Writing a character who becomes severely malnourished/dehydrated/sleep-deprived?

shakespork:

Here’s what you’ll need to know!
Learn all about the wonders of the human body and add scientifically-accurate drama to your stories.

MALNOURISHMENT

  • DEATH: average – 21 days (3 weeks), max ever recorded – 70 days (2.3 months)
  • 6 HOURS: grouchiness and hunger due to lack of glucose.
  • 24 HOURS – 48 HOURS: hunger very apparent; pains in stomach; body has entered ketosis and is using fatty acids as energy.
  • 72 HOURS+: muscles begin to get broken down for energy.
  • You will become: increasingly depressed, irritable, hysteric apathetic; decline in concentration, comprehension and judgement; social isolation and withdrawal; possible self-harm.
  • If your character doesn’t eat for 5 consecutive days, they are at risk of Refeeding Syndrome. This is extremely dangerous and can be fatal.

recommended reading:

DEHYDRATION

  • DEATH: average 3 days; some live 8 – 10 days
  • for the calculations: TWV = total water volume in body; average adult loses 2.5 litres of water per day.
  • Assuming that your character does not eat, drink or absorb any moisture.
  • 9 HOURS/2% TWV: thirst, discomfort, dry skin, loss of appetite; 50% loss of performance for athletes; elevated body temperature, rapid heartbeat, fatigue, dizziness when standing, decreased fluid secretion (sweat, urination, tears, etc).
  • 24 HOURS/6% TWV: sleepiness, severe headaches, nausea, tingling in limbs.
  • 36 – 72 HOURS/ 6 – 15% TWV: no urination, seizures, muscle spasms, shriveled skin, fainting, vision dimming, delirium.
  • 72 HOURS+/15% TWV+: Organ failure.

recommended reading:

SLEEP DEPRIVATION

  • DEATH: not known, but can stay awake for 11 days; max chronic sleep deprivation ever recorded (until death) – 6 months.
  • NOTE: This does not mean you can stay awake for 6 months. It means you can survive that long with chronic sleep deprivation – going days without sleep and then sleeping once or twice.
  • 24 HOURS: mental ability impairment of someone who has blood-alcohol content of 0.10%; everything is worse – emotional control, memory, attention, decision-making, hand-eye coordination.
  • 36 HOURS: hormonal spikes everywhere; losing time; lack of motivation; head buzzing like you’re dehydrated.
  • 48 HOURS: microsleep, regardless of what you’re doing (you fall asleep for 1-30 seconds and then become disorientated);
  • 72 HOURS+: say goodbye to higher mental processes like decision-making and planning. Also, say good bye to saying goodbye because even simple conversations are hard.
  • 80 HOURS+: … and hello, hallucinations!

recommended reading:

HC: Help

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(He needs it. Badly. In my opinion, every Kaito does. But he’ll very, very rarely ever ask for it, because he feels he’s doing fine enough as it is and he really doesn’t like admitting that he can’t do something, whether it’s the Pandora search or something smaller scale. But even moreso for anything that’s probably going to get other people hurt if they try to help. And Kaito gets lonely, which doesn’t help him in trying to keep people away. To the point that, he’ll get close to people and help them, they’re not allowed to do the same if he gets a say in it.

But on that note, he does like helping those who he feels needs it. It usually makes them happy and he can ignore his own problems a bit more when he does. And as the manga has shown, if he takes a bigger liking to someone, he’ll go further out of his way too help.

It’s also, (in my opinion, I actually don’t know how it’d go over in actuality), made him a bit of a pushover. He cares too much. He’s not an idiot, and if he sees a bad situation, he won’t just let himself be completely walked on, but it’s why things like hostage situations or just anyone needing immediate assistance take priority over his job, in some cases. But only if it’s outside of his control. If he expected it or even planned it, then he has no problems. He’s softer than he should be, even if he can deal with things when he has to. And that both helps and hurts himself… People tend to like him easier, but then he’s also easier to take advantage of and get into trouble.)

(Welp, I feel a lot better now. Read manga, went out to eat with my dad, then managed to convince him to watch up to episode five of the MK specials before he took a nap afterwards. And now he wants to finish it. …Hope he doesn’t actually want a resolution, though, or he’s gonna be a bit disappointed…

And specials over the anime because Spider. Both of them know I’m weird and run RP blogs for thief and assassin characters, so…

Yep. Good second half of my night off.)

flyawaythief replied to your post:It’s Munday. Tell us about yourself.

(i am here to be your fellow nocturnal!)

(*hugs* I feel like I should put the hours I’m normally awake/at my computer, because I run on an almost set clockwork. Still kind of sucks to be going to bed when most people start getting active, though. I miss out on a lot that way, even if I can read later. And then work cuts into most of the time, even if I take the opportunities when it isn’t as busy to be on Spider’s account anyway. (Too much trouble to log out and in back and forth between the two accounts from the phone.))

It’s Munday. Tell us about yourself.

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(…Well. it’s not going to be Munday for much longer here… I don’t mind telling about myself even when it’s not Munday, though. Well, for most general things, anyway. *sigh* I guess a random thing that people I’ve RPed with have noticed by now is that I’m up at odd times. I work the night shift at my job, so I’ve become very nocturnal. Hence why when something like this ask is sent, I can’t usually get to it until the next day, technically. And being up in the hours most people sleep is a pain, let me tell you…

Though if you meant general stuff, like name and such, I do leave a link to that sort of stuff, (and pictures) from the main blog page.)

[So, went to the library, checked out manga, and then watched The Book of Life with my parents. ‘Twas nice. I’ll get one post out for icons, for Kaito in the school uniform. There’s way too many to put everything all together, and I like grouping by outfits because it makes things easier to find really, so other posts will be Kid, and then other. Other being the white shirt, random clothes, police disguises and such.

…Also, I get the random thoughts to make a Pokemon verse for Kai, but the thing is, most of my Pokeverses have the characters as Pokemon, not trainers or anything. I mean, I probably could, but my main idea would be that Kaito’s a Zorua. Still a Kaito, and his disguising illusion for human form would look the same, and he’s been around them long enough to pass off as one. For that kind of verse to still have Kid, though, only thing would be that Toichi was his trainer, and he knew about everything and carries the job out even after his death…]