The Time Thief

by Reading4HalfMyLife

Loop 26

Astral stood nervously in the hallway, trying not to pace, the sound would only echo in the empty halls of the psychologist office. She really didn't want to be here, but maybe it would help? Still felt weird to be telling a stranger all her feelings and emotions.

Her parents knew she was here, but she insisted on coming alone. She didn't want to have to look them in the eye when she said she killed their daughter.

At last, a soft "come in" drifted through the wooden oak doors, and she entered the room.

She was kind of dissapointed, to be honest. She had expected an old mare, her hair tied neatly back into a bun and wearing old fashioned glasses, with one of those long couches for Astral to lay down in.

Instead, a young Pegasus mare with long, wavy hair sat on a simple chair opposite a green sofa. "Hello Astral Plane" the psychologist said, motioning for her to sit on the green couch. Once Astral was seated, she said "my name is Red Cross. How are you today?"

Astral shrugged, waving her hoof in a meh gesture. "Been better, I suppose."

"Oh? And why is that?"

Be honest. She has to know to help.

---

It took over an hour to explain everything that was happening- from the loop itself, to the notes to prove it was real, to the trauma she had gone through, to the paranoia and nightmares- but by the time she was done, the room was dead quiet.

Red Cross nodded solemly as she chewed the end of her pencil. Over the course of Astral's explanation, she had been taking notes, and Astral was kind of annoyed she never learned how to read upside down. That would be helpful right now.

"Astral, I am going to be completely frank with you."

Then can I be George? She bit back the joke, getting the feeling it 'wasn't appropriate.' Instead, she nodded her head, and gestured for the mare to continue.

"You seem to be suffering from PTSD, depression and hypervigilance. The baseline for the later two could be attribued to your mild anxiety, but I'm not here to talk about that, I'm here to reccomend you the right medication."

Wow, okay, really frank.

"There's medication for vigilance?" She asked, tilting her head to the side.

Red Cross shook her head, placing her front hooves together while she thought of a way to explain it. "It's more like extreme paranoia" she said at last. "The PTSD isn't helping."

"Right . . . . so, medication? Is there even medicine for these things?"

Red Cross smiled. "While Equestria isn't as scientifically advanced as it's neighboring countries, we don't need to be, we have magic. Some ponies put a magic spell into little pills for these kinds of things. Don't worry" she said, seeing apprehension cross Astral's face. "It doesn't hurt or anything. It just balances things out in your body."

---

Two hours later, Astral was holding a little bottle, filled with Zebraloft (it originated in Zebrifica). She was supposed to take one a day for the next six months to see if anything improved.

She made a quick mental note to keep the bottle in her saddlebags at all times, just in case.

Author's Note:

Now I know why fanfics avoid psychologist and therapist sessions; they are hard as fuck to write!

Okay, so, real talk here.

Astral is not suicidal. Not everyone with depression is suicidal, that is just a stereotype. Another stereotype is that depressed people always seem sad or mopey, and, annoyingly enough, Astral is living up to that sterotype.

But, I need to make something clear here. Most of the time depression is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. The people who have it can't help it, but they often hate themselves because of it, which is dumb. It's like being mad at yourself for being born a girl, or having a different skin tone. Wasn't your fault.

However, Astral was not born with depression, instead hers comes from a mix of trauma and stress building up, AKA PTSD. If most people were this easy to spot, a lot more people would have medication. But, actually, cheerful, friendly people are just as likely to have depression. They just hide it really well. In fact, Astral's friend Butterscotch, who is a cheerful, friendly colt who will one day grow up to help the disabled, is depressed.

The general consensus of MLP is that Luna, Trixie and maybe Pinkamena are depressed. But in actuality, you can pick a random character from the show (Cheese Sandwich, Sweetie Belle, Cadence) and they are just as likely to be depressed.

Went on a tangent, but the moral of this little rant is that just because someone looks happy doesn't mean they are.

Comments

[BlueHood]

Looking forward to seeing more. (I read my way to here the while day. Don’t Juste my freetime...)

[FridayPie]

PTSD isn't just stress, it's a much deeper, permanent trauma whicg actually never can be medicated. It's a memory. Allegedly her repeated bad experience , including deaths, can be source of PTSD.
The simptoms can be medicated though.

Depression often doesn't need medication aside of more proper regime and food. But mixture with hypervigiliance is a bitch

[Reading4HalfMyLife]

9607424
I know, and I never said that PTSD could be medicated, just that she was taking zebraloft, which is a pony version of a well known drug called zoloft, which is commonly used for people with PTSD, depression and anxiety.

PTSD is not strictly curable, that is true, but the key term there being 'strictly'. There are treatments that can help you get over mild ptsd (therapy, drugs) but for people who have severe ptsd, the focus is more on helping them function IRL

[Ryanbrave02]

Oh for certain, I completely agree with you on that depression symptoms. I have been diagnosed with depression, but most of the time it shows up as me being "lethargic" or lazy in a sense. So like, little motivation to do stuff. I mean, sure, I do get sad a bit more than others, but honestly? Mostly it's just the lack of motivation. My doctor also said that my anxiety may have a hand in that too.

[Haremking001]

Why the heck would you word it in a way that puts the blame on you instead of using logic to prove that you are still yourself in some way before talking to them?!