PTSD and Mal. Really?

POSTED BY: Bytemite
UPDATED: Monday, January 27, 2020 20:08
VIEWED: 36442
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ANOTHERSKY

Friday, March 20, 2009 8:30 PM

Another point, about 'rejuvination'.

Mal thrives on stress--the same thing that breaks him. But it's not that kind of stress.
Killing Wash and Book, especially where Mal gets to watch both of them die from situations he "caused" affects him deeply, but again, we're just adding to this volcano of pain, shame and guilt inside him.

HOWEVER, I think he WAS rejuvinated in ACTION that resulted in some good, RESOLVED a few things--ie sending the signal everywhere(thumbing their noses at the Alliance in the biggest way ever, not to mention undermining at least something), braving the reavers (the bogeyman is not as scary when you see dead ones), confronting the Operative in hand to hand combat and living...there's quite a list at the end of Serenity.

"I think we lost our fuzzy dice back there."
"Going for a ride."

Another Sky

BYTEMITE

Saturday, March 21, 2009 1:43 AM

I can see the numbing part in Zoe, maybe, but anxiety?

I guess whenever she and Mal are out on a job, she does seem to be the one who worries, and he's the one who's reckless. But she's always so unflappable about it, it's really hard to call that anxiety. And she's certainly not a startler.

On the surface, I think they definitely would be tempted more by criminal jobs than folks who hadn't fought for the Independents, after discovering the scarcity of legal work out on the Rim. There's an element of continuing the rebellion there.

But I also think they couldn't HANDLE more peaceful work, even though they recognize the danger and that it could get them killed. They've been going on sheer adrenaline so long, real peace and quiet probably makes them antsy. And now that they're criminal, they also probably can't see a way out of it, and that's compounded by the sort of stasis they've entered since Serenity Valley.

In the Serenity movie, they pulled off a lot, but it was a pyrrhic victory. And I can see the government being able to suppress the message easily in the Core, so I wonder how much change the crew would see. Mr. Universe's equipment was only able to reach about 30 moons, supposedly (in Our Mrs. Reynolds) there's around seventy worlds in the verse. They were only able to reach half, and most of them would be on the Rim and familiar with Reavers anyway. If you're looking at a second War of Independence, you might get one out of the Miranda broadwave, but it would be unsuccessful again, because one of the major supporting planets from the original war (Shadow) was destroyed. To have any chance of success, the Independents would need some Core and Border worlds to join in.

If they suffered through so much, managed to get the message out, but saw nothing for their efforts, I think there'd be more despair than rejuvenation. Success, like Inara staying, would be a consolation prize.

AGENTROUKA

Saturday, March 21, 2009 8:22 AM

Just wanna say: This is really one of the most enjoyable threads in a long time! Everyone is offering great insight! Thanks for sharing, all of you!

RALLEM

Saturday, March 21, 2009 12:27 PM

Earlier I wrote that I wanted to discuss Mal's PTSD symptoms when he will be forced to deal with Inara's secret, but was hesitant to discuss a topic which was a spoiler, and then BYTEMITE said we might be able to discuss this by skirting around the actual secret, so I will give it a try. This question will require speculation, but here goes; how will Mal react when forced to deal with the knowledge of Inara’s secret? Will Mal’s reactions be muted due to his PTSD, or will they be explosive due to his PTSD?

http://www.swyzzlestyx.com/index.html

BYTEMITE

Saturday, March 21, 2009 4:14 PM

To further elaborate, because I also want to see what people's takes on this aspect might be, Inara's secret is highly speculated to be a tragic one.

How will he deal with further tragedy? Especially in regards to Inara, who, since he might actually love her, or at least might believe he does, is kind of a whole different level of personal tragedy than loosing Serenity Valley or even Wash and Book.

I've heard it said here that that the spirit he might have regained from Miranda might prepare him. Could be.

Mal's got just a bit of a martyr complex on top of the survivor's guilt. He's started to kind of accept tragedy as his lot in life, and I think he even kind of believes that he might deserve it. I predict more stoic suffering.

But it'd sure be interesting if he finally snapped. Imagine a scene where he's BERATING poor Inara over it, he doesn't want to, but he can't help it. That would be heartwrenching, for both of them.

RALLEM

Saturday, March 21, 2009 4:26 PM

I am going to ask the doctor who told me about the Firefly/PTSD connection to come here and meybe give his views regading this discussion.

http://www.swyzzlestyx.com/index.html

MAL4PREZ

Saturday, March 21, 2009 8:17 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by AgentRouka:
Just wanna say: This is really one of the most enjoyable threads in a long time! Everyone is offering great insight! Thanks for sharing, all of you!

I agree. Just wish I had more time for replying! I've been pondering the deal with Zoe - she definitely does have a selfish stance regarding the baby argument, I can see that. I still don't know if I'd say that's due to war damage or an unhealthy attachment to Mal. Like, if the Independents had won, or at least lost in a less ugly way, would she be into settling at a wholesome homestead somewhere? Would she not be close to Mal? Or is it just her nature to want to be near the action? (I mean the action of the jobs on Serenity, not the action of Mal LOL!)

I guess I like the challenge of her unusual relationship with Mal, and I balk at writing it off as unhealthy. If the character of Zoe was the same loyal second-in-command but male, would this be such an issue? (This is not meant to be a rhetorical question - I'd need to think a lot before I decided one way or another myself.)

Also, I know she has options besides going to the Core (back East in the Wild West analogy) but I don't think any of those options are safe. Maybe safer than straight up doing crime, but on the Rim there's always slavers and hill people and crooked lawmen and gangsters like Niska around. Serenity could be one of the safest places for her. You know, if the crew stuck to the bobbly-headed doll capers.

So much more to respond to on this thread, so little time!

ETA: For anyone who's read my fic The Fish Job, one of my beta readers sent me this oddly relevent article this morning:
http://health.yahoo.com/news/reuters/us_ecstasy_help_ptsd_victims_get_
better.html

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hmm-burble-blah, blah-blah-blah, take a left

RALLEM

Saturday, March 21, 2009 10:05 PM

I followed the link to an article for PTSD sufferers to take Ectessy, and I am opposed to recreational drugs being taken for any type treatment. Are they now going to precribe Ectasy for victims of rape? Wouldn't that be a form of PTSD?

http://www.swyzzlestyx.com/index.html

BYTEMITE

Saturday, March 21, 2009 10:32 PM

>_>

Rallem: The way I see it, if people are going to rule out recreational drugs, they'll have to rule out medicinal drugs and alcohol. Lots of pharmaceuticals have much worse side effects and are more addictive than recreational drugs. I don't really take any kind of drug, but if something can help someone, I don't really understand drawing arbitrary lines on what is and what is not recreational/legal. But maybe I should read that article first. :)

Mal4Prez: The funny thing about Zoe is, I think this life seems perfectly normal to her. She doesn't see anything wrong with it (aside from understanding the inherent dangers), because even before she went to the war, this seems to have been how she was raised (on a ship, in the military). I suspect her parents might have been members of militias that later became part of the Independent forces.

That makes it harder for her, if there is any trauma and PTSD (and I'm starting to think that there probably must be to some degree), for her to recognize it and want to do anything about it.

MAL4PREZ

Saturday, March 21, 2009 10:36 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by rallem:
I followed the link to an article for PTSD sufferers to take Ectessy, and I am opposed to recreational drugs being taken for any type treatment. Are they now going to precribe Ectasy for victims of rape? Wouldn't that be a form of PTSD?

Rape is indeed a cause of PTSD. Ecstasy is not, as far as I know. (Your wording is a little unclear, so I'm not sure what you mean.) I wouldn't worry about it being prescribed. This research is fringe at best.

Still, MDMA (ecstasy) has been used on-and-off by psychiatrists through its history. Without going too far TMI, my own use of MDMA (well researched in advance and carefully done) was the starting point of dealing with my own PTSD. If I knew a local psychiatrist who made use of it, I'd be there in a second.

Not that I'm recommending it to anyone - mind altering drugs certainly can be dangerous. Thing is, all kinds of anti-depressants and such are used in massive amounts, and that's acceptable, right? So the fact that some dumb teenaged ravers misuse and overuse MDMA is tragic to me, because it could do great good. It's so random, like how alcohol is A-OK because it's legal, even though it destroys countless lives of those who abuse it.

Anyway, my point in posting the article here is that it relates to certain scenes in my fic. If you haven't read it, this will make no sense to you. No big.

Bytemite: makes perfect sense about Zoe. I'm having the problem that I can't separate what I see as her upbringing and basic personality from the effect the war may have had on her.

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hmm-burble-blah, blah-blah-blah, take a left

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