I don't know what happened to me, but sometime between my teenage self and the me of 2006, I became a horror wuss.

As a teen, I reveled in my love of horror films and my ability to sit through them and not give a rat's patootie about what happens. I was rarely ever scared and, if I was, it was one of those thrillseeker sorts of scared. My heart lived for it. It needed the quick adrenaline surge provided by a good scarefest of a film.

Now, however, that does not seem to be the case. I don't like being scared by movies. I still get the same cardiothoracic kickstart that I did before, but the settling back down is terrible. I have to force myself to find a rhythmic breathing pattern. It's just not fun.

I mention this because, yesterday, I watched my first episode of ABC's Ghost Whisperer. The show stars Jennifer Love Hewitt as the owner of a small-town antique shop who, since childhood, has been capable of speaking with the dead. She can actually see and talk to what she calls "Earth-bound spirits" and help them let go of whatever is keeping them from leaving this ethereal plane (read: "Earth").

And, of course, I chose to start watching the series with an episode entitled "Demon Child." Brilliant choice, eh?

The episode centered around a businesswoman played by Lori Loughlin who just had a baby girl and is raising it with the help of a nanny. However, she's about to move out of her big, beautiful house to the city because, as we find out, she's haunted by the wickedly malevolent spirit of her dead first child.

And he's a little stinker.

He scares away all the new nannies that are hired to take care of the new baby through a series of seemingly inexplicable poltergeist-like activity including noises, toys that self propel, and power surges.

Hewitt's character, Melinda Gordon, who was actually only hired by Loughlin to sell off her rare and valuable antiques, begins to talk to the child to figure out how to help him.

But, before the episode gets to the "help" part, it runs through about 20 minutes of the kid terrorizing people, myself included. I was laying on my bed while Katie was at a bridal shower and I was wide eyed and fixated on the screen as I watched this kid mentally torment the hell out of anyone and everyone. And they did a really good job of it. I haven't jumped like this since watching "The Version You've Never Seen" of The Exorcist.

Once out of those 20 minutes, it really wasn't so terrible. Some cheesy acting as would be expected. Well, I expected it, at least, hence why I never bothered tuning in until this episode.

Has anyone else watched this show? Are they all jump-out-of-your-skin scarefests? Or was this the exception to the rule?

Oh, and Jen, lose the bangs, they look terrible.

Ohmigod, I just openly critiqued a woman's haircut. WTF?