Be Careful Who You Scare This Season

October has become somewhat of a wonder, being a month of fall fun and granting us extended Halloween celebrations.

While some people prefer to make the spooks and monsters more cartoon-ish and child-friendly so the young ones can enjoy the season, many people prefer the terror and horror of the season. Haunted houses, horror movies, scary games… there are plenty of ways for people who enjoy screams and frights. However, some people like to try and spread this joy to others they come across with pranks and scares, and in there lies a bit of a problem.

I myself am not a particularly brave person, but I do enjoy an amount of horror games and legends. This is true for a lot of people, but even if they have things they like, there can be a major problem with trying to scare people.

Consider for a moment, that you decide to scare a person from behind for a quick laugh, but the person has post traumatic stress disorder. That harmless prank can quickly turn into a panic attack or even a heart attack depending on the severity, or they may lash out and attack you.

Either way, the mental stress of hitting one of their triggers will cause heavy damage to them, and possible physical damage to you. People with mental and anxiety issues such as PTSD will look completely normal on the outside, and if you don’t know the person, you might cause an attack.

Pranks are all and good this season, and scares are meant to be shared. However, be very careful about who you target; if you don’t know a person, and they have not given you consent to be scared, choose someone else.

Not everyone likes horror, and even some that do have their limits. Be conscious of this during the season of spooks, and have a happy Halloween!