How can I really drive home a character not being able to hold it together in the wake of repeated trauma?

Question

A character in my story is supposed to be falling apart, for many reasons:

• He's 16 and is killing people, in a gladiatorial setting, of a similar age.
• He already died (possibly a few times), but he and everyone he fought come back to life through cloning and memory transfer.

I tried many things, from him not taking care of himself, up until drug use, but I don't think that's the best way to go about it.

How can I subtly imply that one of my main character's life is falling into a tailspin?

Answer 1

To drive home that a character is not able to hold it together in the wake of repeated trauma, look up the symptoms for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression and at risk of suicide and then fling all those things at your character as if he were in a tree and you were throwing rocks at him, and then see what he does.

Here are a few missiles to try out on your character:

Depressed: (source: Symptoms of depression - Mind):

• Down, upset or tearful
• restless, agitated or irritable
• guilty, worthless and down on himself
• empty and numb
• isolated and unable to relate to other people
• finding no pleasure in life or things he usually enjoys
• having a sense of unreality
• no self-confidence or self-esteem
• hopeless and despairing.

PTSD (source: Symptoms of PTSD - ADAA):

• Spontaneous or cued recurrent, involuntary, and intrusive distressing memories of the traumatic events
• recurrent distressing dreams in which the content or affect (i.e. feeling) of the dream is related to the events
• flashbacks or other dissociative reactions in which the individual feels or acts as if the traumatic events are recurring
• intense or prolonged psychological distress at exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic events
• physiological reactions to reminders of the traumatic events inability to remember an important aspect of the traumatic events
• persistent and exaggerated negative beliefs or expectations about oneself, others, or the world
• persistent, distorted blame of self or others about the cause or consequences of the traumatic events
• persistent fear, horror, anger, guilt, or shame
• markedly diminished interest or participation in significant activities
• feelings of detachment or estrangement from others
• persistent inability to experience positive emotions
• irritable or aggressive behaviour
• reckless or self-destructive behaviour
• hyper-vigilance
• exaggerated startle response
• problems with concentration
• difficulty falling or staying asleep or restless sleep.

Suicidal (source: Warning Signs of suicide - SAVE):

• Talking about wanting to die or to kill oneself
• looking for a way to kill oneself
• talking about feeling hopeless or having no purpose
• talking about feeling trapped or being in unbearable pain
• talking about being a burden to others
• increasing the use of alcohol or drugs
• acting anxious, agitated, or reckless
• sleeping too little or too much
• withdrawing or feeling isolated
• showing rage or talking about seeking revenge
• displaying extreme mood swings.

Good luck with the writing - sounds like an interesting concept.

Answer 2

I think a reasonable response to this scenario is revolt. He kills himself the second they put a weapon in his hand. He refuses to fight at all, if that means he dies, so be it. He makes repeated attempts to kill his masters. He tries to rally his fellow captives to refuse to fight. If threatened with permanent death for refusing to comply, he accepts that and kills himself the next time they put a weapon in his hands anyway.

To me, "losing it" means losing all care about the consequences of his actions.

Actual revolutions IRL occur when people get so angry or desperate they will risk dying in battle rather than continue in their current state (especially if dying in battle presents a chance of saving children they love).

Slavery, which is what you are describing here, would not work if all the slaves would rather die than serve and thus commit suicide at any opportunity once they have decided they cannot escape servitude. In your scenario, it should be easy to convince his fellow combatants to suicide if death isn't "real" anyway. But if not, if they fear it might be permanent, he can give up and not care if any of his suicides are permanent.

Now you have a problem for how his masters react to this; for some reason or another they do not just let him stay dead (so your story doesn't end with that).