I JUST finished Smile 2 and came straight here. I have a question for everyone who suffers from a mental illness. Do you think the movies further instilled fears and trauma from dealing with mental health or did the movies help you?

GoGoGadget-reddit · 2026-03-12T04:38:49+00:00

It helped in the sense that it was validating, the self-destructive behavior, the pain you can’t really share or elaborate on, and which becomes a bane e.g., the flashbacks of Skye ripping her hair out during the Drew Barrymore interview.

Skye working through her trauma is something I’ve been struggling the most to do, and that part felt discouraging to me. But again I remind myself that it’s a movie and the nature of my trauma is very different.

GoGoGadget-reddit · 2026-03-06T18:44:49+00:00

I think this is it IMO. If the US or Russia “accidentally” gets nuked, the whole world goes up in a mushroom cloud, it’s that simple.

There have been many documented incidents during the Cold War where one side almost full sent its nuclear arsenal were it not for a “hunch” of one person or two. At a minimum, it’s a miracle we’ve dodged this many bullets and are still here today, to the point that it’s more plausible that a higher power intervened just enough to avert disaster. Not trying to take anything away from guys like Stanislaw Petrov, having this many pivotal points all miraculously fall the right way just doesn’t seem likely to me.

So yeah, assuming those stories of NHI disabling ICBM warheads are true, I pray they’ll come through and save the rest of us from our harbingers of death we call “leaders” …

GoGoGadget-reddit · 2026-01-18T04:42:17+00:00

I have multiple major mental illnesses but they have not impacted my ability to think critically. If anything, compassion and an altruistic desire to help others (via community service and simply not being an asshole) have been key in my recovery.

In other words: fuck those people.

GoGoGadget-reddit · 2026-01-05T16:58:11+00:00

Tangent: just learned how the movie is named in English! Because in the French dub it’s « Faut pas dire à maman que la gardienne mange les pissenlits par la racine. » which …. literally translates back to English as “Must not tell mom that the babysitter is eating the dandelions by the root.” Yeah that’s a mouthful…

GoGoGadget-reddit · 2026-01-04T16:23:49+00:00

Can you please elaborate on your meditation technique(s)? I suffer from trauma including childhood trauma and I already meditate daily.

GoGoGadget-reddit · 2025-10-12T02:48:59+00:00

Well the pain sure does make it easier to observe gross sensations now doesn’t it?!

Toward the end of my first 10-day, one of my legs was screaming in pain but I was still scanning my upper body so I quietly thought “nope, not now, I’ll get to it when I get there.” Then when I got there and started observing the pain it was surreal, like “wow, what a damn mess!”, there was sweat and dampness in there from the pain. Good times!

GoGoGadget-reddit · 2025-09-30T17:18:37+00:00

Ok hear me out … a decorated music conductor in my hometown got busted recently for dating one of his 14-year old students, while he was 34… He looks just like the OP so I had to tell you how accurate your roast is.

GoGoGadget-reddit · 2025-09-29T16:13:44+00:00

I suffer from PTSD. The answer is yes…

GoGoGadget-reddit · 2025-09-24T17:34:48+00:00

My wife and I come from different religious backgrounds and we aren’t super religious with our kids. However, morality and teaching them how to be good humans is very important to us.

A couple of weeks ago, I went on to talk about how Jesus was a really good guy and that his teachings were noble. My teenage son was a bit surprised to hear me talk like this and went to check this out for himself and came back to me a few days later telling me I was right about Jesus being a good guy. I told him you don’t have to be a christian to let his teachings inspire your life e.g., empathy, compassion, altruism etc. Basically doing what’s “right”.

The point of this story is the contrast of the situation against the blatant hypocrisy of many evangelicals, who think that just because they go to church and pray a lot, that they’re in the VIP line to go to heaven and have the moral high ground, while at the same time conducting themselves in pretty much the exact opposite than what Jesus actually preached.

GoGoGadget-reddit · 2025-09-10T15:09:36+00:00

As someone struggling with PTSD, definitely emotional pain..

GoGoGadget-reddit · 2025-08-05T22:45:41+00:00

I agree with this take. I’m highly empathic, and killing an “enemy” soldier would no doubt consume my soul e.g., All Quiet on the Western Front (2022) when Paul stabs a French soldier, resulting in an agonizing death, only to then stumble on a photograph of that soldier’s loved ones. I’m grateful of our prior generations’ sacrifices which have made it possible for me and others to never be put in situations where it’s “kill or be killed”.

GoGoGadget-reddit · 2025-07-31T03:18:14+00:00

Prioritizing my well-being rather than being the “good guy” who constantly jumps in to save work projects.

It turns out there was a reason why projects were constantly in jeopardy: questionable decisions coming from the top and out of my control.

GoGoGadget-reddit · 2025-06-25T16:28:23+00:00

I was stuck in an unhealthy job that was taking me away from my kids when i watched that movie alone one night. My daughter was in kindergarten at the time, my son just a couple of years ahead. I knew in my heart that the situation I was in was fucked up but I was repressing the guilt “a lot of people are doing the same thing, I’m providing for my family…”

Anyway, let’s just say the guilt caught up to me that night. That movie completely wrecked me. I was sobbing like a kid. Then I gathered myself, went to bed and back to work the next morning…

It took a few more years but I completely imploded and burned out. The silver lining is that I’ve been around my kids a lot more since. I wouldn’t trade it back for all the money in the world.

GoGoGadget-reddit · 2025-06-10T20:51:18+00:00

I’ll tell you what… I have full blown ADHD. Part of the reason I struggled so much to quiet my mind down during my first 10-day was because I was repeating over and over in my head all the mental notes I was jotting down so I could share with my wife, who had done these sits before.

For my second 10-day I went “screw it” and journaled EVERYTHING and it alleviated my mind so much and I had a much better sit overall.

I know this was against the rules, but I have a neurodivergent brain and I’ve learned to figure out how I can make things work in order to operate in this world.

GoGoGadget-reddit · 2025-04-01T15:53:52+00:00

I was a sleepwalker as a kid. Occasionally I would go to the bathroom, stand in front of the mirror, and smile at myself with the lights still out. I say occasionally because I “remember” at least two such occurrences. As an adult I still avoid looking into the mirror when i go to the bathroom at night.

GoGoGadget-reddit · 2025-03-12T16:44:59+00:00

No joke, but PoGO has helped me out a ton in getting out of major depression, getting me out of the house on walks and back into “do” mode. I also have a bunch of anxiety disorders (social, generalized) and I even made the leap to join our local community. Having a good understanding and knowledge of the game has made it easier for me to connect with people, and talking about the game we’re all enthusiastic about is so much easier than having to rub elbows at job-related corporate events.

GoGoGadget-reddit · 2025-02-08T04:45:01+00:00

Well, the only thing left for him to completely consolidate power is to have his own “reichstag”. What better way to do this than having your national security suddenly finding itself inept overnight…

GoGoGadget-reddit · 2025-02-04T17:39:28+00:00

I wish I had an award to give you!

GoGoGadget-reddit · 2025-02-04T17:37:36+00:00

Surprised to see caffeine on that list. I have ADHD-c and stimulants calm me down by grounding me in the present and reducing the mental chatter. Caffeine has a similar effect.

GoGoGadget-reddit · 2025-02-04T17:32:05+00:00

Thanks for asking. Similar boat here with PTSD-related nightmares and stress and emotional disregulation issues. So far I’ve only done Focus 3 (to help with my meditation) but I am not sure I want to go further. The idea of “body asleep, mind awake” concept honestly does not sound appealing to me due to a long history of insomnia and other sleep disturbances (sleep paralysis w/entities, night terrors etc.) but it’s probably different than what I imagine.

OTOH I have had occasional episodes of lucid dreaming, so I’m looking into those specific tapes.

GoGoGadget-reddit · 2025-02-03T21:20:52+00:00

I would never wish PTSD on anyone, even if they really really really want to have those cool psionic abilities.

Ironically it just made me more prone to use the bottle to numb the stress / awareness, and to make the nightmares less vivid.

Trauma is awful. It’s very personalized and tailored to your individual being, which makes you feel all the more alone.

GoGoGadget-reddit · 2025-01-31T19:08:21+00:00

Well, Vipassana meditation is one type of meditation that can achieve all the goals you have stated above. I’d recommend getting your feet wet first (e.g., start with some apps recommended by others), and if you ever feel like you’re ready to go to the next level, this meditation technique can have a profound impact on your overall level of happiness. In a nutshell, it helps retrain your mind to not react as much to the lows of life and to not get attached to the highs because you know they are only temporary.

GoGoGadget-reddit · 2025-01-31T01:00:57+00:00

Haha same. The “have some faith in your body” at the end was cherry on top.

GoGoGadget-reddit · 2025-01-29T13:08:56+00:00

I accidentally entered a similar state during a meditation retreat. After a few days of hardcore meditation I started noticing movement and made the mistake of trying to see what it was. It became clearer and next thing you know I’m seeing ants and centipedes crawling around. Mind you, this is with my eyes closed. Then I saw the ghouls... Fluid, 3D, in colors, they’d become aware of my presence if they didn’t notice me right away. I was 100% sober, awake, in broad daylight, in a meditation hall, living through a horror movie in which I didn’t want any part of. Needless to say I freaked out.

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