Acute Mental Illness Brought On By A Traumatic Event

[kingdmforahorse]

I have a character, I'll call her Elena for now, who I need to develop an acute mental break after witnessing one of her good friends being abducted for the slave trade and nearly being taken herself. The story roughly takes place in 16th century Poland and she's about 18 years old

Comments

[planet_x_zero]

This trope, that a single event is a trigger for mental illness, isn't scientifically accurate, except for PTSD. There's a misconception that a single event causes a "mental break". Usually it's a cluster of events. It'd be more likely that pre-existing depression was triggered into a full-blown major depressive disorder. Actually, try that: Major Depressive Disorder with Psychotic Features.

[mariadkins]

I second this. Anything else would be horribly inaccurate.

[mutive]

Eh, that's not really true. Stressful events don't *cause* an awful lot of mental illnesses, but they can certainly trigger them. Someone might be managing bipolar or schizophrenia decently, then be triggered by drugs, alcohol, stress, whatever...

(Particularly with bipolar, which I know a fair amount about, it's really easy to go from functioning to an absolute mess fairly quickly if you don't get enough sleep. I agree that it's rarely a single event, but having a bunch of friends abducted could certainly be the first trigger that led to a character having a hard time sleeping, relying on drugs or alcohol to sleep, etc. etc.)

[planet_x_zero]

Episodes can be triggered, I agree. A single event can trigger a major depressive episode, for example. The idea, though, that someone suddenly "snaps" is myth. The underlying illness must be present.

The OP stated of the character, "originally her personality was very sweet, caring, sensitive, forgiving, and she believed in nonviolence." That does not necessarily suggest the existence of an extant mental illness. Also, the extreme conditions of the "acute mental break": catatonic immediately following the event and then from there to have hallucinations, flashbacks, triggers that set her off, and nonsensical talking are extreme, insofar as they would manifest all at once. High doses of LSD make more sense.

This is basically the M*A*S*H Hawkeye goes crazy trope. Hawkeye witnesses something terrible or is triggered by a memory into a "breakdown". Then he's cured in one visit by the avuncular psychiatrist, Sidney. It's total bunk, although the average reader not familiar with mental illness will certainly still buy into it.

[mutive]

Agreed that the "snap" thing is a myth. (As is the "drugs cause mental illness".) But triggers do very much exist, and may change someone who is usually a sweet tempered, caring, forgiving, nonviolent person into someone who's catatonic, has hallucinations, etc. etc. Agree that it's unlikely they'd all manifest at once, regardless. But someone could certainly be hearing voices (say, with schizophrenia), but be a nice, even tempered person who could ignore them, until a stressful situation made it *really* hard to ignore the hallucinations. (Or sent them into catatonia, or whatever.) Similarly, it's not unbelievable that stress would send someone with an underlying bipolar disorder into a manic episode (which can provoke hallucinations, violence, etc.) followed be depression (which could involve catatonia).

[planet_x_zero]

It's a cliche and very much unlikely. If anything, the idea of suddenly-going-crazy is dated as a plot device. A story where traumatic events slowly devolve the persons psyche would be more accurate, and probably more interesting. Slow descent -- e.g,.Coetzee's Disgrace or Breaking Bad -- is what it's about.

[mutive]

Um, where are you getting that from? (I can assure you from personal experience that it's pretty damned easy to seem perfectly normal and functional, then have a traumatic - or even fairly mundane experience - that pushes a mental illness out into the open. This is especially true around 18 or so, when major mental illnesses like bipolar and schizophrenia start to surface.) I would not use Breaking Bad as a reference for mental health...it's a TV show.

[planet_x_zero]

Not a TV show: A long arc television drama, which has in many ways supplanted the novel as the most relevant dramatic art form. Again, Hawkeye suddenly "going crazy" is a TV show trope, not long-arc television drama plot line.

I can assure you from personal experience, the symptoms described by the OP do not meet any realistic mental health definition. We both agree that some existing mental health illness must be present. We do not agree that the symptoms will manifest as stereotypically "going crazy". Yes, late teens are an age where women manifest schizophrenia (bi-polar is diagnosed later). No, it doesn't happen all at once.

[mutive]

Oh, I see. Well, I'm glad to know that a "long-arc television drama plot line" >>> my own experiences. (I'll also start going to House for medical information.)

[planet_x_zero]

This isn't a mental illness comm, thus your own experiences != long-arc television drama. The purpose of art is the beautiful general case, not the singular banal.

Friends? We're dancing around the ring, but your opinion is informed. It's what matters.

[kingdmforahorse]

Thanks for the information! I wasn't sure about using the singular event as a trigger for her mental illness or weaving in other signs that something wasn't quite right as a lead up, but she appeared mostly normal pre-event. It's good to know that something needs to be present beforehand for the kind of reaction I'm looking for to happen. The only experience I had to go on was my own development of an acute anxiety disorder that seemed to hit me "out of the blue" after I witnessed a singular event that should not have fazed me, but did due to a lead up of a few months of consistent stress. Factoring in for a much worse circumstance (lifelong stress of people getting abducted all the time, etc.), I wanted to make sure I was being accurate. I wanted to convey that she is a very sensitive person and that having a traumatic and violent event happen to her was the straw that broke the camel's back. I don't know if I want her to display depressive features or not, but I'll certainly look into it further!