What is Max's trauma?

Max's past experience with trauma — namely, watching the Mind Flayer brutally kill her stepbrother Billy (Dacre Montgomery) in Season 3 — makes her a target for Vecna's manipulation. She's become withdrawn and adrift, pulling away from her friends and sinking deeper into what looks like depression.

What mental illness does Max Mayfield have?

While there are no direct statements, it's still clear that Max suffers from mental illnesses, such as depression, trauma, and even PTSD.

Why is Max so depressed in season 4?

Max's depression becomes personified by Vecna, a teen-murdering villain from the Upside Down who has made Max his next target. Vecna zeroes in on her in the season four episode titled “Dear Billy,” and her proximity with dying gets smaller and smaller.

What mental illnesses are in Stranger Things?

While the wildly popular Netflix show is a sci-fi tale set in the 1980s, Stranger Things has shined a light on current mental health issues that feel all too real, like depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and therapy options for these disorders.

What mental illness does Eleven have in Stranger Things?

Eleven is examined as a child hero of the series who has a potential diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), has significant psychosocial developmental delays that she continues to overcome as the series develops, and is an emblem for the cultural mythology of the 1980s.

The Psychology of Inner Pain: Max’s Trauma — Stranger Things 4 — Therapist Reacts!

Is Vecna a depression?

The latest series of Stranger Things is another brilliant blend of horror, sci-fi fantasy and drama. But new villain Vecna is a reflection of something very real: post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and grief.

What is Will Byers trauma?

After suffering so much physical and emotional trauma (his father's abuse, his narrow escape from the Upside Down, and his invasive body-swap with the Mind Flayer), Will has every right to be angry and cynical.

How did Vecna choose his victims?

Trauma fuels him

Vecna draws power from sad and angry memories and that is the main reason he targets traumatized teens. Those teens are a well of power just there to be absorbed. This is not just a theory, Vecna himself told Eleven about the power that angry and sad memories hold.

Do Vecna victims feel pain?

Once he takes control of the mind, he traumatizes them by showing the visions of their dark past. He takes them to unknown places and gives them a glimpse of himself. The pain of his victims doesn't end here. Every single one of his victims experiences nose bleeding and severe headaches as well.

Why does Vecna target trauma?

Brenner (Matthew Modine) states in the Stranger Things episode "Papa" that Vecna "consumes" everything about his victims, Vecna targets traumatized victims because it builds for him a well of sad and angry memories to draw from. With each victim, he can become gradually more powerful.

How did Max get into Vecna's mind?

The reason that Eleven couldn't find Max is actually pretty simple -- Max had already died. That means her soul had already been absorbed into Vecna's consciousness. So, while Eleven restarted Max's heart and brought her body back to life, she was trapped inside of Vecna's hive mind.

What does Vecna say to Max?

Vecna as Billy tells Max: "[L]ate at night, you have sometimes wished to follow me. Follow me into death.

Does Max get abused?

In the episodes leading up to his death, Billy was consistently abusive towards Max and her friends. Max says she “wanted him out of her life” and she is undeniably valid in feeling that way because of his actions. The first introduction of Billy showed the brute nature of his character.

What was Fred Bensons trauma?

At some point in 1985, Fred was in a car accident which killed another student. He sustained facial injuries himself in this accident, which caused a scar on his left cheek. He was wracked with guilt overnight.

What is Max's secret in Stranger Things?

While Max harbored anger toward her brother because of how much he abused her, she became deeply concerned for him when she and her friends discovered that he had been possessed by the Mind Flayer.

What was Patrick's trauma in Stranger Things?

Patrick was born sometime between the years of 1967-1968. He grew up in an abusive household where either both of his parents or just his father would beat him up.

Why did Vecna target Max?

Of course, the real reason Max became Vecna's victim was because creators the Duffer brothers and producer/director Shawn Levy wanted to showcase Sink's talent and really allow her to get some meaty material to work with this season.

Why does Vecna snap bones?

In the real world, the victim's body floats into the air, as Vecna snaps their bones and devours their innards, leaving them mutilated and looking like a shrivelled husk. He does this as all his attacks mimic his first telepathic kill, his own mother, back when he was a human child.

What does Vecna do to his victims eyes?

Whenever victims become entranced or possessed by Vecna, their eyes form a milky glaze, until they meet their demise as Vecna plucks their eyeballs out.

Who did Vecna turn out to be?

The final scene of Volume 1 shows a shot of Vecna, and a close up of the 001 tattoo on his arm, confirming that Henry Creel, a.k.a. Number One, became Vecna.

Why did Vecna choose Nancy?

Why did Vecna choose Nancy as his messenger? In her video, Dow explains why Vecna specifically chose Nancy as his messenger in Stranger Things Season 4. “The reasons that he chose Nancy are because she's connected to Eleven, she already is connected to Vecna by her traveling to the Upside Down, and Nancy is a reporter.

Why does Vecna use clocks?

Clocks represent a passing of time, which can represent the fact that Vecna's victims' time has nearly run out — it is no coincidence that many of the clocks are set to midnight. Throughout the series, we learn that Vecna is a human who found himself trapped in the Upside Down for years thanks to our girl, Eleven.

What mental illness does Joyce Byers have?

I found Joyce to be a near perfect, heart-wrenching portrayal of a woman with borderline personality disorder. Borderline personality disorder (BPD for short) was first recognized as a diagnosable mental illness in 1980.

Is Will In love With Mike?

Now that Stranger Things season 4 has confirmed not only Will's queerness, but also his unrequited love for Mike, it's certainly interesting to look at their relationship in retrospect. Surely, Will's feelings for his best friend didn't come out of nowhere.

Who has a crush on Will Byers?

'Stranger Things' Has Always Had a Gay Character: Will Byers. As it happens, Stranger Things Season 4 seems to not only confirm that Will is gay, but that he also has a very real crush on his long-time best friend Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard).