: How can I really drive home a character not being able to hold it together in the wake of repeated trauma? A character in my story is supposed to be falling apart, for many reasons: He's

Vote Up Vote Down

To drive home that a character is not able to hold it together in the wake of repeated trauma, look up the symptoms for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression and at risk of suicide and then fling all those things at your character as if he were in a tree and you were throwing rocks at him, and then see what he does.

Here are a few missiles to try out on your character:

Depressed: (source: Symptoms of depression - Mind):

Down, upset or tearful
restless, agitated or irritable
guilty, worthless and down on himself
empty and numb
isolated and unable to relate to other people
finding no pleasure in life or things he usually enjoys
having a sense of unreality
no self-confidence or self-esteem
hopeless and despairing.

PTSD (source: Symptoms of PTSD - ADAA):

Spontaneous or cued recurrent, involuntary, and intrusive distressing memories of the traumatic events
recurrent distressing dreams in which the content or affect (i.e. feeling) of the dream is related to the events
flashbacks or other dissociative reactions in which the individual feels or acts as if the traumatic events are recurring
intense or prolonged psychological distress at exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic events
physiological reactions to reminders of the traumatic events
inability to remember an important aspect of the traumatic events
persistent and exaggerated negative beliefs or expectations about
oneself, others, or the world
persistent, distorted blame of self or others about the cause or
consequences of the traumatic events
persistent fear, horror, anger, guilt, or shame
markedly diminished interest or participation in significant
activities
feelings of detachment or estrangement from others
persistent inability to experience positive emotions
irritable or aggressive behaviour
reckless or self-destructive behaviour
hyper-vigilance
exaggerated startle response
problems with concentration
difficulty falling or staying asleep or restless sleep.

Suicidal (source: Warning Signs of suicide - SAVE):

Talking about wanting to die or to kill oneself
looking for a way to kill oneself
talking about feeling hopeless or having no purpose
talking about feeling trapped or being in unbearable pain
talking about being a burden to others
increasing the use of alcohol or drugs
acting anxious, agitated, or reckless
sleeping too little or too much
withdrawing or feeling isolated
showing rage or talking about seeking revenge
displaying extreme mood swings.

Good luck with the writing - sounds like an interesting concept.

(0)

Vote Up Vote Down

I think a reasonable response to this scenario is revolt. He kills himself the second they put a weapon in his hand. He refuses to fight at all, if that means he dies, so be it. He makes repeated attempts to kill his masters. He tries to rally his fellow captives to refuse to fight. If threatened with permanent death for refusing to comply, he accepts that and kills himself the next time they put a weapon in his hands anyway.

To me, "losing it" means losing all care about the consequences of his actions.

Actual revolutions IRL occur when people get so angry or desperate they will risk dying in battle rather than continue in their current state (especially if dying in battle presents a chance of saving children they love).

Slavery, which is what you are describing here, would not work if all the slaves would rather die than serve and thus commit suicide at any opportunity once they have decided they cannot escape servitude. In your scenario, it should be easy to convince his fellow combatants to suicide if death isn't "real" anyway. But if not, if they fear it might be permanent, he can give up and not care if any of his suicides are permanent.

Now you have a problem for how his masters react to this; for some reason or another they do not just let him stay dead (so your story doesn't end with that).

(0)