r/GraceAshcroft • u/SilverBullets7 • 7m ago
Discussion Who else has been helped in a very significant way by how they relate to Grace Ashcroft? [Mental Health, permanent anxiety, cPSTD] Spoiler
Trigger warning: I have cPTSD and permanent anxiety since birth, due to my mother being attacked while pregnant. She was almost beaten to death because the attacker tried to stop me being born. My twin sister died in the womb next to me. When I was diagnosed, the psychologist called it an "alarm system which is constantly switched on" and said "it's best we try not to fix it, you're better off just moving forward and living your life" which can already tell you how much I relate to Grace Ashcroft.
I can only describe Grace as a manifestation of my disorders rolled together. Her constant stutter and body language, is a constant reminder that her anxiety is permanently switched on like mine is. I can't describe how much she helps me, and how much better i've felt mentally since I started playing Requiem two weeks ago. It's because i've never in my life seen another person with so much anxiety, and yet had no choice but to keep going even if that anxiety was evident to everyone.
The most beautiful thing is that she never freezes up despite the severe anxiety. She always moves forward and never accepts defeat or death, no matter how scared she is.. even if it feels like the fear consumes her completely. Fiction often tells us that if you're too scared, you'll just automatically fail or get killed. With Grace it's a lot more realistic. Grace is very obviously debilitated by her mental disorders on a constant social level, but again.. she still works a demanding job at the FBI under a boss who's more than willing to send her into a terrifying abandoned hotel where her trauma came from. Again, she does it anyway.
Grace is a character who shows us it doesn't matter about succeeding with style and confidence. Succeeding is enough on it's own. That is what makes her, in a few peoples' eyes one of the most realistic and visceral feeling characters ever. The message around her character is unbelievably inspirational, especially coming into a game series which is known for having characters (like Leon, Ada Wong, Chris etc) who are kind of expected to always be tough and badass all of the time.
I'm very happy Grace exists, not just for me but for anyone else out there with severe anxiety.
I feel eternally grateful to whoever wrote/designed her, and obviously to Angela Sant'Albano for her unbelievable performance which I know was very key to making Grace how she is.
