Mae and Mental Illness

[ashleighschrum]

So I know that Mae told the monster it caused her depression and anxiety and it caused her to dissociate badly (seeing shapes). Do you think she was right or do you think her mental illnesses are unrelated to that and she was wrong? I've been wondering this a lot.

[RENDERMODE_NONE]

It seems to me that the monster (the Black Goat that is, right?) was either a manifestation of her mental issues, her unconscious attempt to personify them. Alternatively, it may not have been directly represented them, but been a result of them or hallucinations, possibly with mental illness mixed in.

[Rich]

Originally posted by Truck "Spike Boy" Gloshi:

It seems to me that the monster (the Black Goat that is, right?) was either a manifestation of her mental issues, her unconscious attempt to personify them. Alternatively, it may not have been directly represented them, but been a result of them or hallucinations, possibly with mental illness mixed in.

Well, that or it was actually real and really happened, pretty hard to tell...

[RENDERMODE_NONE]

I'd have to disagree. It seems very unlikely that it would be real when the rest of the game has nothing that could really be considered supernatural, unless I'm forgetting something. I guess there were a few weird, unexplained things, like the guy going through the fence on Halloween (unless there was an explanation I haven't found yet in my playthroughs), but none of those have strong evidence of anything supernatural either. I got the sense that the game was supposed to be realistic, though the whole cultist thing did stretch suspension of disbelief in my opinion.

[Freeborn]

I suffer from chronic depression, it gets bad sometimes. I don't respond to antidepressants so it took years to find some kind of medication that helps to manage it, during those years, things felt a lot like that. No I wasn't like Mae and saw shapes instead of things but that's a damn good way of explaining how the meaning runs out of everything.

I do have weird depression dreams, not like Mae's but they are the worst. I know I'm going to have an episode when I start having those terrible dreams again, the dreams are just like every day life but everything that can go wrong does and its difficult to tell them apart from real life; I get sad about something that happened in a dream then feel worse when I realize it wasn't real. When the episode hits best thing to do is to get the courage to call in sick at work, eat anything or else I just won't, hole up in bed listening to book-on-tape to keep my mind off my own thoughts and know that I'm not in my right mind - I just need to sleep it off and its all going to be ok. I try not to do anything those days because I'm not well and what I do or think never makes sense, I've had my own share of erratic behavior like Mae.

And on the topic of Mae being fat, well that's what depression and antidperessants do to you. I was 180 pounds in High School, then I went to college, the depression manifested, I try lots of antidepressants and eventually I was up to 240 pounds for just the same reasson Mae gives (and antidepressants make you fat too). Eventually I find a doctor who prescribes something that works (hint its not an antidepressant because those don't work for me) and I unhealthily dropped 60 pounds in 5 months by just being lazy and depression free. I hired a personal trainer a few months after I noticed I was back to normal and I've been getting into shape for the first time in my life since then, I have like muscles now, its awesome.

Staying depression free is hard but being able to get out of bed is wroth it.

[RENDERMODE_NONE]

Originally posted by Awesome Applesauce:

Eventually I find a doctor who prescribes something that works (hint its not an antidepressant because those don't work for me)

Crystal meth laced with asbestos?

[Freeborn]

Originally posted by Truck "Spike Boy" Gloshi:

Originally posted by Awesome Applesauce:

Eventually I find a doctor who prescribes something that works (hint its not an antidepressant because those don't work for me)

Crystal meth laced with asbestos?

O man u half noh idea. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor based antidepressants just don't work in my brain chemestry, they do terrible things to me. Eventually found a doctor who was all like "Hay lets not try another SSRI because 5 years is enough proof that those don't work in your head and that last doctor you saw who suggested lithium is insane! Try something for bi-polar which you don't suffer from but its related to depression so ya'know it'll work sorta which is better than not working." And I tried it and it did work well enough.

[RENDERMODE_NONE]

I'm having a hard time reading your tone, so I'm not sure if that offended you. I really hope it didn't and if so I'm sorry, I was just unable to resist making a dumb, slightly rude joke.

[Freeborn]

Oh ok, sorry I was totally offended; I did volenteer a lot though. Just this terrible unfair thing happened to me for reasons and I get preachy because I don't want it to happen to anyone else.

[RENDERMODE_NONE]

Totally understandable. I was the one at fault for making it, whether or not you get preachy.

[Freeborn]

Thanks, but I do hate preachy people so "AAHHHH NOOOOO I'M BEING ONE OF THEM! AAHHHH!"

[linkfire12]

Mae doesn't seem overweight or unhealthy, rather just severely anxious about her body and self deprecating. I hope everyone gets better, including Mae :p

[Zaltys]

Originally posted by Truck "Spike Boy" Gloshi:

guess there were a few weird, unexplained things, like the guy going through the fence on Halloween (unless there was an explanation I haven't found yet in my playthroughs)

Whenever you're done chatting with Germ at the Food Donkey and he says that he's heading home, he walks behind those stairs. ...and we know that he lives in the woods. So wouldn't that imply that he has some way to get to the other side? For all we know, there's a giant gap in the fence behind there, and Mae just never notices it.

[Sirius Lagrange]

The only problem is that other people in the town, especially the "Cult of Conservative Dads", are seeing it too, or at least getting feelings. There was even a painting of the "being" in the Historical Society. I mean, it could possibly be mass hysteria, those gasses seeping out of the mine and all, but I mean...that would be a real woppah. Mae knew nothing of lots of the dark town history, and she didn't really have enough hints to somehow have a shared halucination. Personally, I think her mental illness made her more vulnerable to the cosmic horror, and made it easier for her to hear it "sing".

[minimumstats]

im pretty sure mae doesn't have or doesn't just have depression/anxiety. she sees and believes a lot of stuff no one else does; with the otherwise realistic tone of the game seems like she's experiencing some delusions. being depressed and getting worse until she finally had a 'snap' and the unreality and stuff being on/off since then sounds like how schizospectrum stuff usually starts too? i mean i totally can see this being run as 'pure neurosis' but it made way more sense to me as psychosis.

there was definitely a kidnapping and cult and all that tho. i just don't think the monster was real... at least not in an objective sense. the cult hearing the monster is because, well, cult. not the 'same' monster.

@ applesauce i totally feel you on the weight gain.. my current meds work but i have to buy new pants every couple months cos of them :(

[Irisiridescent]

If you guys read the old articles in the library it says there was a gas leak from the mines that caused a lot of the same symptoms that Mae is suffering from. it was claimed it was taken care of but perhaps due to the floods and sinkholes, some more of it began to leak out or Mae was just exposed to it and it's caused lasting effects that may go way after some time, or may not. Perhaps "the black goat" is actually gas from the mine.