2015-10-27 18:09:08 ¶ ●

## @rosenrot234​ said:

While I enjoyed the overall message the game did with that particular ending with Josh, I am glad to see all the stuff here saying he deserved better.

Considering my depression and BPD, it really meant a lot to see people wanting to help Josh. Thank you.
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What made me feel more for Josh is actually the fact that he either has schizophrenia or bipolar.
Not that I lightly think these are just some cool conditions to have, but the complicated and delicate nature of of his psyche due to these conditions made him the more beautiful character for me.
I personally appreciate people with schizophrenia or bipolar(or any other mental conditions) who share their experiences because they helped me with understanding my own brain’s capabilities and thus, helped me to cope with the fear towards my excessively frequent sleep-paralysis.
well.. I made it about myself but… I want to say, Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this.
(Edited: BPD is the acronym for borderline personality disorder, not bipolar disorder.)

2015-10-30 1:12:41 ¶ ●

## Regarding Josh’s Mental Health

fazikku said:
Gotta chime in; I have BPD (diagnosed by a doctor) and i can hardly recognize ANY legit BPD symptoms in Josh’s behaviour. schizophrenia, on the other hand, is a very likely illness for him to have since a lot of his antics and symptoms go well with schizophrenia’s criteria. just wanting people to know not to think people with BPD act like Josh does; i personally take huge offense in that.
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## EDITED: Miscommunication on my part.
( BPD is the acronym for borderline personality disorder, not bipolar disorder)

I mistakenly assumed that BPD is for bipolar disorder as the previous response posting was regarding depression and Josh.

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I didn’t mean any offence in my response regarding Josh’s conditions and I do take this topic very seriously so I apologize if I caused any unintended hard feelings.

To clarify, I left my assumptions vague between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder because I’m not in a place to diagnose exactly what Josh might have and I understand that there are several different types or combinations of these disorders that can cause crossovers of symptoms which are different in each person to person.

I completely believe in you saying that, Josh’s symptoms are very hard to relate to as a person with Bipolar,especially for people with Bipolar type 2 or cyclothymia which I assume you already know are the milder and the more common type that does not experience any psychotic symptoms.

However, I can’t simply cut to a conclusion of saying that Josh must not have bipolar, because bipolar people with severe mixed-episodes can experience psychotic symptoms as severe as Josh’s.

From what I understand, mixed-episodes-type is more likely to happen in individuals whose onset happened/started at adolescence like in Josh’s case.

Not only that, in his medical record, he has history of depression and manic episodes which would prevent a simple diagnose of schizophrenia due to the presence of mood disorder. The fact that Josh is completely off the pill during the entire game yet he appears to be in a normal or positive-hypo-manic state for the first half of the game makes it even more ambiguous for me because it seems to me like a case of an ’episode’ that happens more in bipolar, not schizophrenia.

My *guess*in detail is that he *could* have severe schizoaffective disorder (mixed-episodes biopolar) because Josh shows different episodes of normal to manic states (happens in bipolar) with the severe psychosis(more common in schizo).

However, you’re absolutely right in saying that psychotic symptoms like what Josh had is not true to all people with Bipolar and

## A LOT of people with Bipolar do not have psychotic symptoms at all.

## And these conditions are very manageable with the right treatment.

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Again, If I caused any trouble, I do apologize and thank you for chiming in to clarify.

2015-10-30 4:29:56 ¶ ●

## Personal take on Josh’s Mental Health

whyarewescreamingatgames said:
…I was wondering what your take on Josh’s mental state and the conditions he was diagnosed with…
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As I’ve mentioned in the previous posting, my best GUESS is that he *COULD* have severe schizoaffective disorder (mixed-episodes biopolar) because Josh shows different episodes of normal to manic states (happens in bipolar) with the severe psychosis(more common in schizophrenia).
In terms of my personal take on where Josh might be with his illness since he got exorcised, I imagine that, as a lot of mental patients do, Josh probably isn’t too fond of taking multiple Antipsychotic Medications due to the side effects. However, the fear of hurting his loved ones again as he did on the mountain would make him endure and willingly suffer through the side effects that he doesn’t like. Maybe even the symptoms that he is supposed to report to the psychiatrists if he feels that the particular medication showed any amount of effectiveness in stabilizing himself. This could also have a little to do with self-punishing attitude that he might have developed after the game.
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In his medical record, it is actually shown that he doesn’t respond too well to a lot of the treatments that usually work well enough for other people.
However, according to canon, it appears that he was still carrying out friendly and outgoing life style especially during college where he developed a bit of party-animal streak.
(more canon profile on companion app here: http://theexorcismofemily.tumblr.com/tagged/ud-profiles)
When he started having trouble with the lose of his sisters however, it seems that his symptoms got a lot worse and they were having even more trouble figuring out the right medication for him. It is also stated that, he was studying psychology before dropping out due to the trauma of losing his sisters.
I’m not too sure on what has been tried, but in the record, ECT for sure was only considered and not proceeded.