Sending Your Characters Into Shock

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Sending Your Characters Into Shock

This post is in the process of being collated into an e-book, “Building Emotionally Realistic Characters” (Book Two of the Four Dimensional Characterisation Series.) It will be available in Kindle, Nook and iBook form before the end of May 2012. For further information, please keep an eye on this blog.

You are writing about the scene of a car crash. There is mangled metal, the Police and Paramedics are in attendance; but where is the driver of the car? Several blocks away, a dazed woman with blood on her forehead is wandering around, muttering about buying tissues. She doesn’t know what just happened. You are writing about a character who is experiencing psychological shock. This post is a basic introduction to psychological shock which will help you understand it, so you can use it effectively in your writing.

There are two types of shock. The first is the medical type which is a life threatening, sudden drop in the body’s blood pressure. It’s common in serious illness or injuries. That is not what I am referring to here. Though if you want to write about it, basic information can be found here on Medicinenet.

Psychological shock is an acute stress reaction which people are thrust into because of a sudden trauma, such as a car accident; death of a loved one; becoming a victim of crime; being caught in a natural disaster: any incident which causes distress by way of inducing fear, emotional pain or severe mental stress. As a writer, if you have taken your character/s through an experience which would trigger shock, how they react to the shock over time, can be woven into your plot and character development.

Shock is actually not the correct clinical term. Mental health professionals refer to it as ‘acute distress disorder.’ If it doesn’t resolve itself within four weeks of the event, it can become a long-term, crippling psychological problem. Once it becomes a chronic problem, shock may evolve into a serious anxiety disorder such as clinical depression, or post traumatic stress disorder.

How people react to serious incidents depends on the actual person. Not everyone experiences a profound reaction. Some will respond with a fight or flight response where they are hyped up and prepared to survive in any way they can. Some people look for a rescuer so they don’t have to deal with the situation. Others can shut down, not knowing how to cope. In very simple terms, the emotions go into overload and the subconscious mind decides that the best way to cope is to deal with it later, or not at all. They are experiencing helplessness and unconsciously, they decide that running or fighting is simply useless. It is a reaction, not an action.

Someone with resilience; high self-esteem; a survival mentality; or who is used to taking a leadership role, is more likely to experience a fight or flight response. However, if they are ill, burnt out, discouraged, fatigued or the trauma is outside of their experience to the point where they have no idea how to act, they may slip into this state. That may provide you with an Achilles heel or strong character contrast which you can use to expand the reader’s understanding of the character.

Psychological shock can show up as a series of physical symptoms as well as mental ones. It may involve:

Feeling confused;
Numbness and detachment from people and surroundings;
Inability to remember the traumatic event which has occurred, or only remembering hazy details;
Some people may become agitated and overactive; and
Inability to make decisions, at times even simple ones; and
Impaired judgement.

Longer term symptoms can include:

Sleep disturbances;
Negative changes in the person’s normal mood;
Avoidance of memory triggers;
Flashbacks (please read this article, it’s excellent http://www.pete-walker.com/flashbackManagement.htm);
Nightmares.

Flashbacks and nightmares serve to bring back the traumatic memories that the mind just doesn’t want to address. It is an internal healing mechanism that can be used to move the character out of trauma and into growth. Acknowledging their content and dealing with the underlying trauma has been seen to reduce flashbacks and nightmares. Continuing to push what happened away, may trap people in a cycle of mental horror.

As this is a broad and technical topic, a number of links have been embedded in this post to give you the information you need. So please, click on the red text to explore the area more fully. I could continue to write about panic attacks and other related issues, but the more you read, the more prompts your discovery will give you. As I have been saying in all these psychology based posts, if your comprehension of the way these emotional states work is accurate, you will write a work of fiction that is realistic and doesn’t take improbable shortcuts to a picture perfect ending. That adds credibility to your work which will foster your success as an author. Good luck.

NOTE: Please realise that this post is a very brief, non clinical introduction to the topic of psychological shock. It is in no way meant to be used as advice or guidance in how to get through any shock you have had or are now experiencing. No liability will be accepted for your use of this material for any purpose, or any of the material on the linked web sites. Please consider what you read carefully, seek professional help and make up your own mind. Thank you.

The crash photo in this post is paid for and licenced to me. It is Copywritten. You may not save it or use it for your own purposes. You can purchase it from iStockphoto.com This article is Copyright Cate Russell-Cole 2012. All rights reserved. It may not be reproduced in any medium, in print or digital format. I regularly search for my articles and have found where they have been used without permission. Action will be taken against offenders.