For English, I have to do a research paper on post traumatic stress. Daydreaming during class, I thought that Yuri seemed to have some of the symptoms of PSTD, which include nightmares, flashbacks, and avoidence of poeple/places/things that might cause recolection of the traumatic stressor. If anyone has any opinions on this, I would like to hear them.

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I don't know much about PTSD, looking on Wikipedia it seems to say this: "it is a routine result of traumatic experience rather than a manifestation of a pre-existing psychological weakness on the part of the patient." I think that Yuri already had some kind of weakness or inability to cope with stressful events before she joined the team and wished to avoid getting involved with such things. We don't get to see her father but her mother seems pretty caring and her room shows she is comfortable with enjoying stuff like stuffed toys etc. So she perhaps has a sheltered life compared to Kumi and Kasumi whose rooms are pretty adult/mature and lifestyles have forced them to concentrate on achieving/working like an adult.
Yuri seems more of an apathetic person who would rather be passive and at the back than the forefront. So being pushed to the front and put into such a situation where she is forced to get involved with stressful situations probably heightened her anxieties. However the teacher describes her as 'normal', so I'm not saying she was weak, I think Kumi and Kasumi were more fragile because they bottled up their emotional reactions whereas Yuri felt she could let it all out.

After Yuri started to get heavily targeted, so as to force her out of her sheltered 'normal' life and become more actively involved, she certainly did seem to become severely distressed.
Going through the symptomns on Wikipedia:

Nightmares: She certainly had alot of unusual dreams that involved confronting distressing stuff.
Flashbacks: When she goes to that dark forest/shrine place and thinks something is going to attack her she flashes back to that traumatic experience in the alien hold with thsoe boys.
Emotional detachment or numbing of feelings (emotional self-mortification or dissociation): I think Yuri out of the 3 is the most intouch with her feelings, hence all the crying.
Insomnia: The nightmares and worrying seemed to wake her up/keep her up a fair bit.
Avoidance of reminders and extreme distress when exposed to the reminders ("triggers"): Again the forest thing, and wanting to avoid borgs or alien films etc.
Irritability: Hmm... doesn't really sound like Yuri.
Hypervigilance: Not sure, maybe.
Memory loss: She lost her memory in the manga.
Excessive startle response: She does react much more than the others.
Clinical depression and anxiety: She does seem to get very depressed and anxious
Loss of appetite: We don't really see them much at mealtimes so can't really say.

I also think that Kumi and Kasumi suffered from PTSD. They both had traumatic experiences at a very young age involving the loss of a loved one (Kumi loses her father, Kasumi loses her brother) and both their lives were heavily changed after that experience meaning they couldn't 'heal' properly. The fact they bottled their emotions up also meant that their anxiety worsened. But they react differently.

Kumi:
Irritability: She definitely is easily irritated by others and a bit standoff-ish as her reactions to others show.
Depression and anxiety: I think internally she is quite concerned etc and worrying, but she wants to appear strong.
Emotional detachment or numbing of feelings: She doesn't seem to want to get too close to people or talk about herself.
Avoidance of reminders and extreme distress when exposed to the reminders: She seemed to repressed her loneliness as the Yellow Knife scene showed as she reacted severely to being reminded of her feelings towards her mother.

Kumi's mother also seems emotionally detached and always seems tired so perhaps she suffers from insomnia?

Kasumi:
Emotional detachment or numbing of feelings: She definitely is very detached from reality and doesn't seem to know how to express her feelings so she uses "Nya!" instead to show extreme emotional reactions.
Memory loss: I think she maybe repressed the memory of her brother leaving?

But I think emotions are pretty complicated and I wouldn't want to be one to 'diagnose' anyone seriously.

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- -- --- Alien 9 / Alien Nine Unofficial Website - Since November 2003 --- -- -

Ah, I see. Great insite. I guess your right in the fact that they all exibit at least some symptoms of PSTD. I don't think that Kasumi really represed the memory of her brother, but ended up using her notion of liking everything and doing so many activites to fill the void of him leaving. As for Kumi, I'm not too sure what to think about her on this subject. I can see her being irritated. Mabey after being class rep for so long made her really hate other people for doing things and making her take the responsibility. And for Yuri, she does seem to show the main signs of having PSTD. But I also want to say that I'm not really trying to imply that thay have PSTD, intentionly put into the anime/manga, I just think it seems like it.

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Yeah I know what you mean, put into situations like that I think many would start showing symptomns like those listed. So I know what you eman about it not necessarily meaning that it is so. Plus I don't like labels etc. so I wouldn't assume it either. However it is interesting to debate about it like you say. And I agree with your observations, Kasumi and Kumi don't seem to repress the memory of their loved ones, as both have a photo of them. I agree with the idea that they repress their feelings/emotions about it by filling in the void or feeling resentment. I think that Kumi feels resentment/loneliness for having to look after her Mom rather than her Mom look after her, and so when others start expecting her to look after them e.g. as rep of a class, or Yuri's dependancy on her, she gets irritated (initially, until she learns to accept that she can enjoy being responsible, she's a natural leader). Anyway its cool, this series is years old but still we can debate new things about it and notice new things.

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- -- --- Alien 9 / Alien Nine Unofficial Website - Since November 2003 --- -- -

I think Yuri is in the history a way to represent the emotions of abused childrens, she is a pure and good girl who is sad and scare to death beacuse of the society and the evil ¨aliens¨ who makes his life miserable, and yes Yuri is probably a pathologic person because of this

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¨Everybody, everybody is an alien. Everyone will become an alien. Everybody will become one. All the kids will graduate. Their bodies will change. They will become adults. And everybody is an alien¨