Hi all, if you don't remember my last thread. It was the discussion of how many zombie-like classes that came with interesting information, I'm doing the novel now but I need help. I need help on a specific character I'm up to now, he basically have a steady-class of education and doesn't form vocal sentences properly so... for example just where I'm up to at this present moment: "That you Addy?" MC answers and he let him in. "Adam, Adam... Adam" Enters a horribly dark-house (Boarded, no power to light) Flashing light into Adam's eyes whereas Adam blocks his face to not strain his eyes. Adam instructs him to put it away, but ultimately snatched it off him. "How? How I see?". (May be say that the lack of dialogue from MC is cos he's escaped from those... well, lets call them zombies and he'd lost a traumatic loss which makes him... not directive) It's not much considering I just introduced him, but I need a specific illness to his mental state as I will later on need to make Adam briefly explain why he's... odd to someone to add conversations as matter of character progression. There's too many illnesses out there and I need one specifically tied to this, so I'm counting on any medical knowledge you guys got or find in that case. If there's none, that's fine. Guess I either research harder, maybe just put another traits to match another mental illness or just leave the illness unmentioned further on in the novel. To help, he's 'similar' to Eddie in the Mice and men title. (Except he's not dumb, strong and he have righteous opinions). Thanks for any support.
Shock? Post traumatic stress Syndrome? Depending on the person diagnosing him, he could be simply termed 'not right in the head' since the zombie attack.
Do you mean Lenny? If the way he acts always existed and did not start with the zombie attack, I would suggest perhaps a level of autism. Some have quite a bit of trouble with language, understanding and expressing themselves, but they are not dumb, even though people often assume they are. I have an autistic son.
Sorry I didn't mention it but he was born with it and lives with his mother because of his certain difficulties. I'm just adding him to make an interesting concept of how a strange but dull character in this world react. Too bad he tries to make things right for MC later on and got killed. (Opps, spoilers)
Oh, I thought he went that way because of the zombies. There's a wiki article about intellectual disability. You might find a term you can use there. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_disability
Yes, I meant Lenny. Sorry, haven't seen that book in years and must had got confused. Anyway, I think that's what I'm tracking on. He has trouble with understanding with the world, the MC is just some friendly guy who had offer support by taking him to destinations (Education areas outside of town to whatever nearest city there is where he'll learn basic stuff and is looked after). Thank you.
Could be useful, seeing as some survivors may take a hella lot of stress that'll affect them. Having a random guy in a supply raid for whatever group I'll form in the novel is useful, can imagine an insane-looking man speaking similar to the character of the topic.
I haven't heard of any traumatic events in adulthood that could result in prolonged speech impairment. Traumatic events can result in anxiety disorders such as PTSD or panic disorder which could impair a person's speech when they're having an episode, but they typically don't impact their speech permanently. Childhood trauma can cause learning disabilities which would include learning language more slowly than normal, but that wouldn't explain your character's otherwise normal cognitive processes. The only condition I can think of that would cause permanent speech impairment without affecting other cognitive processes is Broca's aphasia.
There is a condition known as selectively mute that stems from trauma. Rachel Simon uses it in her book The Story of Beautiful Girl.
True, but selective mutism wouldn't impair general speech. Similar to the PTSD and panic disorder cases, the individual would show normal speech patterns when not triggered by a specific situation.
