So I headcanon Kutner as having a PTSD symptom of, after severe nightmares from a trigger, waking up to go vomit.
In my previous analysis, I said that Kutner doesn’t reach out to anyone or journal or do anything for his mental health after wh. He just stays home alone and watched tv and eats cereal.
But what if staying up, rather than going to sleep, is a coping mechanism? You can’t have nausea-inducing nightmares if you didn’t go to sleep in the first place.
Is this a super healthy way of dealing? Eh. But I really like the notion that Kutner has a lot of experience dealing with his trauma. Following things back to their source. Finding ways to cope.
I think we see some of that in Birthmarks. Kutner thinks her addiction stems from some trauma, which Taub dismisses twice (“she feels she’s been replaced. her siblings probably feel like she was hand-picked and they were accidents. we’ve all got baggage from our parents.” / “you don’t want her addiction to be her fault”). I wonder if this is why he chose to tell Thirteen about his past instead of his best friend.














