Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome is an anxiety disorder that some people get after seeing or living through a dangerous event, and Holden shows some symptoms of PTSD. According to nimh.nih.gov one symptom of PTSD is the avoidance of people, and throughout the novel, as Holden's life starts to get more and more out of control, he starts to isolate himself from people. When he leaves Pencey he leaves because he just wants to get away from everybody he knows. More than likely the event that he is most depressed about is his brother dying, and another symptom of PSTD is having flashbacks of things that remind him of his brother. For example, he thinks of the time when he was riding his bike with his friend and his little brother Allie wanted to go with him but he told him no. Looking back at the event he feels upset with himself about not letting his brother tag along. Things like that go hand in hand with PTSD.
There are 5 main types of depression
1. Major Depressive Disorder - Characterized by a combination of symptoms that interfere with a persons ability to work, sleep, study, eat, and enjoy life normally.
2. Chronic Depression - Characterized by a long-term (usually two or more years) depressed mood. Chronic depression is less severe than major depression and does not "shut-down" a person mentally.
3. Atypical Depression - Symptoms are usually overeating, oversleeping, fatigue, extreme sensitivity to rejection, and moods worsen or improve depending on the impact of the surroundings.
4. Bipolar disorder (Manic depression) - described as a person who alternates there mood between sadness and hysteria.
5. Seasonal depression - Usually thought of as the winter blues. People become melancholy at the same time each year and lasts until the season is over.
The type of depression that describes Holden best would be Chronic Depression because Holden still functions normally in life. His habits aren't changed based on his brother dying. He is mounring his brother still even though he died when Holden was 13 (page-38), Holden is now 17, which also supports Chronic Depression.
Holden is probably now on the 4th stage of the 5 stages of grief and loss. The first stage is denial, and right when Allie died Holden probably thought to himself, "no, there's no way this could've happened." In stage 2 there is anger, which we know he went through because after Allie died Holden was punching out the windows in his garage and almost punched out the windows in his car. The 3rd stage is bargaining, and I don't know if he experienced this stage. The 4th stage is depression, which is the stage Holden is on now. I think the reason why Holden is failing out of school, and why he has failed out of every other school he's gone to, is probably because he doesn't care anymore. Depression gives you a feeling like you just don't care about things in your life you would usually care about. He also has feelings of suicide, which most definitely comes with depression. The next stage he would go through is acceptance. Someday Holden will realize that his brother is gone for good, and he will accept that fact and go on with his life and live it normally.
I would give Holden a diagnosis of Chronic depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. His symptoms clearly fit both of these types of depression. If I were a doctor I would give him some sort of medication, probably Zoloft or Prozac, and I would admit him to counseling and therapy.
There are 5 main types of depression
1. Major Depressive Disorder - Characterized by a combination of symptoms that interfere with a persons ability to work, sleep, study, eat, and enjoy life normally.
2. Chronic Depression - Characterized by a long-term (usually two or more years) depressed mood. Chronic depression is less severe than major depression and does not "shut-down" a person mentally.
3. Atypical Depression - Symptoms are usually overeating, oversleeping, fatigue, extreme sensitivity to rejection, and moods worsen or improve depending on the impact of the surroundings.
4. Bipolar disorder (Manic depression) - described as a person who alternates there mood between sadness and hysteria.
5. Seasonal depression - Usually thought of as the winter blues. People become melancholy at the same time each year and lasts until the season is over.
The type of depression that describes Holden best would be Chronic Depression because Holden still functions normally in life. His habits aren't changed based on his brother dying. He is mounring his brother still even though he died when Holden was 13 (page-38), Holden is now 17, which also supports Chronic Depression.
Holden is probably now on the 4th stage of the 5 stages of grief and loss. The first stage is denial, and right when Allie died Holden probably thought to himself, "no, there's no way this could've happened." In stage 2 there is anger, which we know he went through because after Allie died Holden was punching out the windows in his garage and almost punched out the windows in his car. The 3rd stage is bargaining, and I don't know if he experienced this stage. The 4th stage is depression, which is the stage Holden is on now. I think the reason why Holden is failing out of school, and why he has failed out of every other school he's gone to, is probably because he doesn't care anymore. Depression gives you a feeling like you just don't care about things in your life you would usually care about. He also has feelings of suicide, which most definitely comes with depression. The next stage he would go through is acceptance. Someday Holden will realize that his brother is gone for good, and he will accept that fact and go on with his life and live it normally.
I would give Holden a diagnosis of Chronic depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. His symptoms clearly fit both of these types of depression. If I were a doctor I would give him some sort of medication, probably Zoloft or Prozac, and I would admit him to counseling and therapy.