The documentary:
Earlier today, I created a failed suicide comp. In this comp, I showed 3 clips of people referred to colloquially as "flinches" or "flinchers." My mother was a paramedic and she would tell me things growing up like, "Man, son, I was on the rig today and we came across this one old guy, I thought that motherfucker was DRD [dead right dere] but he was just a flinch!"
Explained briefly,
ChatGPT explains this as:
This whole thing seems profoundly tragic. All this because some 18-year-old made an impulsive decision she couldn't possibly comprehend the ramifications of in a moment of pure darkness.
Thoughts?
Earlier today, I created a failed suicide comp. In this comp, I showed 3 clips of people referred to colloquially as "flinches" or "flinchers." My mother was a paramedic and she would tell me things growing up like, "Man, son, I was on the rig today and we came across this one old guy, I thought that motherfucker was DRD [dead right dere] but he was just a flinch!"
Explained briefly,
ChatGPT explains this as:
- Suicidal ambivalence / last-moment self-preservation. Many people who attempt suicide feel intense, mixed emotions in the moments before an act. Even if they’ve decided to die, a deep, automatic self-preservation drive can kick in right before the act. That can produce a deliberate-feeling pull-back — a way of not fully committing. Clinically, ambivalence about dying is extremely common.
- Anticipatory anxiety and panic. The thought of pain, noise, blood, or the finality can trigger a surge of fear or panic just before the act. That surge can produce an intentional avoidance movement (“I can’t actually put it to my head”) that feels conscious even while it’s partly reflexive.
- Cognitive conflict and decision reversal. The motor system implements decisions. If the person’s brain flips from “do it” to “don’t” in the last fraction of a second, that change of plan is expressed as a movement away from the intended target. It can feel like a conscious, deliberate flinch because the decision changed right before the action.
- Wanting to punish or maim rather than die. For some, the intent isn’t a pure desire for death but an urge to self-harm, punish oneself, or make a dramatic statement. In those cases people may aim in a way that produces severe injury rather than immediate death — which might look like “trying to flinch” on purpose.
- Learned avoidance / conditioned responses. Over a lifetime you learn to avoid painful or threatening stimuli. Facing an act that will cause extreme bodily harm can trigger those learned avoidance patterns, producing deliberate-looking movements away from the worst outcome.
- Impairment of judgment (substances, shock). Alcohol or drugs, or extreme emotional distress, can make someone act in a conflicted, impulsive way: they may intend one outcome but perform another in the heat of the moment.
This whole thing seems profoundly tragic. All this because some 18-year-old made an impulsive decision she couldn't possibly comprehend the ramifications of in a moment of pure darkness.
Thoughts?
i'll never be happy again" and it's like bro -- you don't even have bills to pay. you're throwing a bitch fit cuz your first boyfriend/girlfriend broke up. like you can't even comprehend the ramifications of your actions at that age.
