Basic Trope: A mentally disordered character who doesn't want to be one.
- Straight: Bob is insane, but wishes that he were sane.
- Exaggerated: There are several such characters.
- Downplayed: Bob is a Cloudcuckoolander and wishes that he were a little less crazy.
- Justified: It's an unpleasant mental disorder, such as "pure O" OCD or depression.
- Inverted: Bob is the Only Sane Man, but hates it.
- Subverted:
- It turns out this was an act to garner sympathy. As soon as Alice is distracted, out comes the chainsaw and the Slasher Smile.
- It turns out Bob was Obfuscating Insanity.
- Double Subverted:
- He was using it to get sympathy, but Bob's concern and angst over his condition is genuine.
- Later, he undergoes Sanity Slippage, and Angsts about it.
- Parodied: Bob's syndrome has no symptoms, except for angsting about his supposed lack of sanity.
- Zig Zagged: Bob attitude towards his bipolar syndrome varies: He loves the manic episodes to the point of refusing medications, but despise the depressive episodes, and is overall working towards true mental balance.
- Bob is Ax-Crazy, but while he understands that such behaviour has a chance of threatening the ones he loves and seeks to restrain himself during those times, he acknowledges that his insanity has saved their lives numerous times in the past.
- Averted: All characters are happy with their degree of sanity.
- Enforced: It's an aesop about the rarity of TV-style insanity.
- Lampshaded: "Being a maniac isn't what it's all cracked up to be, you know."
- Invoked: Bob doesn't really understand people as a result of his condition, and fakes disliking it because he thinks that's what a normal person would want.
- Exploited: Bob is manipulated by Dave, who is lying about having a cure to Bob's condition and uses it to control him.
- Defied:
- "I don't suffer from insanity; I enjoy every minute of it!"
- Bob actively takes control of himself to become sane.
- Discussed: (through sobs) "I'm just...so tired of being crazy..."
- Conversed: "Of course he doesn't WANT to be crazy. Insanity isn't a thing you can choose, y'know."
- Deconstructed: Unsurprisingly, Bob institutionalizes himself due to his condition, and is eventually cured; the first step to recovery is to admit you have a problem, after all.
- Reconstructed: Recovery is still a long road, and Bob is going to have a lot of self-loathing to work through either way to finally deconstruct the trope.
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