Would You Help Me Write A Story?

[Deleted member 24908]

Please note that I feel like a jerk for asking, and also, I hope this is in the right place. I tried researching, but the research isn't there for me to find, apparently, or else my Google-Fu is not strong enough.

I have a character who has catatonic dissociation, and I was just wondering if it's realistic that he would respond to verbal commands and attempt communication. Basically, he's a very bad person with zero conscience who has broken nearly every law there is to break. Well, someone gets tired of this, kidnaps him, and tortures him until he breaks. They then dump him outside either his friends' house or a cop's house (I can't decide which) and take off. He presents with stupor, mutism, and waxy flexibility, but that's as far as I get before struggling with how realistic it would be to have him respond to commands and attempt to communicate via touch.

I never do anything half-heartedly, and as someone misrepresented in the media (well, I have a general mental disorder as it's undiagnosed, but still), I want to do this right. Basically, my question becomes if he'd do anything while in the stupor, or if I have to bring him out of it first.(He'd still be catatonic, just no longer in a stupor.) And for the curious, it's a fanfic. (I have some original ideas, I'm just more interested in fanficcing at the moment.) I also wanted to talk to people that have actually experienced it, because I know from personal experience that the "professionals" don't always know what they're talking about.

Feel free to spork if I'm being inappropriate- there's nothing you can say to me that my mother hasn't already said, and that doesn't bother me anymore. :) That, and I do have a legit question not appropriate for this topic, posted elsewhere.

 

[Orglethorp]

I'm not sure how you're wanting to handle the catatonia & stupor, but be careful not to just use a list of symptoms from the internet. The most stereotypical expressions of catatonia are akin to the type observed in schizophrenia patients, and your character is, I'm assuming, not a schizophrenia patient.

I've experienced some symptoms that could be attributed to catatonia and/or stupor during panic attacks and flash backs, or during particularly difficult periods of depression. The only interactions I had with others during these episodes are people who are close to me trying to comfort and help me.

My ability to speak fades in and out during these episodes. So does my ability to move. One moment I'm staring off into space, holding myself, unable to speak, then the next I'm able to return a hug or whisper a response. It's fluid. The whole time, though, I never stop hearing/understanding what is being said to me.

 

[Kas_Can_Fly]

The biggest question is WHY. Always why's with writing and I have two for you. The first is important - why does he do these bad things and not suffer guilt/shame/remorse- to be honest that description sounds psychopathic, if this is the case you need to look even more closely at the other question. The second is more important for your answer, why does he need to retreat so much from his reality even when the torture has ended and therefore also what would bring him back?

You might think well surely the torture was enough, but most would dissociate because of the emotional feelings like terror and fear as much as the physical ones, and then they would not dissociate to such a strong degree.You've already said he doesn't experience the typical feelings associated with a conscience. Also bear in mind that extreme pain often would cause one to dissociate, torturers typically don't let you escape like that, they use pain and the lack of it as a method to keep you in the present as much as possible, the don't let you get non-responsive.

So why would he dissociate to that level and by why I do mean what would cause it? I understand you might not want to share this information of your story, but ask yourself and see if those questions make sense.

 

[Deleted member 24908]

Thank you both, and especially you, Kas Can Fly. I know a little of psychology myself, so no, it's not just symptoms I pulled off the internet, although I was wary of it being stereotypical. Also, I don't mind sharing the details since this story probably won't be out for years and even so, you'd be hard pressed to figure out which fandom it's in.

The first answer to your question Kas is simply because he can. He is naturally psychopathic, and he does it simply because he is literally evil, as in the actual embodiment of particles of evil that have come together to make an entity. I suppose I wasn't clear enough and informative enough, which is what I get for exhausting myself and staying up late. So, I should start from the beginning.

Obviously, they do this to teach him a lesson and put a stop to him. During the course, like you say, they don't let him have any reprieve, or not a real one- things like letting him fall asleep and jolting him back awake. Of course, these things don't bother him at first, but lack of sleep takes it's toll on anyone, and they basically have to drive him to insanity, and go as far as killing him and reviving him. Once they get no reaction out of him, they dump him out and consider the job done. At this point, which is where I am, he's just been returned and isn't a part of reality yet- I suppose that's just a fancy way of saying in his sleep deprived, hallucinatory state, he's not aware of the fact that it's over now. At this point, wherever he's been returned to, the people are still checking him out because they know he's certainly not himself. That's part of why I was trying to determine what he might or might not do- either way, even if he wasn't dissociated/catatonic, he'd be off to the hospital anyways.

Essentially, the part I'm asking about is just after it happens- I didn't plan on keeping him in this state- it's just that right now, he's pulled so far into himself that he's completely dissociated from reality, something his captors think is a permanent state, thereby stopping him from doing anything else. This is really just going to make him angry and even more violent, and he's the type of guy that doesn't talk about it and denies anything is wrong, so there won't be any "love solves everything" for this guy. (Not that he's capable of love, or even goodness.) I suppose you could say that the present catatonia is due to sleep deprived hallucinations, which in the dissociated state, he thinks are real.

After this, he'd transition to a more realistic state, still mute but aware and very much angry, and pull away from being moved. You can imagine that after he was brought out of the state, he'd refuse treatment and just be 10 times worse than he was before.

And Orglethorp, that's akin to how I planned on playing it, actually, since I'm aware that it's not a stable thing. That's what I was wondering about- dissociated to this degree, would he still be responsive. Seems the answer is "yes, occasionally", although now that you have more information, I can get more accurate advice. Sorry for the vagueness, it was past my bedtime.

 

[billie]

Psychopathy is mostly environmental not natural. As for wanting to know about what a lot of us have been through; I wish you never have to find out for yourself. Don't reply to me.

 

[Nicolette]

@SetTheSilenceFree Is this 'real' or fiction? As in I don't know if it is Chit Chat or it should be in the PTSD forum if that is what it is as I see you now have another thread there now.

 

[billie]

New post now saying ptsd. So are you diagnosed? Why the other thread?

 

[Kas_Can_Fly]

I took this as being a story based on the posters symptoms and the other post being about them. And that in writing a story like this would be therapeutic in allowing their symptoms to be realised in some way and their emotional responses and defenses validated by the extreme actions of a fictional character.

Either way with what I've experienced and read about psychopathy the character wouldn't experience the fear Type emotions to retreat on a large scale, meaning the dissociation would likely be physical and I still very much doubt that it's actually possible for (and especially for) a psychopath to dissociate in to a catatonic state. If you want to go down a cationic route then I would consider reading more in to the psychosis but again for a psychopath to break, I don't know.

The only way of a psychopath staying in his head like that, that is believable to me is if he was in there fantasising about the bad things he has done or even that he was continuing on with these things. So maybe one of the times he is brought back he doesn't get back to reality and is living out this fantasy in his head. He could then be entirely catatonic but I wouldn't want to label that as dissociative in any way.

 

[Deleted member 1860]

I wonder if she knows that Anthony now owns her ideas....