Toons with PTSD

So with Going Rogue going live today, the thaught of several Heroes and Villains alike deciding all at once to go against their former normal behavior (for good toons to go bad and bad toons to go good) and to make these huge life decisions made me stop and think.

Have these toons suddenly cracked? Has something occured in their lives that has caused them to make such a huge life altering decision? Is this a mass psychological break that will effect or maybe even bring down the Governments and organizations they defend?

In short does your toon have PTSD?

A hero or villain with an actual case of real-world PTSD would not still be heroing or villaining. They would get out of the metahuman game entirely. That whole "avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma" isn't a joke or a minor issue. People with real PTSD will go to inhuman, insane, dangerous lengths to avoid situations that bring those memories to the fore.

Not necessarily, I beleive that the "avoidance" implied means perhaps, not driving down a particular road, not talking about the incident.

Some one very dear to me suffered a great trauma and after suppressing their emotions towards the incident they had a full on mental break down, and where subsequently diagnosed with PTSD.

The person did not become a shut in, or crumble with fear when ever they are near to the area of the traumatic event, but they do avoid talking about the event still and do still occasionally have horrific nightmares.

PTSD is a little less dramatic than say someone with manic behaviors or split personalities. Most are quiet sufferers.

And some flip out when the event comes back up. You might play a blaster who was tortured by Rikti, and whenever he sees Rikti he fires his nuke in a frenzied attempt to kill them all.

Note; I do not take light of PTSD at all. I work next to Veterans and see them often.

If you really want to apply this PTSD, to a character I think you should probably read some PTSD stories from Law enforcement stories and Military to give you some kind of idea what direction to go , if you want to Role Play.

Im not so thin skinned to be offended, I only advise being a little careful not to stereo type PTSD sufferers as violent out bursting crazies.

For the most part its a overwhelming sensitive alertness to a situation for most I know. Depends on the person. For some it's being stuck in traffic, due to Afghan/Iraq sitting still in traffic = horribly bad death traps.

For others it's crowds of people causing a distress and panic to get out of dodge away from crowds.

One guy i know at work its crawl spaces under houses or other tight spots... he was a mole in Vietnam.. the guy who crawled in those tunnels disarming traps and finding underground bunkers.

So use your imagination with some of this RL info here...good luck with this agenda on Role playing a PTSD heroe or Villain. Sounds like a good long back story you could write up for them.

I'm speaking from experience, having worked with many people who suffered from PTSD. When forced into a situation with the subject matter, it is extremely stressful and painful, to the point that many will escape the situation by any means necessary.

Admittedly, there are many levels of PTSD. However, even your friend who has been through the worst of it and gotten treatment for the disease does their best to avoid any mention or reminder of the triggering situation.

What I'm saying is, you don't get ***** and then become a rapist hunting vigilante. You don't get beaten regularly as a kid and become an angel of justice. And you don't get your teeth kicked out to be forcefully sodomized in prison, and decide to join the police. What you turn into is a jumpy, paranoid, hyper-alert individual who becomes painfully nauseous from the oddest things, has flashbacks that can strike at very inconvenient times, suffers from night terrors (like a nightmare, but worse, and you can't wake up), sleep-walking, insomnia, eating disorders, and quite often drug abuse. Why should it be any different for the heroes and villains in CoX?

It's possible to lead a normal, healthy lifestyle while in treatment for PTSD. However, it's not possible to do so if you are constantly exposed to the source of your trauma. You'll eventually crack entirely.

Now, I can see a hero with PTSD, forcing himself to continue the good fight out of a sense of duty, and RP'ing his slow descent into bitterness and madness from the adrenal exhaustion and lack of sleep. I don't see PTSD being a good springboard for turning into a flat-out Villain.

It's not all that uncommon for soldiers with PTSD to sign up for another tour. There's kinds and degrees, you know? Some people also choose to confront their fears rather than avoiding them.

For my sister, one of her worst triggers (no pun intended) was the sound of a gun. She chose to deal with it by coming to the gun range with me. At first, sitting in the car listening to music so she could barely hear the gunfire. Then, standing well behind me and watching me shoot. Finally, taking the gun herself, working up from one or two shots (after which she had to leave) to a real practice session. It didn't cure her PTSD, of course, but she no longer bursts into tears when she hears a truck backfire.

Come to think of it, a character who's continuing to fight crime in order to fight their own fears would be really interesting to play.

I like to put as much realism as I possibly can into my rp (you know in a world where there is Alien invaders, magic and super powers) and I just always thought that due to some of the traumatic experiences my characters face day to day that that kind of stress would lead to some kind of mental break eventually.

People deal with stress in funny ways and the human mind is very complex, some suppress their emotions only to have it bubble to the surface later. Others abuse substances while others take up risky behaviors.

I know that for some talking about mental health is taboo, but to my mind in a genre that has sported Batman the idea of PTSD and the possibility of hundreds of "Anti-heroes" being created just goes to add some spice to virtues life.

Jack Had PTSD after the first war, when the game started. Some pretty dark crap going on there. The early game Wolfe had given up on life and was living in a haze. Supergroup brought him out of it.

I don't know if I"m gonna crack any of my others, one or two are dark enough to go half way, but virtually none of my heroes of villians want to bring down goverment and take over the world. Moratalis does enjoy killing and terror, but wants nothing to do with controling the world.

And yet there is still something about Jack that just makes you want to give him a big hug...

I still object to this, personally.

I suffer from PTSD, and I bristle because I've seen too many people on RP boards and other places who have given the affect to characters to add pity depth. It's a very frustrating thing to endure, to watch someone draw a caricature of someone's suffering. Now, I understand that fiction is a reflection of reality, and is our way of coping with it to some degree when it's matters of tragedy... but PTSD is just the latest 'crazy' that people have decided to start using.

It's very much in vogue right now, and is no different from how people would make a cartoon out of autism, or various forms of schizophrenia. I minded those on principle, but the PTSD rings a personal note.

I can echo what these people are saying; you can continue to do work in spite of your PTSD if you either don't suffer strongly from it, or if you are receiving rather constant therapy. It is incredibly unlikely, however, that any form of PTSD, no matter how much psychological rehabilitation you are enduring, will inspire you to take the fight to the streets if you never did before. If your response to watching your wife and children get mowed down before your eyes (Punisher) leads you to start a war on all crime, you don't have PTSD; you are a sociopath who has a vendetta and is refusing to let themselves properly grieve. It's not the same thing. Yes, he has memories that haunt him some, but we all do. They're called regrets and bad memories.

It's a far cry from night terrors, waking hallucinations, overwhelming flashbacks and more. It would not motivate you to fight crime. It would, more often, motivate you to lose your job, alienate your friends and loved ones, drop out of school, and hide in your house, where you can control the stimuli. Well, that's far more likely than making you enact active vendettas, anyway, since it happens all of the time and the other one doesn't.

Yes, however; if you are just a character who's questioning "Do I have PTSD?", I guess you're fine to do this and follow the Punisher example. Just be aware the answer is "No."

I have respect for anothers pain and suffering, and would never make light of it. Not as a child or an obnoxious teen did I ever find mans inhumanity to man as a spectator sport.

However, NOT speaking about, hushing it up wont make it go away or disappear. Its not someones fault that they suffer from PTSD or any other inner turmoil.

Bad things happen, to good and bad people, you cant get around it. THINGS happen to people.

Is it ok for a writer, or a playwright to depict a character with PTSD after he has taken a life due to an accident or war?

Then why can I not, with an informed mind and a sympathetic heart give my character in my writing a similar issue?

Art imitates life and I beleive in this fantasy world where there are gangs, and super villains, walking dead, killer robots, giant monsters and invading aliens if 1 of thousands has PTSD its no freaking wonder.

Now if someone is uninformed, makes light of the situation or feelings of others and makes a mockery of a mental fissure, episode, disease, or ailment then I can understand someone becoming angry at that persons insensitivity.

However if you keep telling people they can not do a thing, then they will just find something else to be insensitive about. Inform and teach them, do not dictate and demand obedience from them, for humanity will balk at every occasion to defy you.

I did not mean for this thread to cause such turmoil, and I send to anyone my most heart felt and sincerest of apologies to anyone who was hurt by this topic, I am a child of a PTSD sufferer and most could not imagine what it is like for a child to hear her father screaming in his nightmares like a child when he had been the strongest being in her world. No I do not mean any of this to be taken lightly, however I beleive that hiding it is far worse than understanding it.

My sincerest regards,

~K

At the core of what makes a hero is conflict, I have always found heroes in self conflict very cool, self hating, even more interesting. I guess that's why I love Howard Chaykin so much. Why would anyone object to Role Play, if anything it raises awareness of the issue, I dont think anyone was meaning to poke fun of it. Isn't it the point of roleplay to put yourself into someone elses place and try to think like them ? I think it would be a huge challenge to RP that sort of character.