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Re: Werewolves and Mental Health Problems

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 6:08 pm
by Noir-Okami
An OCD sufferer could get shock-valued into being cured or could end up like the lead character of Monk
:o Another Monk?!

I'm imagining Adrian Monk as a werewolf. ("I need to clean the house." Monk proceeds to vacuum up fur from all over the house. Once he gets to the end, there's still fur everywhere, because he shed while vacuuming.)
:lol:

All joking aside, it depends on how the werewolf had the mental illness. If it was genetics, it'd most likely get fixed. But if it was situational (such as the case with the tituliuar character of Monk), it would stay with them, possibly making it worse.

Re: Werewolves and Mental Health Problems

Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 7:13 pm
by Leonca~
What an interesting discussion! :D Mental disorders are one of my favorite things to think about with my version, I’m actually going to make that the next subject of my Werewolf Guide whenever I get around to drawing the next picture for it.

My wolves don’t have it easy in the mental illness department. If bitten they keep any problems they had while human. The best changing can do for them is reduce the likelihood of coming down with some genetic problems that are partially environmentally based. If the problem is purely genetic or you are already pretty far along by the time you get changed you’re out of luck. Interestingly enough there are some built in “safety devices,” for lack of a better way to describe it. It is not unheard of for a werewolf with severe mental illness or trauma that is causing erratic behavior to suddenly shut down mentally or even commit suicide. I’m still not sure how this would work out, but I imagine it could be a kind of “survival of the fittest” thing that has been bred into them over the centuries, or perhaps something that has always been an element of their condition. Much of their behavior can change radically when they get into situations where they risk exposing themselves and their whole race to humankind (my only way of imagining a decently sized werewolf population living alongside humans for all these years without being noticed. This is one of the things I struggle with the most when trying to make is sound at least halfway realistic). Without knowing it, they sometimes alter their behavior in ways that are destructive to themselves but beneficial to their entire race. The idea definitely works better when thinking of it as a magically based condition that may at some time in the distant past been designed to give them the ability to adapt to their environment on a non-genetic level. This of course doesn’t help with the ones who actively chose to kill or expose themselves and cause problems for everybody else- people like that are usually taken care of by others in the werewolf community who are focused on keeping a low profile. Good old vigilante justice.

To make things more difficult for them they are more susceptible to some mental disorders than humans. Many of those are anxiety based and are things that bother them at the level of their animal instincts. Claustrophobia for example is more common in werewolves than humans, they sometimes panic at the feeling of being caged or cornered. Some werewolves actually use this to their advantage by creating psychological torture devices for their enemies, since many werewolves have a very high threshold for physical pain.

And then there are mental disorders that are completely unique to them. One I have come up with is Shapeshifting Maladjustment Syndrome, which is a rare disorder where for some unknown reason the werewolf cannot keep the normal balance between human and wolf instincts. Human instincts are supposed to be dominant if the werewolf is trying to live alongside humans, even while in wolf form. I did this to one of my first characters. He started out after being bitten as a normal werewolf with full control over himself, but over the next few years became confused and increasingly more aggressive and fearful in everyday situations. He ended up killing several people, then feeling guilty about it and turning himself in to the police. He swore that he could change himself into a wolf but refused to show anyone, and before the courts could sort through the whole mess he killed himself. Poor Erick. :(

Re: Werewolves and Mental Health Problems

Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 11:35 pm
by Terastas
RedEye wrote:My Wulfen are still vulnerable to Silver, but for the simple reason that the stuff's a heavy metal poison, and the Wulfen are very sensitive to it.
I took out the poison factor of silver as well (or more accurately, I have a werewolf point out that silver nitrate will kill just about anything), but I did keep silver as an effective tool against OCD / Hollywood Syndrome werewolves.

Maury Popovich once did a show about five people with irrational fears. In one case, a story was told about a girl who was so afraid of mustard (yes, that's right) that, when one of her co-workers thought it would be funny to squirt mustard on her, she actually started to hyperventilate and had to be taken to the hospital.

I mention that because I figure some werewolves could have a similar severe phobia of silver. Straight to the point where even so much as handing one of them a silver dollar (Not a dollar coin, a literal dollar's worth a silver. I don't know if you can get them anymore now, but I've still got a few left over from my tooth fairy days) could cause a werewolf to have a fatal heart attack.

Re: Werewolves and Mental Health Problems

Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 11:59 pm
by RedEye
Another thing to consider: Potassium.

For my Were's it's more deadly than silver since it can cause a heart attack. I even had one minor character die from deliberate use of Light Salt, which uses Potassium instead of Sodium as the "Salt".
Yeah, it can do that to dogs as well.

My observation is that since Werewolves are high-energy/ high-metabolism types, what could be bad for humans could be deadly for Werewolves.

In the later stories, after the Wulfen are out; some people die from the act of Crossing (Compassionate Crossing). People who are injured to the point of either dying or being an invalid for the rest of their lives get Compassionate Crossings. After, they do have identity problems (these are not Werewolf people, they're just ordainary folks) and can reject what has happened to the degree that they just go into a foetal ball and stop breathing. They cannot cope with the totality of their change, and die.
This could be considered a mental problem, I think. A serious one.

Re: Werewolves and Mental Health Problems

Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 8:40 pm
by Avareis
Yes, ever since I've prefer the intelligent werewolf over the bloodthirsty beast, I left room for the possibility that some wires might not be crossed right in the head. Some don't do too well with the change, enhanced aggression, and of course that split personality disorder that can occur. Bipolar disorder can be stressed induced. I wouldn't NOT consider that being a werewolf would be pressure enough. Given a right situation...yeah. That's not good to corner something like that.