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Xochitl Weiss

Mrs. Reed

American Lit, 2nd Hour

30 October 2016

Traumatic Events and Mental Health

Paul Sheldon, the main character in Misery by Stephen King, goes through several

traumatic events that play a significant role in the deterioration of his mental health and

contribute to his addiction issues. He goes through a kidnapping from a psychotic fan, named

Annie Wilkes, after he gets in a car accident that leaves him with severe injuries, deals with her

abuse and has to murder her to survive. While Paul is trapped at Annies house she gives him

pain medicine that starts his addiction. Even after being saved, Paul continues his addiction and

shows clear signs of mental issues. Paul Sheldon is a prime example that traumatic events have a

detrimental effect on peoples mental health and increase their likelihood of having a dependency

on drugs or alcohol.

Many people suffer from depression, anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder after

going through life altering events that are too emotionally or physically painful for them to

handle. Towards the end of Misery, after Paul is saved by the police officer, his behavior displays

clear signs of depression and a few of the symptoms of PTSD resulting from his traumatic

experiences. Paul constantly cries, suffers from horrible nightmares that make him relive

everything he went through and becomes depressed. Despite not being able to correctly mentally

process what happened to him and having horrible thoughts from his depression, Paul decides

not to seek help from a therapist even though he was drinking too much and not writing at all

proving that his symptoms are severe enough to impact his daily life and prevent him from
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working (King 343). Instead of going to a professional and learning the healthy way to deal with

his negative thoughts and the internal torture from the memories of his kidnapping, Paul, like

many others, turns to substance abuse as a way to cope.

Paul Sheldon uses drugs and alcohol to relieve the physical and mental pain he feels from

the trauma which is shown, by research, to be a common form of self-medication used by people

who experience traumatic events. First Paul becomes addicted to pain medicine while he is

kidnapped and after Paul is saved he relies heavily on alcohol to temporarily forget the memories

that plague his life. He, like many other people who have experienced traumatic events, feels that

these substances make[him] feel numbed, empowered or calmed (Psychological Trauma

and Drug Addiction). Alcohol becomes his coping mechanism instead of getting treatment for

the underlying cause of his pain from a therapist. By the end of the novel, Paul becomes

desperate to get the good dope that is his never-fail fix when his addiction had progressed

with his depression (King 345). Many people, who have experienced devastating life events, also

do not get the help they need and turn to self medication. A direct correlation between substance

abuse and traumatic events has been proven by studies in the past. In fact, a recent study, by the

Department of Veteran Affairs, on a sample group of 5,338 people, who have PTSD, reported

that 44% met criteria for alcohol abuse/dependence and 22% for drug abuse/dependence

(Meisler). Treatment can be difficult and expensive and is not something people like Paul should

have to deal with on their own.

As Misery progresses, Paul becomes an example of what commonly happens to a person

after they experience traumatic events. The stress and mental torture he goes through is

especially evident towards the end of the story and causes the readers to make the connection

that he is depressed, an alcoholic and needs treatment he is not going to get. This aspect of the
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story relates to people who have real life traumatic events and how those events impact their

lives and their mental health for years after they go through them. King uses Paul as an example

of what unfortunately happens in many cases where people go through traumatic events.