History Main / WanderingWalkOfMadness

* During World Wars One and Two, a common symptom of "shell shock"--now more accurately known as combat stress reaction--would be soldiers suddenly dropping their weapons and beginning to wander directly onto the battlefield, despite being surrounded by artillery fire. In some cases, the soldiers were DrivenToSuicide, but in others, their minds simply couldn't bear the intense pressure of the fighting any longer, and they completely disconnected from reality.
* No less then Heinrich Himmler, according to some reports, was found doing this, suffering damage from a Soviet missile and trying to cross a checkpoint. He did not succeed and committed suicide when captured.

* Sometimes people who suffer grievous injuries that don't immediately kill them suffer from shock and walk around aimlessly for however long they have left. This is because the brain shuts out the (likely intense) pain from the injury, and that combined with the likely traumatic experience they just suffered cause [[DissonantSerenity some people to act like they are not even injured and carry on trying to go somewhere else.]] There are stories of Hiroshima survivors suffering severe radiation burns from the bomb still getting up and searching around for their families or other people, only to eventually succumb to their injuries and the radiation poisoning.
* Several instances of PolarMadness have featured the unfortunate victims leaving their bases and wandering off on foot. In one case, the Belgian Antarctic Expedition of 1897 became trapped in the ice for so long that one crewmember simply left the ship, claiming that he was "returning to Belgium", and was never seen again. Some modern scholars have even interpreted the fate of Captain Oates in the Terra Nova Expedition as being due not to a HeroicSacrifice, but due to mental illness that drove him to walk into a blizzard in a state of confusion.

* ''Series/TheHauntingOfHillHouse'':

* Exploited by mobster Vincent "Vin the Chin" Gigante: after realizing that he was in danger of being indicted, he took to [[ObfuscatingInsanity feigning insanity]] by -- among other things -- wandering aimlessly around Greenwich Village in his bathrobe and slippers, mumbling gibberish. The ploy actually worked for thirty years, up until other mobsters began testifying that the whole thing was a hoax, and even Gigante confessed in court that he'd been faking dementia all along.

->''Thus, she would sleep, and she would forget. Having forgotten, she would wake. ''She would walk.'' How many nights, how many walks? she no longer could count. Her attention lay only ahead, only on the bed that was her goal, and on the daughter she believed, each time she woke, would be waiting for her there.''