Wattpad Pet Peeves

PTSD and Trauma In Novels

PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and Trauma in Novels

PTSD, or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, is a psychiatric disorder that can occur following the experience or witnessing of life-threatening events such as military combat, natural disasters, terrorist incidents, serious accidents, or physical or sexual assault in adult or childhood.

Now don't get me wrong, PTSD is a serious thing. People have actually experienced some events so harrowing they've been scarred for life.

However, the use of PTSD in novels lately, such as the orphaned little girl or the bad boy with family issues is seriously getting on my nerves. PTSD is now being used in novels to justify the ambiguous natures of these characters and are beginning to serve as some easy escape route when the author realised the character is doing some questionable offences without a logical reason.

PTSD has become far too common in Fiction today, even more so those on Wattpad, and it has seriously begun to nag me.

It's the:

 — scared girl who's afraid to open up because of her abusive parent(s), 

— the quiet nerd with a dark secret.

— the heartbroken bad boy millionaire billionaire player who's afraid to open up his heart (and always just so happens to be straight.)

"Daddy issues are an easy way to explain away prickish behavior. Got a protagonist with a fresh mouth, or who is quick to throw a punch? Just factor in some abuse by a father figure, and it's like a free pass—you can't really blame them right? And thusly, a dark character attribute turns into a storytelling crutch."

-Rob W Hart (http://www.mulhollandbooks.com/2013/12/04/top-ten-cliches-in-crime-fiction/)

And the thing is, nowhere in these novels are there ever shown any steps taken to cure the person of this trauma. Nope. It only shows them falling in love, and learning to accept and trust, when truly, this doesn't always 'cure' that person. What about after. What about the small voice in the back of their head telling them the same thing could happen again. 

It doesn't show the person's drive to want to become better, the author never internalises as much.

And then, if the main reason for this character displaying some unconventional habits or just small qualities to help build the plot (such as being shy or overly confident) is PTSD or Trauma, who says the character has to get better?

What if this new found love (or love interest) actually makes their trauma worse?

That's the point. In fiction, the worst case scenario (as a result of this PTSD or traumatic event) is always portrayed when not everyone who experiences trauma turns for the bad. Is there no therapist the character seeks help from?

And even then, the character always seems so grudging to visit the therapist because they believe she/he thinks him crazy.

PTSD has become too overly used in fiction, and the stories/characters are always the same once you strip them bare.

And it's not only found in YA Romance, but in Fantasy.

It's the orphaned girl/boy who is the lone survivor of some tragic incident because she/he hid somewhere (since the captors were obviously not thorough enough in their search for survivors).

Moreover, this trope is mentioned even more in Crime/Thriller, and Teen Fiction; so much so to the extent that I have begun to question the creative capacity of some of the authors here on Wattpad. I have a feeling we are limiting our imagination because of our own conditioning, our perceptions on how novels should be structured, of what makes a good novel. 

We are sometimes inexperienced and at a lost for ideas, we've no clue where to start. Thus we seek refuge in cliches. But these cliches are flawed, even the PTSD or Traumatic Event cliche.

So, let's make our bad boy seem more vulnerable or lost than grudging and seeking self-destruction. Let's have our characters break down, and cry and in our works let's express the helplessness they feel whenever they try to go about their day.

And if you have not done any thorough research on this mental condition, please refrain from using it.

Create a bad boy who, yes, uses the girls at his high school, sleeps around, but at the end of the day when he goes home he cries himself to sleep because of the guilt and helplessness he feels.

A quiet nerd who was once abused, show her becoming a comic book creator, living her dreams through her creation of superheroes who fight the evil villain.

Because the law of cause and effect is consistent everywhere. Even in your novel.

SOOOOO let's stop throwing PTSD around to boot, and make this character with a serious mental illness, an actual patient and not some love interest for your MC, yeah?