Midoriya POV

"Something weird happened to Todoroki yesterday," I told Tanaka-san at the start of our session I know that Todoroki doesn't seem to want other people to know but he's my therapist, I tell him everything, "we went to his house to practice for the practical portion of the midterm, then we went to a sparring room and he started acting a little off than when we started sparring he shut down..." I trailed off, not knowing what to say.

"What do you mean when you say shut down, what did that look like?" he prompted.

"It was like he forgot how to walk and talk but the weird thing is that when I was helping him walk out of the room I think he held me which was nice but was weird that he would do something like that it felt great holding him I think about that -"

"-Izuku, you're starting to mumble again," his voice brought me out of my head and back to what I was trying to tell him.

"Sorry! it was just..." I trailed off.

"It's ok, I know that that is part of how you process things, but remember what we've talked about you ruminating," he reminded me.

"Sorry!" I blurted out, before continuing, "when he was able to talk he said that this happens to him sometimes."

"Did he say if there was something that linked the shutdowns?"

"Yea! He said it happens when things have to do with his dad."

"I thought so, based on this and what you told me about him and his past, I believe that Todoroki has some form of trauma disorder, maybe PTSD, probably cPTSD, and the sparring room triggered him."

"What does it mean, I mean I know what trauma is but what does it mean to have a trauma disorder?" I asked, I wanted to know so I could understand him better, I really care about him, but I was confused, "I heard about PTSD, and I heard that soldiers would get it from being shot out, but he didn't go to war, so how does he have it? And I never heard of cPTSD."

He let out a sigh, "I know that this disorder is generally associated with soldiers in war, but most people that have it got it from other things you can get it from any traumatic event, such as in Todoroki's case, being abused by his father, and cPTSD, is complex post-traumatic stress disorder, which is basically PTSD on steroids. As for what they are is when someone goes through a traumatic point in their life the mind goes into survival mode and comes up with all sorts of coping mechanism to stay safe and sane, the problem is that some people's minds do not get out of servile mode, which is when it becomes a disorder. When someone with those disorders goes through something that reminds them of their trauma, they can get triggered, which is a flashback of sorts to the event or events of their trauma, that causes all kinds of physical or mental distress."

I thought for a moment processing what I just heard, I probably mumbled, but Tanaka-san didn't stop me. Eventually, I spoke, "Is there any way to fix it?"

"This is not something simple, there are few things that that can be done, but can't do anything unless I talk to him, and he is willing to put in a lot of effort into an uncomfortable treatment."

"Do you want me to see if he wants to come with me to one of our sessions?" I asked hesitantly.

"If you want to," he responded.

"Wait... to have to tell him that I go to therapy and I don't know if I want him to know, but his mom is in a therapy place and he seems to fine with that. So maybe he'll be fine with me but would he even want to come here-"

"- You don't need to figure that out now, we're running out of time, so we don't have time properly talk about this session, we can have that talk next session," he interrupted my mumbling.

"Oh! Before we end I want to know how to help him if that happens again."

"Each person needs different things, the best thing to do is, when he's not in a place of high emotions, ask him what he thinks will help."

"Thanks, Tanaka-san!"

I stayed up late that night trying to find out as much about trauma disorders as I could and now, I feel really bad for Todoroki.

AN

I hope you enjoyed!
The definition of cPTSD I gave is how my therapist described it to me when she diagnosed me with it. Please follow/favorite if you haven't already!
Please tell me what you thought of this chapter/story!
Constructive criticism is welcome.

(You no idea how much joy I get from someone following/favoriting/commenting on my work.)