Mental Health - Pinkie Pie

[Comet Tail 808]

Alright, so we all know, or all of us who are caught up on the series, that Pinkie Pie isn't exactly neurotypical.

 

She's got Something, the question is, what is it?

 

 

The first thought is Schizophrenia. I've seen comments on youtube mention she does an awfully good job of depicting it. So I did <sarcasm> A long, highly exhaustive study of it </sarcasm>.

 

Actually, surprisingly enough, the hallucinations don't appear schizophrenic in nature. To quote;

Schizophrenia is when one is unable to tell the difference between real and unreal experiences, accompanied by the inability to think logically, have contextually appropriate emotions, and to function in social situations.

source

 

But that begs the question; what was the source of her hallucinations, then? Can stress drive a pony to hallucinate? I think when she first set up the table, she was fully aware they weren't real, talking figures. In fact, once the Turnips start talking, she just blankly stares at them for a second in shock, then replies. I think It shows she was desperate for friendship, and so much so that she drove herself to hallucinate, and once her subconscious mind finally kicked in to finish the job her conscious mind started, creating friends, she was driven to ignore the oddity of them talking altogether, and just accepted it and responded.

 

 

 

 

Also, it Pinkamania doesn't seem to be multiple personality disorder. In MPD, now referred to as Dissociate Identity Disorder (DID), when the patient changes personality, they often lose significant memories of the original. Had this been DID, Pinkamania might have forgotten about Rainbow Dash and all of her real friends entirely, instead of having her "new" friends talk bad about them during the "tea party".

 

One of the proposed diagnostic criteria for DID is this:

2. Inability to recall important personal information, for everyday events or traumatic events, that is inconsistent with ordinary forgetfulness

And an already established criteria is this:

Inability to recall important personal information that is too extensive to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness

It doesn't look like Pinkamena lost all the memories of Pinkie Pie, though. I'm no expert, but from what I've read it looks like that rules out DID.

 

Except for one thing - when RD comes in, we see that in reality, Pinkie was moving the "new friends" without even realizing it. This actually fits very nicely with DID. She completely forgets that she moved them, so from her conscious experience, she's just talking with them. I'm not sure if DID can work that way, but it would explain how she manages to move them to make them seem alive, without realizing she's doing it.

 

 

Then, there's Bipolar. Put simply, it means she fluctuates in-between insanely happy "manic" mode and extremely depressed "depression" mode. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind Pinkie is bipolar, and what we saw was that normally her mood is in the manic stage, but for a brief time fell into the depression mode, and probably even fell into it in "Griffon the Brush-Off", too.

 

[Pinkie needs a hug right now. Someone return her a smile!]

 

What do y'all think about the Pinkster?

 

(Just because I don't have the heart to make a thread about Pinkie without a picture of her as her happy self)

Edited July 8, 2012 by EASA - Matt

[Whiteshade 1,426]

Borderline Personality Disorder. Kyronea did a psychoanalysis of Pinkie Pie already, and that's the condition he used to diagnose her.

[NavelColt 22,879]

What Whiteshade said. I loved Kyronea's review, and borderline personality makes the most sense. At times of stress when pinkie looses her sense of grasp, like when she felt her friends didn't like her anymore, her more unstable side took over.

[Doctor XFizzle 8,669]

I'll be the obligatory "lol because she does drugs" post of the Pinkie Pie mental dissection thread.

 

I'm no brain expert but Pinkie does like to party hard. Just sayin'.

[KakeiTheWolf 652]

I just call her crazy. Works well enough for me to use a blanket term.

[Shankveld 4,949]

Borderline Personality Disorder. Kyronea did a psychoanalysis of Pinkie Pie already, and that's the condition he used to diagnose her.

 

That' incorrect. My sister has actual BPD so I've worked a lot with her and her doctor. Little to say I know a lot about the disorder and Pinkie Pie doesn't have anything close to it.

Sorry Kyronea.

What's written hear seems a lot more reasonable to me.

~

 

What Whiteshade said. I loved Kyronea's review, and borderline personality makes the most sense. At times of stress when pinkie looses her sense of grasp, like when she felt her friends didn't like her anymore, her more unstable side took over.

 

[Comet Tail 808]

That' incorrect. My sister has actual BPD so I've worked a lot with her and her doctor. Little to say I know a lot about the disorder and Pinkie Pie doesn't have anything close to it.

Sorry Kyronea.

What's written hear seems a lot more reasonable to me.

~

 

Did you mean to put both of those quotes on the top? Because "What's written here" seems to refer to the second quote, which agrees with the first quote, but I'm guessing you're actually referring to my OP

 

Thanks, those diagnostic criteria work like a charm, lol.

 

On that note, I'd refer to this: http://en.wikipedia....tistical_Manual

 

To be diagnosed with BPD, she must meet the "general personality disorder criteria", and 5 of these requirements:

 

• 1. Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment. Note: Do not include suicidal or self-injuring behavior covered in Criterion 5

• 2. A pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation.

• 3. Identity disturbance: markedly and persistently unstable self-image or sense of self.

• 4. Impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging (e.g., promiscuous sex, excessive spending, eating disorders, binge eating, substance abuse, reckless driving). Note:Do not include suicidal or self-injuring behavior covered in Criterion 5

• 5. Recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, threats or self-injuring behavior such as cutting, interfering with the healing of scars or picking at oneself (excoriation) .

• 6. Affective instability due to a marked reactivity of mood (e.g., intense episodic dysphoria, irritability or anxiety usually lasting a few hours and only rarely more than a few days).

• 7. Chronic feelings of emptiness

• 8. Inappropriate anger or difficulty controlling anger (e.g., frequent displays of temper, constant anger, recurrent physical fights).

• 9. Transient, stress-related paranoid ideation, delusions or severe dissociative symptoms

First, let's cover these.

 

1. - Maybe? Hard to tell, but I'll say yes to give the benefit of the doubt to opposing views; personally I don't think she has it.

2. - No. She saw Gilda as being bad, but rather than pure evil, she tried to fix Gilda's attitude. So she didn't see Gilda as pure evil, but was rather forgiving, while not seeing her as pure good. Somewhat debatable, but I'd say no.

3. - Maybe?

4. - It doesn't appear so, I'd say no.

5. - Definitely not!

6. - Definitely not.

7. - Nope.

8. - Definitely not.

9. - Nope.

 

Even if she does pass the general personality disorder criteria, she doesn't pass this, so no BPD, here. Once again, I'm no expert, but that list is what experts use, so I'm still pretty confident.

[Shankveld 4,949]

Did you mean to put both of those quotes on the top? Because "What's written here" seems to refer to the second quote, which agrees with the first quote, but I'm guessing you're actually referring to my OP

 

Thanks, those diagnostic criteria work like a charm, lol.

 

On that note, I'd refer to this: http://en.wikipedia....tistical_Manual

 

To be diagnosed with BPD, she must meet the "general personality disorder criteria", and 5 of these requirements:

 

 

 

First, let's cover these.

 

1. - Maybe? Hard to tell, but I'll say yes to give the benefit of the doubt to opposing views; personally I don't think she has it.

2. - No. She saw Gilda as being bad, but rather than pure evil, she tried to fix Gilda's attitude. So she didn't see Gilda as pure evil, but was rather forgiving, while not seeing her as pure good. Somewhat debatable, but I'd say no.

3. - Maybe?

4. - It doesn't appear so, I'd say no.

5. - Definitely not!

6. - Definitely not.

7. - Nope.

8. - Definitely not.

9. - Nope.

 

Even if she does pass the general personality disorder criteria, she doesn't pass this, so no BPD, here. Once again, I'm no expert, but that list is what experts use, so I'm still pretty confident.

 

I did mean that, but I'm lazy ~

[Champion RD92 8,658]

I'm no expert on psychology, but I would say maybe she has bipolar disorder

[Guest]

I think it was Pencils who covered this in a different thread, but I think it's the fact the Pinkie is a genius. She's ever so peppy when surrounded by friends, but we're shown her personality when she's alone. She begins to analyze her friends' behavior, and as a result, comes up with new friends! A dependent personality order might work, but I don't feel like taking two minutes to wave my hands around a bit and find out more. Being rejected by one's friends just leads one to become bored and secluded -- the mind's cogs spin differently when not engaged.

 

Think about it -- if your special talent was partying 24/7, and everyone suddenly shuts down your offer to interact, wouldn't you be bored to the point of insanity? (Farcry 3 mode engaged.) Pinkie does the same thing, over and over and over, but nothing ever changes. Once the variable concerning friendship was thrown for a loop, that cycle is broken. Once that cycle is broken, it means something has snapped. In this case, that something is Pinkie. She's just doing what she does best -- throwing parties. Whether or not she needs real friends to do that is her decision.

 

If everyone drove on the right side of the road. And you woke up.

And everyone suddenly decided to drive on the left side of the road. And your daily routine drive to work caused you to question whether or not you were wrong, or if everyone else was... What would you do? Would you continue to do things the way you always have, or would you play along without asking questions?

[Pegasistersincethe80s 126]

Yeah, a Personality Disorder.. That's what I'd say too..

 

I have a 3 way tie of Borderline, Schizotypial and Anti-Social and my son always tells me I remind him of Pinkie Pie.

[Zerul 554]

I always thought she was just sensitive and a little bit immature..

[SonOfTheNorthe 412]

She just took some bad pills off screen.

[Black Star 62]

I thought it was obvious. Pinkie Pie would be the poster pony for AD/HD. For those of you that don't know what that is it is attention deficient hyperactivity disorder. I have a very strong case of AD/HD it is a mental disease. It makes people very hyper. It also can make people bubbly, distant, and random. The pikamena thing also makes sense with AD/HD people with AD/HD tend to become completly different people with mood.

Edited July 12, 2012 by Venom

[Ganondox 899]

I've also seen the possiblity that Pinkie Pie has autism. This seems unlikely as most autistic people are extemely introverted and Pinkie Pie is extremely extroverted, but if you ignore her other lack of social anxiety and her need to socialize she has many of the same social impairments of those with autism. So probably not autism, but it's still possible.

[silvadel 1,393]

Hmm a lot of people think she actually has a disorder.

 

You know what I think is the scariest thing about pinkie pie?

 

I think she is perfectly sane.

[Black Cloud 73]

She did live on a rock farm for most of her childhood so that would of probably made her snap. The rainboom probably caused her disorder to go into motion.

[Zygen 6,066]

I can maybe agree on a few of them. I mean pinkie is sometimes bipolar but shes pretty happy most of the time. So I'm not sure how much i could justify it.

I think the most likely mental disorder she could have would be something like ADHD.

As for DID I think that one episode is only one episode and I don't remember it anywhere else really. So i'm going to have to say I'd be most inclined to say bipolar out of those and I'd throw ADHD in there.

 

And these threads are actually kinda interesting to me. Call me weird or whatever I've always thought about these kinds of things randomly so its cool to see theres others who do.

[Samurshy 708]

stuff

My grandpa has manic depression. When he goes into his states of mania he hallucinates to the point that he thinks martians are taking over and that he is jesus christ. So it seems to me that Pinkie's diagnosis can very well be manic depression (bipolar). My grandpa describes his fits of mania as a high, like he is having fun when it happens. So I think pinkie's every day demeanor is mania and her depressed side is her real self. Those are my thoughts on the whole thing. Edited September 12, 2012 by Bronynonymous

[Comet Tail 808]

My grandpa has manic depression. When he goes into his states of mania he hallucinates to the point that he thinks martians are taking over and that he is jesus christ. So it seems to me that Pinkie's diagnosis can very well be manic depression (bipolar). My grandpa describes his fits of mania as a high, like he is having fun when it happens. So I think pinkie's every day demeanor is mania and her depressed side is her real self. Those are my thoughts on the whole thing.

 

Well, as I understand it, there's no reason to call one side her "real" side and the other side the "real self". It's very pessimistic. Both the depression and the mania are effects of DID, so there's no reason to call either side as being more legitimately "that person".

 

In fact, seeing as she's almost always manic, and that's how everypony knows her, then I'd say if one side was her "true self", it would most definitely be the manic one.

 

Though I'd also say that even if it was very rare for her to be manic. It's better manic than depressed, so if I must call one a disorder, and the other the "actual" individual, I'd call the manic the individual. It's more "natural" in the sense that it's the way they ought to be. Nopony ever ought to be depressed.

[Samurshy 708]

Well, as I understand it, there's no reason to call one side her "real" side and the other side the "real self". It's very pessimistic. Both the depression and the mania are effects of DID, so there's no reason to call either side as being more legitimately "that person".

 

In fact, seeing as she's almost always manic, and that's how everypony knows her, then I'd say if one side was her "true self", it would most definitely be the manic one.

 

Though I'd also say that even if it was very rare for her to be manic. It's better manic than depressed, so if I must call one a disorder, and the other the "actual" individual, I'd call the manic the individual. It's more "natural" in the sense that it's the way they ought to be. Nopony ever ought to be depressed.

 

Well, my grandpa puts people at risk when he is in his manic state. So I would say his "real" side would be his depressed side simply because in his state of mania he cannot even comprehend the simplest of things, or he overcomprehends them if there is such a word. He rolled up a police officer's arm in a window and drove off with him still attached to the car because he thought he was a martian. Where as in his depressed state at least he knows a martian from a cop. Pinkie is a bit different though. She obviously can tell what is what, and has no problem telling apart hallucinations from real life.

[TailsIsNotAlone 3,695]

I'm not sure...something about labeling our beloved ponies with real-world mental disorders feels wrong to me. But I'll throw out a few thoughts.

 

Pinkie Pie, crazy? Crazy like a fox, I say. I think there's more to her than meets the eye. Pinkie knows what she wants, and her seemingly random ideas or fantasies usually go back to that. She wants to have fun and share her excitement with others at all costs. She has a short attention span, more energy than she knows what to do with and a fantastically vivid imagination. She is in love with life and constantly looking for more stimulation. Not in the same way as Rainbow Dash, who loves competition and adrenaline highs, but the two of them could definitely relate.

 

I love the episode where she and Dash team up to pull pranks on everypony. And where she pretty clearly was leading Gilda on when the gryphon blamed her for all those jokes at the party that were actually Rainbow's ideas. I wouldn't be surprised if Pinkie suggested them to her beforehand.

[Stalliongrad 982]

Intermittent Explosive Disorder. When u diagnose a patient for a disorder like this you gotta look at their upbringing and background as that is the strongest link as to why they are the way they are now. Growing up on a boring rock farm and then finally being exposed to fun and parties. Pinkie Pie also bursts into song and dance when she is happy. That means she has an impulse control disorder and i would guess she has Intermittent Explosive Disorder.

[The Dark Soul 10]

I think she is perfectly sane what if she's just more socially dependant then other ponies thus when she thought she lost her friends she saw all the assorted objects and took them on as friends in a act of desperation

[Omegess 2]

It's mostly a spin off from the old my little pony, how if to be a true fan; how it would be a brain melting experience to go through a quick change. As if all is fine & then to experience a break from that comfort & world known so well. Pinkie Pie's break down, was exhaggerated, but done very well. MLP could have been done in a lot of different ways, there's so much room to additionalize in.

 

~Omegess