Things that have struck you profoundly?

[Alexxx-Returns]

This happens to all of us once in a while, right? Where you experience something that just seems to kick you in the stomach with emotion and lingers for ages.

My experience I wanted to share was back in September, while I still lived with my parents. I came downstairs and went into the kitchen, I think to make some tea. Then, about to go back upstairs I happened to hear the movie my parents were watching in the living room. They were watching the movie "After.Life". And it was at the very end that I heard (I did not see any of it, I was outside the room). (Spoiler for movie spoilers:)

I heard a guy saying over and over again, "I'm not dead! I'm not dead!! I'M NOT DEAD!" You could hear the raw fear and rage in his voice.

And then as he finally died... "I'm not dead..."

And then in the silence, blending in with all this, "Exit music (for a film)" by Radiohead played as the credits came on.

I was overwhelmed by emotion. It just brought out feelings in me I can'e explain. It was all so haunting and sad. What's more, I was struck by just HOW much I was struck by HEARING ~20 seconds of the end of a movie coming into the exit music. I mean, in my adult life I've cried at the last 7 minutes of Homeward Bound without seeing the rest of it since I was a kid, but that's different BECAUSE I saw it when I was young, and I WAS seeing it in front of me.

My reaction reminds me of how the ending to The Butterfly Effect makes me feel (tied one of my all-time favourite movies). An incredibly sad ending created through the stewing of strong feelings throughout the entire movie to precede it... and a mournful, powerful piece overlaying the ending and into the final credits. That gets me every time. I cry every time. But again... that came from having seen the whole movie, seen the entire journey and felt along with the characters. Not just 20 seconds at the end.

And now I get chills whenever I hear that song. If I listen to it, I get so overwhelmed I have to take a minute to gather my thoughts after it's over. I think this experience is gonna stick with me for a long time. This is quite unusual for me since nowadays it's unheard of for me to have any feelings one way or another about ANYTHING. I don't know whether I like this or not.

How about you guys though. I'd like to hear about similar experiences.

[Phausk]

Sometimes I browse Reddit to pass the time when I'm bored, especially the /r/wtf subreddit, which is full of amusing, gross and horrifying stuff. Anyway, around the Holidays of 2013, I was browsing it and somebody linked a video of a drunken car crash. I don't know all of the details, but it was in Russia (I think?) and it showed an SUV wrapped around a pole. Now gore doesn't usually bother me too much, but this was a lot more... The SUV caught fire, and slowly engulfed the vehicle. There were several people trapped inside in the back, and all you can hear is their terrifying screams for help as they become cooked alive, and nobody around the crash could do anything about it. If that wasn't bad enough, the driver of the vehicle breaks himself out of the front windshield and struggles to push himself out onto the hood of the vehicle, while completely engulfed in flames... He got to the ground and people started putting him out. He was still alive on camera, but apparently died later in hospital. That video really fucked with my emotions for days... I was sad and angry, and trying to think up of ways to save the passengers when vehicles burst into flames.

There was another bad video I've seen, around the time when that horrible Brazilian Nightclub fire happened. I was watching a news video about it on Youtube and decided to check the comment section (as I always do). Somebody mentioned that people should check out the video of the Station Nightclub fire (WARNING: GRAPHIC). I could only watch so much of it before I felt incredibly depressed. The fact that you have a first person view of the whole thing as it all goes down makes the whole thing that much more frightening. The fire started so quickly, and so many people were trapped in the chaos while there wasn't much that could be done.

There hasn't been much else other than personal experiences, but I'm not sure if that's what you were asking for.

Edited November 1, 2015 by Phausk

[Sidewalk Surfboard]

What really struck me recently is when I realized that someone I considered a brother didn't see me as a friend anymore. They had stopped being my friend. They were still physically there, but they were mentally far far away. They didn't care about how I felt anymore. The only person I felt comfortable with at the time was no longer there. It hurt so badly. I felt like I should have just withered away. I've been feeling very strongly about the harassment I experienced and my own personal realizations that humans are fucking awful. I'm a cynical person, and I have every god damn right to feel that way.

[Hewge]

This morning, upon waking up... It struck me that I'm sick! 

This sucks. RIP productivity levels. No werewolf boyfriends for me, this Halloween.

[Kinare]

Gah, so many things... I guess I'll go with a more recent experience.

I had a client about a year or so ago that was easily the worst experience in this field I have ever had by far and I will never be able to shake it fully. Still bothers me a lot to think about, even knowing I never have to see them again. I felt so bad for the lady I was taking care of, even if some of what was wrong with her situation was her fault.

Her family is typical white trash in every sense of the phrase. They live far out in the country in a dirty trailer with an obnoxiously dirty yard guarded by dogs, stray cats, and a duck. Trash is everywhere inside and out. All but one occupant aside from the client herself has jobs, but also have government assistance (the one lived solely off of it). Their hobbies include fishing, hunting and moar fishing. There are many vehicles, one for each person living on the premises. All vehicles are pretty old, barely running and filthy inside and out. Everyone in the home smokes, including the lady I was taking care of. Beer is common. No windows are able to be opened. There is one central heater for the whole house and it is near her room and because she gets cold easily it's always on a high setting for even a person who likes it warmer, so those of us actually moving around near it melted. The air is very thick due to the heat, smoke, and lack of ventilation. Dog hair and mouse poop are all over, though I was surprised at the lack of bugs. There's a total of 6 people living in the home: her and her hubby, her step daughter and hubby, her step son, and a "family friend" (who was beyond creepy, he liked to stare way too much and he had little girl's books in his room). All 5 of the other occupants aside from her are constantly coming and going and making more messes, many of which was our responsibility to help keep under control (though she didn't want us doing everything for them so they would stop being lazy... ha). At the time I was there it was winter, lots of snow for most of it, which made everything a lot messier. To top off the white trash feel, one of the other caregivers she had as a regular night person was her husband's brother's wife, a disgusting looking lady whose teeth were mangled and she smelled really weird (bad weird) and she didn't mind being open about thoughts she really should have kept to herself. She often flirted with the client's hubby right in front of her. I was even told some stories, whether they are true or not I don't know, about that same gal making sexual comments to her while helping her (things you might not even consider saying to your lover if you plan on getting any lovin' ever again).

That's not even the worst of it... the constant verbal abuse back and forth, yelling at the top of their lungs... absolute misery. All of them yell at each other, including the client yelling at people and them yelling back. Very rarely was there a calm conversation at that house. She was very emotional, which did not help anything, but it was not something she had much control over because of her condition and the other inhabitants knew that and were very quick to warn us about it, but still engaged her whenever she would get upset, rather than just walk away. She was extremely picky about things, some I don't blame her for, but it made her hard to appease. I managed to do ok, though there were a few times she misunderstood me and would get very upset with me. Normally she was pretty understanding and nice to us caregivers, but when tired like during the times she was misunderstanding me she would get very rawr with us. Worth noting that everyone in the house was nice to the caregivers otherwise, aside from the gawker who gawked too much. <<

I know she was afraid to end up in a nursing home, she constantly begged us not to report the clear abuse, but really what she was constantly going through was much worse than any possible bad treatment she could receive at a home. She was planning at the time to save up some cash as she got it from the government and her accident settlement to move into a different place and not allow those people in her life again and she knew moving into a nursing home would not be helping that goal either. Not sure if she ever did, but I hope so. Her one ray of hope in all of this Hell was that she had one really awesome regular caregiver who was absolutely amazing to her and very protective of her. I hope when I get old like that I have someone half as awesome taking care of me.

I worked there for about 2 months 2 days a week, sometimes a 3rd, and it was absolute torture, especially the last few days I was there. I basically had to re-live past events of my own or fear for new ones any time I went there and yelling occurred, which was nearly every time. I needed the money badly and there were no other cases at that time, so I had to force myself through. I was so glad when they finally dropped us, even though it meant a huge loss in hours (12 hour shifts, yo). We were filling in for another company and when that company finally got new staff to come in we were no longer needed. The only good thing about that place was one of the cats they had reminded me a lot of a cat I had before who was my favorite cat I've ever had. It looked a lot like her (all black with a single white spot on the chest) and acted a lot like her, but was male. I wanted to steal that cat and they didn't want it, but I couldn't, unfortunately. ;-;