User blog:Holokami/Michelle Syndrome

Uncontrolled Psionic Power Growth and Correction Syndrome, or “Michelle Syndrome”, is one of the most dangerous threats to biological psychics. It can lead to injury, stunted growth, unusable power, life-threatening symptoms, and death.

A Little History
Michelle Syndrome was first discovered by Lumi Faraday, after her sister, Michelle, suffered badly from it. At the time, she didn’t know what it was, but after the creation of the New World, Lumi’s research lead to her finding out.

Research into Michelle Syndrome became one of Lumi’s priorities, as it turned out, the mechanisms for it run more deeply than she imagined. She eventually figured it out, but realised it can’t be “cured” only “helped”. If someone was suffering from a bad case of Michelle Syndrome, using psionics, even at Lumi’s level, to cure it, could actually make it much worse in an instant.

After officially calling it the “Uncontrolled Psionic Power Growth and Correction Syndrome”, Lumi then named it after her sister.

Mechanisms
Michelle Syndrome is a broad terms for similar symptoms from two different roots; Growth-based Michelle Syndrome, Correction-based Michelle Syndrome; both culminating in Full Michelle Syndrome. Before we get onto the symptoms of Michelle Syndrome, the three forms, and the “Mental Cushion” need to be understood:

Mental Cushion
The “Mental Cushion” is the psionic term for the resilience the mind has to training and growth. When a psychic pushes their mind to its limits, they then enter the “Mental Cushion”. The Mental Cushion is a mental safety mechanism that allows for safe and controlled growth, even when the mind is straining itself; It softens the hit of a psychic reaching their limits, and allows the psychic to safely push past them for a limited time before it becomes dangerous.

Like a runner running full-pelt at a wall, but in place of that wall is a really big wall of pillows, expanding in front of and behind where the wall should be. It allows them to hit the limit safely, and push through. The exact mechanics of the Mental Cushion aren’t yet fully understood.

Each psychic’s Mental Cushion is different, and it’s notoriously difficult to measure without a skilled telepath.

Growth-based Michelle Syndrome
Growth-based Michelle Syndrome, or GMS, is when a psychic’s mind will begin to raise its power and expand it capabilities by itself. Though this seems useful, it doesn’t stop, and will keep going through and beyond the mental cushion, passively pushing the mind of the psychic to dangerous levels.

The mental cushion will freak out and send signals to the mind to stop, but the mind won't stop, and when the mental cushion is passed, the mind will become incredibly strained, all the while the mental cushion is trying to force the mind to stop, leading to various symptoms. If the rate of growth it low, it isn't too much of a problem, but if the growth rate is too high, it can lead to the mind passively straining itself to destruction.

There are a few theories as to why GMS occurs, typically it’s when a psychic was trained strenuously for a great period and the mind doesn’t settle again afterwards, though it can trigger if the psychic has never done any training at all.

There are various stages to GMS, as it typically starts mild, before growing in potency:
 * Stage 1 GMS: <=5% growth per day.
 * Stage 2 GMS: <=15% growth per day.
 * Stage 3 GMS: <=35% growth per day.
 * Stage 4 GMS: <=65% growth per day.
 * Stage 5 GMS: >=100% growth per day. Ultimately leads to a coma or death.

Correction-based Michelle Syndrome
Correction-based Michelle Syndrome, or CMS, is when the psychic has pushed past their limits, and has grown, even if it’s safely, but after they’ve let their mind relax, there’s some disconnect in the mind, where it considers the growth of the psychic to be dangerous, and will drag it down, undoing the growth. This can happen gradually or immediately.

CMS is considered less dangerous than GMS, but if not treated, it can stunt the growth of the psychic, or lead to a psychic pushing themselves to the point it becomes dangerous.

If the correction rate is too fast, or immediate, it can lead to various symptoms. The correction is called a "spring back" among the medical and psionic community. The speed of spring backs can increase with each successive spring back.

One possible other factor of CMS is the “Mental Cushion Danger Signal Nullification Factor”, or having a “Super Soft Mental Cushion”. This factor can lead to the mental cushion giving no danger signals to the mind to say it’s about to be passed, or has been passed. This can give way for the psychic going way past their mental cushion without even noticing until they stop training, leading to harmful symptoms when it springs back.

“Super Soft CMS”, or “SSCMS” is considered to be as life-threatening as GMS.

Unlike GMS, the mechanics of CMS are easier to pin down; it occurs due to disconnects and faults in the mind, though the reasons for the disconnects and faults in the mind in unknown.

There are various stages to CMS, as the spring backs can have differing rates per person, and can also increase over successive spring backs. The percentage of the spring back relates to the decrease of the power grained before the spring back:
 * Stage 1 GMS: <=0.1% correction per minute.
 * Stage 2 GMS: <=1% correction per minute.
 * Stage 3 GMS: <=10% correction per minute.
 * Stage 4 GMS: <=100% correction per minute.
 * Stage 5 GMS: >=Immediate.

Full Michelle Syndrome
Full Michelle Syndrome, or FMS, is the most threatening form of Michelle Syndrome, and is highly likely to lead to death if not spotted early. Full Michelle Syndrome is where the patient suffers both GMS and CMS/SSCMS simultaneously.

FMS is a combination of GMS and CMS, and causes the mind to not only grow by itself, but pull that growth back at random intervals based on danger signals from the mental cushion. It leads to the psychic having no control over their power, and likely no power to use, as it fluctuates in power and capability against their will. FMS usually leads to regular bursts of pain and symptoms.

Super Soft FMS, or SSFMS, is a combination of GMS and SSCMS, and causes the mind to grow by itself. SSFMS is the worst-case scenario for Michelle Syndrome, as the mind will grow by itself, but never receive danger signals from the mental cushion, leading to the mind uncontrollably growing way past its limits.

SSFMS is safe while in its growth phase, mild headache to migraines might result from it, but the psychic will be able to use and control their powers as normal. The real danger is the correction phase, when he mind suddenly believes this growth is a threat and reigns it in. This might seem similar to FMS, but the difference is that the growth phase of SSFMS can last for years of exponential growth, instead of anything up to a month or two.

When SSFMS springs back during its correct phase, it can cause massive damage to the psychic’s body and mind, and likely lead to a suddenly, unexplained death after an enormous drop in power.

SSFMS is what Michelle Faraday suffered from, and it built up over her entire life before springing back at the age of 16. If it wasn’t for her power limiting the damage of a 10-11 year spring back, she would have died.

There are no stages of FMS, and are simply read of GMS and CMS stages individually.

Symptoms
The symptoms of Michelle Syndrome vary from inconvenient, to life-threatened, to life-ending. The severity of the symptom depends of the stage of the Michelle Syndrome and type of Michelle Syndrome:

GMS

 * Stage 1 GMS:
 * Infrequent to regular faint headaches
 * Infrequent spells of dizziness
 * Stage 2 GMS:
 * Regular Headaches
 * Regular spells of dizziness
 * Stage 3 GMS:
 * Constant headache
 * Infrequent migraines
 * Very frequent spells of dizziness
 * Noticeable lack of focus
 * Forgetfulness
 * Raised temperature
 * Twitching, and possibly other faulty nervous signals
 * Stage 4 GMS:
 * Constant headache
 * Frequent to constant migraines
 * Near constant state of dizziness
 * Lack of focus
 * Short term memory loss, to inability to remember at the short time
 * Other mental functions may become impaired
 * Frequent nose bleeds
 * Inability to speak coherently if at all
 * Feverish
 * Very twitchy, dangerously faulty nervous signals
 * Stage 5 GMS:
 * Highly likely in a comatose state
 * Constant migraine of high severity
 * Impaired to severely impaired mental functions
 * Constant nose bleed
 * Dangerously high temperature
 * Possibly death from trauma to the brain, or ceasing of all mental functions, or complete shutdown of nervous system.

CMS

 * Stage 1 GMS:
 * Stage 2 GMS:
 * Stage 3 GMS:
 * Stage 4 GMS:
 * Stage 5 GMS:
 * Stage 4 GMS:
 * Stage 5 GMS:
 * Stage 5 GMS:
 * Stage 5 GMS: