Okay so on the topic of Leon and meds. What conditions/disorders do you think hes actually ended up with over the years?
Spoilers: This is gonna be highly clinical but I did my best to explain things in layman's educational terms too, but if anyone needs clarification on certain things, please feel free to ask!
TW// discussion of alcoholism, depression, suicide, and other aspects of mental health and trauma
This is somewhat difficult to fully nail down because I can't talk to Leon or ask questions in the manner I'd use when diagnosing a patient (granted, I can't do that anyway 'cause I'm not licensed yet, but I've practiced with fictional scenarios so I guess that's sorta what I'm doing here anyway lol). We also aren't privy to most of his personal life and we don't get to see him outside of the field, which is where I'd probably get the most information for this, but this is what I've got relative to psychology since that's what one of my degrees is in:
C-PTSD --> Pretty much everyone has at least some idea of PTSD due to pop culture depictions and it's prevalence in media and society, specifically as it relates to combat veterans, but in Leon's case I think C-PTSD would be the proper diagnosis. While PTSD is often caused by a singular or acute trauma (car accident, witnessing a death, getting shot, etc.) the C in C-PTSD stands for complex which is another type of trauma categorized by repeated or prolonged exposure to trauma. So in Leon's case, the initial trauma would've been Raccoon City, but since he is continuously put in situations like that over and over again for over a decade, it would be a complex trauma rather than an acute one. Now technically speaking, C-PTSD isn't listed in the DSM-5, but it's still pretty widely recognized since any therapist or future-therapist worth a shit understands that while the DSM is the diagnostic guide, it's not without issues. Due to the process, it tends to be sorta "outdated", and there are problem with some of the diagnostic criteria, especially for things like ADHD since it's typically based on how the condition presents in white men (or young, white boys for ADHD specifically). Very long story short, the APA and WHO are at war over if C-PTSD is a separate condition or if it's a subsection of PTSD but as I've been taught, things in the field of psych and especially if they're related to trauma often exist on a spectrum so treating the patient in a manner that works for them is more important than semantics.
C-PTSD and PTSD are both generally categorized by re-experiencing the traumatic event (rumination, flashbacks), anxiety related to the event (which usually takes the form of avoidance behaviors), hypervigilance, negative sense of self pertaining to the event (survivor's guilt), difficulty maintaining relationships, and sometimes even things like anger. And given not only what Leon experienced but the things he does throughout the series, I think C-PTSD is pretty much a given.
2. Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) [Alcoholism] --> In the medical/psych realm, alcoholism is referred to as AUD technically. Alcoholism is the colloquial term and from what I've personally experienced, it's sometimes used in lecture or things of that manner to get everyone on the same page, but in studies and in the DSM it's AUD. Now AUD as it relates to Leon is somewhat contested in the fandom, usually using anecdotal information (which is highly problematic in this situation), but let it be known that the way Leon drinks is not healthy. AUD specifically (and it's a spectrum, so it ranges in severity) is marked by the following:
He displayed at least 3 of these on screen-- the qualifier is 2, mind you-- and given his behavior I'd argue it's probably a bit more than just these 3 highlighted in yellow but that would be more speculative. The three yellows, however, are covered by Damnation and Vendetta specifically. Drinking on the job, drinking specifically because he feels he fucked up at work, he's obviously binge drinking, etc. And I'd argue 10a and 11b are covered as well considering he drank an entire. bottle. in VD and was STILL going (10a) and it's specifically stated in the novel that he was drinking to help his hangover from his previous day of binge-drinking, so there's 11b too. Those 5 alone are enough to qualify him for moderate AUD by psych standards and that's without my personal speculation so, he's definitely got it. It also doesn't help that AUD and C/PTSD are highly co-morbid (meaning they tend to present together and having one significantly increases your risk of having the other, usually directionally).
3. Depression and Suicidal Ideation --> I'm grouping these 2 together since they're heavily associated with one another and both are also highly co-morbid with C-PTSD but Leon shows signs of both. The depression is usually picked up on pretty immediately, so I won't go into much detail on that, but for Leon, I'd mark it as active suicidal ideation. Generally speaking, there are 2 types of ideation: active and passive. Passive is pretty much exactly what it sounds like, passively contemplating suicide but lacking any real plan or motivation to actively do it. Active is an emergency, that's when someone needs immediate professional help because they have a plan and they intend on carrying it out. Leon seems to flow between passive and active depending on the situation, which is common for people who struggle with this long term. The active situation would've been post-RE2 specifically when he mentioned specifically that he wanted to shoot himself but didn't end up going through with it because he couldn't leave Sherry alone. I'd also argue the scene of him in Damnation where he's drinking from the flask would count as active since in the novel, he talks specifically about "ending it all here" and while it's not directly stated that he's thinking about shooting himself, it very much feels implied. Passive would be pretty much the entire Damnation novelization and parts of Vendetta too where he talks about how much he wants to die and wants to kill himself, but he (seemingly) doesn't have a plan for accomplishing that. I think the prime example would be when he almost falls off the roof in VD and in the novel, it's made clear through the fight that he wouldn't be upset if it killed him. He was still fighting back, he was trying to survive, but he did it all with the understanding that "today is a good day to die anyway" (that's literally a quote, no joke), so I feel like that toes the line between active and passive.
