Hi Script Shrink! Thank you so much for running this blog! I've got a character who's a recovering alcoholic and very much a control freak (he has a history of abuse and likes to be in charge of his situation). I think it'd fit this character to have strong liquor around his flat to "test" his own resolve and also expose himself to it (sniff it) as a daily test. Would that work or is that a horrible idea and unrealistic? Thanks in advance.
Due to the near-infinite variety of in human brains, the Shrink cannot say that this is completely impossible. However, this is very unrealistic. Being around alcohol, seeing it, and smelling it, would likely trigger incredibly powerful cravings. Willingly exposing himself to it on a daily basis like you describe is virtually guaranteed to cause a relapse at some point.
is it realistic for two siblings to experience a traumatic event, while the eldest recovers with help and support but the youngest still remains fixated on said experience, even though they’ve also been offered help and support as well?
Yep. No two people experience trauma the same way, and the recovery process is highly dependent on the individual. You’re good to go!
Is it realistic to have a character start recovering from depression once family matters start resolving (major cause of my character's depression is his parents arguing over financial problems)? If it's okay to ask some consultants for how they got over depression?
Jellyfish
Yup, that’s pretty similar with what happened to me. Once my parent’s divorce was finalized my life got so much easier and I started to feel more like a functioning human being. Of course it may not go away entirely-mine hasn’t-but getting rid of a major stress source will help. In terms of improving my depression, I keep myself on a fairly strict schedule for eating, sleeping, showering etc. I reward myself for being productive, and more importantly, don’t beat myself up for having a bad day.
Anon32
Medication, then didn’t have medication, alleviation of stressors, slow build up to the same point that made me seek assistance the first time, better medication until that insurance went away, slow build up and it’s almost at the same point again. I suppose it’s possible for someone to “get over” depression (depending on exact type) when the stressors/instigating stimuli are removed, but in my experience there will eventually be other stressors that cause the same or similar depression response if there’s an underlying physiological difference that makes the character predisposed to depression. ie ssris help because of low endorphins, being able to do things that release more endorphins more often helps, early infatuation releases some endorphins, thugs like that, if the brain can’t keep up with naturally produced endorphins then I would either have to be pleasure/thrill seeking to force the continued production or I need ssris to keep them at a stable level.
Also the build up back to previous levels was over about 8 years and 5 years respectively, so it’s pretty slow. Even if a character did have that, it’s possible it wouldn’t show up in the course of a book if the story takes place around the time of the alleviation of the stress.
Charlie
I think if the depression is situational, it will be possible to overcome relatively quickly. I have known people to struggle with depression for years and years, to suddenly recover when an external trigger is removed. But there’s a huge rehabilitation process you go through when you’re no longer depressed - just because the illness goes away doesn’t mean the effects it’s had on your life till then have also vanished. It takes people a while to get back to “normal” even if they no longer fit the criteria for depression.
my mc was held captive and tortured for three years as a child, being rescued at 9 years old. they developed c-ptsd. in the current story theyre 19--i was wondering, what sort of signs of the trauma would you see in them after that long, if theyve been going to frequent therapy & had a lot of support through recovery etc? and if an extremely traumatising event happened now, could it bring back old symptoms again? they are also autistic, if that changes anything. thank you!
CW: Trauma, child abuse, torture
Snail
A traumatising event could definitely bring back old symptoms. It wouldn’t have to be “extremely” traumatising.
Some symptoms might flare up again if they are triggered by something like seeing a person who looks similar to one of their captors, for example.
The autism can interact with the trauma response so that following a trigger or after re-traumatisation they seem to others to be “more autistic”(I can lose speech, have increased difficulty interpreting non-literal language, have greater difficulty gauging my internal states)
(I cut off contact with my mother because every time I spoke to her it would take me days to recover, during which time I found it impossible to know if I was hungry or not and Other Problems)
In times soon after trauma my sensitivity to sound has been very heightened - much more than usual.
The amount of time elapsed is not necessarily a good indication of what the continued impact on your character is. People all respond differently. Some people don’t develop PTSD/C-PTSD at all, whereas for others the condition lasts decades. There are lots of things that impact how likely one is to develop a disorder as a result of exposure to trauma (for example duration of trauma, type of trauma, previous experiences of trauma).
Signs of trauma you might see in them:
scars
ongoing pain (eg. back problems from trauma to spine)
a whole raft of possible symptoms from traumatic brain injuries (problems with balance, vision, tinnitus)
aversion to things that remind the MC of the trauma
making sure that they always have a clear path to the exit in social situations (this could be always sitting next to the door so that they can escape quickly, or always facing the door so that they can see anyone coming in or anyone moving to cut off access to the exit)
conditioned responses as a result of their time in captivity - for example, if they were punished for walking across the room they might still persist in always walking around the outside of a room if they need to get to the other side.
volatile relationships with peers or with people in positions of authority
poor self-esteem
There would also likely be an impact on things like the character’s reading and mathematical ability (from missing three years of education at an important stage).
I just want to add - 10 years is in some ways a long time, but also not. Your main character has been treated horrifically, they spent three years in captivity, three years being tortured. That’s… that’s not a small thing. And while therapy and support are very important and will help your character, it’s not a magic bullet that makes everything better.If you as the author want a character who is extremely traumatised, you’ve got all the ingredients you need.
An innocent question from another character about “what was your favourite planet when you studied the solar system in third grade?” is suddenly a very difficult one - does your character lie, change the topic, or say “actually, when I was supposed to be in the third grade I was being held captive and I didn’t see the sun for three years, much less study the solar system”.
As an autistic person, your character is likely to find this sort of situation even harder. It can be hard to judge when it is appropriate to talk about traumatic experiences - especially, for your character, if they have spent a lot of time being encouraged to talk about the trauma in therapy and by carers. It isn’t always clear if someone is asking because they want to know the real answer or if they are just making conversation.
Even if your character has no trauma response from that type of conversation, the amount of processing needed to judge what to do can be very tiring: “is this person asking because they really want to know? even if they do know, are they a safe person to tell? if I don’t tell them about my childhood, what can I say instead? can I lie? what lie can I use? can I say I don’t want to talk about it? how do I do that without being rude?”And that’s on top of the normal processing your character has to do when interacting with other people. All of this is very tiring, and could lead to your character shutting down and not responding, having a melt-down, or just answering with the truth out of default, even if it is not a safe/suitable time to do so.
Anon01
I don’t know if this one would count as PTSD or C-PTSD because straight up torture is something distinct you can point at and say “that, that’s what messed me up” instead of C-PTSD which as I understand isn’t a distinct “big bang” of trauma but rather a series of smaller traumas (correct me if I’m wrong?)… either way, one of the signs of prolonged exposure to childhood trauma involves learning the behaviours as “normal” and doing it for themselves, long after the aggressor is gone, not because the person doesn’t know they’re hurting themselves, but because they’ve never learned any better in terms of life experience and as they get older new things will challenge their worldview of what’s okay, even as they intellectually understand what’s they’re doing is not good. Think of it as a Pavlovian response rather than a conscious decision.Whatever “a lot” of therapy and “support” is supposed to mean, the short answer is it’s not a quick fix. Many people struggling with mental illnesses have less, hm, “hardcore” experiences and still under the best of circumstances, with therapy (which you must understand YMMV) and support (support network of ~common~ mental problems get real sick of it real quick, so support for torture needs to be actually qualified and not just friends curing with love)
If an extremely traumatising event happened ten years after the initial cause ended? Yes. That’s hardly a long time in terms of recovery.I can’t speak about autism but I will say that generally certain types of disabilities get more abuse than others, physical disabilities is one, and yes autism is another.I will add that from the ask, it feels like the author’s done enough research to have the terminology and general feel down, but is still in the uncanny valley of writing experiences to get the details quite right. I’d go back and review why they picked this millefeuille of issues, and make sure it’s not fetishizing torture, child abuse, and autism. I get it, fiction will often ramp things up to 11 to get a more visceral feel, I’ve written some horrendous things myself just to cope (not even for publishing, just for the catharsis), at the same time I’d advise ramping it down a notch, because while all three things are real things that happen, most of the audience in a general sense will relate more to more realistic depictions. Unless your story is set in a fictional world. Then just make sure whatever you’re doing is consistent with the world’s rules.
how might long, self-discovering adventures impact mental health? In one of my stories my character (who has poor mental health; im thinking Depression or something like that but im not sure what diagnosis works best just yet) eventually gets to a better headspace mentally because of the positive effects of her adventure. is this realistic? and how can i do this without implying that the journey "cured" her or saying "depressed ppl just need to go outside!"?
In most cases, major depressive episodes will remit (ie go away) on their own. About 40% of people will start to recover after 3 months or so, and about 80% of people will recover within a year.
As for making sure you don’t imply that the journey has “cured” her and such, I have a few recommendations.
Show that the depression is going away on its own, even during the lulls and bad parts of their adventure.
Depending on the timeline of your adventure, have the character have more than one depressive episode before the journey ends.
Emphasize any other factors that are aiding your character’s recovery. Assuming there are other people on the journey along with her, show them becoming stronger and stronger social supports as they bond through their adventure. Maybe have one of her companions have struggled with depression before, and teach the character some things they found that helped them.
Therapy may or may not be an option depending on your setting, but you can always have someone trained to be a good listener and provide support no matter the setting. For example, if your character is in a fantasy setting, they could meet with a priest or prophet.
Note - this doesn’t apply to persistent depressive disorder, which requires a duration of 2+ years and is much, much harder to treat.
My MC was physically tortured as a young child, for example he was chained up against a wall and also witnessed murders in front of him. How would that affect his psyche as he got older? Is there a best case scenario?
And the best case scenario is that your character comes through it completely normally / makes a complete recovery. It’s incredibly unlikely (especially since your character was a young child), but it is technically possible.
“There were early signs. I used to have this feeling that I could manipulate the future. I got lucky at casinos, and I thought it was because I had the power to control events. I was a biology teacher back then. I was married with four kids. I read three books per week. I was only getting a few hours of sleep every night. Then one morning on the bus I had a break from reality. I was speaking to a friend, and I started to understand her in a completely different way. And the things I understood were evil. It was like my entire mental structure had changed. I began to frighten people. I lost all filters. I would say all of the strange things that I was thinking. People thought I was on drugs. I lost my job. My wife went to her mother’s place with the kids. I ended up sleeping on the streets. It took me years to realize I had schizophrenia. I was put in a psychiatric ward for two months. Now I’m taking three different medications. I’m reading books again. I’ve got some self-esteem back. I’m building a relationship with my kids. But I’m still fighting it. It’s always there. It doesn’t come and go. It’s a continuous way of looking at the world that I must keep pushing back against.”
(Cordoba, Argentina)
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