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11[[quoteright:350:[[Anime/CodeGeass https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_code_geass_hangyaku_no_lelouch___23mkv_snapshot_1416413.png]]]]
12[[caption-width-right:350:[[{{Understatement}} Nina just had a very bad day]].]]
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14->''"All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy."''
15-->-- '''[[Characters/BatmanTheJoker The Joker]]''', ''ComicBook/TheKillingJoke''
16
17When a character is NotHimself, but for real, and (usually) permanently. In the course of a single episode, the character goes through something traumatic enough to change their personality forever (even Freak Outs that are temporary have lasting effects on a character). It could be a MindRape or a really AwfulTruth, but it has to be pretty nasty. Sometimes a Freak Out is foreshadowed episodes in advance, but usually, it just comes out of the blue.
18
19A well-done Freak Out makes the [[WhamEpisode audience freak out as well]], and provides more CharacterDevelopment than an entire season could in the same. Sadly, this is rare -- all too often, it is used as a desperate gimmick to "revitalize" a show. Viewers should beware if a Freak Out comes due to ExecutiveMeddling, if it comes after several seasons, if it makes the character DarkerAndEdgier, or [[HotterAndSexier if it makes the character hornier]]. If all four happen at once, chances are high that the show is JumpingTheShark.
20
21May double with a HesBack or a BecameTheirOwnAntithesis. If the character's Freak Out turns them into a bad guy, it's also a FaceHeelTurn. Can also be compared to HeroicBSOD (a milder and less permanent freak-out, usually resolved before the climax) and LaughingMad. A villain doing this just as the tides turn against them is having a VillainousBreakdown. A character having a freak out due to uncertainty regarding who or what they are is having an IdentityBreakdown. May overlap with BreakTheCutie and GoMadFromTheRevelation. HeroicSafeMode is the mind's attempt to avoid this. May involve BrokenTears.
22
23[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Has nothing to do]] with the [[ByThePowerOfGrayskull words spoken]] by WesternAnimation/{{Freakazoid}} to transform, nor the refrain from R&B band Music/{{Chic}}'s "Le Freak".
24
25----
26!!Examples:
27[[foldercontrol]]
28
29[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
30* This seems to be the main reason why Tetsuo from ''Manga/{{Akira}}'' became a villain. Years of bullying had given him an inferiority complex, and when he crashed into a psychic and had [[PlayingWithSyringes experiments done to him by the military to unlock his own psychic abilities]], when those powers awakened, [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity they quickly drove him insane]].
31* After the horrible, ''horrible'' events [[TotalEclipseOfThePlot during the Eclipse]] in ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'', and awakening [[AsleepForDays days later]], Guts goes through a monumental freak out that consists of [[ManlyTears many tears]], [[DespairEventHorizon utter despair]], bursts of rage, and finally [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome an epic]] [[ThisMeansWar vow of revenge]] [[RedemptionInTheRain in the rain]], the point at which Guts becomes a changed man. It's too bad that his lover, Casca, [[BreakTheCutie came out of the Eclipse]] [[GoMadFromTheRevelation even worse than Guts]] (her mentally damaged state also provoked Guts' freak out).
32* Kai's first FaceHeelTurn in ''Anime/{{Beyblade}}'' was the result of a Freak Out.
33* ''Manga/BlackButler II'':
34** Episode 10. It begins with Hannah talking to Ciel and saying that she has something to show him. Then her mouth opens unnaturally wide to reveal [[BodyHorror this black abyss where the inside of a human mouth would be]]. The eye she stole from Alois Trancy is rooted in the back of her throat, and since Ciel's soul has been partially fused with Alois's at this point, he's staring at himself from inside her. Hannah watches calmly while Ciel suffers a severe nervous breakdown and screams before falling unconscious.
35** In the manga, Ciel will occasionally experience events that cause vivid flashbacks to the time he spent [[DarkAndTroubledPast enslaved by the cult he was sold to after his parents' murders]], which cause him to have panic attacks and freeze up, a total departure from his [[TheStoic usual demeanor]].
36* ''Manga/BlackCat'': Creed. Any time that Train is involved or even mentioned, or if someone [[MurderTheHypotenuse gets in the way]].
37* In ''Manga/BlackLagoon'', Roberta is a [[CuteClumsyGirl clumsy]] [[{{Meido}} maid]] by profession, but actually a retired FARC guerrilla with extensive knowledge in weaponry, combat tactics, and [[ImplacableMan near inhuman physical abilities]]. And she admires her employer very much. So when said employer dies thanks to a [[{{Eagleland}} certain country's]] operatives, she ''[[BewareTheNiceOnes snaps]]''. And when she snaps, [[AxCrazy she]] ''[[OneManArmy snaps]].''
38* ''Anime/BlackRockShooter'': Yomi Takanashi, over two episodes of the 2012 anime, goes from a [[ShrinkingViolet sweet girl]] into having a [[{{Yandere}} seriously devastating psychological break]]. [[spoiler:In the aftermath, though she mostly recovers, the damage was so severe that she completely forgot her best friend even existed.]]
39* In ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' Rukia does this after Gin [[KickTheDog breaks her resolve with words]].
40** [[CheshireCatGrin Shinji Hirako]] also went through one when Aizen revealed [[UnwittingPawn he was being]] [[OutGambitted used]] [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone by him]] [[BodyHorror all along]].
41* In ''Manga/{{Bokurano}}'' and ''Manga/ShadowStar'' many of the characters are no stranger to this.
42* In the manga version of ''Manga/ChronoCrusade'', it's revealed in a flashback that Aion had one of these after finding out that [[spoiler:his mother was a human transformed into a demon, and she was pregnant with him and Chrono when it happened]]. It appears to be one of his underlying motivations for almost all of his actions in the series.
43* ''Anime/CodeGeass'':
44** Nina Einstein is the page image provider: she puts the "[[AxCrazy psycho]]" [[FaceHeelTurn back in]] PsychoLesbian after the [[spoiler:"Euphinator"]] incident late in the first season, which leads to her trying to draw Zero, [[spoiler:the man who killed Euphie]], out with a prototype F.L.E.I.J.A. nuke.
45*** When she sees [[spoiler:how many people her F.L.E.I.J.A. warhead killed]] in R2, she makes a similar but slightly less appalling face as she quietly stares in disbelief at the names of the people she's killed. She doesn't scream in a fit of insanity this time.
46** Then there's [[Characters/CodeGeassSuzakuKururugi Suzaku Kururugi]] after [[spoiler:Euphemia]]'s death, and Lelouch when he [[spoiler:kills his father the first time]].
47*** Done even more epically with Suzaku after [[spoiler:he nukes Tokyo thanks to the "Live!" Geass he had placed on him by Lelouch]]. After spending an episode in a HeroicBSOD [[spoiler:at ground zero]], out of the blue he goes full-on LaughingMad, drops any [[TheFettered moral reservations]] he had about [[HonorBeforeReason using "dishonest" methods]], and adopts a new, much more [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans ruthless]] [[TheUnfettered mindset]] that lasts for the rest of the show.
48* Bird's Nest from ''Manga/CopernicusBreathing'' has several of these, most notably when [[spoiler:Mina (intentionally) falls off of the trapeze, which reminds him of the death of his younger brother.]] Other times this happens are when [[spoiler:he hears news of Leo's juggling accident and when Michel finds his stash of drugs and attempts to take them away.]]
49* In ''Manga/ACruelGodReigns'', Jeremy has almost too many of these to keep track of. Some good examples are when [[spoiler:Ian grabs his arm while trying to ease him out of his HeroicBSOD, Ian asks who Valentine is after Greg does something very unpleasant with the wooden egg she gave Jeremy, and when Ian finds Jeremy taking heroin after being sexually assaulted at school in UsefulNotes/{{Boston}}.]] His other major episode is when he [[spoiler: hallucinates Greg is following him after he and Ian go through all of his {{Embarrassing Old Photo}}s]].
50* In ''Manga/DeadmanWonderland'', Ganta does this. It's understandable, as he's being forced to watch the Carnival of Corpses. Later, [[MadMathematician Rokuro]] has a ''massive'' one when [[DisproportionateRetribution his calculations were destroyed.]]
51* ''Manga/DeathNote'':
52** L has one upon hearing the second Kira utter the word "Shinigami (Death God)". Especially notable as he's otherwise unflappable usually.
53** Light Yagami towards the end of the anime, as well as after [[spoiler:L's funeral (where he crawls on top of L's grave and ''screams at it'')]], and after talking to L for the first time and learning his name.
54** Also in the GrandFinale, [[spoiler: Teru Mikami freaks out when he sees his god, Light, get arrested by Near]], and starts making crazy faces that out-crazy Nina's face above. In the anime, [[spoiler:he even stabs himself in the heart with his pen and [[HighPressureBlood spews a fountain of blood until he dies]]]].
55** Touta Matsuda also has one when [[spoiler: he sees Light trying to write Near's name in a hidden death note and shoots his hand, goes into a rage and shoots him some more, and tries to deliver the killing blow but he is stopped.]]
56* ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'':
57** Ken has two. The first was a nervous breakdown when he realized the [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential sins]] he'd committed were real -- further increased by his partner dying, which brought back all his repressed memories of his brother's death. The second was during when he found himself at the Dark Ocean again.
58** Hikari had one also when she returned to the black ocean. She needed to be slapped out of it in a very GetAHoldOfYourselfMan moment.
59* ''Manga/ElfenLied'': Happens on numerous occasions to several characters. Most notable are Kouta after witnessing his sister and father being slaughtered in front of him by Lucy; happens again later on after he starts to remember bits and pieces of his traumatic past, and again when he sees Lucy slaughter people in front of him. Lucy during the event where a particularly [[KidsAreCruel nasty group of bullies]] KickTheDog that she had come to care for and beat it to death, forcing her to watch. Mayu after running away from home because of her [[AbusiveParents stepfather's sexual abuse]] and her mother's refusal to believe that her ''own daughter is being raped'' because she's jealous of her. Mayu gets another in the manga when she's about to get raped by The Unknown Man, which is directly related to the aforementioned abuse.
60* ''Anime/EurekaSeven'': While brutally mutilating an enemy LFO in Episode 20, Renton hallucinates a blob that reflects his own face. If [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Nightmare_6_5445.PNG this subsequent scream doesn't count]] as losing one's sanity, nothing will.
61** Is that a ShoutOut to ''Music/InTheCourtOfTheCrimsonKing''?
62* In ''Manga/ExcelSaga'', Watanabe suffers one of these after [[spoiler:being dumped by Hyatt]]. And freak out is [[SlowlySlippingIntoEvil putting it pretty mildly]].
63** Mince had one after seeing Excel again. It was a two page spread of just her horrified face.
64** Kabapu gets several of these. His expression in volume nineteen as he explains how he's not going to be a dictator -- he's going to be '''more''' than a dictator to his terrified employees -- is a thing of horror.
65* In ''Manga/FairyTail'', Elfman and Mirajane both went through one of these around two or three years before the start of the series due to [[spoiler:the death of their youngest sibling, Lisanna]]. The former turned from a kind, domestic, overprotective, and sensitive kind of guy to a super MANLY... kind, domestic, overprotective, and ''secretly'' sensitive kind of guy. The latter turned from an ArrogantKungFuGuy delinquent-[[JerkWithAHeartOfGold ish]] character into SilkHidingSteel.
66** Sting also has one when his guild master [[spoiler:kills his cat companion and best friend Lector right in front of him.]] That he's scolded by Jienma for being appropriately upset doesn't help to prevent him from snapping.
67* Erina Nakiri from ''Manga/FoodWars'' gets one when in chapter 151 when [[spoiler:she discovers that Soma, who she has been trying to discredit since day one, is the son of her idol Jouichirou. Her reaction is one big, [[PlayedForLaughs comical]] MyGodWhatHaveIDone moment when she realizes that she has done nothing but insult her idol's family and, indirectly, his cooking style, roots, and restaurant. She very nearly passes out from the shock.]]
68* Akito from ''Manga/FruitsBasket'' often has violent, screaming fits on the slightest provocation. Their cousin Rin has a huge TraumaButton due to being abused by her parents, so when Tohru (a maternal or big sister figure to most of the Zodiac) innocently walks in during a bad moment she is completely terrified and repeatedly cries not to yell at her.
69* ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'': Ed has at least one of these, most notably when he saw the failed attempt at resurrecting his mother as a child.
70** Ling suffers one after he encounters [[spoiler:the last surviving loyal chimera henchman of the previous Greed lurking under [=CentCom=]. He kills the chimera, and then the memories of the previous Greed all come rushing back]].
71** Scar had one after discovering that his brother's arm had been transplanted onto his body after they were attacked by Kimblee. [[spoiler:And unfortunately for Winry's parents, they happened to be right in the area when he was going through it. And shared an ethnicity with the soldiers that murdered Scar's people.]]
72** In ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist2003'', Ed has one when he realizes that he has killed Greed.
73* ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'' suggests that Russia became CuteAndPsycho after Bloody Sunday. Fandom speculation is that the execution of the Romanov dynasty is what drove him completely over the edge.
74* Keiichi from ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'' has a truly epic one in Tatarigoroshi-hen. He spends the majority of the arc having one of the most [[MindScrew surreal]] experiences this side of David Lynch. When he finds out that [[spoiler:he never killed Satoko's uncle, and he's been having paranoid delusions]], he goes batshit crazy and [[spoiler:tears up Satoko's house with a hatchet looking for him.]]
75** [[spoiler:Except he really ''did'' kill Satoko's uncle.]] He only believes that [[spoiler:he's still alive because Satoko told him that he was, not realizing that Satoko is approaching a mental breakdown of her own.]] The one who has a true Freak Out is [[spoiler:Satoko herself when she thinks Keiichi killed Rika. She ends up pushing him off a bridge.]]
76** Earlier in the same arc, Satoko herself has a ''spectacular'' PTSD-type freak-out after Keiichi simply ''shows her affection''.
77** As this is a series known almost famously for its levels of BreakTheCutie, several of the main characters go through one of these at least once, in at least one arc. Keiichi, then [[spoiler:Shion]], then Satoko ''and'' Keiichi, then [[spoiler:Rena in the Atonement Arc, mirroring Keiichi's first]], it gets to the point where we learn that even [[spoiler: Takano Miyo, the ''cause'' of Rika's repeated deaths, actually had one or more of these as a child, precluding the ''entire series'' and showing the reason for her villainous tendencies.]]
78* [[TheGambler Daniel J. D'Arby]] suffers an impressive one in ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders'', in an AbsurdlyHighStakesGame of poker against [[TheHero Jotaro]]. At one point, Jotaro makes ludicrously high bets on a hand that he ''doesn't even look at,'' while using his [[FightingSpirit Stand]], Star Platinum, to nab a cigarette and a drink [[SuperSpeed faster than D'Arby can see]]. This leads him to believe that Jotaro had switched out the cards in his hand without him noticing, and his panic only ramps up further when Jotaro demands that he match his raise by promising to reveal the capabilities of [[BigBad DIO]]'s Stand if he loses. [[TheMobBossIsScarier The mere thought of being punished for his betrayal of DIO drives D'Arby insane with fear]], to the point that he ''passes out'', thus forfeiting, and wakes up [[LaughingMad a gibbering wreck who's too loopy to interrogate]]. To top it all off, he was normally [[TheStoic tranquil and cool-headed]], [[NotSoStoic which made his nervous breakdown all the more enjoyable to behold]].
79* Nui Harime from ''Anime/KillLaKill'' goes through a major one in Episode 22 [[spoiler:when Ryuko permanently destroys her arms, shocking her, and causing her cheery personality to become psychotically angry and vengeful. She gets better, though.]]
80* Ken Hidaka, at the very end of the ''Anime/KnightHunters'' [=OAVs=], goes from boy next door having a ''very bad day'' to AxCrazy BloodKnight in the time it takes him to pull a shotgun trigger. [[SlasherSmile And it shows]].
81* For 21 episodes of ''[[Manga/LuckyStar Lucky Channel]]'', [[WideEyedIdealist Minoru Shiraishi]] calmly endures the ''[[ButtMonkey constant abuse and disrespect]]'' of his diva of a co-star, [[HatesTheJobLovesTheLimelight Akira Kogami]]. Then he gets roped into trekking two weeks through the wilderness to retrieve a fresh bottle of spring water for her, getting [[BearsAreBadNews mauled by a bear]] in the process. When he returns to find himself replaced as co-star by Creator/DaisukeOno and ''then'' has Akira throw the water back in his face for being too warm, he goes ''[[BewareTheNiceOnes completely berserk]]''. He tells off Akira, trashes the set, clobbers crew members who try to restrain him, [[CameraAbuse attacks the cameraman]], and is last seen chasing Akira off-stage with presumably murderous intent. He eventually calms down, but in the concluding episode, he is a completely different character.
82* ''Franchise/LyricalNanoha'': Nanoha has a minor one that's [[PlayedForLaughs Played for laughs]] after she transforms for the first time.
83* ''Manga/MariaNoDanzai'': Mari Nagare watched her only son die, being led to believe that she and her husband led him to commit suicide and then learning the truth of his death did ''no'' favors whatsoever to Mari's mental state. Where she was once a loving mother and wife, now she has become a vengeful murderer who will stop at nothing to achieve her goals.
84* In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamUnicorn'', Riddhe starts SlowlySlippingIntoEvil after learning the AwfulTruth about his family history and his feelings for Audrey being unreciprocated. With his sense of fatalism about the state of the world ever improving, he becomes the pilot for the Banshee and ''welcomes'' the possibility of uncontrolled psychic rage. When he [[spoiler:kills Marida]], though, the feedback and guilt shatters him so badly that he has what almost looks like a seizure, vomiting and sobbing violently until he gets dry heaves. When he finally stops, he spends a while in HeroicSafeMode and then finally [[spoiler:decides to help Banagher and Mineva, making a HeelFaceTurn]].
85* ''Manga/{{Monster}}'': Johan has one of these after reading a picture book [[spoiler:written by the man who "created" him]].
86* In a flashback of ''Manga/MuhyoAndRoji'', Enchu is introduced as working hard to become an Executor to support his sick mother. He is called away when his mother's condition turns critical, and while he is away, she dies and Muhyo is chosen as Executor over him. In another flashback, this happens to a mother when her daughter dies in a car accident; she becomes obsessed with making copies of the doll that her daughter had wanted.
87* A few {{Face Heel Turn}}s in later episodes of ''Anime/MyHime'' came about via freak-outs. Getting [[EyeScream stabbed in the eye]] or [[LoveMakesYouEvil being rejected by a potential suitor]] can do that to a person.
88* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'':
89** Sasuke has a massive one after finding out that Itachi killed their parents among many others, as well as when he gets put under MindRape. He also experienced a [[TranquilFury very controlled version]] when [[spoiler: Tobi revealed the cause of the Uchiha massacre, leading to Sasuke's new life goal]].
90** Gaara suffered this twice in his life. The first time was when [[spoiler:Yashamaru crushed all of Gaara's hopes and tried to kill him]] resulting in the homicidal maniac we all have vivid nightmares about. The second was when he saw his own blood after Sasuke injured him.
91** Naruto had one when he thought Sasuke had been killed by Haku. He had another one when he'd gone into his 4-tailed form after Orochimaru goaded him to a breaking point. He had his ''[[DespairEventHorizon worst one ever]]'' when he was ForcedToWatch Pain, the man who killed [[BadassTeacher Jiraiya and Kakashi]] and blew up his village, almost fatally stab [[LivingEmotionalCrutch Hinata]] with [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice a giant spike]] right after [[AnguishedDeclarationOfLove she sincerely confessed her love to him]] -- which was the first time Naruto ''ever'' heard ''anybody'' say that to him genuinely. The Freak Out was of such proportions that it allowed him to ''instantly'' go to [[SuperpoweredEvilSide his 6-tailed form]] for the first time ever, then an 8-tailed monstrosity, and then [[DarkestHour left his will so badly battered]] that [[FromBadToWorse he was ready to release the Kyuubi]].
92** Poor, poor [[spoiler:Obito]]. [[spoiler:Survived from being crushed with boulder, he ends up watching Rin die in Kakashi's arms. Both of them are his best friends. No wonder he snapped... and that's how Madara/Tobi was born.]]
93* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'':
94** Shinji from Episode 19 to the end of the series, TheMovie included. Also Asuka in Episode 22 and after her MindRape, Ritsuko, Misato, and [[DysfunctionJunction everyone else]].
95** ''End of Evangelion'' does this masterfully with Third Impact. Poor Shinji completely loses his sanity.
96--->'''Shinji:''' ''[whimpering]'' [[MadnessMantra I can't take it anymore, I can't take it anymore, I can't take it anymore...]]
97** In the second ''Anime/{{Rebuild| Of Evangelion}}'' movie, Shinji suffers another massive one when Gendo overrides Unit-01, causing it to disembowel the test Unit-03, nearly killing Asuka. This sends Shinji into a rage to the point where he threatens to destroy [=NERV=] headquarters.
98* In the ''Manga/OnePiece'' anime, expanding off of a scene in the manga, Luffy suffers one of these after [[spoiler:his entire crew is vanished by Kuma.]]
99** Luffy also suffers another one of these after [[spoiler:his brother Ace is killed]], the headstrong [[TheDeterminator Determinator]] going completely catatonic and even declaring that he's not good enough to be King of the Pirates when he finally starts moving and speaking again. [[spoiler: He's eventually convinced to settle [[TimeSkip on waiting 2 years for him and his crew to train]] before reuniting and entering the second half of the Grand Line.]]
100* ''Manga/OutlawStar'': Being shot in the shoulder by Gene, sends Harry over the edge, well even more so than before. Also, [[LoveMakesYouCrazy anything involving Melfina]] has this effect on him as well.
101* ''Manga/PandoraHearts'': Leo's reaction to [[spoiler:Elliot's death]] involved him sobbing and screaming and random intervals for several days. He went on with this as Pandora was interrogating him until [[spoiler:Vincent]] came along.
102** [[spoiler:Jack]] has one of these when he tries to get the [[spoiler:Intention of the Abyss]] to help him destroy the world and [[spoiler:Alice,]] the twin who had been using their body at the time, tricked him into telling her his plans and informed him she would never allow him to go through with them. He began brutally screaming at her to let the [[spoiler:Intention]] take over, lest [[spoiler:Alice]] suffer the consequences of disobeying him...
103* This trope was perfected by the anime ''Anime/ParanoiaAgent'', where the entire theme of the show was about nervous breakdowns. Whenever the show had a Freak Out, it would get deep inside the head of the victim, and about half the episodes ended with TheReveal that the victim had badly misunderstood the traumatic event.
104** Although we don't see it onscreen, Maniwa presumably has one of these after being fired, as the next time we see him he's gone from a reasonably open-minded good cop archetype to a delusional homeless person who believes he is a SuperHero.
105* Suzu after being raped in ''Manga/PeacemakerKurogane'' and as soon as he finds his master lying motionless and in pieces on the ground, supposedly killed by his (best and only friend) Tetsunosuke. [[BreakTheCutie Ouch.]] Even though Okita was the one who killed Yoshida. Also, Tetsunosuke has massive freakouts throughout the series, most notably after Yoshida attempts to kill him a second time.
106* ''Anime/PerfectBlue'': Mima, coming home at the end of a particularly traumatic day, finds her beloved pet fish dead and loses control for a moment, trashing her apartment. The trauma was because of a rape scene, which [[MindScrew may or may not have]] become genuine, as her screams got more and more convincing. This is just the first freak-out of many.
107* In ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'', [[spoiler:Mami in the third timeline]] undergoes this when she finds out the AwfulTruth first hand and [[spoiler:attempts to MercyKill everyone else before Madoka stops her.]]
108** Funnily enough, Mami's English voice actor Creator/CarrieKeranen went through a minor one during recording, after discovering [[WhamEpisode the fate that would befall her character]].
109--> [[spoiler:"[[http://youtu.be/VKraFH64gCo?t=5m15s Did I just DIE?!]]"]]
110* ''Literature/RebuildWorld'': Prior to the planned government assault on Tsubaki’s sanctum, [[spoiler:Katsuya sees [[LoveTriangle Akira together with his crush Sheryl]] and has a HeroicBSOD, then Inabe [[ManipulativeBastard manipulates Katsuya]] out of his depression by making it sound like he can save Sheryl from being blackmailed into a relationship by Akira. And then Tiol launches a FalseFlagOperation on Katsuya by disguising himself as Akira, killing his teammates, and throwing their bodies into Akira’s vehicle.]] This is reacted to with an UnstoppableRage, a MadnessMantra of IllKillYou, and a complete abandonment of reason or sense.
111* ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'': [[PapaWolf Anji Yukyuzan]] had these after [[BackStory the children under his care burned alive]].
112** Seta Sojiro also has a small one. This was intentional, as Kenshin was DefusingTheTykeBomb.
113* ''VisualNovel/SchoolDays'': Sekai, after Kotonoha and Makoto make out in front of her, and Kotonoha after she is raped by Makoto's best friend and then dumped by Makoto.
114* [[spoiler:Rii]] from ''Manga/SchoolLive'' has one in the manga when [[spoiler:a rescue helicopter crashes and bursts into flames, setting the school on fire.]] She tries to [[StepfordSmiler contain herself]] around Yuki but turns into a screaming, sobbing mess once she leaves. Afterward, [[spoiler:Rii]] continues to act snippy and depressed for a chapter or two more.
115* Faust VIII from ''Manga/ShamanKing'' is usually calm (being a doctor), but when Yoh Asakura calls Faust's beloved Eliza ([[spoiler:Eliza was Faust's wife who was brutally shot and killed, and now is Faust's spirit]]) a doll, he goes apeshit!
116* ''VisualNovel/{{Shuffle}}'': Kaede, after finding out that her mother died and after Rin starts spending more time with Asa.
117* ''Anime/SpaceBattleshipYamato''. The scriptwriters love making Desslok freak. In Season 1, his home planet is [[CurbStompBattle Curb Stomped]] and he freaks. In The New Journey, his planet is utterly destroyed, so he freaks. Then his love interest kills herself. He completely loses it and begs Wildstar to destroy his ship.
118* Gimmy from ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' when [[spoiler:[[HeroicSacrifice Jougan and Balinbou sacrifice themselves to save him and Darry]]]]. In the next episode, when [[spoiler:Kittan and Yoko are about to engage the Anti-Spirals that are trying to push the Chouginga Dai-Gurren into the depths where it will be crushed by pressure]], he's actually on the verge of following Darry's example from the previous episode and breaking down in tears.
119* Kish from ''Manga/TokyoMewMew'' gets this way when Ichigo rejects him, or when someone else threatens to come between him and Ichigo.
120* In ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle'', [[spoiler:c!Syaoran suffers one of these when he kills c!Sakura. This also when [[HeelFaceTurn he (re)gained his own heart]].]]
121* Hitomi from ''Anime/TheVisionOfEscaflowne'' has a few. Although they mostly occur after simple Tarot readings turn into MindRape.
122** Her most extreme case was when she was forced to scry, learned the person she was talking to was a [[VoluntaryShapeshifting shapeshifter]], then saw his impending death. [[spoiler:Then she experienced this from the other's perspective. The moment she experienced the crushing death in her mind, she freaked out so badly she went into ''[[YourMindMakesItReal cardiac arrest]]'' and had to be saved with chest compressions.]]
123* In ''Literature/TheWayToProtectTheFemaleLeadsOlderBrother'', Sylvia Pedelian, the resident [[TheIngenue ingenue]], goes through a huge one after being informed of her beloved brother's torture and death, after she spent a long time desperately searching for him in the original story. This eventually drives her into becoming a bloodthirsty {{Determinator}} who ends up massacring the entire [[TheMafia Agriche family]].
124* Darcia from ''Anime/WolfsRain'''s bloody self-mutilation and SkywardScream upon coming home to find that [[spoiler:his lover, Hamona, has been murdered]].
125* Smoothly and successfully executed in ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'' in the case of Kaiser Ryo's transformation to "Hell Kaiser."
126* In ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'', Sensui has one in the past [[spoiler:after finding out about humans torturing demons, which challenged his belief that demons were evil and that he should protect humanity from them]].
127[[/folder]]
128
129[[folder:Comic Books]]
130* ''ComicBook/AntMan'': Hank Pym had a period where he thought he was someone else, and apparently went full-on mad scientist, to the point of setting killer robots on a major city just so he could destroy them to look good. He eventually recovered, and how much this gets played up depends on the writer. Some have him as having become fairly well-adjusted; others have him just a medication bottle away from another psychotic episode. And then there's ''Secret Invasion''.
131** His daughter, [[ComicBook/TheUnstoppableWasp Nadia Van Dyne]], had her own in her own series. After the scientific terrorist group A.I.M. attacked her and her friends within G.I.R.L., Nadia's mind went into overdrive. Not helping things was that she went into her lab, where [[YearInsideHourOutside time flows faster]] also made her sleep deprived. When said friends came to confront her, she flipped out when one of them realized Nadia hit a major BerserkButton of hers and attacked her. When Nadia came down, she was nearly DrivenToSuicide. Thankfully, unlike her father, Nadia's bipolar disorder is treated a lot more fairly.
132* ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'' is '''the''' poster comic of Freak Outs, with most Rogues' minds breaking at some point, [[StartOfDarkness creating the other selves]] which drive Batman's duality theme close to home. Virtually every member of his Rogues Gallery can have their defining transformation into villainy traced back to a single traumatizing event: acid in the face, mutations, murdered parents, rescued parents, murdered spouse, etc. In particular, ComicBook/TheJoker is a firm believer in this trope, once saying that all it takes to separate the sane from maniacs such as himself is "one bad day." ''The Killing Joke'' storyline features him trying to give Commissioner Gordon his Bad Day. Ironically, his biggest success (ComicBook/HarleyQuinn) was apparently a [[CriticalPsychoanalysisFailure fairly meticulous process of chiseling away at her sanity and sense of self-worth]], though in her own series it was implied that she went through one of these before meeting him.
133* ''ComicBook/CleanRoom'': Astrid Mueller uses these to counter demonic possession of her closest allies. The host mind's most traumatic, scarring memories force the demon out. The host tends not to weather it well, either.
134* ''ComicBook/GreenLantern'': In ''Emerald Twlight'', Hal Jordan suddenly loses his marbles and becomes an universe-destroying maniac after his home city is destroyed by a supervillain. Years later, ''ComicBook/GreenLanternRebirth'' revealed that Hal was being influenced and later possessed by an eldritch abomination/emotion parasite called Parallax.
135* ComicBook/ScarletWitch. And when ''she'' snapped, the entire Franchise/{{Marvel|Universe}}verse suffered.
136* ComicBook/SpiderMan has had plenty, thanks to his "Parker luck". The most infamous example probably being Gwen Stacy's death.
137* Happens to Nuke from the ''ComicBook/SquadronSupreme'' after his parents died from radiation poisoning. Then again, he was probably not too stable, to begin with, given that his attempt to solve the problem was asking a teammate to ''find a cure for cancer''...
138* Rorschach from ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'', despite coming from an abusive background, seemed to have a good head on his shoulders until he investigated the disappearance of a girl who turned out to have been murdered and fed to dogs by her attacker. He then went Rambo-like insane and never went back.
139** Notice that in flashbacks set before his freak-out, Rorschach has a normal speech bubble. After the fact, [[PaintingTheMedium his speech bubble is more scrawly.]]
140* ComicBook/{{X 23}} naturally [[EmotionlessGirl isn't normally prone to these]], but even she has one (or at least, what passes as one for her) when she wakes up in a Weapon X facility after [[ComicBook/AllNewXMen Kitty Pryde and the O5]] find her wandering the streets of Miami in an amnesiac state following the events of ''ComicBook/AvengersArena'' and having been tortured by Purifiers after ''that''. She immediately panics and rampages through the place seeking a means of escape, before Teen!Scott manages to calm her with a CoolDownHug.
141[[/folder]]
142
143[[folder:Fan Works]]
144* In ''Fanfic/AtTheFoodCourt'', after numerous horrible beatings delivered on a regular basis, [[Anime/PokemonTheSeries Ash]] completely snapped after James told him he was a Pikachu, and came to actually believe it. This started a dissociative delusion from which he never recovered.
145* [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/3504327/12/Between-Deception-and-Truth Between Deception and Truth]]: Naruto and Hinata go through this when they find out they're having a child. The reason being that both are currently in hiding as a runaway couple and (for added security) under a GenderBender jutsu, so this means NARUTO is the mother. After their initial FreakOut (Naruto runs away for some alone time and gets a pep-talk from Tsunami, Hinata tries DrowningMySorrows), both eventually sit down, [[SorkinRelationshipMoment freak out together and ultimately decide to press on with their very unusual situation]].
146* In ''Bitter Leaves and Blossoms Bright'', Isra has a delayed and subtle one after her first (and very messy) kill. When Altair tells her ItGetsEasier, she holds on to him, shaking, as it sinks in.
147* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'' hints on a couple of occasions throughout the first book that Harry isn't quite as stable as he appears. Then HYDRA attack Hogwarts, killing [[spoiler: Luna Lovegood]], and {{ComicBook/Daken}} baits him, luring him close and [[spoiler: (temporarily) killing him]]. This did not do wonders for his mental state, and it was immediately compounded when a follow-up attack nearly killed his father and put him in a coma, while also destroying Avengers Tower and kidnapping or crippling the Avengers. After that, Jane barely manages to talk him down from re-enacting Magneto's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIcTr-m-R9U "You homo sapiens and your guns"]] moment, and his chillingly cold demeanour during the attack on HYDRA's base - including a rematch with Daken - is disturbing. He snaps out of it shortly after, but it seeds the full-blown example when being [[spoiler:tortured, sexually abused, and turned into a LivingWeapon]] by the Red Room drives him to the very brink of insanity, turning him into [[spoiler:the Dark Phoenix]].
148* ''Fanfic/DearJournalImCrazy'': After weeks of not taking his medication, Doug has an extremely violent psychotic episode on April 22nd, 1994, where he, believing to be superspy Smash Adams, had pushed Roger down the steps of the school thinking he was rescuing Patti from the clutches of "Dr. Klotzenstein". Doug doesn't remember what happened in the days afterwards, however.
149* Happens to a young Flaky in ''Fanfic/HappyTreeFriendsOrigins''. To sum it up, she was walking into the forest one day when she found something strange. What she found as a pile of corpses along with [[spoiler:a flipped-out Flippy]] standing next to it. She tried to run away, but he ended up stabbing her to death. She woke up in bed the next day and thought the events was just a nightmare, but then she finds herself and her friends dying and coming back to life the next day. She tried to tell her friends their fate, but to no avail.
150* ''Fanfic/MyHeroAcademiaUnchainedPredator'': When Ragdoll gets a lock on the Slayer, instead of getting his location, she finds out about the man's eternal war with hell. [[TheScream She screams loud enough]] to cause the heroes on her boat to jerk back and the heroes on Pixie-Bob's boat to hear it as well. They had to get Midnight to knock her out, lest she tear her own head open.
151* Nolan Fitzgerald from ''Fanfic/NightOfTheVentATaleOfWeirdness'' grows increasingly upset and paranoid as the night moves on when Springtrap's movement pattern is altered. Now said animatronic just sitting in the vent. It's a bit odd that a lot of Nolan's paranoia comes from the homicidal animatronic not doing anything at all, but it's pretty likely that at this point he just went over the edge. According to WordOfGod, his sanity BARELY survived.
152-->'''Nolan:''' ''[in tears]'' Worst night ever!
153* ''Fanfic/TheNightUnfurls'': Maia goes from outgoing to withdrawn as a result of her RapeAsDrama. The personality change is so potent that despite signs of steady recovery, she occasionally descends into a more [[BrokenBird melancholic]] state.
154* Thomas Smith from ''Fanfic/ThePortal'' does this when he first sees that he has become a dragon. He does calm down after a while and soon grows to like his new body.
155** In the sequel, ''Hard Choices'', Thomas' mother, Sarah, and father, John, are both transformed into dragons upon their arrival in the Dragon Realms. While John is slightly unnerved by his transformation, Sarah is outright horrified at hers. It gets to the point where she breaks down crying.
156* ''Fanfic/AShadowOfTheTitans'': After [[spoiler: Kitten]] is put through an EmergencyTransformation to save her life, the trauma of her near-death experience and shock of losing her humanity causes her to completely snap, leaving her [[IRejectYourReality in a delusional state where she convinces herself she's still human despite the evidence]].
157* Happens to Kerrun, the Raleka leader, at the end of her VillainousBreakdown in ''Fanfic/WithStringsAttached''. She wasn't too stable to begin with, and the seeds are sown when she first realizes that the four are not on her side, as she'd originally thought. What really sends her over the cliff is when John is seen flying over the warehouse, having lured hundreds of skahs there. She completely cracks, screaming that all the skahs are actually Idris and that the Raleka should kill them all, and John if he reappears. This has the unintended effect of getting ''all'' the Raleka guarding the warehouse to focus on the skahs, who after all are mobbing the outside of the warehouse, and not to keep an eye out for John and Ringo, who are lurking about trying to sneak into the warehouse via the roof.
158[[/folder]]
159
160[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
161* In ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHeadDoAmerica'', Beavis has one when the plane he and Butthead are on takes off, causing him to scream "WE'RE GONNA DIE!" over and over. Later on, when the duo fails to find Dallas, he has another one with his "We're never gonna score" speech.
162* ''WesternAnimation/BrotherBear'': Kenai does this in when he realizes he turned into a bear and he lets out a SkywardScream that can be heard for ''miles''.
163* ''WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewGroove'': When Kuzco learns he’s been turned into a llama, he tries to tear his skin off, slaps himself across the face in a desperate attempt to calm himself down, laughs hysterically when he realizes he can no longer walk on two legs, and panics that he “can’t remember anything” because of the confusion being knocked out caused him.
164* In ''WesternAnimation/FlushedAway'', Roddy freaks out when he first arrives in the sewer, and tries to wake himself up by repeatedly slapping himself.
165* ''WesternAnimation/FunAndFancyFree'': WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck's unforgettable hunger-induced nervous breakdown in "Mickey and the Beanstalk".
166* ''WesternAnimation/IceAgeDawnOfTheDinosaurs'' While other pterosaurs have been defeated by being knocked down one has a breakdown after being defeated in a unique way.
167* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'':
168** WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck's Freak Out in "WesternAnimation/DuckAmuck" is the stuff of legends.
169** In "WesternAnimation/DuckRabbitDuck", Daffy has an impressive rant after taking one too many shotgun blasts to the face.
170--->'''Daffy:''' Shoot me again! I ''enjoy'' it! I love the smell of burnt feathers, and gun powder, and cordite! I'm an elk! Shoot me, go on! It's elk season! I'm a fiddler crab! ''Why don't you shoot me?! It's fiddler crab season!''
171** In "WesternAnimation/PorkyInEgypt", WesternAnimation/PorkyPig's camel Humpty Bumpty suffers from "desert madness" and ends up HearingVoices.
172--->''"What's that? We're saved! The camels are coming! THE CAMELS ARE COMING! ''THE CAMELS ARE CO-O-O-O-OMI-I-I-I-ING!''"''
173* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSpongebobMovieSpongeOutOfWater'', [=SpongeBob=] briefly loses it when [[spoiler:Plankton tells him that it's his fault that they failed to get the secret formula back and throws insult after insult at him]]. This, coupled with the dystopia surrounding him, causes him to start screaming, kicking a trash can, collapsing to the floor, and start [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking mixing garbage with recycling]]. He snaps out of it, and [[WhatHaveIBecome realizes that he's just become a savage like everybody else]].
174* In ''WesternAnimation/TheThiefAndTheCobbler'', King Nod starts out rather lazy and apathetic. But when he has a vision of the One-Eyes' invasion in a dream, he has an ''epic'' freakout. Zigzag tries to console Nod by reminding him that the kingdom is safe as long as the three golden balls are on top of the minaret, but when the Thief steals the balls, Nod's anxiety skyrockets even further.
175* In ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory2'', Jessie has a panic attack when faced with the prospect of going back into storage.
176-->'''Jessie:''' I can't do storage again! I just ''can't!''\
177'''Stinky Pete:''' Jessie? Jessie!\
178'''Jessie:''' ''I WON'T GO BACK IN THE DARK!''
179* In ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'', after she gains the red panda transformation Mei freaks out in her family's bathroom and temporarily becomes more restrained trying to bury her emotions.
180[[/folder]]
181
182[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
183* In ''Film/ThirteenHoursTheSecretSoldiersOfBenghazi'', Silva has one at the end when the rescue Delta Force operators unceremoniously toss [[spoiler:Tyrone's]] corpse off the roof due to the presently urgent situation. Silva can only scream in their faces after one of them restrains him while telling him to GetAHoldOfYourselfMan
184* Mousy secretary Selina Kyle from ''Film/BatmanReturns'', after almost being killed by her boss Max Shreck for [[HeKnowsTooMuch knowing too much]] about a power plant that will ultimately hurt Gotham City, is in a very bad way. After being revived by her cat Miss Kitty and all of her feline friends, Selina returns to her apartment, repeating the words she said the last time she was there in a CreepyMonotone. She just manages to hold herself together until an ad on her answering machine that mentions "a candlelight staff meeting for two" ''with her boss'' proves to be the final straw that pushes Selina over the edge and drives her to trash her apartment and become the dark and dangerous Catwoman.
185* The title character of ''Film/{{Carrie|1976}}'' has a similar freak out to Ralphie, but the results are far more destructive: rather than simply beat the snot out of the bullies who poured pigs' blood on her in front of the class, she burns the school down with everyone locked inside. This wasn't the first time she was bullied, but it was this moment that finally sent her over the edge.
186* Ralphie from ''Film/AChristmasStory''. He had a bad enough day after failing to win over his teacher with his Red Rider BB Gun essay, but then he had his glasses busted by Scut Farkus. Rather than run away, as he did many times before, Ralphie snaps and starts beating the snot out of Farkus.
187* In ''Film/TheDarkCrystal'', the Skeksis go completely non-linear when the Crystal is healed. Seeing the urRu casually strolling in just makes it worse.
188* ''Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy'':
189** Harvey Dent suffers one of these after losing half his face in every version, but it's especially pronounced in ''Film/TheDarkKnight'', where he spends two thirds of the film as the "White Knight" before losing half of his face to [[spoiler:a bomb planted by the Joker]] and it's hinted that he sustained brain damage in the accident. The BreakingSpeech afterward exaggerated it, since [[spoiler:he had lost his girlfriend Rachel in the same SadisticChoice that led to his own scarring]].
190** In ''Film/BatmanBegins'', while in prison, Falcone tries to blackmail Crane into allowing him a part in the upcoming fear toxin project. Crane instead gasses him with the fear toxin, causing him to have a screaming fit.
191* ''Film/DeathShip'': Nick and Marshall experience a freak-out in the projector room, where they are psychically attacked by the whine of the ship's electronics and the screams of its past victims.
192* ''Film/TheDescent''. A year after being in a car crash that killed her husband and daughter (which itself caused a Freak Out) Sarah goes on a caving trip with her friends. Then they get trapped down there. Then monsters arrive. Then she ends up alone and hiding about two feet from a group of monsters eating one of the other girls. Her long-due, full-blown Freak Out occurs when she grants her best friend's ICannotSelfTerminate request, and she becomes a killing machine unable to feel emotions except for hate and bloodlust. By the end, [[spoiler:she's so crazy that she murders one of her other friends, then hallucinates that either her daughter or her murdered friend is right beside her, depending which version of the ending you're watching]]. Interestingly, Juno waffles back and forth on this trope. Alone, she starts down the same path as Sarah on the bloodlusty killing machine bit, but this stops once she finds two of the other girls. [[spoiler:They die -- bloodlusty killing machine time. Sarah meets up with her, and for a minute Juno is normal again, but Sarah herself being a bloodlusty killing machine causes Juno to follow suit again before being murdered herself]].
193* ''Film/IsleOfTheDead'': Mrs. St. Aubyn is afflicted with catalepsy and thus has a mortal fear of being BuriedAlive. Sure enough, she is buried alive, or rather entombed above ground, after having a cataleptic fit--TheBlackDeath is raging on the island and the survivors aren't letting bodies sit around. Mrs. St. Aubyn comes completely unhinged in her coffin and, after she escapes, starts murdering people.
194* The infamous [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5orRsvdZeUA "He's gonna pop"]] scene in ''Film/TheMatrix''.
195* In ''Film/MurderByDecree'', the normally stoic Holmes is ''appalled'' at the abuse Annie Crook has been put through at the asylum to the point he '''assaults''' the chief doctor snarling at him to let her go!
196* In ''Film/PsychOut'', Warren has a bad trip on STP that causes him to try to kill his friends, then cut his arm off with power tools.
197* Harry Osborn, Norman Osborn, Eddie Brock, and Doc Ock have this happen in the ''Film/SpiderManTrilogy'' movies. It also happens to Peter after he finds his uncle dead on the ground, in addition to anytime a villain kidnaps Mary Jane and threatens to kill her.
198* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
199** Anakin Skywalker's turn. Yeah, there was the thing with the Tusken Raiders, and [[LoveMakesYouEvil his obsession with saving Padmé Amidala]] but the actual turn happens when Mace Windu tries to execute Emperor Palpatine. After Anakin chops off his arm, Windu gets blown out the window by Palpatine's lightning. This is apparently Anakin's DespairEventHorizon, as he's completely a different person, changing from GoodIsNotNice to a mass-murderer who WouldHurtAChild. To explain further: he knew that once he turned on Mace Windu, he had gone too far and would never be accepted back into the Jedi Order. At that point, allying himself to Palpatine was the only thing he felt he could do. It's firmly established in ''Star Wars'' canon that EvilFeelsGood and [[TheCorruption it also corrupts your mind]]. Once you allow just a taste of the TheDarkSide, you start JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope like it was going out of style.
200** In the {{novelization}}, Palpatine takes time after Windu's death to guide Anakin in a Sith technique that lets him separate from his emotions and calmly dissect them. Anakin uses it to crush his own fear, which has the bonus effect of turning him into TheSociopath. By the time he snaps out of it, he's gone well past the MoralEventHorizon and killed or alienated everything worth turning back for.
201* In ''Film/{{Thor}}'', Loki has one after learning that he is a Jotun. Rife with self-loathing, he then goes from mean-spirited trickery to ruin his brother's reputation to a genocidal scheme that involves trying to kill Thor and [[spoiler:using the power of the Bifrost to destroy Jotunheim.]]
202* Creator/LonChaney Sr. has a truly impressive one in the film ''Film/TheUnknown'' (1927). He plays Alonzo, a criminal fugitive who's hidden out at a circus disguised as an armless knife-thrower (he has his arms, but also a distinctive and identifiable hand deformity); Nanon (Creator/JoanCrawford), the circus owner's daughter, has a distaste for being touched by men due to some past trauma and becomes friendly with him. As his love for her grows, he takes the next step and ''[[spoiler: has both his arms amputated]]'' -- just in time for her to [[EpiphanyTherapy get over it]] thanks to the circus' handsome strong man. (Probably also qualifies as a VillainousBreakdown, given how quickly things get worse.)
203* In ''Film/WarCraft2016'', his son's death causes Lothar to grow more fatalistic and unstable, even lashing out against his friend Medivh in anger. It gets so bad, Llane has him imprisoned in hopes he might cool off.
204[[/folder]]
205
206[[folder:Literature]]
207* In ''Literature/AlienInASmallTown,'' Indira's nervous breakdown on the [[SpaceStation space station]] is the most important part of her [[BackStory backstory.]]
208* After gradual SanitySlippage throughout the book, Dwayne Hoover finally loses it entirely in Creator/KurtVonnegut's ''Literature/BreakfastOfChampions'' and starts physically assaulting everybody unfortunate enough to be near him.
209* Ivan's manic episode in ''Literature/TheBrothersKaramazov'' took its time in developing. You can see him start to go insane from very early on in the book. It becomes obvious to us when he starts to [[TheDevil talk to the devil]]. He finally has his Freak Out moment at Dmitri's trial, when he [[spoiler:confesses that he killed his father through Smerdyakov, who has conveniently [[DrivenToSuicide committed suicide]]]], which would sound ridiculous even to us if we didn't know it was the truth. When the people in the courtroom voice further doubt, Ivan loses it. Spectacularly.
210* In the ''Series/{{Dexter}}'' series of novels, it is revealed that Dexter [[spoiler:and his brother]] had their freak out early on, when [[spoiler:they saw their mom killed with a chainsaw and were hiding partially submerged in blood for hours]].
211* ''Literature/{{Edgedancer}}'' (a novella of ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive''): [[spoiler:Nale]] suffers for a rare positive example -- after it's undeniably proven that he has failed his mission, he goes into a VillainousBSOD that ultimately returns him to some form of sanity and calm.
212* Done in ''Literature/EndersGame'' when Ender decides that if the people who run the games won't be fair, then he won't play the game.
213** Ender suffers an even worse freak-out at the end of the story when he realizes [[spoiler:he's been tricked into committing a mass genocide of an ''entire alien race'']].
214* ''Literature/FireAndBlood'':
215** Queen Helaena Targaryen, after the [[SadisticChoice Blood and Cheese]] incident, where a pair of hired thugs break into the Red Keep and hold her and her children hostage, knowing about her daily routine so as to predict when to strike, and tell her she must choose one of her children for them to kill (immediately refusing an attempt at TakeMeInstead). When she finally does, they kill the ''other'' child instead. Helaena spends the rest of her life completely shattered and unresponsive.
216** Said surviving child, Jaehaerya, has a freak out of her own after the Dance of the Dragons, where she's the only member of her side of the family left, save her non-Targaryen grandmother. Aegon III's regents are wary of letting the two near one another, figuring grandma might be something of a SoreLoser and tell Jaehaerya to kill her child-husband, a fear proven right when that's exactly what she does. Jaehaerya then starts screaming her head off, and the regents decide the two aren't going near one another ever again.
217* In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', [[BigBad Voldemort]] goes utterly ballistic when he learns that [[TheHero Harry]] and his friends have raided Gringott's and stolen the SoulJar that he hid there, as it means that they've figured out his greatest secret and are actively working to deal with it.
218** Harry himself has had more than one of these in the course of the series, although he usually recovers (mostly). Most notable is the freakout he had after he [[spoiler: inadvertently (and tragically/ironically) caused the death of Sirius]], utterly destroying Dumbledore's office in a burst of desperate rage and grief. But after his escape from the graveyard the year prior, being sent to back to the Dursley's with [[ThereAreNoTherapists nobody with whom to talk about his experience]], a semester under the stubby thumb of Umbridge and the entire school refusing to believe what he saw... it was only a matter of time that he should explode quite messily. He may be a wizard, but he's still human.
219* In ''Literature/HeartOfSteel'', Alistair suffers a psychotic break in his backstory when he discovers that his girlfriend had been taken off life support and subsequently died while he was busy rebuilding himself after the car accident that disfigured him and sent her into a coma. When he recounts the event, he describes it as "when I broke".
220* Happens to Bryce in the Donald E. Westlake book, ''The Hook'', after Wayne kills his wife Lucie, with whom he was going through a very long and bitter divorce, in a deal to get Bryce to credit Wayne's (who can't get publishers to publish his work) manuscript to him and get half of the money. After the murder, Bryce begins to gradually go insane, kicked off by his love interest leaving him, and he becomes isolated in his house in Connecticut. He is unable to write anything but worthless nonsense. In an interview, all of his answers are complete nonsense. He becomes obsessed with what it might have been like to murder his wife, dreaming constantly of said murder, though he can never see her face. He wishes that he was the one who did it, even following a woman who wanted his autograph to her house and almost attempting to kill her. At the end, [[spoiler:it is implied that he murders Wayne's wife, Susan]].
221-->'''Bryce:''' [[spoiler:The thing is, I just have to know what it was like, Lucie]].\
222'''Susan:''' [[spoiler:My name is Susan]].\
223'''Bryce:''' [[spoiler:Not anymore]].
224* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'': Annie Cresta's mental stability began to disintegrate when she saw her district partner [[OffWithHisHead beheaded]] right in front of her, and it's only gone downhill from there.
225* In Book 8 of ''Literature/ThePendragonAdventure'', Bobby hears Twig say that they should go back to Ibara, which confuses him because he was on the territory of Ibara. This leads to him freaking out while asking why Twig said this. [[spoiler:Ibara is the name of an island: the planet is Veelox, in the far future]], and Bobby just realized how badly he's been played by the BigBad.
226* Happens tragically to [[spoiler:Xinemus]] in ''Literature/SecondApocalypse'', as well as [[spoiler:Achamian]]. The former becomes a broken shadow of his former self, while the latter is [[DarkerAndEdgier hardened]] by his ordeal.
227* ''Literature/AStormOfSwords'': [[spoiler:Catelyn Stark]] has hers at the Red Wedding. [[spoiler:With her husband executed, one of her daughters held a political hostage, the other missing, and two of her sons believed dead, Catelyn only really has Robb left as her family. Then Robb is killed by one of her turncoat bannerman. She starts laughing hysterically, claws at her face, and as her enemies move to slit her throat, all she can think is she hopes they don't cut her hair, as her husband loves her hair. The Freak Out then continues after [[CameBackWrong she comes back from the dead]]...]]
228* In ''Literature/SonOfTheBlackSword'', Ashok suffers a freakout that segues into a RoaringRampageOfRevenge when he learns that a) he is [[spoiler: casteless]], b) his so-called relatives have brainwashed him into being [[{{Determinator}} who]] and [[ExtremeDoormat what]] he is, and c) they killed his mother to do so. The fallout of ''his'' actions results in his nominal "aunt," Bidaya, having a short-lived and ultimately fatal freakout of her own.
229* Sgt. [=McCron=] from ''Literature/TheThinRedLine'' suffers a nervous breakdown after all his men die in battle.
230* In the second book of the second ''Literature/WellWorld'' series, a fairly subdued version happens to [[spoiler:[[strike:Julian]] Alowi, as she insists on being called from then on out]] when [[spoiler:she's afraid that her husband is dying and realizes that she loves him]]. [[GenderBender The fact that she'd been male (and very straight) until not long before the wedding]] plays into that as well.
231* In the steampunk science-fiction novel ''The Woman Between The Worlds'' by F. Gwynplaine Macintyre, the narrator experiences horrifying encounters and wonders if he is insane, then realizes that only a sane man would question his own sanity. Near the end of the novel, the narrator no longer questions his sanity, not realizing that he has indeed become unbalanced by his ordeal.
232[[/folder]]
233
234[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
235* ''Series/TwentyFour'': Take one Jack Bauer. Slowly restore his faith in the better side of humanity after all the years he's spent fighting for the greater good only to lose nearly everything important in his life. Then put him back in the game, see his potential love interest get shot dead, and then have a traitorous president sideline him to protect the murderers for her own benefit. End result? Let's just say things don't go well.
236* On ''Series/AllyMcBeal'', Billy started out as the straight man of the cast. Later, he suddenly dyed his hair blonde and turned into a sexist, smug jerk (with an occasional flash of remorse). This was later explained as a brain tumor, which killed him.
237* ''Series/{{Angel}}'': Doyle didn't take the news of his demonic heritage well, and ended up boarding himself up in an apartment and chain-smoking all day.
238* Buck Compton from ''Series/BandOfBrothers'' showed signs of a HeroicBSOD after he got shot in the Netherlands, then he finally freaked out after seeing two of his friends get hit with artillery fire near Foy.
239* In the last season of ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'', [[spoiler:Felix Gaeta]] loses it big time after [[spoiler:fellow BridgeBunny Dee shoots herself dead, being unable to cope with the consequences of the latest WhamEpisode.]] It had actually been [[BreakTheCutie building for some time]], but the change in his demeanor and attitude after this particular incident was quite drastic. Getting [[spoiler:shot in the leg by Anders and then losing said leg]] didn't help much either, nor did finding out that [[spoiler:the aforementioned Anders and the XO are Cylons]] and discovering that [[spoiler:as he half-suspected but was in denial about, he was involved in the deaths of several innocent people on New Caprica thanks to Cylon treachery]]. And [[spoiler:he was nearly airlocked as a Cylon collaborator... and half the people who were about to kill him turned out to ''be'' Cylons.]] That can't be good for the sanity.
240* In ''Series/BigTimeRush'', the band and Gustavo are ordered to record three Christmas songs by their stuck-up manager by the end of the day, forcing Gustavo and Kelly to delay their vacation to Fiji. But after already writing three songs, the manager orders them to write one more song. Gustavo finally snaps and starts smashing instruments in the studio.
241* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':
242** In the early seasons, Angel had a Freak Out several times, due to AppliedPhlebotinum. Each Freak Out was played as [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything a metaphor for sudden changes in a boyfriend's behavior]].
243** If you're going to come back to your arch-nemesis' place with a gun, be careful where you point that thing... [[spoiler: Unless the last thing you want to hear before being deprived of your epidermis is "Bored Now".]]
244** After the accidental killing of the deputy mayor, Faith reacts by becoming simply and utterly psychotically monstrous. After something of a reformation, she does it again after the death of her father figure. The second (and possibly the first) time is because she is attempting [[SuicideByCop suicide by whomever she can anger enough into killing her.]]
245** Exemplified by [[spoiler:Dark Willow]]. When [[spoiler:Tara]] is gunned down in cold blood, [[spoiler:Willow]] utterly loses it and in the space of the next 24 hours or so manages to kill Sunnydale's most powerful magic user, smack down the combined powers of the UK's strongest Wiccans, effortlessly murder the season's Big Bad up to that point, beat the stuffing out of [[spoiler:the Slayer]], and nearly blow up the world.
246** Dawn has one after learning she's the Key.
247* Manny on ''Series/DegrassiTheNextGeneration'' started out as a [[{{Kawaiiko}} cute, giggly girl]] who acted about half her real age. In a single episode, she finally realized that people didn't take her seriously -- and instantly transformed into a manipulative, sex-crazed attention hogger. She got worse.
248** Craig's memorable manic episode in Season 4, which led to his bipolar diagnosis. After not sleeping for days, he becomes obsessively in love with Ashley, proposes to her, completely trashes a hotel room with rage when she says no, causes a massive scene at her father's wedding when he thinks she changed her mind, and then goes home and is confronted by his father over his scary behavior. He proceeds to ''beat the crap out of his dad'' while his young sister watches, terrified and screaming. At the end of this, he is hospitalized and diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and he tells Ashley that despite everything he somehow still feels perfectly fine, even though he knows he shouldn't.
249** Also ''Series/{{Degrassi|TheNextGeneration}}'': Campbell completely breaks down in ''Say It Ain't So''. Bianca finds him in a sobbing heap in the girls' bathroom, which he didn't realize he had gone into until she calls him a stalker and he notices the tampon dispenser.
250* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
251** Every regeneration is a Freak Out in that it traumatically, completely and permanently changes the Doctor's personality and appearance, and catalyzes and concludes whatever that particular Doctor's character development is. A few examples:
252*** The Doctor dies from a combination of old age and Mondas' influence in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E2TheTenthPlanet The Tenth Planet]]", and returns with a more mercurial but also quirkier personality and much, much better social skills. The "change" process is apparently very traumatic (production documents reveal he was reliving all of his traumatic memories during the process), and it takes him quite a while to come to terms with who he now is.
253*** The Third Doctor spends his life exiled to Earth by the Time Lords and working as an agent in a MildlyMilitary setting, his personal philosophy placing a great deal in loyalty and authority. His death of radiation poisoning transforms him into a manic, crazy-eyed {{Cloudcuckoolander}} {{Manchild}} who absolutely cannot ''stand'' taking orders from anyone and would happily burn all authority to the ground if he could, with the implication that this is suppressed rage from his initial imprisonment finally breaking into his personality. In addition to this, he becomes detached and aloof around people he'd previously thought of as his best friends and even tries to suddenly abandon Sarah Jane so he can travel on his own, though this is done out of confusion rather than apathy and he [[ApologyGift gives her a jelly baby as an apology later]].
254*** The Fifth Doctor has a fairly rough time of it as an incarnation anyway, but "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E6TheCavesOfAndrozani The Caves of Androzani]]" is pretty much about [[BreakTheCutie torturing him to death]]. The experience forces him to make awful decisions, and as he begins to regenerate, he has hallucinations of the Master taunting him -- the poisoning is bad enough that he almost dies for real during the regeneration. The result of this is that the Sixth Doctor is a lot less mentally stable than the Fifth, with a difficult, sadistic and insane personality, experiencing strong feelings of painful body dysphoria. He even attempts to strangle his companion due to a delusion that she's evil.
255*** The Seventh Doctor freaks out prior to becoming the Eighth, but for different reasons. He regenerates because the doctor trying to save his life is actually killing him due to her ignorance of his alien physiology. The Eighth Doctor, while more stable than the Sixth, is also a rather mentally flaky incarnation, being particularly prone to amnesia and detachment from reality.
256*** During the transition from his Tenth to Eleventh incarnation, the Doctor is extremely reluctant and panicked while undergoing the regeneration process. The eventual energy release blows apart portions of the TARDIS bridge.
257*** Over the course of [[Recap/DoctorWho2013CSTheTimeOfTheDoctor a single episode]] full of {{Time Skip}}s, the Eleventh Doctor ages 900 years -- over TheSlowPath -- on Trenzalore while trying to stop the Time Lords coming through into the universe. Immediately after regenerating, in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E1DeepBreath Deep Breath]]", [[spoiler:he takes on a much more aggressive and commanding personality and tells Clara that he's abandoned his interest in being her "boyfriend" or acting like a human]].
258** Lesterson from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E3ThePowerOfTheDaleks The Power of the Daleks]]" loses his marbles when he learns that the Doctor was right about the Daleks all along.
259** The K1 in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E1Robot Robot]]" is just about holding onto sanity until it kills its "father" in self-defense, after which it snaps and starts trying to start a nuclear holocaust to wipe out all of humanity [[MoralityPet apart from Sarah Jane]].
260** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E5TheRobotsOfDeath The Robots of Death]]", paranoia and stress combining with an [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes extreme sensitivity]] to the UncannyValley leads to the highly-trained secret agent Poul having a gibbering psychotic break, shrieking at the Doctor that they are secretly surrounded by "the walking dead", and then exiting the plot due to inability to do anything from that point. The ExpandedUniverse direct sequel to the story, ''Corpse Marker'', establishes that Poul has undergone heavy psychotherapy to repress his memories of the events to return him to a near-functional state, all of which is immediately undone as soon as the killer robots start showing up again and he regains his memories, leading to him having several phobia-induced panic attacks and accusing the Doctor of being a murderer (although the Doctor uses [[TheCharmer force of personality]] and implicitly some mesmerism in order to make him settle down a bit).
261** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E1SmithAndJones Smith and Jones]]", nearly everyone in the Royal Hope Hospital panics upon realizing the building has been transported to the Moon.
262** The Tenth Doctor has a huge one in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E16TheWatersOfMars The Waters of Mars]]", in which he basically snaps after refusing to accept that a group of good people have to die just because history says so and basically turns into his archenemy the Master briefly. This affects him for the rest of his run. That entire segment can basically be summed up in this line:
263--->''"'''THE LAWS OF TIME ARE MINE! ''[[AGodAmI AND THEY WILL OBEY ME!]]'''''"''
264** The Twelfth Doctor has one at the end of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E12DeathInHeaven Death in Heaven]]". Right before [[spoiler: her death]], Missy gives him a set of coordinates, claiming them to be [[spoiler:the current location of Gallifrey]]. Twelve immediately flies the TARDIS to the spot, [[spoiler:only to find that Missy lied and that those coordinates lead to nothing but empty space]]. He snaps, punching the TARDIS console until sparks come out, before breaking down into tears.
265** Twelve has another '''''gigantic''''' one in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E10FaceTheRaven Face the Raven]]" when the antagonist's plotting indirectly leads to his companion Clara [[spoiler:getting KilledOffForReal]]. That said antagonist owes their life to the Doctor doesn't help (although it ''did'' result in the downside of [[spoiler:immortality]]). The Doctor ultimately renounces his name momentarily (in the mythos of the show this is a huge deal as the last time we saw him do this he became the "War Doctor", and here he threatens to call down even his greatest enemies if something isn't done to save Clara). Ultimately, Clara demands him not to let this disaster turn him into a warrior again, spending what are literally [[spoiler:the final minutes of her (natural) life]] talking him down, but he is promptly delivered into the hands of his enemies, and the resultant torture he undergoes makes up the entirety of the next episode, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E11HeavenSent "Heaven Sent"]]. The Doctor is so damaged that he becomes a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds in the SeasonFinale [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent "Hell Bent"]], risking the safety of the entire universe just to [[spoiler:get Clara back]], and he can only fully return to his best self once he [[spoiler:'''undergoes a MindRape''' and loses most of his memories of her]], which frees him from crippling grief and rage.
266* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'': Every now and then, River Tam will have some sort of freak out, some worse than others. The one in "Objects in Space" takes the cake for the series (but [[Film/{{Serenity}} the movie]] outdoes it) with her feeling some people's emotions and reading others' minds.
267* ''Series/{{Frasier}}'': In "Murder Most Maris", Niles spends several days with things going from bad to worse - his ex-wife Maris is being charged with murder, the press is hounding him, Frasier's attempt to help ends with him accidentally saying Niles should be executed (he ''meant'' exonerated), and neither Daphne or Martin are any help at all, with Daphne outright blaming him for what's happened. Niles claims he's taking it in stride because, well, what's the alternative? Then Cafe Nervosa runs out of straws. Niles suddenly goes a little nuts, ending with him calmly sitting there completely {{naked|Nutter}}.
268* In ''Series/{{Hannibal}}'', Will Graham has one when he wakes up in Dr. Lecter's office, with his last memory of standing on a beach at a crime scene in West Virginia. He understandably starts to panic, realizing that he was out of it for nearly four hours.
269* ''Series/ICarly'': [[BewareTheNiceOnes Carly]] is quite susceptible, most notably in "iThink They Kissed" and "iSpace Out". Minor variations are the instances where she delivers long rants like in "iSaw Him First" and "iDate a Bad Boy". Also, Mrs. Benson will freak out about anything, usually hauling Freddie off for a tick bath, like in "iFence".
270* ''Series/TheMuppetShow'': Don't ask Animal to play classical music. He just can't stand it for long. And when Animal freaks out, the rest of The Electric Mayhem follow...
271* Ryan in Season 5 of ''Series/TheOfficeUS''. After years of working at the surreal Dunder Mifflin, constant sexual harassment from Michael Scott, the horror of actually having a relationship with the vapid Kelly, getting promoted during a recession, getting addicted to cocaine (TruthInTelevision - it turns you into an asshole), running a massive fraud, and getting busted and fired, then starting all over again as a temp at Dunder Mifflin, Ryan now carries a notebook filled with the names of people who piss him off. So he can "get back on them once I'm on the top again".
272* ''Series/{{Shoestring}}'': Eddie Shoestring was a programmer until he "blew a fuse" and smashed up a roomful of computers with a hammer. He spent some time in a mental institution before taking up detective work.
273* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'':
274** A humorous example occurs offscreen in the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E23BlazeOfGlory Blaze of Glory]]" when Quark's opining on the war (and how the Jem'Hadar will likely kill them all) sends a bar patron into a frenzy. He whacks Quark with a barstool, runs onto the promenade screaming "We're all doomed!", and then bursts into the Bajoran temple stark naked and begs the Prophets for salvation. The kicker being said patron was ''Morn''.
275** In "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E11Waltz Waltz]]", Sisko breaks through [[FauxAffablyEvil Gul Dukat]]'s wall of denial and makes him acknowledge that he really had been evil to the Bajorans when he was in charge of the planet. Dukat then [[GoneMadFromTheRevelation suffers]] an ''epic'' Freak Out, and decides that from then on, he's going to be outright openly evil and damn well ''enjoy'' it. Which could be seen as a NiceJobBreakingItHero moment, considering what he would go on to do.
276%%* ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'': When Alex's schemes are involved, expect at least one.
277* ''Series/YoungSheldon'': In "Pish Posh and a Secret Back Room", Sheldon has a full-on panic attack when he can't find a railroad crossing sign for his train set.
278[[/folder]]
279
280[[folder:Music]]
281* ''Music/FreakOutAlbum'' (1966) is the name of Music/FrankZappa's debut album, and it lives up to its name during "Help, I'm A Rock" and "The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet".
282* "Freaking Out" (2001) is one of Music/{{Adema}}'s most well-known hits. It's a chilling metal song about the symptoms of a helpless person finally at the brink of their breaking point.
283* Pink has one in Music/PinkFloyd's RockOpera ''Music/TheWall'' after his wife leaves him. He eventually reemerges from the worst of its effects, but not before becoming a Neo-Nazi styled would-be dictator and terrorizing the countryside with his hammer army.
284[[/folder]]
285
286[[folder:Roleplay]]
287* ''Roleplay/DawnOfANewAgeOldportBlues'':
288** A culmination of getting superpowers, skipping medication, seeing what he believes are hallucinations and having the nurse call his parents causes Simon to go into a blind panic and destroy the nurse's office. This lapse allows the [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Dark Dragon]] to take control of his body.
289** Harriet suffers from an intense mental break after she [[IDidntMeanToKillHim accidentally]] uses her spear to grievously harm Devin. She feels simultaneously horrified and ecstatic, a [[SlasherSmile wide grin]] on her face as she proclaims herself a murderer and then turns to attack Daigo next.
290* In ''Roleplay/DoubtAcademy'', the usually very placid Roxy has a very violent one after discovering that [[spoiler:Kuu murdered Tama and let Akari (her former girlfriend) be executed in his place]]. This also leads to her delivering a GroinAttack.
291[[/folder]]
292
293[[folder:Theatre]]
294* Blanche has a permanent one in ''Theatre/AStreetcarNamedDesire'' after she is [[spoiler:raped by Stanley]] and after Stanley tears off the paper lantern.
295[[/folder]]
296
297[[folder:Video Games]]
298* In ''VideoGame/ArcRiseFantasia'', Adele does not take being an UnluckyChildhoodFriend [[LoveMakesYouCrazy well.]] She jumps off the slippery slope so fast she has skid marks, and she lands ''right'' in the first-class cabin of the crazy train.
299* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII'': Near the end, [[spoiler:Daniel Cross]] has Desmond at gunpoint, and is about to kill him, when the cumulative Bleeding Effect of the Animus finally overwhelms him and he runs off, babbling insanely. Desmond finishing him off shortly thereafter is something of a MercyKill.
300* In ''VideoGame/{{Bastion}}'', Zulf has one of these after he reads Venn's Journal. The second half of the game revolves around stopping what he does afterward.
301* In ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaDawnOfSorrow'', the bad ending involves [[spoiler:Soma Cruz completely losing it in response to [[KillTheCutie one trauma too many]], resulting in a FaceHeelTurn]].
302* ''VideoGame/CreepTV'': Courage has one if he touches a poltergeist, though it doesn't affect the gameplay.
303* ''VideoGame/DeadlyPremonition'': [[spoiler:Thomas]]. [[BreakTheCutie It]] [[EtTuBrute just]] [[GoMadFromTheRevelation wasn't]] [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness his]] [[TheScapegoat week]].
304* [[spoiler:Keisuke]] from ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor'' has one after finding out that the girl he was trying to protect, Midori, would be killed--not by the demons she was slaying, but by [[spoiler:the people she was trying to protect]].
305* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIV'': After Rose's death, Psaro goes nuts and transforms himself into his Final Boss form using the Secret of Evolution.
306* Manah, the BigBad of ''VideoGame/{{Drakengard}}'', has one of these after being finally defeated when the AntiHero refuses to [[NotWorthKilling kill her.]] It becomes clear that she wasn't only [[DemonicPossession possessed]] but was genuinely insane. And in the sequel, she represses all those memories and joins your party. The moment she sees Caim, she screams for her mum and goes fetal. [[SlasherSmile Can't blame her]].
307* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'':
308** Sephiroth of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' started out as a good soldier and seemingly admirable guy, [[TomatoInTheMirror but once he figured out who he was]], he went [[MoralEventHorizon absolutely]]. [[GodhoodSeeker Freakin']]. '''[[OmnicidalManiac Insane]]'''. In fact, since ''VideoGame/CrisisCore'''s release, we've learned that Sephiroth was ''the'' consummate SOLDIER: powerful yet restrained, aloof yet compassionate, and considerate of others. Which just made his FaceHeelTurn all the more dramatic when [[spoiler:Zack confronts him and they beat the shit out of each other.]] Even though it's ''really'' not the focus of the story.
309** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' includes a couple of these as Squall is forced to gradually open up. The first is after losing [[spoiler: Ellone]] once more, when he realizes that even though he doesn't want to rely on anyone else that he could lose, he doesn't know how to keep going without someone else's help--he even asks himself whether anyone knows how to live for themselves before realizing that even that means he'd be asking for someone else to help him with his problems. Revelation after revelation breaks his normal, [[TheStoic stoic demeanor]] and he slowly changes, culminating in [[spoiler:his reaction to Rinoa's collapse after Edea's defeat, where he decides he absolutely will not let anyone else be taken away from him and ends up dragging Rinoa across a bridge that spans the length of a continent just to get to somebody who '''might''' be able to help and admits that he needs help from others to get what he wants.]] There's also another, minor one when [[spoiler:Rinoa turns out to be a sorceress and is taken away by Esthar]]. Squall nearly admits defeat before deciding he'll defend her to the very end with a little prodding from his friends, leading him to finally take command and open up to his team.
310** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'', bringing a Chocobo to the two Imperial Soldiers guarding the Mosphoran Highwaste exit in Nalbina Town (before fighting Judge Bergan) will cause one of them to freak out over bad memories of growing up in a chocobo farm, and getting a horrible stench that made it impossible for him to find a wife until he had to spend millions of gil for a special perfume. [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere He quickly abandons his post]], forcing his supervisor to chase after him, and giving early access to the Highwaste.
311* In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'', depending on your choices, the events of [[WhamEpisode Chapter 11]] can cause one of two characters to snap.
312** If you're a Blue Lion, [[spoiler:upon learning that the masked villain called the Flame Emperor who he believes orchestrated the deaths of all of his loved ones and triggered the genocide of an innocent country and his beloved stepsister Edelgard are one and the same, Dimitri goes completely insane. He brutally slaughters all of her nearby soldiers, loses all pretense of self-control, and becomes openly obsessed with tearing her head off.]] Idle dialogue in Chapter 12 on other routes indicates that he still has his Freak Out offscreen.
313** If you're a Black Eagle and [[spoiler:defect to Edelgard's side, the sight of the person meant to be the reincarnation of her beloved mother siding with the woman she sees as the second coming of Nemesis, the man who slaughtered all of her loved ones over a millennium ago, drives Rhea insane. She becomes obsessed with ripping your heart out of your chest, and by the end of the game has degenerated into a sociopath willing to burn down hundreds of innocent civilians just to make it easier to kill you.]]
314* ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'':
315** [[ActionGirlfriend Hello, Saber]]. [[TheCorruption Goodbye, Saber.]] [[BackFromTheDead Hello]], [[SuperPoweredEvilSide Saber Alter.]]
316** [[TheWoobie Hello, Sakura]]. [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil Don't do it]], Shinji! How are you, [[SuperPoweredEvilSide Dark Sakura]]?
317* PlayedForLaughs in ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear: -REVELATOR-'' when [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZY-jfpKWB0&t=1792s Ky Kiske starts to explain the Gear lineage of his wife Dizzy]], [[ExplainExplainOhCrap only for him to realize to his growing horror]] that it means [[spoiler:''Sol Badguy'' is his father-in-law]]. It results in both men simultaneously [[SkywardScream screaming]].
318* Happened to all the serial killers in ''VisualNovel/KaraNoShoujo''. The most sympathetic of the three describes involved rape, parental incest, involuntary manslaughter on their part and [[MadArtist a beautiful work of art about their mother.]]
319* [[spoiler: Ira]] in ''VideoGame/LANoire'' was already suffering from PSTD due to [[spoiler: him accidentally burning a bunch of innocent Japanese civilians with a flamethrower]] in World War II. Doctor Fontaine has him burning a bunch of homes to relieve his tension [[spoiler: but he's making him do it as a part of the Suburban Redevelopment Fund conspiracy]]. The firebug winds up accidentally burning a house with a family that was still inside and they all died, causing him to freak out over the phone with the doctor.
320--> '''[[spoiler: Ira]]''': You said the houses would be empty! HOW CAN I FIND PEACE!?
321** Much to Fontaine's horror, [[spoiler: Ira]] calls him a few weeks later and is now extremely calm because now he feels killing people in house fires will cleanse the world and send everyone to heaven so that they can start over. It's clear that the man completely snapped.
322* Princess Zelda understandably loses it in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSpiritTracks'' when Anjean reveals that a demon will take over her body. She freaks out so badly that, at one point, the player has no control over the text boxes. It's played for laughs, and she snaps out of it rather quickly when Anjean tells her that she needs to accompany Link, as several traps in the Tower of Spirits require teamwork.
323* In the WhamEpisode of ''VideoGame/LiveALive'', [[spoiler:Oersted's TraumaCongaLine is capped off with his fiancée rejecting him in favor of the man who betrayed him and completely ruined his life, and then committing suicide. This triggers a total psychotic breakdown and FaceHeelTurn, creating the BigBad Odio.]]
324* The ''VideoGame/LonelyWolfTreat'' series has an example of an ''adorable'' freak out. In the fourth game, the wolf Trick arrives at Treat's house and meets Mochi, Treat's depressed {{Hikikomori}} roommate. When Mochi finds out that Trick is Treat's old friend who spent months searching for Treat after she ran away, she begins to fear that Trick wants to take Treat back home, but doesn't have the heart to just tell Trick to go away. Her fears quickly bubble over and she breaks into a panicked ramble about how conflicted she feels about it all, all while Trick awkwardly tries to calm her down.
325* ''VideoGame/Mother3'': When Flint finds out that [[spoiler:his wife was just killed]], he starts violently lashing out at people that just want to try to comfort him. His fellow villagers can't calm him down and have to knock him out to stop him from rampaging.
326* ''VideoGame/MystIIIExile'' "Your sons, Atrus. Do you know what they did?" Saavedro was a kind family man, willing to show Atrus' sons, Sirrus and Achenar his world and how it worked. Years later, those sons returned behind Atrus' back and used that knowledge to spark a civil war that nearly destroyed Savleedro's age. When he followed them out of it to try and get them to undo the damage, they laughed at him and trapped him in an abandoned age. Twenty years alone drove the kind Saavedro to be consumed with vengence against Atrus and his sons.
327* A ''lot'' of witnesses in ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'', most likely the final villain, give '''epic''', cartoonishly over-the-top [[VillainousBreakdown Villainous Breakdowns]] when you start [[PullTheThread pulling the thread]] and backing them into a corner, usually backed up with SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic.
328* ''VideoGame/Payday2'': One of the main characters, Wolf, suffered from this in his backstory when his company went bankrupt and he was left homeless. He went completely insane from the stress and started a life of crime, impersonating the criminals he'd seen in movies to intimidate his victims.
329* ''VideoGame/PizzaTower'': When you defeat Pizzaface, he suddenly gets back on his feet and recovers from the damage he just sustained. He then pulls out all of the previous bosses for a boss rush against Peppino. As he laughs at Peppino for the trial he is about to undergo, Peppino (who is already a ball of anxiety) absolutely ''loses his mind'' and screams out loud. For the remainder of the fight, Peppino enters a rage. Anytime you hit a boss, you don't just damage the boss, you enter a short animation where Peppino [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown thrashes the boss for several seconds]] and shaves off four units of health all at once (instead of just one at a time).
330* The conclusion of the DLC expansion of ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'' results in this for Mythra. It starts when the BigBad Malos destroys the city the party's [[TagalongKid tagalong kids]] were in, who were kept there by her suggestion to keep them away from the fighting, driving Mythra mad with grief. As a result, she completely destroys the Tornan titan[[note]]Essentially a living country[[/note]] in a mindless attempt to kill Malos, which she seemingly succeeds in. When she comes to her senses, its only after Torna is sinking below the cloud sea. And ''then'' she sees one TagalongKid cradling the dead body of the other, who then drags him away when she to touch his body. Wracked with grief and guilt, Mythra suffers a complete mental breakdown and creates an entirely new (and weaker) personality and sealing her consciousness away so that she can never hurt anyone ever again.
331* In ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles3'', after subjecting the Ouroboros to a TraumaCongaLine, [[spoiler:Consul N]] has the situation turned on him to the point of absolutely ''breaking'' him. [[spoiler:Unbeknownst to him, his beloved M had swapped bodies with Mio, thereby taking Mio's place in her Homecoming and exiting Moebius' engineered cycle of life and rebirth. N had joined Moebius in the first place because he, as a prior incarnation of Noah, had essentially been driven insane by the knowledge that his Mio had died before him time and time again throughout their short lifetimes, and wanted her to stay by his side forever, reborn as the immortal Moebius N and M respectively. So, when he realises that not only was M dead and gone, but she had willingly chosen to die, he howls in anguish and rants that Noah has stolen 'his woman' from him.]] Afterwards, he becomes completely despondent and has to be prodded back into action by [[BigBad Z]] for the final act.
332[[/folder]]
333
334[[folder:Webcomics]]
335* [[spoiler:Marina]] from ''Webcomic/CrystalHeroes'' has a tearful breakdown and tries to escape the dungeon when the party [[spoiler:[[EpicFail badly loses their very first fight]]]] and the truth about [[spoiler:her real experience adventuring]] comes out.
336* The eponymous character of ''Webcomic/DominicDeegan'' suffered one of these just before the [[BreatherEpisode breather arc]] where he and Luna [[WorldBuilding take a cruise around the world]]. A list of grievances include [[spoiler:losing his teaching job because ''no one'' signed up for his class the next semester, planning his upcoming wedding, one of his students becoming drastically ill, another teacher locking himself in ''his'' office, learning his longtime childhood comic book hero is [[CanonDefilement getting a]] DarkerAndEdgier makeover]] and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking worst of all]], [[spoiler:the stores in his area stop carrying his favorite type of candy]].
337** In fact, the impetus for going on said cruise is because [[spoiler:if he didn't, he would have had a [[UnstoppableRage much]], ''[[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt much]]'' [[ApocalypseWow worse]] freak-out.]]
338* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', the [[HyperspaceMallet hammers]] are magical weapons women (who know how) can summon out of thin air whenever men make inappropriate comments about women. They hurt, but they don't cause any permanent damage. Turns out they were specifically created to ''encourage'' such comments, since it made the men feel like they had received their punishment, and the women just enjoyed hammering the men. When die-hard feminist Susan found about this, she was ''not'' happy.
339-->'''Jerry the Immortal:''' Don't worry, it's just a minor [[TraumaticSuperpowerAwakening angst-induced Awakening]]! She totally won't be in a murderous rage afterward!
340-->''(the dye from Susan's hair turns her clothes dark blue, her hair turns from blonde to dark blue, and her eyes glow black as she floats a few feet off the ground)''
341-->'''Jerry the Immortal:''' Okay, so maybe it's a ''major'' angst-induced Awakening.
342* Mischievous and chummy [[spoiler:Jack]] from ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'' gets locked in a DarkWorld and becomes suspicious and frustrated about the supernatural and Antimony, the main character.
343* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'':
344** [[spoiler:Gamzee has one of these shortly after Dave shows him ICP.]]
345** Rose has two within a very short time-frame: the first after she found out [[spoiler:Jack killed her mother]], and the second when [[spoiler:she asked an omniscient fortune-telling device whether or not the [[EldritchAbomination Gods of the Furthest Ring]] were evil. The answer appears to have turned her into a HumanoidAbomination.]]
346** [[spoiler:Although she seems to be (mostly) back to normal after dying, reviving as her dream self, then ascending to God Tier.]]
347** You can tell when a First Guardian goes through one of these: their text becomes huge and crackles with energy. Examples: [[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=004163 Doc Scratch]] and [[spoiler:[[http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=005117 Jadesprite]]]].
348** Act 6 is all about main characters freaking out. John winds up snapping after Davesprite skips out on his birthday, having been previously worn down by the boredom and isolation of being on the ship; Terezi [[spoiler:allows Aranea to restore her sight]] because her confidence has been broken by meeting her dancestor and [[spoiler:caliginously dating Gamzee]]; the Alpha Kids experience a collective Freak Out (except for Dirk, who's largely immune to its mental effects) when they [[spoiler:go Trickster]]; and Alpha Jack Noir experiences one when he [[spoiler:receives Lil Cal while in prison and falls victim to its curse]].
349* In ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob'', Jean's ex-boyfriend Slick was already a certified MadScientist... but when he's confronted by Molly the Peanut Butter Monster attacking him with a TransformingMecha / [[SiegeEngines Giant Ballista]] [[{{Snowlems}} made of snow,]] he "loses his last marble." Having his life saved by the man he'd been trying to kill only minutes earlier only cements his new status as a crazy person.
350* Sal from ''Webcomic/ItsWalky'' is always full of {{Wangst}}, especially after [[spoiler:when her parents were threatened, she told the villain she didn't care if they died, and ''he recorded her saying it'', murdered her parents and taunted her with the recording]]. She a complete Freak Out after [[spoiler:having glass caskets holding the decayed corpses of her parents dropped right in front of her]].
351* In the webcomic ''Webcomic/{{Loserz}}'', one of the protagonists (Jodie) has a temporary Freak Out after being isolated too long from her friends, starting with [[http://the-qlc.com/loserz/go/279 this]] strip.
352* ''Webcomic/TheMeek''. This happens to Luca when [[spoiler:his wife is killed]].
353* Happens in ''Webcomic/{{Narbonic}}'' when a character finally manifests the ScienceRelatedMemeticDisorder. Especially [[spoiler: the main character Dave]].
354* An epic one in ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', with a TroubledFetalPosition for good measure: [[spoiler:Vaarsuvius discovers that [[AmbiguousGender they]] killed way more innocent people than anyone can be comfortable with, with one careless use of an epic spell]]. They really start to reconsider their life choices after this.
355* ''Webcomic/TheQueenAndTheWoodborn'': Danica has one in front of the entire court at dinner when she believes she's hearing her son calling to her, but it turns out to be a result of drug-induced hallucinations.
356* In ''Theory of Everything comics'', Reverend Joeb Kim CPA, a priest/accountant has a [[http://theoryofeverythingcomics.com/god/01/ mental breakdown at work]]. But then again, it hasn't happened yet.[[http://theoryofeverythingcomics.com/god/ God(tm)]]
357[[/folder]]
358
359[[folder:Web Originals]]
360* Four words: [[UnstoppableRage Angry]]. [[ClusterFBomb Video]]. [[YouWouldntLikeMeWhenImAngry Game]]. [[WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd Nerd]].
361* ''WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall'': "... Cause I've got a brand new combine harvester..."
362* In ''Blog/CrossingKevinsCrossing'', Harold the convenience store employee has one when something happens to him on his break. It sends him running naked and screaming into the street. His co-worker blames it on smoking cessation medication.
363* In ''WebVideo/DoomHouse'', Reginald's inability to understand [[spoiler:the anomalous nature of the CreepyDoll]] and his realization that [[spoiler:the doll cannot be removed from the house or destroyed]] causes him to have a very epic one.
364--> '''Reginald P. Linux:''' Why? ''Whyyyy?'' '''''WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?'''''
365* ''WebAnimation/{{Dreamscape}}'': When [[TheStoic Melissa]] finds out [[WickedWitch Melinda]] is still alive, she ''completely flips out''! It takes a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech from Betty to snap her out of it and get her to cooperate with her allies in coming up with a plan to defeat Melinda. Even then, she still mostly believes FailureIsTheOnlyOption.
366* June Diane Raphael, one of the hosts of ''Podcast/HowDidThisGetMade'', has a minor one during the show's review of ''The Island of Doctor Moreau'' upon the realization that Dr. Moreau's tiny cloned assistant was played by a real actor, not a puppet. She keeps saying "He's so small" over and over again for thirty seconds as if trying to internalize the concept.
367* ''WebVideo/TheMusicVideoShow:''
368** Since Season 2, the host has been going through a bit of SanitySlippage ever since the events of the 1st season finale. But then there's the end of Episode 42.
369* WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic:
370** He had an absolute meltdown when he reviewed the third and last Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles live-action film. Before he watches it, he tells the viewer to sit back and enjoy it. Five minutes later, he has a ShowerOfAngst, ''twice'', and starts to spew {{Angrish}}.
371** [[Film/BatmanAndRobin BAT-CREDIT CARD]]!
372** In ''Film/TheHaunting1999'' review, he loses it after the famous "It's about family!" line.
373-->'''''"I AM THE MASTER OF FUCKING SUBTLETY!!!'''''
374** In the "Master of Disguise" review, after some bad DoubleEntendre-based humor, he [[LaughingMad laughs maniacally]] before charging around beating the shit out of people with a baseball bat, including a generous dose of CameraAbuse.
375* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YersIyzsOpc "Okay, my mom just canceled my brother's World of Warcraft account and he's freaking out..."]]
376* ''WebAnimation/RevengeFilms'': [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I93ct9PABws Alex's wife]] has a mental breakdown after getting caught cheating by him and chewed out by her father for her affair. The stress of getting caught in that fashion rendered her into a depressive state.
377* WebAnimation/SaladFingers. Almost every episode. Although he's already so batshit insane that his Freak Outs are basically just a higher level of craziness.
378[[/folder]]
379
380[[folder:Western Animation]]
381* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'': Being a failed science experiment with more mental issues than even the most skilled therapist could count, Lemongrab is ''constantly'' in the midst of a freak-out.
382* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'':
383** Aang goes into an UnstoppableRage multiple times in the show whenever he suspects his friends to be in danger, when Appa goes missing, or when he finds Monk Gyatso, who was like a father to him, dead. Azula [[VillainousBreakdown has a permanent one]] and goes insane. But she's shipped off to a mental health facility and, according to WordOfGod, will possibly make a recovery in the future.
384** Aang might have undergone a Freak Out upon learning of the genocide of his race; it lasts most of the first season, and then ebbs and flows until he finds peace in the GrandFinale. In the flashbacks with Gyatso and Bumi, he's earnest but calm and somewhat reticent, and his [[{{Keet}} hyperactivity]] might just be a way of [[SadClown trying to distract himself from the horror]].
385* ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'':
386** Officer Bennet suffers a Freak Out when he gets captured and mentally tortured by the Joker, followed by getting exposed to chemicals that turn his body into morphable clay. After spending two seasons as the good friend of main character Bruce Wayne, Bennet becomes the villain Clayface after the two-part season finale that focuses around this event.
387** Joker himself states that he went from a normal office worker who dreamed of making people laugh to, well, the Joker after [[ComicBook/TheKillingJoke "one rotten day and a chemical bath"]].
388* Since a CentralTheme of ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman'' is living with mistakes and trying ([[DysfunctionJunction and often failing]]) to make up for bad behavior or cruelty, this trope is inevitable. [=BoJack=] alone has done everything from abandoning a show he was starring in to go to New Mexico for the foreseeable future to saying unforgivable things to his friends to ''doing'' unforgivable things to his friends.
389* Donna has this in the final episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow'' when she finds out that her ex-husband is sleeping with her mother.
390* ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'': Vlad after his beloved clone of Danny is destroyed. He was close to killing off two half-ghosts if not for a timely intervention by Danny's friends. But he spent the rest of the series tormenting Danny. One could say that Vlad's Freak Out in that episode led into his different motives in the next season... or it could just be MotiveDecay as a result of different writers handling the show.
391%%* ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'': "AND DAD WILL JUST SIT THERE AND WATCH TV!"
392* Lois of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' has a complete meltdown when several mishaps and bad events (Peter giving away the family's gifts, the turkey got burnt, etc.) make it harder for her to plan the family's Christmas and the lack of paper towels to clean up the mess in the kitchen [[RageBreakingPoint sends her over the edge.]] Lois goes on a rampage throughout the town and attacks anyone that gets in her way or dares to stand up to her. Her freak out ends when she gets tranqulized by the police.
393* Fry from ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' suffers many a Freak Out:
394** In "[[Recap/FuturamaS2E5WhyMustIBeACrustaceanInLove Why Must I Be a Crustacean in Love?]]", Fry is told that he must fight Dr. Zoidberg to the death, and the winner gets the "honor" of mating with a female of Zoidberg's species. After [[{{Beat}} thinking about this for a second]], Fry begins screaming hysterically.
395** In "[[Recap/FuturamaS3E11InsaneInTheMainframe Insane in the Mainframe]]", Fry is erroneously sent to an insane asylum for ''robots''. Obviously, the staff (all robots) don't notice this simple detail and continue to treat him as such. He's released weeks later when he, as described by the doctor, "no longer suffers delusions of humanity".
396** He also freaks out in "[[Recap/FuturamaS3E19RoswellThatEndsWell Roswell that Ends Well]]" when he realizes that [[MyOwnGrampa he is his own grandfather]].
397* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
398** Happens to Twilight Sparkle in the episode "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E3LessonZero Lesson Zero]]". When she realizes she doesn't have a weekly friendship lesson to present to Princess Celestia, she [[SanitySlippage grows increasingly crazy]] trying to find one, culminating in a fully-loaded Freak Out the likes of which have never been seen on the show before (which is saying something, given the show's other examples).
399** In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E26TheBestNightEver The Best Night Ever]]", Fluttershy tries to befriend the animals in the Canterlot gardens, but when they keep avoiding her, she starts becoming frustrated just to get her hooves at them, and it all climaxes with her shouting [[PunctuatedForEmphasis "You're. Going. To]] ''[[SuddenlyShouting LOVE MEEEE!]]''".
400** In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E25PartyOfOne Party of One]]", Pinkie Pie gets it into her head that her friends don't like her parties anymore, so she starts throwing parties with her new friends: a bag of flour, a bucket of turnips, a pile of rocks, and a collection of lint, all of which she's named and given voices. Then she starts imagining they really ''are'' talking to her...
401** These freakouts have been classified by fanon as "Cutie-Mark Failure Insanity Syndrome", a condition that causes ponies to lose control and over-react to situations that cause them to doubt the purpose in life they found when they received their cutie-mark. Every one of the six primary protagonists has had at least one of these, and there's solid evidence to suspect that the show's first BigBad was caused either by one of these or some form of corrupting influence.
402** In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E22TestingTesting123 Testing Testing 1, 2, 3]]", Rainbow Dash accurately describes Twilight's tendency to "get all freaked out about tests".
403--->'''Rainbow Dash:''' Your freak-outs are so epic, [[MusicalWorldHypothesis you sing whole "freak-out" arias]] about freaking out!
404** By the Season 9 premiere, "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS9E1TheBeginningOfTheEndPart1 The Beginning of the End - Part 1]]", Twilight's friends all know her tendency towards this when she's saddled with a heavy responsibility so well, that they've nailed it down to a "process" which they call [[PersonAsVerb "Twilighting"]].
405* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'':
406** ''Heavily'' PlayedForDrama in "[[Recap/TheOwlHouseS2E16HollowMind Hollow Mind]]". [[spoiler:After discovering that his entire life is a lie and realizing that Belos wants him dead, Hunter has an ''extremely'' realistic panic attack, gasping out that he can't go back before tearing his Golden Guard cloak off and running off into the woods while hyperventilating.]]
407** This occurs again in "[[Recap/TheOwlHouseS2E18LabyrinthRunners Labyrinth Runners]]". [[spoiler:Hunter and Gus get caught by a few Coven scouts who, after realizing who Hunter is, tell him just how worried Belos is, and that they need to take him back to the castle. After the two of them escape, Hunter has another panic attack and curls up in the TroubledFetalPosition while gasping for breath.]]
408--->'''[[spoiler:Hunter]]:''' ''[hyperventilating]'' Oh, Titan! He's ''looking'' for me! He'll know I'm here! I-I gotta-- I gotta run, I gotta-- I gotta ''hide''-- I g-- I gotta--
409* T.J. from ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'', after being placed in "[[PunishmentBox the box]]" (a square drawn on the blacktop which students have to stand in for punishment). He mocks it at first, but soon, it begins to break him, eventually causing this.
410* ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'':
411** Ren is prone to these.
412** Stimpy's [[https://youtu.be/TvRsQnfk6x0?t=14 "I Like Darren!" rant]] from "[[Recap/RenAndStimpy2x05HauntedHouseMadDogHoek Mad Dog Höek]]". It says something when ''Ren'', the most prone [[https://youtu.be/0bme0JpXQUg to performing these]], is [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness showing genuine concern]].
413--->'''Stimpy:''' '''''[[PunctuatedForEmphasis HE... IS... NIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICE!]]'''''
414** "[[Recap/RenAndStimpy2x12RoyalCanadianKiltedYaksmen The Royal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen]]" has the yak's breakdown from Stimpy's incessant singing, which was inspired by the "WesternAnimation/PorkyInEgypt" example in the "Films -- Animation" folder.
415* Stu of ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' has one when Angelica starts to wear on him after she pretends to have broken her leg.
416* ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'':
417** The first episode ends with Adora becoming She-Ra for the first time in an awesome display of magical might that instantly cows the monster that was attacking her. The second episode starts with her dropping the sword and screaming because she just turned into an eight-foot-tall magical warrior, and she has no idea how to handle that.
418--->'''Adora:''' What was that? ''What did you do to me?''
419** Swift Wind has pretty much the exact same reaction when Adora accidentally gives him wings and a horn. His eyes bug out and he flies around the village smashing stuff as if he has no control over himself.
420** Everyone else freaks when Swift Wind starts talking. He only returns again in the last couple episodes, and his rather bored reaction to everyone freaking out makes it clear that he's been dealing with this a ''lot'' recently.
421--->'''Swift Wind:''' Just get it out of your systems.
422* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
423** Ned suffers one in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E8HurricaneNeddy Hurricane Neddy]]".
424--->'''Ned:''' Now calm down, Nedilly-diddly-diddly-diddly-doodly, they did their best, shoddily-iddly-iddly-diddly. Gotta be nice, hostility-ility-biddly-diddly... [[PrecisionFStrike AW, HELL-DIDDLY-DING-DONG-CRAP!]] ''[[OOCIsSeriousBusiness Can't you morons do anything RIGHT!?]]''\
425''[shocked gasps]''
426** Subverted in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS10E6DohInTheWind D'oh-in' in the Wind]]". Homer, alongside his mother's hippie cohorts, attempts to "freak out squares" in Springfield. The joke is on them, however -- Ned Flanders takes Homer's suggestion of "expand your mind" as a tip, apparently not knowing what Homer might have actually been referring to (i.e. expanding the mind with drugs), Homer's cosmic fool stint is decried by Krusty the Clown as being "weirdos", and Skinner's reaction to Homer's closing the "conformist-factory" (the elementary school) is simply dejection, with the kids' reactions being a lot of cheers. In fact, the closest to an actual freakout that occurs is his son, Bart, and that's only because he's embarrassed that his dad arrived to pull off his hippie stunt at school.
427* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan'', Electro's FaceHeelTurn is the result of an [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity inability to cope]] with the PowerIncontinence and loss of humanity that accompany the [[PsychoElectro electrical powers]] he gained in a FreakLabAccident. Doctor Octopus' is a result of the radiation that fused his [[ArtificialLimbs harness]] to his spine and changed him from meek to [[MadScientist megalomaniacal]].
428* Everyone in ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' has done this at least once.
429** [=SpongeBob=] seems to have suffered from this the most, including in episodes such as "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS1E6MermaidManAndBarnacleBoyPickles Pickles]]", "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS4E14BummerVacationWigstruck Bummer Vacation]]", and "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS7E20TheAbrasiveSideEarworm Earworm]]". His Freak Out in "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS2E6GrandmasKissesSquidville Grandma's Kisses]]" is likely his most notable, of course.
430** Squidward's also suffered from this a bit, including in "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS1E9NaturePantsOppositeDay Opposite Day]]", "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS4E19ThePinkPurloinerSquidWood Squid Wood]]", and "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsSquidsVisitToSquarePantsOrNotToSquarePants Squid's Visit]]".
431* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'':
432** In "[[Recap/StevenUniverseS1E24AnIndirectKiss An Indirect Kiss]]", Pearl starts freaking out after realizing that Rose's healing fountain has become inaccessible due to a bunch of extremely tall, prickly weeds.
433** In the "[[Recap/StevenUniverseS2E4SayUncle Say Uncle]]" crossover with WesternAnimation/UncleGrandpa, said character's weird ways and scientifically impossible antics are too much for Pearl.
434--->''[The Gems find themselves stuck in a blank white void with each other.]''\
435'''Garnet:''' There's got to be some way out of here.\
436'''Pearl:''' ''[shivering]'' WE'LL NEVER ESCAPE! ''THIS'' IS OUR NEW HOME!\
437'''Garnet:''' Pearl, you're overreacting.\
438'''Pearl:''' I'M NOT OVERREACTING! ''[proceeds to run around the void, screaming]''
439** In "[[Recap/StevenUniverseS2E29LogDate7152 Log Date 7 15 2]]", having [[HeelFaceTurn just committed treason against Homeworld]] by [[DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu disobeying and insulting Yellow Diamond]], Peridot is having the Freak Out of a lifetime, alternating between fits of horror and fits of [[LaughingMad manic giggling]] while replaying the phrase "traitorous clod" over and over again on her tape recorder. When Steven asks if she'll be okay, she turns around with a manic grin and delivers an equally deranged "[[BluntYes No!]]".
440* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans2003'': Happens to Raven in her numerous appearances, most notably after her MindRape at the hands of Slade. The episode "[[Recap/TeenTitansS3E5Haunted Haunted]]" is devoted to one massive Freak Out after another that Robin endures when Slade [[MindScrew supposedly]] returns from the dead.
441* ''WesternAnimation/WanderOverYonder'': The Black Cube of Darkness in "[[Recap/WanderOverYonderS2E10TheBlackCubeTheEyeOnTheSkullship The Black Cube]]", after a very bad day of being harassed and feared by everyone on his planet, despite trying his best to do good, loses it when an angry mob forms against him. [[AllLovingHero Wander]] tries to calm him down, but it doesn't work and he ends up getting his soul sucked by the Cube. It actually takes Sylvia [[ShamingTheMob calling out the mob]] for their actions for things to finally start settling down.
442[[/folder]]
443
444[[folder:Real Life]]
445* If you've ever had a moment when you feel like you'll explode if you don't scream and let out your problems, odds are you're on the verge of one.
446* In psychology, this is known as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metanoia_(psychology) metanoia]].
447[[/folder]]

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