Many of his unhealthy day-to-day habits will likely be informed by my own experiences with isolation and mental illness. A lot of his withdrawing will be unconscious on his part, which is why I'm glad the setting offers so few good reasons + space + things to do alone. Some of his symptoms are atypical - for example, he is very unlikely to fall into a habit of not keeping his space clear and falling down on hygiene during particularly bad stretches; because of his personality and general bearing, he's much more likely to neatly hoard, unconsciously not wanting to lose what few possessions he has(this is why he re-binds the books and keeps things that he can destroy around at all; if he breaks it, it's different than having it be taken), and take personal cleanliness to the other extreme, though I'm not sure how to translate 'hours-long bathing' into a post-apoc setting right this second.
The panic, for lack of a better term, mostly comes from 'everything is happening, so much.' It's overstimulation generally provided by his own brain refusing to shut up(The term that comes to mind is 'sneaky hate spiral,' though in his case it's a sneaky rage + self loathing spiral), which is another reason having a specific job on a hovercraft or something similar will help him. If he can get a hold of some small general-use mechanical parts and tools, he will be toying with them, building things, and generally keeping his hands busy most of the time he's able to. It's the kind of thing that grounds him and brings him out of his head, and keeps that panic alarm at manageable levels. I wanted to make sure the samples communicated strongly, and my idea for the first one was that once he'd been around for a little time, he'd know that leaving his room is a very solid step towards getting grounded.
I hope that clears things up! Let me know if you need any more.
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Many of his unhealthy day-to-day habits will likely be informed by my own experiences with isolation and mental illness. A lot of his withdrawing will be unconscious on his part, which is why I'm glad the setting offers so few good reasons + space + things to do alone. Some of his symptoms are atypical - for example, he is very unlikely to fall into a habit of not keeping his space clear and falling down on hygiene during particularly bad stretches; because of his personality and general bearing, he's much more likely to neatly hoard, unconsciously not wanting to lose what few possessions he has(this is why he re-binds the books and keeps things that he can destroy around at all; if he breaks it, it's different than having it be taken), and take personal cleanliness to the other extreme, though I'm not sure how to translate 'hours-long bathing' into a post-apoc setting right this second.
The panic, for lack of a better term, mostly comes from 'everything is happening, so much.' It's overstimulation generally provided by his own brain refusing to shut up(The term that comes to mind is 'sneaky hate spiral,' though in his case it's a sneaky rage + self loathing spiral), which is another reason having a specific job on a hovercraft or something similar will help him. If he can get a hold of some small general-use mechanical parts and tools, he will be toying with them, building things, and generally keeping his hands busy most of the time he's able to. It's the kind of thing that grounds him and brings him out of his head, and keeps that panic alarm at manageable levels. I wanted to make sure the samples communicated strongly, and my idea for the first one was that once he'd been around for a little time, he'd know that leaving his room is a very solid step towards getting grounded.
I hope that clears things up! Let me know if you need any more.