Questions on Writing a Reaction to a Traumatic Experience

So during the course of my story, one of my character's good friends dies in front of him. It was very unexpected and he goes on to think that he was responsible for his death. He develops a case of Acute Stress Disorder http://psychcentral.com/disorders/acute-stress-disorder-symptoms/ (not referred to my name in-universe) The death itself would have been particularly bad for him, considering he already was Afraid of Blood, so I've been planning on him later developing PTSD tendencies, which still are pretty terrible for him despite the fact he is a supportive environment.

• 4-5 months later he finds out his friend survived due to magical means. At this point I'm trying to fathom exactly HOW would one react to that believably. Obviously, his friend turning out to be okay wouldn't magically make his mental problems to disappear, but how do I write this at least somewhat believably without it being extremely depressing?

I would say to be sensitive to the conflict between "relief that his friend is alive" and "still processing his friend's supposed death." He's going to have trouble with tenses and how to talk to and about his friend for a while; since he's terrified of blood and specifically traumatized by how much his (mostly?) dead friend lost, it's perfectly understandable that he'd feel awkward around his friend for a while.

I'm picturing something along "the room/floor was covered in blood," which is definitely something a human couldn't survive without magic or incredible luck.

Depending on how your magic works, maybe his friend isn't COMPLETELY okay either, due to how much energy he lost getting that level of healing/resurrection magic performed on him. (Ie, he's alive and non-critical, but still pretty much bedridden or something.) And maybe said friend would also be traumatized to some level because, well, (almost) dying isn't too fun.

edited 9th Oct '13 9:48:10 PM by Sharysa

(Caveat: I'm not expert on such reactions, so take these thoughts with a grain of salt.)

There might also be some degree of denial, especially if magic is involved: he might think his friend a ghost, or "not really his friend", or some cruel illusion, for example.

The previously assumed fact of his friend's death isn't necessarily the primary component of his reaction. The fact remains that he lived through this traumatising event, and presumably the fear and helplessness were real. The fact is still that those things happened and your character could do nothing to stop it at the time—if not for those magic shenanigans that he presumably had no control over, the friend still would be dead. It's the grief that might dissipate, after the initial [pick however many: shock/anger/relief/joy/disbelief] fades away, but he's still reacting to something that he actually experienced.

His initial reaction to learning his friend survived depends entirely on his personality, though. In any case, the aftermath is probably more interesting, depending on factors like how much he feels he should be hiding his own response to the event especially if he feels it's no longer justified but his brain doesn't seem to agree.

So it would be likely that he would still suffer from some affects of the trauma? So it's be believable if the whole awkwardness of being around his 'now living' friend to dissipate after a while (maybe a month tops) but occassionally having to deal with being triggered by things that reminded him of the event?

It's not like PTSD is a thing that listens to reason in the first place. I don't have first-hand experience or extensive studies to back me or anything, but... I'd honestly find it more believable that the PTSD doesn't go away than the opposite, unless someone who demonstrably knows more is around to correct me.

Most likely after he gets sort-of-better, his PTSD might come and go in waves. There are definitely going to be times where he's more stressed out and times where he's fine.

With most sufferers of PTSD, they might not be stressed ALL the time, but they definitely cope by trying to avoid their known triggers as much as possible. It ranges from "avoid certain places or certain situations" to "building the rest of my life around not going through [x] again."

edited 11th Oct '13 2:17:05 PM by Sharysa

I know for one thing, if I had someone die in front of me and a few months later you told me he/she is alive and had proof I'd go "What the fuck?!?!?" at least once among other reactions.

Yeah, I was aware that people with PTSD gradually 'get better' (as in improve) after a while, I just wanted to make sure I didn't do a Throwing Off the Disability type situation.

PTSD tends to overlap (or go alongside) with some types of depression/anxiety disorders, especially for people more prone to irritability/anxiety than sadness. Maybe give him a few tics that people mention he didn't have before, or maybe he's doing more frequently than he used to?

He actually happens to have a minor anxiety thing an (occasionally severe)fear of gore that he had before the 'Traumatic Experience' that he was managing pretty well. So I could have him react to situations that usually would have triggered him but in greater frequency or more severely?