Help how do I cope with the gray area between fiction and reality where one might desensitize and lead to the other?
awareness is the key. most people don't do bad things just because they enjoy dark fiction. I've been enjoying dark and taboo fiction ever since I was a kid, and I didn't let my enjoyment in fiction turn me into the fictional horror that I consume. a lot of people I know also enjoy dark fiction, and they are ones of the sweetest people I know. that's because they — we — can separate fiction from reality.
what I'm saying is: engaging with dark or disturbing fiction doesn’t automatically desensitize you into becoming a bad and harmful person. more often than not, people are actually doing the opposite by processing fears, exploring control, or examining things they would never accept in reality through dark fiction. it gives you a contained space, in which no one in real life is harmed, for that.
that said, if you’re worried about desensitization, my honest advice is to check in with yourself by asking these questions:
"am I still able to empathize with real people?"
"do I recognize that these things I enjoy are fiction and not something I condone in real life?"
"does what I enjoy in fiction change or affect how I treat people in real life?"
if something does feel off, you can always step back, change what you’re consuming, or take a break. but to be honest, I've never met anybody, who enjoys dark fiction, whose real-life moral compass was affected by the dark fiction they enjoy. humans' minds are stronger than you think, that's why most people are able to indulge in dark fantasies without harming anyone in real life.