Can You Elaborate On The Wander Having Ptsd Thing? Not Disagreeing With You I'm Just Interested

can you elaborate on the wander having ptsd thing? not disagreeing with you i'm just interested

wander's past is only handwaved to throughout the show, but we know from the episode "the wanders" that wander's desire to help people stems from some ambiguous childhood trauma that caused him to "know what it is to be helpless"

we didn't get to find out the specific details about wander's life before the show ended but there are a handful of things that seem to "trigger" him-- or set him off-- that specifically being when he isn't able to help someone, or when his plan to help someone gets disrupted in any way. he tends to panic or get very anxious on the drop of a dime, and semi-frequently will pluck his hair out or hyperventilate or when something suddenly goes wrong... ptsd and panic attacks often go hand in hand, after all

dr screwball jones seems to be an interesting case because he is one of the only villains that wander is genuinely afraid of, you can see him get nervous when screwball gets too close, and the entire episode revolves around this batman-esque persona wander throws on to defeat him... this is speculation on my part but i've always seen this as a sort of coping mechanism, considering its only triggered by the few episodes screwball shows up in

anyway-- sylvia tends to calm wander down when he's in this state, putting on a gentle voice and holding him and generally grounding him back in reality, its very sweet and also shows that sylvia is familiar with wander's attacks and knows how to deal with them

we know that wander was traumatized by being helpless, and we know that the thought of being helpless causes wander to freak out. even if the word "ptsd" is not directly said in the show.. wander is a canon ptsd king