", "passively" taking in the images. And I think they may have something to do with it.

What made me think of it was I remembered sometimes bringing in video from things like fatal wrecks, etc. and seeing/hearing some of the reactions from some of the editors when they were ingesting and cutting it.
 
In a way, shooting (working) kind of helps separate you from the horribleness of the event. But this feeling of being separated can also be dangerous if you are in a dangerous environment. I remember rolling video while everyone else was ducking for cover and I should have been as well as rocks and debris were landing around us from blasts.
But then when you go back and look at your footage you gasp at the horror of it because now you aren't working, you are just seeing it
 
I saw a young woman ejected from a Jeep traveling at high speed no more than twenty feet in front of me when I was kid. The short wheelbase Jeep was traveling down a highway about 60-70 MPH, somehow lost control and tumbled. She was ejected not 20' in front of me, the Jeep tumbled and landed on her. The driver and passengers besides her were killed and so was she, it was horrible. In my life, I've seen several others shot, maimed, fatally injured. For me, it just makes me realize that all of our time here is borrowed and that we are all blessed to simply be alive. It makes me treasure each day that I open my eyes. These deaths don't haunt me because we are all going to die, all in our own time. What is much more important is to make the most of every day you have here and to help and love your fellow humans. I agree with firehawk, I think it is better if you witness these things in the course of your work, through your viewfinder. It kind of insulates your psyche a bit because you weren't just a witness, you were a documentarian. You didn't cause the event.

Along the same lines, the older I get, the less I tolerate needless, pointless death and violence in entertainment and news. I don't want to create stories that glorify mans inhumanity to man and I don't want to watch them. Like in all good storytelling, death is part of life and if depicted in the right way, it can be powerful and even beautiful. There are bad people in the world, I have no problem defending my life or the lives of others around me if someone is trying to injure, maim or harm them. But it's not our job to be judge, jury and executioner. But it is our human right to defend our lives.
 
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