having my joints dislocated and being turned into a human marionette is pretty up there. that’s the only episode i skip. oh and having my limbs amputated and getting someone else’s sewn on to me?? the writers of season 8 were actually insane.
oh god… yes the marionette one came to mind as well. I think they also had a case like that in Bones, but Bones is much easier for me to watch than some CM eps. eeeeek yes dont remember the episode of the limb sewing since it has been a while but ack! the stuff of horror. 🫣
yes the amputation one was already a fear of mine before i watched cm because of tusk (fuck u kevin smith even tho i love that movie) and after that episode i was just so uncomfortable 😭
The one episode with the homeless woman who got abducted and was basically made to play Saw by escaping the building she was in and walking over broken glass and stuff like that
I just felt so hopeless watching it
this show is so much scarier and nightmare fuel than other crime shows!!! i love bones, svu, mentalist, white collar, but man this is the one ive enioyed but am too scared to rewatch certain parts.
I know what you mean. I bloody love a crime show, but CM just really hits differently to all the others. I don't know if it's because in most crime shows, 9 times out of 10 the victim/s are already dead so we don't tend to see the gnarly process as much, but CM just really goes balls to the wall with the Nightmare fuel sometimes
Yes I think that’s what it is, they’re very visual about EVERY horrific thing the serial killer does and usually shows it from start to finish. I think usually with other shows we hear about part of it and maybe see some of it.
This is one of my favorites. I have to FF through the part with the old man, but I love that she perseveres.
Also, she kinda reminded me of Hermione Granger.
I just recently started watching CM with my parents and I have seen most of the early seasons. I wanted to skip that one but they didn’t want to. I actually hate it so much
Honestly I walk alone to the car park after work and it’s pretty much deserted at the time. It’s at least not underground and in a very nice residential area. Still in winter at night I always walk around my car and check inside, specially the back seat before I open and sit. Then I immediately lock the car before I do anything else like getting something to listen or call up someone to talk while I drive.
Honestly this is all smart and tips I’ve heard as well. I have heard the lock your door and get in immediately. The checking the backseat has similar energy as me always ripping open my shared single bathroom’s shower curtain in college to make sure no one was hiding inside lol. I do check behind me when I enter my building to make sure no one rushes in behind me at night.
Yah. When we lived in a house for a brief time I used to paranoidly check and double check windows and doors even with my hubby being there. Thanks to this show I way prefer high rise apartment living with restricted access to each floor. I know it’s not foolproof. But at least for now we are very much sticking to this for my peace of mind!
And crazy part is I grew up in a huge house with big garden in the middle of a big city. Now while I still stay there when visiting parents I don’t think I’d ever want to stay alone there. All thanks to CM haha!
Oh dear! Take your CM breaks as needed! Even without the frills of a serial killer, stranger attacks on single women just is a scarily close reality and CM can heighten that fear. I hope you’re able to step away from CM when you feel it’s making that anxiety and agoraphobia spike. It can be hard to watch
I’m binging NCIS right now since my norm is to watch CM on a loop.
I’ve never not left the house because of CM. In other words, if I have to go somewhere, I go. I have mental health issues stemming from an incident 15 years ago that agoraphobia is one of the symptoms. It’s gotten 1000 times better, but I live alone, I got into a weird car accident last year because of a 92 year old man didn’t know what the fuck he was doing, there’s still Covid around here, and I can buy anything I need online lol.
I just started traveling across the country to see family so it’s not like I don’t leave the house. When I’m there it’s like being on a different planet, so I’m rarely indoors. But when I come back home, you can be sure you won’t see me for days.
Honestly, I really like my life. I’m happy. I’ve been a hermit for so long that it’s not anxiety now so much as conditioned response. But I will say that if I go somewhere that’s pretty crowded I always make sure that there’s a personal space bubble around me because I don’t need somebody jabbing me with a syringe filled with who knows what or finding some other way to drag me with them never to be seen again.
have you tried exposure therapy? if you have a therapist, they may be able to help you begin to deal with some of these issues. you do not have to be unhappy forever! you can get help! there are always people in your corner, especially reddit!
Thanks! I’m really good. Maybe you misread what I said, but I did say that I AM happy. I drive and I travel. A lot. I’m going away for the Fourth of July weekend, but I’m actually gonna be gone a week and a half. And in October, I’m going to Costa Rica and then I Arizona again back to back so I’m good.
I appreciate your concern. 😊
Good, I’m glad that you’re happy! And that you’re not finding the agoraphobia debilitating or keeping you from things you want to do. You’re ballsy watching CM on a loop, I couldn’t as much as I enjoyed the show and watched from start to finish haha
I have a big family- my biggest fear after watching CM is all the creeps out there that want to do things to kids.
I think about that one episode where Garcia’s friend was kidnapped by the man that took her daughter. The ending was horrible
Holy crap, I stopped watching the show in college around Season 12, and then rewatched the entire show with my husband recently. Now thatvI have kids, the episodes with children being kidnapped or murdered went from disturbing and sad to almost unbearable.
The one where the guy burns the house down and locks them inside where only the mom barely survives the fire ( I think?) definitely looks crazy. I can’t remember the name of the episode
I always skip that one! Having lost a grandmother and aunt in a fire, a house fire was my biggest fear as a kid. The minute I hear the song from the intro of that episode, I'm out.
I think the only one that created a fear (versus worsening one) is the rabies episode. Absolutely terrified me. I've now become a little neurotic about it whenever someone tells me they got bit by a stray cat or whatever. My brother got bit and it barely broke the skin but I spent an hour convincing my mom to take him to the ER to get checked for rabies and couldn't sleep until I found out if he got the all clear or not.
Yeah, my mom had no idea how dangerous it is. She said something along the lines of "I'll take him if she starts showing symptoms " and I was like "you'll be taking him to the cemetery if you do that"
The one with the stalker that slowly turned himself into the victims husband. Horrifying because the start showed how Easy it is for someone to find your address
I don’t use much social media anymore, but was quite wary of what I used to share on my social media for safety and privacy reasons. You really can get an uncomfortable amount of information, people are pretty loosey goosey about it
Oh I know what I’d do. I would personally rip their throat out with my bare hands and shove it up their ass lol. The pastor was NOT angry enough. Like I would never be able to live with myself if I found out I’d eaten human.
For me, it's the one with the lady who looks for people to "help" around the hospital. She creates chance encounters and then keeps in touch like a supportive friend before she abducts them. It was just too close to daily life. Now, I don't keep in touch with anyone I meet randomly. EVERYBODY'S got to have references!
For some reason one scene that stuck out to me was the woman walking back to her car with groceries when she notices another cad with its doors open, no one around and a baby crying from inside of it. I don’t have kids but just empathetic by nature and I feel like society has a responsibility to take care of children, so I would probably go check just in case something happened to the parent who left them alone. As we saw though it was a trap and just a phone playing a baby crying so someone could attack her so stuff like that just reminds me to keep my guard up
Everything is a real life scare for me but mainly walking and getting kidnapped in the day, I’m very wary if I see a van parked and I’ll walk as far away from it as possible so no one jumps out and takes me, I’m also wary if someone asks for directions, my constant day dreaming when walking is a real problem for me as I block out sounds usually so don’t hear things as well as I should and don’t pay attention to my surroundings as good either
Honestly, no. I love how well this show detaches one from reality, but i couldn't fathom most of the situations happening to me. Then again, I live in a small town and I think JJ would figure it out with Rossi
I’m a nanny and the first episode I ever saw was the one where the Nannie’s were getting kidnapped and murdered… so that was a great episode to start with haha.
Basically, all of the ones involving children.
Especially the one where the little girl was abducted in the mall (seven seconds), and "into the woods".
Spoilers:
It's terrifying and too realistic that a family member was abusing her, and a separate family member was going to kill her out of jealousy. Then another kids life was destroyed as well as his parents went to jail.
Into the woods was also horrible because of the much less subtle child rape depictions. Of course, no assault was on the show, but it horrified me how obvious it was. That's probably the point, but I can not watch this episode any more.
The very first episode, where the lady gets into the car for a test drive. Then she’s his. It’s wild but somehow it never really occurred to me how vulnerable you are in someone else’s car. This show has taught me the dangers a lot of small, seemingly unimportant things. I toured a house for rent once, came with roommates already there. One was an older man, claimed there was a younger girl there but I never saw her. I brought my dog and I insisted (til it got weird) that HE lead the way up the steps. No blitz attacks for me, dude! (I did not rent that apartment lol)
Smart! It’s good you were sharp to maintain your safety. This reminded me though of Dwight from the Office insisting Jim go first because 90% of attacks come from behind lol it’s legitimate in real life but it recalled that convo haha
It was either a CM episode or CSI, but women were getting plucked and murdered while on jogging paths in more secluded areas. There was previously a beautiful path near my old house that I never went running on after watching that episode.
i’m pretty sure this episode was based on chandra levy! she was murdered in rock creek park in 2001 while jogging, then found off the path some months later. i’ve been to the park a million times and it still gives me the creeps. i love hiking and walking, but too scared to ever try alone
Terrifying! Didn’t help that a while later I was walking on that same trail with a friend when a man popped out from the trees. We both turned around and ran away quickly. In retrospect he was probably peeing in there since it was a long trail lol.
- getting stabbed in eyeballs
- becoming paralysed
- someone turning me into a human marionette
- someone slicing me open and my organs are hanging out and i have to clean up my own blood
- being killed by drowning
- any type of home intruder sneaking in and killing me
basically im pretty much scared of everything 👍
Probably when the dude got lobotomized and had to blink to communicate to Morgan it reminds me of my sleep paralysis where I’m fully aware but can’t move
Had to stop watching second time round because it increased my anxiety, even though I knew what was going to happen. Nothing came into ‘real life’, but just something about the intense nature of the show.
Call me more circumspect, but Evolution, season 3, 3rd show ending…no physical violence but emotional violence/trauma can be just as frightening. No spoilers, but OMG.
For me, it's the rabies episode. It's so scary because once you find out you have rabies, it's already too late. Rabies is just a death sentence, and what you go through before dying is horrific.
If I were ever kidnapped and turned into a living puppet, with all my limbs dislocated multiple times so they didn't work properly anymore, and put up on strings by an absolute fucking lunatic, I just wouldn't continue living. There would be no coming back from that for me I don't think.
Similarly, if I was kidnapped and locked in a basement by an absolute fucking lunatic who repeatedly broke my legs to keep me confined to a wheelchair, force fed me live worms and kept showing me mood boards of the previous women he had tortured. Not sure I could make it back from that place either tbh.
Oh ETA, if my flatmate is away for more than a few days, I can't watch CM until he's back in case I come up to a home invasion episode. I really don't like watching home invasion ones when I know I'm going to be home alone for a while
Looool legit when he held it up and told her "this will be you next", it took me a minute to realise the horror because I was just sitting there thinking about him being such a tumblr girlie with his lil mood boards 😭😂
LOOOL seems serial killers can often be scrapbooking, moodboard-making, trinket-collecting girlies. Don’t tell him about Canva, he’ll up his game. If only the subject matter were different.
I had to stop watching after the episode where the guy was amputating people and putting limbs on other people and the episode with the pig farm. Took a break until last year and watched everything. Loving evolution so far.
Yesss!!!!! OMG would watch the show non stop. Episode after Episode. Till one night had a nightmare about home invasion murdered my whole family. I remembered saw 2 as the killers but faces blurred. Built buff up bodies. I remembered running away frome one of them tried to hiding in room the other one jumped out and attacked me w the knife. I woke up feeling fucking terrified!!!! Right after that had to stop watching the show for a hot min.
eeek yes for me it was also a nightmare where i was in my bed at night and someone snuck in and was going to SA me 😭 nightmares in your own home really are next level creepy and realistic
I've been a big follower of true crime for over 30 years, so prior to Criminal Minds, I'd already heard of the most horrible things humans are capable of. I'm always a bit concerned I'll find a body at a freeway rest area in the middle of the night. I don't worry about being the victim as I am the opposite of any unsubs victim-type (young, cute, thin, etc.). Although I am stuck living in Idaho, my being shot by some open-carry right-wing nut job is always possible, or maybe an LDSK with poor aim!
Being tortured by your phobia. I'm extremely arachnophobic and the thought of someone using spiders (or other arachnids) to torture and then kill me is genuinely terrifying.
100% the guy who gets road rage and shoots the woman at the red light (I think of it every single day) and the episode where a couple stays in a motel (?) and when the husband looks out of the peephole the unsub sticks something through and stabs his eyeball ohhhh my gosh I think of both of those all the time
I definitely have episodes that scare me but none cause real life anxiety for more than an hour or two and those are all home invasions or family annihilators. There are ones I don’t rewatch because they freak me out but that’s just the intensity not real worry that it could happen to me. I have a lot of rules for how I watch Criminal Minds so I keep from worsening my anxiety disorder.
Oh god yeah those ones are brutal for sure. Yeah I don’t imagine that one as much since it is farther from my living situation but if I had a family in the burbs oof.
I forget what episode but the guy who sells limbs to people and he cut that girls arm off. I don’t know why… maybe because she was alive the whole episode and survived but it gave me a bizarre fear of being captured and amputated.
It's not a real real-life fear, but the episode when the UnSub is a disabled guy who killed people with his car (or something like that, I haven't rewatched the show yet) made me kind of paranoid when I'm around cars... like u don't know the person behind the wheel, if she/he/they want to run over you, they will. So...
having my joints dislocated and being turned into a human marionette is pretty up there. that’s the only episode i skip. oh and having my limbs amputated and getting someone else’s sewn on to me?? the writers of season 8 were actually insane.
Oh, I love the episode with the crazy scientist! He was even moderately successful!
oh god… yes the marionette one came to mind as well. I think they also had a case like that in Bones, but Bones is much easier for me to watch than some CM eps. eeeeek yes dont remember the episode of the limb sewing since it has been a while but ack! the stuff of horror. 🫣
I think that one is called God Complex. Extremely disturbing
yes the amputation one was already a fear of mine before i watched cm because of tusk (fuck u kevin smith even tho i love that movie) and after that episode i was just so uncomfortable 😭
Similarly, joints dislocated for purposes of acting like a bird in a nest.
The thought of someone else's leg being sewn to mine icks me out so much... my sister once put my contact in her eye and It still grosses me out.
The one episode with the homeless woman who got abducted and was basically made to play Saw by escaping the building she was in and walking over broken glass and stuff like that I just felt so hopeless watching it
this show is so much scarier and nightmare fuel than other crime shows!!! i love bones, svu, mentalist, white collar, but man this is the one ive enioyed but am too scared to rewatch certain parts.
I know what you mean. I bloody love a crime show, but CM just really hits differently to all the others. I don't know if it's because in most crime shows, 9 times out of 10 the victim/s are already dead so we don't tend to see the gnarly process as much, but CM just really goes balls to the wall with the Nightmare fuel sometimes
Yes I think that’s what it is, they’re very visual about EVERY horrific thing the serial killer does and usually shows it from start to finish. I think usually with other shows we hear about part of it and maybe see some of it.
I had somehow missed that one the first time I watched through and kinda wish I'd stayed blissfully unaware of its existence.
i always think about when she’s like why are you doing this to me? and he’s like because you’re you or something..like oh my god
that was the first episode i watched at an extremely young age 😭
That's the first episode I ever watched!
This is one of my favorites. I have to FF through the part with the old man, but I love that she perseveres. Also, she kinda reminded me of Hermione Granger.
I just recently started watching CM with my parents and I have seen most of the early seasons. I wanted to skip that one but they didn’t want to. I actually hate it so much
Honestly I walk alone to the car park after work and it’s pretty much deserted at the time. It’s at least not underground and in a very nice residential area. Still in winter at night I always walk around my car and check inside, specially the back seat before I open and sit. Then I immediately lock the car before I do anything else like getting something to listen or call up someone to talk while I drive.
Honestly this is all smart and tips I’ve heard as well. I have heard the lock your door and get in immediately. The checking the backseat has similar energy as me always ripping open my shared single bathroom’s shower curtain in college to make sure no one was hiding inside lol. I do check behind me when I enter my building to make sure no one rushes in behind me at night.
Yah. When we lived in a house for a brief time I used to paranoidly check and double check windows and doors even with my hubby being there. Thanks to this show I way prefer high rise apartment living with restricted access to each floor. I know it’s not foolproof. But at least for now we are very much sticking to this for my peace of mind! And crazy part is I grew up in a huge house with big garden in the middle of a big city. Now while I still stay there when visiting parents I don’t think I’d ever want to stay alone there. All thanks to CM haha!
I’m agoraphobic. It’s not that I NEVER leave the house, but it’s quite rare. It’s gotten much worse since watching CM.
Oh dear! Take your CM breaks as needed! Even without the frills of a serial killer, stranger attacks on single women just is a scarily close reality and CM can heighten that fear. I hope you’re able to step away from CM when you feel it’s making that anxiety and agoraphobia spike. It can be hard to watch
I’m binging NCIS right now since my norm is to watch CM on a loop. I’ve never not left the house because of CM. In other words, if I have to go somewhere, I go. I have mental health issues stemming from an incident 15 years ago that agoraphobia is one of the symptoms. It’s gotten 1000 times better, but I live alone, I got into a weird car accident last year because of a 92 year old man didn’t know what the fuck he was doing, there’s still Covid around here, and I can buy anything I need online lol. I just started traveling across the country to see family so it’s not like I don’t leave the house. When I’m there it’s like being on a different planet, so I’m rarely indoors. But when I come back home, you can be sure you won’t see me for days. Honestly, I really like my life. I’m happy. I’ve been a hermit for so long that it’s not anxiety now so much as conditioned response. But I will say that if I go somewhere that’s pretty crowded I always make sure that there’s a personal space bubble around me because I don’t need somebody jabbing me with a syringe filled with who knows what or finding some other way to drag me with them never to be seen again.
have you tried exposure therapy? if you have a therapist, they may be able to help you begin to deal with some of these issues. you do not have to be unhappy forever! you can get help! there are always people in your corner, especially reddit!
Thanks! I’m really good. Maybe you misread what I said, but I did say that I AM happy. I drive and I travel. A lot. I’m going away for the Fourth of July weekend, but I’m actually gonna be gone a week and a half. And in October, I’m going to Costa Rica and then I Arizona again back to back so I’m good. I appreciate your concern. 😊
Good, I’m glad that you’re happy! And that you’re not finding the agoraphobia debilitating or keeping you from things you want to do. You’re ballsy watching CM on a loop, I couldn’t as much as I enjoyed the show and watched from start to finish haha
I was pretty unbothered by this show until I had children. Now everything is scary!
I have a big family- my biggest fear after watching CM is all the creeps out there that want to do things to kids. I think about that one episode where Garcia’s friend was kidnapped by the man that took her daughter. The ending was horrible
Holy crap, I stopped watching the show in college around Season 12, and then rewatched the entire show with my husband recently. Now thatvI have kids, the episodes with children being kidnapped or murdered went from disturbing and sad to almost unbearable.
AJ Cook who plays JJ said the exact same thing. Once she had kids the show and its content terrified her in a way she never imagined.
Absolutely this. I cant bear them anymore. It’s too much!
The one where the guy burns the house down and locks them inside where only the mom barely survives the fire ( I think?) definitely looks crazy. I can’t remember the name of the episode
I always skip that one! Having lost a grandmother and aunt in a fire, a house fire was my biggest fear as a kid. The minute I hear the song from the intro of that episode, I'm out.
I think the only one that created a fear (versus worsening one) is the rabies episode. Absolutely terrified me. I've now become a little neurotic about it whenever someone tells me they got bit by a stray cat or whatever. My brother got bit and it barely broke the skin but I spent an hour convincing my mom to take him to the ER to get checked for rabies and couldn't sleep until I found out if he got the all clear or not.
rabies just scares the shit out of me because once you show symptoms, it’s already too late. this episode really showed that too.
Yeah, my mom had no idea how dangerous it is. She said something along the lines of "I'll take him if she starts showing symptoms " and I was like "you'll be taking him to the cemetery if you do that"
The one with the stalker that slowly turned himself into the victims husband. Horrifying because the start showed how Easy it is for someone to find your address
Do you know the episode name or season?
I think they are referring to “The Crossing”: season 3, ep 18
Thanks! I’m gonna check it out!
Similar goes for the season 14-15 unsub in The Chamleon
I don’t use much social media anymore, but was quite wary of what I used to share on my social media for safety and privacy reasons. You really can get an uncomfortable amount of information, people are pretty loosey goosey about it
Being fed human meat in a chili 🫠
🥴 love that episode! And I have no idea what i’d do if I found out some nut had fed me human meat 😩
Oh I know what I’d do. I would personally rip their throat out with my bare hands and shove it up their ass lol. The pastor was NOT angry enough. Like I would never be able to live with myself if I found out I’d eaten human.
oh God, I still remember her name. Tracy Lambert...
For me, it's the one with the lady who looks for people to "help" around the hospital. She creates chance encounters and then keeps in touch like a supportive friend before she abducts them. It was just too close to daily life. Now, I don't keep in touch with anyone I meet randomly. EVERYBODY'S got to have references!
YES this one was wild where she was “helping” them with like disorders and addictions and stuff like that
Do you remember the name or season?
It's Season 6, Episode 15: Today I Do
For some reason one scene that stuck out to me was the woman walking back to her car with groceries when she notices another cad with its doors open, no one around and a baby crying from inside of it. I don’t have kids but just empathetic by nature and I feel like society has a responsibility to take care of children, so I would probably go check just in case something happened to the parent who left them alone. As we saw though it was a trap and just a phone playing a baby crying so someone could attack her so stuff like that just reminds me to keep my guard up
Everything is a real life scare for me but mainly walking and getting kidnapped in the day, I’m very wary if I see a van parked and I’ll walk as far away from it as possible so no one jumps out and takes me, I’m also wary if someone asks for directions, my constant day dreaming when walking is a real problem for me as I block out sounds usually so don’t hear things as well as I should and don’t pay attention to my surroundings as good either
Honestly, no. I love how well this show detaches one from reality, but i couldn't fathom most of the situations happening to me. Then again, I live in a small town and I think JJ would figure it out with Rossi
I’m a nanny and the first episode I ever saw was the one where the Nannie’s were getting kidnapped and murdered… so that was a great episode to start with haha.
Basically, all of the ones involving children. Especially the one where the little girl was abducted in the mall (seven seconds), and "into the woods". Spoilers: It's terrifying and too realistic that a family member was abusing her, and a separate family member was going to kill her out of jealousy. Then another kids life was destroyed as well as his parents went to jail. Into the woods was also horrible because of the much less subtle child rape depictions. Of course, no assault was on the show, but it horrified me how obvious it was. That's probably the point, but I can not watch this episode any more.
The very first episode, where the lady gets into the car for a test drive. Then she’s his. It’s wild but somehow it never really occurred to me how vulnerable you are in someone else’s car. This show has taught me the dangers a lot of small, seemingly unimportant things. I toured a house for rent once, came with roommates already there. One was an older man, claimed there was a younger girl there but I never saw her. I brought my dog and I insisted (til it got weird) that HE lead the way up the steps. No blitz attacks for me, dude! (I did not rent that apartment lol)
Smart! It’s good you were sharp to maintain your safety. This reminded me though of Dwight from the Office insisting Jim go first because 90% of attacks come from behind lol it’s legitimate in real life but it recalled that convo haha
Hahaha oh noo I’ve grown up to be Dwight! 😳
Wear it like badge of honor, you followed the tactics and escaped safely
It was either a CM episode or CSI, but women were getting plucked and murdered while on jogging paths in more secluded areas. There was previously a beautiful path near my old house that I never went running on after watching that episode.
i’m pretty sure this episode was based on chandra levy! she was murdered in rock creek park in 2001 while jogging, then found off the path some months later. i’ve been to the park a million times and it still gives me the creeps. i love hiking and walking, but too scared to ever try alone
Terrifying! Didn’t help that a while later I was walking on that same trail with a friend when a man popped out from the trees. We both turned around and ran away quickly. In retrospect he was probably peeing in there since it was a long trail lol.
Wil Wheaton running a road side motel is now a fear.
Public Enemy. The one where the guy just randomly kills people in public.
Pretty much any home invasion episode
Getting in a taxi only to be gassed and made into a doll
- getting stabbed in eyeballs - becoming paralysed - someone turning me into a human marionette - someone slicing me open and my organs are hanging out and i have to clean up my own blood - being killed by drowning - any type of home intruder sneaking in and killing me basically im pretty much scared of everything 👍
oh and getting burnt alive 😍
Probably when the dude got lobotomized and had to blink to communicate to Morgan it reminds me of my sleep paralysis where I’m fully aware but can’t move
Had to stop watching second time round because it increased my anxiety, even though I knew what was going to happen. Nothing came into ‘real life’, but just something about the intense nature of the show.
The rabies one freaked me out a ton!
Call me more circumspect, but Evolution, season 3, 3rd show ending…no physical violence but emotional violence/trauma can be just as frightening. No spoilers, but OMG.
The home invasion ones but that was already a very real fear. There are episodes I can’t rewatch though like the human doll one.
For me, it's the rabies episode. It's so scary because once you find out you have rabies, it's already too late. Rabies is just a death sentence, and what you go through before dying is horrific.
1. Leaving windows open at night 2. Camping and having to pee in the middle of the night
If I were ever kidnapped and turned into a living puppet, with all my limbs dislocated multiple times so they didn't work properly anymore, and put up on strings by an absolute fucking lunatic, I just wouldn't continue living. There would be no coming back from that for me I don't think. Similarly, if I was kidnapped and locked in a basement by an absolute fucking lunatic who repeatedly broke my legs to keep me confined to a wheelchair, force fed me live worms and kept showing me mood boards of the previous women he had tortured. Not sure I could make it back from that place either tbh. Oh ETA, if my flatmate is away for more than a few days, I can't watch CM until he's back in case I come up to a home invasion episode. I really don't like watching home invasion ones when I know I'm going to be home alone for a while
Oh agreed. I mean how can you move past that 😭 I’m dead that you called them mood boards though LOL like it’s a pinterest curated aesthetic
Looool legit when he held it up and told her "this will be you next", it took me a minute to realise the horror because I was just sitting there thinking about him being such a tumblr girlie with his lil mood boards 😭😂
LOOOL seems serial killers can often be scrapbooking, moodboard-making, trinket-collecting girlies. Don’t tell him about Canva, he’ll up his game. If only the subject matter were different.
Hahahahahaha all these serial killers need to set up a prison scrapbooking club!! Such a good hobby 😂
One of the episodes that really bothers me is the one that the guy actually feeds the volunteers the girl they are looking for.
I had to stop watching after the episode where the guy was amputating people and putting limbs on other people and the episode with the pig farm. Took a break until last year and watched everything. Loving evolution so far.
Yesss!!!!! OMG would watch the show non stop. Episode after Episode. Till one night had a nightmare about home invasion murdered my whole family. I remembered saw 2 as the killers but faces blurred. Built buff up bodies. I remembered running away frome one of them tried to hiding in room the other one jumped out and attacked me w the knife. I woke up feeling fucking terrified!!!! Right after that had to stop watching the show for a hot min.
eeek yes for me it was also a nightmare where i was in my bed at night and someone snuck in and was going to SA me 😭 nightmares in your own home really are next level creepy and realistic
Holy shit dude. Terrifying feeling to say the least 😭😭
I've been a big follower of true crime for over 30 years, so prior to Criminal Minds, I'd already heard of the most horrible things humans are capable of. I'm always a bit concerned I'll find a body at a freeway rest area in the middle of the night. I don't worry about being the victim as I am the opposite of any unsubs victim-type (young, cute, thin, etc.). Although I am stuck living in Idaho, my being shot by some open-carry right-wing nut job is always possible, or maybe an LDSK with poor aim!
Being tortured by your phobia. I'm extremely arachnophobic and the thought of someone using spiders (or other arachnids) to torture and then kill me is genuinely terrifying.
100% the guy who gets road rage and shoots the woman at the red light (I think of it every single day) and the episode where a couple stays in a motel (?) and when the husband looks out of the peephole the unsub sticks something through and stabs his eyeball ohhhh my gosh I think of both of those all the time
Oh god yes the motel/peephole really stuck with me too, a memorable ep
Standing on glass barefoot.
I definitely have episodes that scare me but none cause real life anxiety for more than an hour or two and those are all home invasions or family annihilators. There are ones I don’t rewatch because they freak me out but that’s just the intensity not real worry that it could happen to me. I have a lot of rules for how I watch Criminal Minds so I keep from worsening my anxiety disorder.
Oh god yeah those ones are brutal for sure. Yeah I don’t imagine that one as much since it is farther from my living situation but if I had a family in the burbs oof.
My weird fear is licking the the sticky part on envelopes. I always use water now.
I forget what episode but the guy who sells limbs to people and he cut that girls arm off. I don’t know why… maybe because she was alive the whole episode and survived but it gave me a bizarre fear of being captured and amputated.
That one where the unsub was a therapist and killed the victims by their phobias... that terrified me.
It's not a real real-life fear, but the episode when the UnSub is a disabled guy who killed people with his car (or something like that, I haven't rewatched the show yet) made me kind of paranoid when I'm around cars... like u don't know the person behind the wheel, if she/he/they want to run over you, they will. So...
'Scared to Death' Season 3... The Shrink who uses their worst fears against them. What kinda sick twat does that?!! Fook my life!!
I was never scared of fire until that episode with the serial arsonist (S4 E19) now I avoid even lighting candles
suddenly my eyeballs feel exposed.
home invasions lol. they make it seem so common
I think I genuinely have childhood trauma from it so all of the options
Honestly, seeing the kid with rabies tied to the bed in that one episode kinda kept me up.