Chris and mental healthcare

Chris has a troubled relationship with psychology. He claims that he was held down by the school psychologist at grade school while his screams were recorded, and was forced to see a psychologist for anger management classes after being kicked out of Piedmont Virginia Community College. Chris currently refuses to see a psychologist, opting to see a pastoral counselor instead.

The problem(s) with Chris

Chris claims to be autistic and homophobic as a genuine phobia. He also claims to have Noviophobia, a made-up phobia of boyfriends. The rest of the human race believes that he's got wa-a-a-ay more than autism to worry about, but beyond trying to peg Chris based on his actions, there's no way anyone can know if Chris's brain is garlanded with healthy chunks of the DSM-IV-TR or if he's merely a gullible idiot with a terrible upbringing and worse personality (and autism).

Chris also seems to be at a level of incompetence that prevents him from realizing how incompetent he is. A Cornell University psychology journal details this phenomenon; it is a disturbingly accurate account of Chris's reaction to reality.

Chris diagnosed himself, jokingly or otherwise, with dissociative identity disorder on the August 30th Captain's Log. Supposedly he has two personalities, the first being Christian, which is just Chris speaking in a normal tone of voice. The second is Christopher, which is just Chris yelling in a higher tone of voice. Chris is obviously faking it: his "Christopher" personality is obviously just a louder version of himself, and further engages in "witty" banter with Christian, something that just doesn't happen with actual D.I.D. While the actual cause of D.I.D. is unknown, it has been linked with great mental trauma, and further personalities tend to be wildly different from each other, sometimes even being different genders. D.I.D is an extraordinarily difficult illness to keep "under wraps." It is believed that Chris is just making a desperate bid for attention or a lame attempt at comedy, or we'll have to accept that even Chris's mental illnesses are creatively bankrupt and narcissistic. Many trolls were incredibly skeptical, and Chris later revealed in Mailbag 4 that it was a "It was a lie to momentarily derail the trolls". Once again, Chris proved that he had no understanding of how serious mental disorders can be. Pretending to be crazy is an odd sort of Catch 22.

The psychiatrist who compiled a survey of Chris's issues following his troubles at PVCC in 2004 took note of "an obsessional quality to his preoccupation with finding a girlfriend," although he did not go so far as to hand down a diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Whether he might conclude otherwise nowadays, after five more years of dedicated sweetheart searching, is an open question. He also administered a Folstein test, a brief questionnaire designed to detect cognitive impairment. Chris racked up a perfect score, indicating no problems with his memory or basic information processing abilities.

There is ample speculation as to what Chris has, but until he gets some sustained professional attention, it remains speculation. Which leads to a larger problem...

Professional help?

One of the most frustrating elements of Chris is his adamant refusal to take help from any source. In the aftermath of his suspension from PVCC, his evaluators repeatedly recommended further counseling and psychiatric treatment, but Chris and his parents refused. The only thing close to therapy that Chris has ever been in was a compulsory Anger Management class, and we all know how much good that did. About the only authority figure he listens to is Rocky Shoemaker, his pastoral counselor; he claims that he has no need for psychotherapy because his pastor is better at helping him than anyone with, you know, years of training and experience in helping people with psychiatric problems. He's shown repeated disregard for the authority of health professionals. It is suspected that, even if Chris received professional help, he would disregard most of it and undermine the therapy.

It seems Chris only acknowledges his personal flaws if 1) they get him pity or 2) he announces that he's beaten them already. Notice how often Chris claims to have won the battle over autism, only to fall back on "I have autism!" as an excuse. Similarly, he wrote Nintendo Power Magazine to tell them he conquered Noviophobia, only to say later that his fear "came back like a boomerang."

Chris refuses to get help because he doesn't think he needs any, and because he has better things (games, anime, porn) to spend his money on. Regardless of how blatantly stupid his actions are, regardless of how often trolls (including a 13-year-old) trick him into doing horrible, horrible things, regardless of how any mental health worker worth his salt would pin Chris down like a butterfly to get a chance to crack open his impenetrable shell of fail, Chris will carry on as usual, justifying away everything that would inconvenience him even slightly.

Chris has no problem telling other people to seek professional help, however. In the Mailbag, he has occasionally responded to his detractors with retorts like "Go See a Psychiatrist."

History of medication

According to the 2004 psychiatric survey, at some point in his life Chris was prescribed the antidepressant medication Imipramine. It's not clear when he was prescribed the drug, or for what exact reason, but it was likely some time in his younger days - since the advent of more sophisticated antidepressant drugs like Prozac in the late 1980s, the use of Imipramine to treat depression and other psychological disorders has grown less and less common. More recently, however, Imipramine has commonly been prescribed to patients who have urinary problems.

The same document notes that, as of 2004, Chris had been taking the antidepressant Paxil for four years. One of the survey's recommendations was an increase in his daily dose of the drug, but it's not clear how long Chris continued taking it afterwards, or if he continues to take it to this day.

Past instances of professional help (or lack thereof)

Nathanael Greene Elementary School

When Chris attended NGES, there was an incident where he was supposedly restrained or molested, depending on whom you talk to. It has been claimed by Bob that they wanted to send Chris to an "institution." What they meant was likely a place where Chris could see professionals who could work with Chris's problems as opposed to teachers who deal with normal students. What Bob probably thought is he would be sent to a nuthouse. Either way, something that could have done some good in his early development didn't happen.

Mary Lee Walsh

Although not a mental health professional, Walsh's experience at dealing with a large body of students and their individual problems makes her experienced on the issue. She has also written a book on coping with college life. Despite her advanced knowledge and experience, Chris chose the better path of cursing her and putting her low on his Scale of Respect.

Psychiatric Papers

Following his outburst towards Mary Lee Walsh, Chris was sent to a psychiatrist for evaluation. The resulting papers easily show a number of things, most of which can easily be told by trolls themselves. Another interesting thing is that, despite the encouragement to follow up on this, Chris's parents refuse to on the account of insurance problems.

The documents note that at some point Chris received psychiatric evaluation at the Center for Learning Potential in Mt. Sidney, Virginia (a small town northwest of his home in Charlottesville). They don't say when this took place, but given the location of the Center, it was likely either during his elementary-school years or some time after the Chandlers moved back to Charlottesville in the summer of 2000.

Anger management and the shrink

Following his encounter with Mary Lee Walsh, he was ordered to take anger management classes. The only thing that seemed to arise from it were complaints that he had to pay to see a professional... and... well... he still can't control his anger. There's very little information about his anger management classes, as it occurred in the pre-ED days, and is only mentioned in a few old documents of Chris' that have surfaced. He's never really talked about it since, and it's never come up in comics or videos.

Rocky Shoemaker

Religious institutions are fond of providing counseling services to all members of their congregations, sometimes unwisely as a method of hammering them with doctrine to solve their problems, sometimes beneficially by giving them a person to talk to and referring them to a real professional if necessary. Whether Rocky is generally beneficial or harmful to the people who come to see her is uncertain, but she is certainly admired for her past work. What remains certain is that she is probably not the best solution for Chris because...

1. He considers her to be a perfect, all-encompassing alternative to a qualified professional.
2. He doesn't listen to anything she fucking says.

She has told him about his past habits being unacceptable, but Chris remains as determined as ever to be a total idiot. Although she has put a stop to trolling plans, behavior remains the same. She also told him it would be a good idea to stop posting videos on YouTube, since they only feed the trolls.

That hasn't really worked out now, has it?

About the only thing that he has taken away from their sessions is that he can fuck someone before they are married.

Relationship Management Classes

Chris mentioned in a more recent video that he had been taking some relationship management classes. Undoubtedly, Chris feels he has found some form of real life date ed. More likely, Chris has come upon a class for couples who want to manage their already established relationships as opposed to find out how to get into one. The true nature of the course is irrelevant since Chris is creepy and out of place pretty much anywhere he goes.

White knights and trolls

It doesn't take a lot of effort for anyone to see that Chris has no common sense. Likewise, common sense being... common, white knights and trolls are often quick to point out that most of what Chris does is stupid/insane/socially abnormal. He doesn't fucking get it. As a result, many trolls have become armchair psychologists pondering why exactly he doesn't get it. It doesn't matter what they come up with, the result is always that Chris doesn't listen to anyone if he doesn't want to, no matter what level they are on the ladder. Some White Knights have gotten so fed up with Chris' adamant refusal to improve himself or heed advice that they've essentially moved on to becoming professional trolls.

See also

• Autism
• Autism papers
• Asperger's syndrome
• Dreams