Post by Michael on Jan 9, 2021 10:44:28 GMT -5
Atticus has lived anything but a lavished life. He's watched his mother struggle to provide for him ever since his father ran out on them when he was three. As a result of this upbringing, Atticus's managed to maintain a rather Empathetic connection with others and their struggles. A key trait of the young man and one that has been a part of him ever since his childhood is his Creative mind and an extremely Active Imagination. He's often allowed said imagination to run rampant within his life. Preferring the realm of fiction and fantasy over the harshness of reality.
As a Quiet and slightly Timid person by nature growing up. Atticus was an easy target for bullying. Something he did very little to act against until he was much older. This Passiveness steems from Atticus's desire to belong and his willingness to do whatever it takes in order to find that place. He can be quite Stubborn in that regard, perhaps best seen when in spite of their bullying and constant abandoning of him during games. He kept coming back to the two kids in his local neighbor who would eventually become two of his closest friends later in life.
This pattern of being left behind, abandon, and forgotten has had a major impact on Atticus's growth as an adult. It, along with several other factors, has left him with a fair amount of Anexity and Anxiousness. Not only when dealing with the people already present within his life, but also when it comes to letting new people in. Thus, in spite of his ability to empathize and connect with others, Atticus is fairly closed off and Emotionally Guarded. When the young man does lower his guard he's known to form emotional connections with others rather quickly. Atticus, in fact, has a rather strong connection with his emotions as a whole.
Which can be both a blessing and a curse as it can cause him to come off as Overly Attached and Codependent even if that's not how Atticus intends to be perceived. This also means that because of how deeply in-tune with his own feelings that Atticus tends to be. He takes things like betrayal and heartbreak quite seriously. Rather than outwardly deal with these negative emotions, however, Atticus will push them down and bottle them up. Ignoring them until it's too much for him to handle and they come out in explosive and destructive ways. An example of this being during the fifth grade. When a kid that had been bullying him finally pushed Atticus past his limit. He blacked out in a fit of rage and ended up doing serious harm to the child in question.
This is especially a problem when one takes into consideration that Atticus is Bi-Polar. The mental illness is one that is often found within his mother's side of the family and is something both he and her suffer from. Atticus suffers from Cyclothymia, a mild variation of the illness that while related differs in intensity from its sister illness. Those familiar with the disorder will know that because of it Atticus is rather Temperamental. Suffering from mild highs and lows that last for short periods of time. Depression in particular is something the young man has struggled greatly with because of this. It has consumed a large portion of Atticus's young adult life and while he does his best to mask it with humor and plastic smiles. It can't help but bleedthrough at the end of the day.
Atticus was born to a mother by the name of Amber and a father sharing the same name as him. For the first two years of Atticus's life, his family was the picture of perfection, they were living the American dream. Not that Atticus actually remembers any of that, nor does he remember the day his father walked out on him and his mother. It was actually two weeks before his third birthday, but that day held a far more lasting effect on the young adult than he cares to admit. It crushed his mother when his father left, and she was forced to support the young child on her own. It was a struggle. So much of a struggle that sometime after that point she began to ignore him. If only to escape the responsibilities thrusted so heavily upon her shoulders. She would instead place Atticus into the care of her father, who for several months was the babies’ only real source of survival. Being in the care of his grandfather didn't last long, however, as his granddad grew strict this daughter. She had Atticus, and thus was required to raise him; no matter how hard it was going to be for her.
So she took the three old and moved away from her hometown, perhaps a fresh start away from those memories would do her good. Which it did, if only slightly. These memories of his mother working hard day in and day out, are always fresh inside of Atticus's mind. From a young age Atticus was always a bit of a troublemaker, small things at first you know? He'd get caught sneaking an extra cookie or drawing on the walls. Actions his mother attempted to fix with things like time outs and taking away his privileges. When these things began to fail to enforce the idea that he wasn't supposed to be doing bad, she began to spank him. The threatening of spankings became the go too in order to correct his behavior. Time passed on and a new person began to enter into Atticus's young life, a woman by the name of Cynthia. It was explained to Atticus that Cynthia was his mother's girlfriend and that she would be staying with them for a while; something which his four-year-old mind didn't quite understand.
It would also be around the age of five where Atticus made his first real friends, although their 'friendship' started out more like bullying. You see Atticus wasn't a very tough child when he was younger, and thus made a very easy target for bullying. He just wanted friends, and to get along with everybody. Kids can be quite cruel. Often times these two friends of his would play games and then utterly abandon the young boy to go do other things. He would cry a lot. In response to this Atticus's mother told him to toughen up, and that he shouldn't waste his tears or his time with them. He kept coming back though, kept attempting to play with them. Eventually, it paid off for him, and he did indeed become friends with these two. Playing games like the 'Power Game' where they would each pretend to have magical powers and duck it out with one another, and weave together amazing stories. In fact, Atticus's always had a very imaginative mind; it was wilder than it probably should have been. If he wasn't playing he was thinking of amazing stories within his mind. Most of the time he was really doing both.
It was by the time he entered elementary that Atticus began to really feel the effects of bullying, not only because he was slightly different, but because of his mother. He would tell his mom and she would tell him the same thing she used to. That he needed to toughen up. He just couldn't though; he couldn't find it within himself. So he allowed it all to bottle up, placed it away. That little began to grow fuller and fuller as the years went on. It would finally reach its peak during his fifth-grade year. Where it overflowed and all of his pent up problems came rushing out an on a poor boy that had pushed him too far. A lot of the fight is a haze within Atticus's mind, but the end result was the other boy being badly harmed. He felt bad afterward. Like there was a pit inside of his stomach, he wasn't a bad person like that right? He didn't just hurt people for no reason.
Life went on, and as he reached his early teens Atticus began to withdraw himself from the world. Something just didn't feel right with him. He was moody, felt as though there was a heavyweight placed inside of his chest. He began to keep a journal where he placed all of his thoughts, and they were dark. Depression at its earliest stages really. He still hung out with a small circle of friends, and hell he even dated a couple of girls during middle school but it all just felt like he was acting. None of it felt...truly good. So he told his mom how he was feeling, and she sought out help. This help came in the form of a therapist whose help he did not want and thus didn't use correctly. He made up fake problems and wasted her time. So much to the point that she actually left. He didn't want someone to fix him; he just wanted to feel normal.
As he entered high school Atticus's problems with school and life became more apparent. His grade its utterly dropped and it got to the point where he would even sleep during his classes, teachers wouldn't even hand him his work. He began to skip school with his friends, drink, do drugs, and a variety of other things that fit your typical 'bad boy' persona. While these helped to fill the void it was only temporary. It was around this time that he began to develop mood swings, going from happy to sad, to anger and anything in-between quickly. Bipolar is what his mother called, and it was something that the two of them had in common.
Speaking of parents Atticus's father made a reappearance within his life at the age of sixteen; promising that things would be different. He had reentered several times before this, but this one...it had more of an effect on the young boy. They were going to do things together, actually, be father and son. Then his father left again. Before any of that could even happen. So he began to hate the man, hate everything that he stood for. When his father ended up in prison he refused to talk to him, refused to even write. Why should he be there for him, when he couldn't be there for Atticus? His mother told him that he needed to be the bigger man, but this was one time he refused to be it.
By the time Atticus was seventeen he had dropped out of school and began to fall deeper into the madness that was his mind. He shut himself inside of his room and began to fill the void in his life with video games, and anything else that was an escape from reality. Every once in awhile he would hang out with his friends, he was the shy guy who was hard to get to open up, but when he did he'd laugh and joke, and be a real blast. In his mind, though he began to hate these people, he felt better than them, better than anyone. It wasn't healthy, he wasn't healthy. As if to give an even better sign of this Atticus had his first panic attack at the age of eighteen. Then came the pills to balance him out, to make him feel better to keep the mood swings and the panic attacks in check. They helped greatly, but they slowed him down, made him feel less like himself. So he stopped taking them. Only keeping a few on his person in order to calm any panic attacks that might happen.
Only recently having turned eighteen Atticus is still struggling to cope with his issues as best as possible. Little does he know, fate has something fantastic in store for him.
As a Quiet and slightly Timid person by nature growing up. Atticus was an easy target for bullying. Something he did very little to act against until he was much older. This Passiveness steems from Atticus's desire to belong and his willingness to do whatever it takes in order to find that place. He can be quite Stubborn in that regard, perhaps best seen when in spite of their bullying and constant abandoning of him during games. He kept coming back to the two kids in his local neighbor who would eventually become two of his closest friends later in life.
This pattern of being left behind, abandon, and forgotten has had a major impact on Atticus's growth as an adult. It, along with several other factors, has left him with a fair amount of Anexity and Anxiousness. Not only when dealing with the people already present within his life, but also when it comes to letting new people in. Thus, in spite of his ability to empathize and connect with others, Atticus is fairly closed off and Emotionally Guarded. When the young man does lower his guard he's known to form emotional connections with others rather quickly. Atticus, in fact, has a rather strong connection with his emotions as a whole.
Which can be both a blessing and a curse as it can cause him to come off as Overly Attached and Codependent even if that's not how Atticus intends to be perceived. This also means that because of how deeply in-tune with his own feelings that Atticus tends to be. He takes things like betrayal and heartbreak quite seriously. Rather than outwardly deal with these negative emotions, however, Atticus will push them down and bottle them up. Ignoring them until it's too much for him to handle and they come out in explosive and destructive ways. An example of this being during the fifth grade. When a kid that had been bullying him finally pushed Atticus past his limit. He blacked out in a fit of rage and ended up doing serious harm to the child in question.
This is especially a problem when one takes into consideration that Atticus is Bi-Polar. The mental illness is one that is often found within his mother's side of the family and is something both he and her suffer from. Atticus suffers from Cyclothymia, a mild variation of the illness that while related differs in intensity from its sister illness. Those familiar with the disorder will know that because of it Atticus is rather Temperamental. Suffering from mild highs and lows that last for short periods of time. Depression in particular is something the young man has struggled greatly with because of this. It has consumed a large portion of Atticus's young adult life and while he does his best to mask it with humor and plastic smiles. It can't help but bleedthrough at the end of the day.
Atticus was born to a mother by the name of Amber and a father sharing the same name as him. For the first two years of Atticus's life, his family was the picture of perfection, they were living the American dream. Not that Atticus actually remembers any of that, nor does he remember the day his father walked out on him and his mother. It was actually two weeks before his third birthday, but that day held a far more lasting effect on the young adult than he cares to admit. It crushed his mother when his father left, and she was forced to support the young child on her own. It was a struggle. So much of a struggle that sometime after that point she began to ignore him. If only to escape the responsibilities thrusted so heavily upon her shoulders. She would instead place Atticus into the care of her father, who for several months was the babies’ only real source of survival. Being in the care of his grandfather didn't last long, however, as his granddad grew strict this daughter. She had Atticus, and thus was required to raise him; no matter how hard it was going to be for her.
So she took the three old and moved away from her hometown, perhaps a fresh start away from those memories would do her good. Which it did, if only slightly. These memories of his mother working hard day in and day out, are always fresh inside of Atticus's mind. From a young age Atticus was always a bit of a troublemaker, small things at first you know? He'd get caught sneaking an extra cookie or drawing on the walls. Actions his mother attempted to fix with things like time outs and taking away his privileges. When these things began to fail to enforce the idea that he wasn't supposed to be doing bad, she began to spank him. The threatening of spankings became the go too in order to correct his behavior. Time passed on and a new person began to enter into Atticus's young life, a woman by the name of Cynthia. It was explained to Atticus that Cynthia was his mother's girlfriend and that she would be staying with them for a while; something which his four-year-old mind didn't quite understand.
It would also be around the age of five where Atticus made his first real friends, although their 'friendship' started out more like bullying. You see Atticus wasn't a very tough child when he was younger, and thus made a very easy target for bullying. He just wanted friends, and to get along with everybody. Kids can be quite cruel. Often times these two friends of his would play games and then utterly abandon the young boy to go do other things. He would cry a lot. In response to this Atticus's mother told him to toughen up, and that he shouldn't waste his tears or his time with them. He kept coming back though, kept attempting to play with them. Eventually, it paid off for him, and he did indeed become friends with these two. Playing games like the 'Power Game' where they would each pretend to have magical powers and duck it out with one another, and weave together amazing stories. In fact, Atticus's always had a very imaginative mind; it was wilder than it probably should have been. If he wasn't playing he was thinking of amazing stories within his mind. Most of the time he was really doing both.
It was by the time he entered elementary that Atticus began to really feel the effects of bullying, not only because he was slightly different, but because of his mother. He would tell his mom and she would tell him the same thing she used to. That he needed to toughen up. He just couldn't though; he couldn't find it within himself. So he allowed it all to bottle up, placed it away. That little began to grow fuller and fuller as the years went on. It would finally reach its peak during his fifth-grade year. Where it overflowed and all of his pent up problems came rushing out an on a poor boy that had pushed him too far. A lot of the fight is a haze within Atticus's mind, but the end result was the other boy being badly harmed. He felt bad afterward. Like there was a pit inside of his stomach, he wasn't a bad person like that right? He didn't just hurt people for no reason.
Life went on, and as he reached his early teens Atticus began to withdraw himself from the world. Something just didn't feel right with him. He was moody, felt as though there was a heavyweight placed inside of his chest. He began to keep a journal where he placed all of his thoughts, and they were dark. Depression at its earliest stages really. He still hung out with a small circle of friends, and hell he even dated a couple of girls during middle school but it all just felt like he was acting. None of it felt...truly good. So he told his mom how he was feeling, and she sought out help. This help came in the form of a therapist whose help he did not want and thus didn't use correctly. He made up fake problems and wasted her time. So much to the point that she actually left. He didn't want someone to fix him; he just wanted to feel normal.
As he entered high school Atticus's problems with school and life became more apparent. His grade its utterly dropped and it got to the point where he would even sleep during his classes, teachers wouldn't even hand him his work. He began to skip school with his friends, drink, do drugs, and a variety of other things that fit your typical 'bad boy' persona. While these helped to fill the void it was only temporary. It was around this time that he began to develop mood swings, going from happy to sad, to anger and anything in-between quickly. Bipolar is what his mother called, and it was something that the two of them had in common.
Speaking of parents Atticus's father made a reappearance within his life at the age of sixteen; promising that things would be different. He had reentered several times before this, but this one...it had more of an effect on the young boy. They were going to do things together, actually, be father and son. Then his father left again. Before any of that could even happen. So he began to hate the man, hate everything that he stood for. When his father ended up in prison he refused to talk to him, refused to even write. Why should he be there for him, when he couldn't be there for Atticus? His mother told him that he needed to be the bigger man, but this was one time he refused to be it.
By the time Atticus was seventeen he had dropped out of school and began to fall deeper into the madness that was his mind. He shut himself inside of his room and began to fill the void in his life with video games, and anything else that was an escape from reality. Every once in awhile he would hang out with his friends, he was the shy guy who was hard to get to open up, but when he did he'd laugh and joke, and be a real blast. In his mind, though he began to hate these people, he felt better than them, better than anyone. It wasn't healthy, he wasn't healthy. As if to give an even better sign of this Atticus had his first panic attack at the age of eighteen. Then came the pills to balance him out, to make him feel better to keep the mood swings and the panic attacks in check. They helped greatly, but they slowed him down, made him feel less like himself. So he stopped taking them. Only keeping a few on his person in order to calm any panic attacks that might happen.
Only recently having turned eighteen Atticus is still struggling to cope with his issues as best as possible. Little does he know, fate has something fantastic in store for him.
