History Main / GoMadFromTheApocalypse

SubTrope of SanitySlippage. Contrast TheApocalypseBringsOutTheBestInPeople. Related to FearInducedIdiocy, GoMadFromTheRevelation, HumansAreTheRealMonsters, PostHistoricalTrauma, OceanMadness, ScrewTheRulesItsTheApocalypse, and SpaceMadness.

SubTrope of SanitySlippage. Contrast TheApocalypseBringsOutTheBestInPeople. Related to GoMadFromTheRevelation, HumansAreTheRealMonsters, PostHistoricalTrauma, OceanMadness, ScrewTheRulesItsTheApocalypse, and SpaceMadness.

* ''Literature/NightShift'': "Night Surf", a precursor to ''Literature/TheStand mentioned below, revolves around a group of teenagers and 20-somethings hanging around a beach resort in New England after a superflu virus wipes out most of humanity. One of the few radio stations they can still tune in is just some guy playing conservative pop music in between FireAndBrimstone religious mania and hysterical crying.

** Society breaks down as 99.6% of the population is killed by Captain Tripps, an extremely deadly and contagious version of influenza that escaped containment at a government lab. The U.S government goes to [[QuarantineWithExtremePrejudice increasing extremes at quarantine]], and when that fails, just starts outright massacring protestors or anyone trying to reveal the truth, with increasingly violent pushback from deserters and angry civilians. As the last of organized society breaks, smaller groups start randomly using the weaponry left over to just enforce their own brand of justice or morality, before succumbing themselves. Eventually, those left behind rally around two camps, the BigGood Mother Abagail and the BigBad Randall Flagg. One of the most memorable moments involves a rogue army unit (most of them already visibly sick with [[TheVirus Captain Trips]]) hijacking one of the few remaining functioning TV stations and begin executing the audience and staff in a depraved makeshift game show.

** Society breaks down as 99.6% of the population is killed by Captain Tripps, an extremely deadly and contagious version of influenza that escaped containment at a government lab. The U.S government goes to [[QuarantinedWithExtremePrejudice increasing extremes at quarantine]], and when that fails, just starts outright massacring protestors or anyone trying to reveal the truth, with increasingly violent pushback from deserters and angry civilians. As the last of organized society breaks, smaller groups start randomly using the weaponry left over to just enforce their own brand of justice or morality, before succumbing themselves. Eventually, those left behind rally around two camps, the BigGood Mother Abagail and the BigBad Randall Flagg. One of the most memorable moments involves a rogue army unit (most of them already visibly sick with [[TheVirus Captain Trips]]) hijacking one of the few remaining functioning TV stations and begin executing the audience and staff in a depraved makeshift game show.

* ''Literature/TheMist'': When a spreading extradimensional fog filled with vicious, man-eating monsters rolls over town, reducing outdoor visibility to near-zero and rendering it lethally dangerous to go outside; the large group of townsfolk who are holed up in a sealed grocery store and have no idea how far the disaster has spread devolve at an ''alarmingly'' rapid rate. By the second day of the disaster, the local religious fanatic Mrs. Carmody (who was recognized by the other townsfolk as such and was therefore mostly harmless before the disaster) is accruing followers out of the townsfolk who were once smart enough to dismiss her, as she rants that the disaster is God's punishment and that only HumanSacrifice can appease the monsters. Even one of the reason-headed protagonist's supporters eventually defects to her side. By the dawn of Day 3, roughly half the store's residents are ready to sacrifice an innocent woman and a ''child'' to the monsters in the mist at Mrs. Carmody's call.
* In ''Literature/TheStand,'' society breaks down as 99.6% of the population is killed by Captain Tripps. Even during the attempted coverup, military personnel try to censor the reporting of the outbreak, killing journalists who have the evidence. As the last of organized society breaks, smaller groups start randomly using the weaponry left over to just enforce their own brand of justice or morality, before succumbing themselves. Eventually, those left behind rally around two camps, the BigGood Mother Abagail and the BigBad Randall Flagg.

** There are several accounts of people being so broken by the horrors of the ZombieApocalypse that they start acting like zombies themselves (to the point of actually trying to bite other people).

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'': In "[[Recap/ThePowerpuffGirlsS2E12SpeedDemonMojoJonesin Speed Demon]]" after the girls accidentally time travel into the future, it is revealed most of Townsville went insane following their sudden disappearance and the city being conquered by [[{{Satan}} Him]].

It's the apocalypse, baby! [[CosyCatastrophe Some take comfort knowing that every awful thing they hated about society is gone]], while others [[ApocalypseAnarchy vent their stress onto their surroundings with the comfort that they won't have to face any consequences for it]]. But not everyone takes the sudden shift in how the world works so well and it [[DrivenToMadness drives them mad]].

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

** ''Film/DayOfTheDead1985'' is set some undetermined time after the apocalypse had hit and while many of the characters in the film are reaching their breaking points, it's Pvt. Miguel Salazar who goes over the edge. The film opens with Sarah being forced to amputate his arm to save him from a zombie bite, and in his recovery he slowly goes mad, ending the film by [[spoiler: letting all the zombies into the base.]]

* Though by no means an apocalypse in the usual term, the [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic COVID-19 pandemic]] has had [[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8554139/ provably negative effects]] on people's general mentall well-being due to general paranoia, extensive online misinformation, and quarantine processes that have forced people to stay inside and not be in contact with other human beings; all of these effects and more caused a spike in suicidality, depression, anxiety disorders and so on, especially for children and teenagers.

** ''Film/DayOfTheDead1985'' is set decades after the apocalypse had hit and while many of the characters in the film are reaching their breaking points, it's Pvt. Miguel Salazar who goes over the edge. The film opens with Sarah being forced to amputate his arm to save him from a zombie bite, and in his recovery he slowly goes mad, ending the film by [[spoiler: letting all the zombies into the base.]]

* ''ComicBook/BatmanNoMansLand'' has a regional case. Gotham City being hit by an earthquake and then sealed off from the rest of the country has caused many ordinary citizens to become cannibals or delusional bandits and killers (including one man who sees himself as a mercy killer due to the CrapsackWorld). On a more benign note, a former building inspector still wanders the streets, making notes about the code violations of devastated buildings and talking to a hallucination of his assistant.
* Unfortunately for the Franchise/{{Transformers}}, the appearance of [[PlanetEater Unicron]] too often causes even otherwise level-headed individuals to lose their grip on sanity.

* ''Anime/DoraemonNobitaAndTheGreenGiantLegend'' does this in the ending where Doraemon, Nobita, and gang escaped Planet Green and made it back to Earth, intending to warn Earth of Planet Green's terraforming nuke only to find out [[spoiler:[[YouAreTooLate they're too late]], the ApocalypseHow has started and Tokyo is covered in plants with the population subjected to {{transflormation}}. The entire gang had a ''massive'' HeroicRROD, with Doraemon nearly throwing himself off the top of the plant-infested Tokyo Tower if Nobita, Suneo, and Gian didn't restrain him]]. But luckily the nuke's effects turn out to be reversible.