Pearl’s Psychological Condition

Gem War, Rose & All things related to it’s fallout.

Otherwise entitled: Pearl’s Psychological condition

So it’s been stated multiple times that Pearl was a part of the war against homeworld for Earth. It’s been stated in canon she was there and what I want to discuss is something that seems to be thrown around frivolously on tumblr. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, otherwise abbreviated to PTSD. I’m going to start with the nitty gritty of this because it’s important to know the science, and all of the actual background to this before relating it to Pearl and in turn, Garnet.

I’m going to preface this with a very specific saying:

Mental illness does not justify behavior, however it gives an explanation of it.

I am a student going into my master’s in psychology, I have been studying psychology since my junior year of highschool and I’m about to take you a trip into the holy book of Psychologists and Psychiatrists.

DSM-V Criteria for PTSD

Criterion A: Stressor: The person was exposed to: death, threatened death, actual or threatened serious injury, or actual or threatened sexual violence, as follows: (one required)

1. Direct exposure. 2. Witnessing, in person. 3. Indirectly, by learning that a close relative or close friend was exposed to trauma. If the event involved actual or threatened death, it must have been violent or accidental. 4. Repeated or extreme indirect exposure to aversive details of the event(s), usually in the course of professional duties (e.g., first responders, collecting body parts; professionals repeatedly exposed to details of child abuse). This does not include indirect non-professional exposure through electronic media, television, movies, or pictures.

Criterion B: intrusion symptoms: The traumatic event is persistently re-experienced in the following way(s): (one required)

1.Recurrent, involuntary, and intrusive memories. Note: Children older than six may express this symptom in repetitive play. 2. Traumatic nightmares. Note: Children may have frightening dreams without content related to the trauma(s). 3. Dissociative reactions (e.g., flashbacks) which may occur on a continuum from brief episodes to complete loss of consciousness. Note: Children may reenact the event in play. 4. Intense or prolonged distress after exposure to traumatic reminders. 5. Marked physiologic reactivity after exposure to trauma-related stimuli.

Criterion C: Avoidance: Persistent effortful avoidance of distressing trauma-related stimuli after the event: (one required)

1.Trauma-related thoughts or feelings. 2. Trauma-related external reminders (e.g., people, places, conversations, activities, objects, or situations).

Criterion D: negative alterations in cognitions and mood Negative alterations in cognitions and mood that began or worsened after the traumatic event: (two required)

1. Inability to recall key features of the traumatic event (usually dissociative amnesia; not due to head injury, alcohol, or drugs). 2. Persistent (and often distorted) negative beliefs and expectations about oneself or the world (e.g., “I am bad,” “The world is completely dangerous”). 3. Persistent distorted blame of self or others for causing the traumatic event or for resulting consequences. 4. Persistent negative trauma-related emotions (e.g., fear, horror, anger, guilt, or shame). 5. Markedly diminished interest in (pre-traumatic) significant activities. 6. Feeling alienated from others (e.g., detachment or estrangement). 7. Constricted affect: persistent inability to experience positive emotions.

Criterion E: alterations in arousal and reactivity Trauma-related alterations in arousal and reactivity that began or worsened after the traumatic event: (two required)

1. Irritable or aggressive behavior 2. Self-destructive or reckless behavior 3. Hypervigilance 4. Exaggerated startle response 5. Problems in concentration 6. Sleep disturbance

Criterion F: Duration Persistence of symptoms (in Criteria B, C, D, and E) for more than one month.

Criterion G: Functional Significance Significant symptom-related distress or functional impairment (e.g., social, occupational).

Criterion H: Exclusion Disturbance is not due to medication, substance use, or other illness.

Okay, so we’ve gotten the science out of the way and if you’ve made it this far? Congratulations you just made it through the DSM-V’s criterion for diagnosing a person with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This is where things really tie into Pearl and the Gem War and losing Rose. This is the part you all have been waiting for and so without further Adieu, I’m going to kick us off with Criterion A. Pearl’s life has literally filled that entire box, each one of those required cases are checked when only ONE needs to be checked. She witnessed a horrible genocide of her own kind in the war to keep Earth safe, she watched many allies and friends die at the hands of home world gems. After Each battle she’d return to camp or where their base may be and see that _________ didn’t return, another friend dead or dying out on the battle field. Pearl’s life in the present makes her return to this place (if we go off the theory that the gem monsters they fight are actually sentient fragments of casualties from the gem war.) She literally re-lives it every mission she’s on, but for the sake of Steven needs to remain as calm as she can and avoid having a panic attack. Criterion B is an interesting one too, I personally think that when Pearl’s alone she does have a lot of intrusive memories regarding the war and all of the genocide she witnessed. But even more interestingly is the fact that we’ve seen her have one or two dissociative reactions to various stimuli again surrounding Rose’s death. The fountain in “An Indirect Kiss” despite how amusing it was to watch Pearl twitch and flail about muttering how “directionless, ugly things” were taking over Rose’s sanctuary– it was also what would be looked at as a dissociative reaction. She literally for a few moments lost touch with Steven, Amethyst and Garnet and tunneled on the status of the sanctum. This is also comorbid with what I interpret as OCD on Pearl’s part. Perhaps the saddest is the fact she does experience prolonged distress around things with Rose, the entire scene where she runs off and seeks out solitude and tries to hide the fact she’s on the verge of sobbing over Rose’s Sword and Scabbard say enough to me. But perhaps what strikes me even more is how she completely ignored Steven’s dangerous ascent to where she was simply to wallow in her own sorrow. Yes, she made sure Steven didn’t fall into the abyss below, however as soon as she saw he gripped a vine she turned away and went back to what she was doing. Criterion C is where we get a little tripped up. Because we see Pearl desperately cling to whatever vestiges of Rose’s being she has left, but I’m not actually going to talk about Rose this time. This time is actually going to be about the war in particular. We see Pearl time and time again talk about the war and in a couple episodes they go back to actual battlegrounds (unfortunately we never get to see where the final battle took place). However each time, Pearl ignores the battle and clings to Rose. Rose was her coping mechanism, the idea that even though she was a part of the horrid genocide and bloody battle that took place to defend Earth was okay because she had Rose. Rose was her rock, the way she coped with things and the way she JUSTIFIED her actions in regards to the war: i.e. “BUT WE WOOOOOOON.” We never see her talk about the reality of the war, we never see her acknowledge the fact that there could possibly be the fragmented bits of dead gems on the ground they walked. GARNET was the one to bring up the reality of it when Amethyst said “Man I wish I could have been there!” Criterion D could be a hard one to see without Psychological background in behavior but Pearl exhibits a couple of these obviously. She blames herself for many things and has a distorted view of herself in many scenes. Sometimes we see this, like in the fight she had with Sugilite, Pearl nearly gave up. Convinced she wasn’t strong enough, convinced she wasn’t GOOD enough to beat a fusion that was more brawn than brain. We have also seen and have had it confirmed in the episode “Sworn to the Sword” that Pearl has absolutely no self worth. Beyond that we see she’s persistently carrying negative emotions surrounding Rose’s death. She takes out that negativity in Steven in a very passive aggressive way, i.e. “I wonder if she can see me through your eyes, what would she think of me now?”. A lot of unresolved anger because of Rose’s death, and guilt from the war. She killed so many of her own kind and again if we carry on the theory that the gem monsters are casualties from the war, we might see that guilt when it comes to light in having to capture, bubble, and imprison former friends and maybe old enemies. Alienation again really comes to light in Rose’s Scabbard. “You can’t understand how I feel! None of you had what we had!” Despite knowing the other gems are her friends, despite all knowledge that Amethyst and Garnet miss Rose just the same she feels alienated from them because of the nature of their relationship prior to Rose’s death and perhaps even prior to Rose meeting Greg. Again in Criterion E, two of the list are required to be diagnosed. PTSD is often a disorder that can be triggered into episodes and also passively haunt a sufferer. In Criterion E, We see Pearl almost always exhibit hyper vigilance when it comes to Steven and the other gems, and if we’ve learned anything– Pearl’s startle response is a lot bigger and more exaggerated than Garnet’s, Amethyst’s or even Steven’s. When it comes to the actual trigger it depends, one mentioning Rose as shown in the Episode Rose’s Scabbard can set her off very easily. She’s thrown into a fit of angry, reckless behavior to try and cope with the loss after all the previous loss she felt from the war. Rose can be a source of strength for her but it is often times her Achilles’ heel emotionally and there is still a lot of unresolved pain from Rose’s death. Criterion F is true, Pearl is thousands of years old and has been living with those memories for thousands of years. Criterion G is also true as we’ve seen her become functionally impaired the few times traumatic things are brought up to her. I assume Criterion H is true as we don’t see gems taking Earth medication and I don’t think the Gems actually use any substances that would be distasteful or illegal. Here we are at the end of the post, and if you’ve read it, fucking Kudos to you and I hope I can shed some light as to why Pearl makes some of the terrible decisions that she does. I’m not saying what she did is alright because many of her actions were extremely shitty. However if you do not give a mentally ill person the time of day to understand them and see sometimes their illness causes behavior or predisposes them into a higher likelihood of exhibiting certain behaviors. Are you going to tell someone with depression that they’re horrible because they sometimes don’t have the will to get out of bed? No– or at least I hope not.

Long story short, if you’re going to demonize Pearl for her PTSD, Depression, Anxiety, and mild OCD then unfollow me.

If you cannot handle the reality of mental illness and the fact that mentally ill people do shitty things and hurt the people they love the most unintentionally then stop asking for representation in the media.

Mental illness is not cute. Mental illness is not romantic. Mental illness is a goddamn grueling battle with your own head. Mental illness is ugly and demonizing a character who is mentally ill alienates so many people who identify with, or otherwise find themselves understanding Pearl.

#pearl #mental illness #ableism #ptsd #steven universe