psychological disorders caused by or worsened due to brain trauma

[teh_bug]

Setting: 1880s-ish, American Old West (more specifically Utah and/or Texas)
Yahoo'd/Wiki'd: "sudden onset psych disorder" "pysch disorder caused by brain trauma" "bipolar disorder" "dissociative fugue" "Multiple personality disorder" "traumatic brain injury" "Phineas Gage" "preexisting psych disorder worsened by brain injury"

I have a early-mid

Comments

[paperdollkisses]

Schizophrenia may your best bet. Sudden onset in the mid to late 20's, no real causative factor, may not be because of a head injury, but despite of. May or may not be genetic, can be mild and severe. Mental illness in those days was just coming out of the 'witch hunt' type mentality.

Try searching: Mental illness in the 19th century, mental illness 1880, treatment of mental illness in 19th century. To see if you can get a better handle on things.

Just be aware, in that era, getting kicked in the head by a horse was most likely fatal. Perhaps a fall of some sort. But if it did the person may become developmentally slow. Loss of motor function, speech and memory to varying degrees. So, not so much a mental illness as a deficit.

[teh_bug]

*is intrigued* That would actually fit really, really well. I was looking for a way to include a line about possibly sending him to an institution and I could really make this work for me.

Thanks!

[gjules]

Yeah, dissociative identity disorder is generally linked to long-term abuse and childhood trauma.

If you're not tied to the horse and to having it be an organic brain injury, you could go with circumstances that resulted in PTSD. The symptoms seem like they could be a good match for this situation.

If you're definitely interested in a traumatic brain injury, I'd suggest reading one of Oliver Sacks' books of case studies -- The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat has some extremely interesting clinical studies, and Sacks is excellent at getting inside the experience, rather than just presenting it from the outside.

[teh_bug]

Oooh! Thanks for the tip! I'll definetely have to check it out.

[deutschtard]

As someone who has Bipolar I Disorder, I'm not sure that getting kicked in the head/falling/having a TBI would do much of anything to Bipolar. I honestly don't think that getting hurt would make it 'suddenly' appear like that. But it could just be a coincidence of time, the TBI happening and then the age he gets to would mean that the symptoms started coming on heavier. I know I had worse stuff when i was 20 than when I was 15, i just wasn't sure how to control it.

[teh_bug]

That's kind of the personal anecdote I was hoping to hear, to be honest. I figure worse symptoms + zero knowledge of psychology = big problems for everyone. The TBI I think I'll throw in just so that the heroine has something to blame.

Thanks!

P.S. Icon love!

[deutschtard]

you're welcome :) Yeah, big problems is definitely right. I had a hell of a time growing up (mine just happened to start hitting around age 13), and no one knew what was wrong with me, just thought I was like a little terror.

ps: haha, thanks ;)

ETA: I can also help with information about OCD, I've got that too. heh.

[systemaurora]

I have some psych "symptoms" (multiple personalities, not usually a disorder, among other quirks) that turn to fullblown disorders (like 8-10 at once) when I'm extremely sick physically with a bone marrow disease that's caused me a lot of complications (lupus-like symptoms, for starters). But I don't think a blow to the head will do that for most people. Also, all of my psych symtoms clear up about 90% when I'm not very sick.

[fides]

I'm assuming from your post that you have found the relevant information on PDFTBI. The following should not be taken as any evidence of factual knowledge.

A similar scenario happens in two of the Dalziel and Pascoe novels (Dialogues of the Dead and Death's Jest-book). One of the characters has a head injury as a teenager and this is (after the fact) linked as a possible cause to various disorders including affective, obsessive compulsive and anxiety disorders along with a side order of arousal, motivational etc etc (i.e. he basically throws everything and the kitchen sink in) during a consultation with a doctor on another matter.

I'm mentioning this not because I think he is factually accurate (given the rest of that particular plot line I would doubt it) but in case you were interested in how another author had handled a similar set up.

[teh_bug]

Examples are always nice! Thanks!