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Does Sansa Stark have PTSD?


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This is not a Sansa bashing thread. Please refrain from using this as an outlet to trash D&D, Sophie Turner, or the writing. We are discussing a character's state of a mind. 

Also, I am not a medical professional. Everything I'm about to talk about is based on simple internet research. 

Whether we like it or not, Sansa Stark has been through some shit. In her very short life, she has survived the following events--

  • her father publicly beheaded by her fiance and his mother, both of whom she loved and trusted
  • her fiance/king having her beaten and humiliated more than once by knights, men she once admired
  • caught up in a riot, pursued by men who nearly raped her
  • survived a violent attack on the castle
  • mocked by cersei about the possibility of her being raped
  • consistently harassed by cersei and joffrey
  • married to a stranger more than twice her age
  • learns of her mother and brother's violent deaths
  • witnessed the violent death of king joffrey, before being forced to flee by strangers. Her "captor" Littlefinger then murdered her companion with a crossbow.
  • her own aunt Lysa calling her a whore and trying to throw her off a cliff
  • repeated romantic advances by Littlefinger
  • her own home overtaken by the family that orchestrated the deaths of hers
  • married to a stranger under the illusion of having a choice, raped on her wedding night
  • taunted by Myranda and Ramsay
  • the old maid who befriended her flayed and displayed
  • during another attack on the castle she's in, she is forced to jump from a tower and run through the battlefield, pursued by soldiers and dogs

Safe to say, the girl's been through some stuff. Enough stuff, I might argue, to mentally traumatize her. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has become a lot more visible lately, but it's been a thing forever. The short-version is that after people have recovered from trauma, their actions are occasionally irrational or violent, as a response to things they perceive as dangerous. That's a huge generalization, but cut me so some slack. And in short, I believe Sansa Stark has it. A quick google search offers up these symptoms to PTSD--

Behavioral: agitation, irritability, hostility, hypervigilance, self-destructive behavior, or social isolation

  • agitation/irritability/hostility--Sansa has shown to be pretty irritable at times throughout season six, snapping at Jon, Davos, and Brienne on several occasions. Her unnecessary hostility towards her own friends and family is highlighted through the season. Though justified, the brutality she subjected Ramsay to was very hostile and violent.
  • hypervigilance--this wasn't explored too much. The best example I can give is her insistence of more soldiers in her campaign to take back Winterfell. She is extremely conscious of her army's numbers, and focuses heavily on being armed and ready.
  • self-destruction-- plans on killing herself if Ramsay triumphs in the Battle of the Bastards.
  • social isolation-- in King's Landing, she goes out of her way to avoid people. Frequents the Godswood, not to pray but because it is the only place where no one talks to her.

Psychological: flashback, fear, severe anxiety, or mistrust

  • fear/severe anxiety-- she is very on-edge/anxious towards the battle of the bastards. Tells Jon she doesn't believe anyone can protect her.
  • flashback-- tells Littlefinger she still feels everything Ramsay did to her. Also, she admits to dwelling on the day she left, desperately wishing she could go back and do it again.
  • mistrust-- repeatedly lies to Jon about her own plotting. She is unnecessarily deceptive and withholds information.

Mood: loss of interest or pleasure in activities, guilt, or loneliness

  • loss of interest or pleasure in activities-- doesn't bother praying anymore. and we haven't seen her eat a lemoncake in years!
  • guilt-- apologizes to Jon for her actions years before, and later apologizes to him for lying about the knights of the vale. She is aware of her deceptiveness, and regrets it later.

Sleep: insomnia or nightmares

  • insomnia-- "I lie awake all night, staring at the canopy thinking about how they died."

Also common: emotional detachment or unwanted thoughts

  • emotional detachment-- essentially gives up on Rickon, reacts indifferently to his death

 

So yeah, based on the things she's been through, and the ways she's reacted in turn,  the show makes her seem like a dead-ringer for PTSD. I know some of her behaviors in season six were criticized, but they make a lot more sense if you consider the fact that she might be legitimately sick and suffering. The constant abuse, betrayal, and assault she has been subjected to has made her cold, and informed the way she responds to the world around her. And sometimes, those responses are not always pleasant. 

Thanks for reading :) Whaddaya think?

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The Flashbacks of PTSD is not just thinking a lot about it... but very vivid reliving a moment of abuse. Basically PTSD is a process where the person was unable to allow themselves to feel the emotions the trauma put them through at the moment (for mental and physical survival reasons), so these emotions were stored/pushed/locked away for a later time when the person has room and space to work through it. A person who's living through extended periods of trauma will live very much in the "now", from one event to another. Once the actual threat is gone, the brain automatically begins to dig up the past to finally deal with it. And in order to do that, those memories are so vivid that the person finally feels the fear/pain/grief/rage/anxiety,etc they could not allow themselves to feel back then. When someone with PTSD is triggered by something in a situation in the present, they are physically in the present, seeing and hearing what everyone else sees and hears, but emotionally they are back in the past and acting and behaving as if they are back in a situation of the past.

Example - an abuse victim was mentally abused and sexually shamed by their abusive partner in the past, and for example "trained" to clean themselves immediately after (even if that was several times a day). The abusive partner also tended to pilfer any money bill or small items of value that might have been laid aside, as soon as the victim turned their back on it. Later, after the abuse victim is trying to move on, they might have very vivid nightmares of the shaming moments (where the abusive partner insulted them in the deepest of their being), finally truly feeling how much it hurt or gutted them. At a party a man is behaving obnoxious to them and suddenly they can't find their pack of cigs/keys/a 5$ bill they thought they still had. Chances are that the victim might confront the obnoxious man and actually search him physically, convinced that man took it. For onlookers that would appear to be a paranoid aggressive response to handle the situation. But in that moment, the person with PTSD is acting out what they feel they should have done in the past. Turns out they simply mislaid the cigs, or already spent the 5$ bill, so the PTSD feels mortified and will have a sense they lost control over their own behavior. Then they date someone new, and after a while take it to the next level - they spend a night together. The PTSD person will compulsively shower and freak out if some small item of value is not lying in the spot where they expect it to be. The new partner reacts confused, asking about the showers, and the PTSD person finds the item somewhere else, remembering they had put it safely away beforehand. Chances are high that the PTSD person will just decide to break off the budding relationship, as that is easier to do than trusting the new partner with the backstory.

Concentration issues follow from the extensive long term stress they were exposed to. Stress is harmless for a short period. But as it builds up over an extensive period, stress actually has physical impact on the brain, the synapses, the neurons. It sort of creates 'holes' in the brain, especially in the department of short-term memory. Meanwhile that same brain is working overtime by trying to manage the present while dealing with the past. 

Typically PTSD only surfaces when the trauma is over, when the person is actually back in a safe environment, but not while they are still in the traumatizing relationshit (no typo), nor hazardous situations where they still have to focus majorly on survival (walking on eggshells, pleasing the abuser) and limit harm to themselves.

Sansa was still in a hazardous situation in KL. Her going to the godswood is not a behavioral sign of PTSD, since she's still in the middle of the traumatizing hazardous situation - beaten, threatened with death, forced to marry, finding a way to stay alive until she can escape. It's a survival symptomatic behavior, not a PTSD symptomatic behavior, as there is no POST yet.

The guilt is about immense self-blame for staying in the dangerous situation for so long or choosing it in the first place, as well as behaving as if someone who is actually innocent is as untrustworthy as the abuser/enemy when they are triggered in the way I described in the example.

Emotional detachment follows from the hypervigilance. They are so aware of their surroundings, to protect themselves from such things happening to them again, while also going through the emotional process of healing from the past that there is just no room for emotional attachments in the present. Their mind is like a 360° camera in the present + an emotional mess reliving the past. It does not mean they are however indifferent to people.

Unwanted thoughts are the triggers. Anything the mind can grab in the present to work through the trauma of the past will be used. So, even when the person wants to just relax and have a good time, or do their job, they will have several intrusive thoughts, insights and memories (things they thought were long forgotten) a day, and that for at least a year.

Basically PTSD is actually a delayed healing process of a very abnormal long-term trauma. It looks like abnormal behavior to other people, but it's quite normal for the brain and mind to try and heal from the past with the means at hand - the present. A supportive, forgiving environment and professional guidance can help get the person with PTSD through without resulting in permanently damaging significant relations.

KL period and events alone are sufficient for Sansa to show PTSD behavior afterwards in the Vale and after.  Ramsay would just make it worse. After Ramsay, Sansa's PTSD would be so heavy;she would have serious issues functioning day-to-day at all. It's possible that D&D tried to write Sansa as having PTSD in S6, trying to check off the symptom boxes. As for how it ended up being written and actd on screen, I find it unconvincing, especially the cool manner in which she had Ramsey killed, and deals with LF.

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In the books, yeah, I certainly think she does. On the show, it is hard to guess her total mindset. She wanted Ramsay dead, fine, she should not have wanted to marry him or agree to in the firstplace. This leads me to Littlefinger who is.. forgiven? This is the one person, who, along with Cersei she should really wish dead. I do not think that she is showing signs of PTSD in the show, just .....

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The PTSD does not occur for an accumulation of traumatic or stressful situations, but concerns a traumatic situation in particular. To better understand:  a person who has experienced many griefs, even violent, has no more chance to develop a PTSD than a person who has experienced only one traumatic event. What is re-lived is a situation in particular. So, for example, Sansa's thought could be related to the torture inflicted by Ramsey. However, we can not know if she has developed a PTSD because you can not understand it by observing her behavior, nor we know the times. But it could be something worse than PTSD, a series of events such as those experienced by Sansa leave marks both at an identity level and at personality level, especially if they occur in the development phase. In the future it is more likely to develop some disorders, not the ptsd. (in the show, btw)

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One would think that if Sansa on this show was ever married again and or has a sexual encounter would probably freak out or shut down or something like that. What happened to her in Winterfell should mess her up for a while but the show seemingly had her become a stone - cold person with little emotion other than when she saw Jon at Castle Black. The anger at LF was restrained and unfulfilling.

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2 hours ago, A Ghost of Someone said:

One would think that if Sansa on this show was ever married again and or has a sexual encounter would probably freak out or shut down or something like that. What happened to her in Winterfell should mess her up for a while but the show seemingly had her become a stone - cold person with little emotion other than when she saw Jon at Castle Black. The anger at LF was restrained and unfulfilling.

I think it was more or less "well" done after the rape, but once she arrived at Castle Black it was like nothing had happened to her.

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4 hours ago, Cridefea said:

The PTSD does not occur for an accumulation of traumatic or stressful situations, but concerns a traumatic situation in particular.

With several traumatic situations piling up one after the other (aka accumulating), PTSD is not an uncommon phenomenon, even though each specific trauma might only have been minor ones individually. Plenty of abuse victims who were not even physically abused develop PTSD afterwards. It can of course also come from one intense traumatic event as well.

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6 hours ago, Winds of Winter blow cold said:

Yes, but currently it's not being shown in a "traditional" fashion. Not everyone breaks down the same way, some of "evil Sansa" might be bizzare symptoms of this or similar syndromes.

Maybe the show was hinting at that when Ramsay says "I am a part of you now". Meaning, more than the physical obvious. There are rumors she become more vicious. We shall see. Sad if true.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I think Sansa's teased power-grab in season seven ties back into this. For so long, she's been powerless, and she's been abused because of it. Every time she tries to take back her own destiny, she just gets fucked over. I think this has led her to develop a view that equates safety with power. She's seen Cersei, the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, just drink and fuck and bully her way through life. She's seen Joffrey just torture and humiliate anyone he wants to because he can. She sees Littlefinger betray everyone he comes in contact with, and he's had a great deal of success. 

She's tired of being unsafe, and she knows power = safety. So its no stretch of logic that she wants power. If she's become a little warped, but also kind of realistic,  she thinks that the only people who can protect themselves are the ones who have power. She's so used to being powerless, and being hurt, that she's gonna do what she can to get that power, as a defense mechanism. 

It's almost like a "get them before they get me" mentality. 

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I don't think a show is supposed to follow through with alleged psychological conditions characters (should) have according to the audience. I don't think psychological conditions are "supposed" to occur, people are different, some people develop ptsd after the exact same experience some other people don't. I don't think anybody can say that this or that person is "supposed" to experience this or that psychological condition after this or that kind of events. And I don't think a show can or should establish a mental health record for every single character who experiences traumatic events in their plot. 

Sansa clearly spent some episodes coping with the traumatic events that happened to her and then she moved on which usually resulted in her character changing to a certain direction. I think they spent a perfectly satisfying amount of time showing how each event affected Sansa before her character and plot moved to the next phase. 

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Yes, she does have it and so does Jon.   These things people don't just get over quickly.  Also, not being able to talk about their feelings & such, it can takes long time to get around what they went through.   We are talking Years here. 

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