#animal abuse – @scriptshrink on Tumblr

Anonymous asked:

How might one write mental illness in animal characters? Like they can talk to eachother but they live as animals in the real world?

CW: Animal abuse, self injury, eating disorders (anorexia, binge eating),

Animal behavior is not my specialty, so this answer comes courtesy @scriptveterinarian ! If you have any followup questions, send them their way!

We don’t have access to an animal’s internal monologue so can’t tell what they think or feel exactly, we can only infer based on what they do.Mostly we see anxiety and compulsive disorders because they’re the easiest to notice as an observer.

Here are some behavioural and somatic signs of acute (short-term) stress in dogs and cats:

Dogs:

Urination and defecation/diarrhoea (peeing and pooping)
Increased motor activity
Vocalizations (barking, growling)
Salivation (drooling)
Piloerection (hair standing on end)
Trembling
Polypnoea - (panting)
Looking away
Protrusion of the tongue (sticking out their tongue)
Muzzle licking
Yawning
Paw lifting (front paw held at 45 degrees)
Frequent shifting of body position
Low postures

Cats:

Urination, spraying, and defecation/diarrhoea (peeing and pooping)
Trembling
Might vocalize with hiss/spit on approach
Hiding, withdrawal to back of cage
Sitting on all four legs with head low
Eyes wide open
Pupils dilated
Polypnoea (panting)
Ears flattened
Whiskers back
Tail close to body

And some general signs of chronic (long-term) stress:

Decreased behavioural repertoire (less variation in behaviour)
Decreased exploratory behaviour
Reduced social behavior and increased antagonistic behaviour
Displacement activities
Stereotypic behaviors
Passivity / apathy
Increased sleep, or disturbance to sleep patterns
Anorexia or binge eating

Stereotypic behaviour is a big one, especially in zoo animals and prey animals. That means repetitive behaviour patterns that the animal repeats at any given opportunity, eg pacing, wind sucking. Actual behaviour will vary by species.

Destructive behaviours - can be directed externally (eg trashing the house) or internally (feather plucking, licking through skin) or both.

We do talk about dogs being ‘depressed’ but we mean obtunded- slow to respond, dull, flattened personality. Not depressed like we mean in humans.

It may also be worth mentioning Spaniel Rage syndrome, which is a sudden onset rage that dogs have no apparent memory of once it’s passed. It’s actually an epileptic type disorder.

But we don’t typically classify mental illness in animals to anywhere near the same extent and detail as humans, simply because we can’t.

Depending on what species the animal characters are will determine what’s abnormal for them too. The same amount of vigilance in a rabbit may be hypervigilant in a dog.

The point I’m trying to make is that the 'normal’ will be different for each species, and so will deviating from that norm.

Disclaimer

#Anonymous #asks #animal abuse #hypervigilance #animals #animal behavior #self injury #eating disorders #hypothetical #this is not psychological or medical advice #this is writing advice

scriptshrink reblogged

ave-aria

scriptshrink

Common Defense Mechanisms, from Personality Disorders in Modern Life, Second Edition. Theodor Millon et al. 2004.

scriptshrink

That’s because it is Freudian. Defense mechanisms are really the only thing Freud did that I don’t hate.

(As a side note, since the original post is going around without it, I’ve transcribed the image here)

#reblog #freud was a hack #defense mechanisms #millon #things from textbooks #ave aria #reference #pregnancy #suicide #animal abuse

scriptshrink reblogged

scriptshrink

Common Defense Mechanisms, from Personality Disorders in Modern Life, Second Edition. Theodor Millon et al. 2004.

scriptshrink

This (relatively) old post has suddenly gained a lot of traction, so I’ve finally transcribed the image. My apologies for forgetting to include content warnings in the original post.

CW: Suicidal ideation mention, animal abuse mention, pregnancy mention, violence mention.

Acting Out - Conflicts are translated into action, with little or no intervening reflection.
A student disrupts class because she is angry over an unfair grade.
Denial - Refusal to acknowledge some painful external or subjective reality obvious to others.
A woman refuses to acknowledge a pregnancy, despite positive test results.
Devaluation - Attributing unrealistic negative qualities to self or others, as a means of punishing the self or reducing the impact of the devalued item.
The formerly admired professor who gives you a D on your term paper is suddenly criticized as a terrible teacher.
Displacement - Conflicts are displaced from a threatening object onto a less threatening one.
A student who hates his history professor sets the textbook on fire.
Dissociation - Conflict is dealt with by disrupting the integration of consciousness, memory, or perception of the internal and external world.
After breaking up with a lover, a suicidal student is suddenly unable to recall the periods of time during which they were together.
Fantasy - Avoidance of conflict by creating imaginary situations that satisfy drives or desires.
A student from a troubled home daydreams about going to college to become a famous psychologist.
Idealization - Attributing unrealistic positive qualities to self or others.
A student worried about intellectual ability begins to idolize a tutor.
Isolation of Affect - Conflict is defused by separating ideas from affects, thus retaining an awareness of intellectual or factual aspects but losing touch with threatening emotions.
A biology student sacrifices a laboratory animal, without worrying about its right to existence, quality of life, or emotional state.
Omnipotence - An image of oneself as incredibly powerful, intelligent, or superior is created to overcome threatening eventualities or feelings.
A student facing a difficult final exam asserts that there is nothing about the material that he doesn’t know.
Projection - Unacceptable emotions or personal qualities are disowned by attributing them to others.
A student attributes his own anger to the professor, and thereby comes to see himself as a persecuted victim.
Projective Identification - Unpleasant feelings and reactions are not only projected onto others, but also retained in awareness and viewed as a reaction to the recipient’s behavior.
A student attributes her own anger to the professor, but sees her response as a justifiable reaction to persecution.
Rationalization - An explanation for behavior is constructed after the fact to justify one’s actions in the eyes of self or others.
A professor who unknowingly creates an impossible exam asserts the necessity of shocking students back to serious study.
Reaction Formation - Unacceptable thoughts or impulses are contained by adopting a position that expresses the direct opposite.
A student who hates some group of persons writes an article protesting their unfair treatment by the university.
Repression - Forbidden thoughts and wishes are withheld from conscious awareness.
A student’s jealous desire to murder a rival is denied access to conscious awareness.
Splitting - Opposite qualities of a single object are held apart, left in deliberately unintegrated opposition, resulting in cycles of idealization and devaluation as either extreme is projected onto self and others.
A student vacillates between worship and contempt for a professor, sometimes seeing her as intelligent and powerful and himself as ignorant and weak, and then switching roles, depending on their interactions.
Sublimation - Unacceptable emotions are defused by being channelled into socially acceptable behavior.
A professor who feels a secret disgust for teaching instead works ever more diligently to earn the teaching award.
Undoing - Attempts to rid oneself of guilt through behavior that compensates the injured party actually or symbolically.
A professor who designs a test that is too difficult creates an excess of easy extra-credit assignments

#reblog #defense mechanisms #millon #reference #things from textbooks #personality disorders #table #suicide #animal abuse #pregnancy #violence

scriptshrink

DARPA’s Brain Chip Implants Could Be the Next Big Mental Health Breakthrough—Or a Total Disaster

How did a Massachusetts woman end up with two electrodes implanted into her brain? Why is the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency developing a controversial, cutting-edge brain chip technology that could one day treat everything from major depressive disorder to hand cramps? How did we get to deep brain stimulation and where do we go from here?

gizmodo.com|Kristen V. Brown

Deep Brain Stimulation is a controversial treatment in real life, but my goodness it can inspire some sci-fi plot bunnies!

Content warnings for the article after the jump.