A character with PTSD is basically in an entirely shut down state(sitting in fetal position, startle reflex in response to touch, unwilling to speak or respond) in response to a violent incident that mirrors the situation that created the PTSD in the first place. The group needs to mobilize or bad things will happen. Would there be any way to get someone in this state to come with them or would it be completely impossible? How would they be likely to respond to attempts to get them to move? I have done research on PTSD in general but I haven't been able to find anything to indicate what would happen in a situation like this, where sitting and calming down is not an option.
Depends on a lot of things, both how the person curling up in a fetal position is responding and how the other characters try to rouse them up. How quickly they have to start running. They may have to resort to hauling the person up onto his/her feet and carrying him/her if none of them want to simply leave the character. If one of them has a general idea of what caused the initial trauma, they might be able to quickly snap the person out of it by saying that this new situation is nothing like the old one. Again, it depends on a lot of elements.
Thanks. Would pulling the person up be likely to trigger a panic sort of reaction or do you think the person would just stay shut down? Unfortunately snapping them out probably wouldn't work, as the situation actually is much like the old situation.
Again, it would depend. If they're in the middle of a PTSD episode, they may interpret any grabbing to be a sign of "Holy shit bad things are going to happen me!" and react accordingly. He/she might not. He/she might or might not respond if one of the other characters got down to eye-level and quickly said, "C'mon, we gotta go, <name>! I promise we'll get you out of here. Stay with us!" But then it would depend on how much time they have for that.
