I'm strong on my own

Common risk factors for anxiety at a clinical level include stress buildup and trauma, and can be worsened by social isolation and poor quality of life, as well as contribute to symptoms of depression. Ever since losing his friends and his home in the first game, Sora has been subjected to homelessness, repeated loss, and the growth of self doubt paired with depleting jabs at his self-esteem.

The base of anyone’s mental health starts at home, typically tying in with financial situation and care for basic needs. Sora, being a young adolescent at the beginning of Kingdom Hearts, lacks that very foundation so needed. From the start of his adventure, his stability was robbed from him, a rug pulled violently from under his feet. Throughout the adventure moving forward, Sora spends his “down time” with Donald and Goofy in the Gummi Ship. In order for the ship to function, Sora is repeatedly reminded to smile or laugh. The consequences for negative behavior are proven in the first game also, when the ship crashes into the Deep Jungle. From the onset of the series, Sora has to wrestle with the fact that there just isn’t time for him to be upset, or work through his sadness, because that would impede his journey. He wasn’t allowed to grieve or get anything off his chest, because him taking the time needed to attempt stabilization would put the lives of countless worlds at risk. Nevertheless he pressed forward, holding out that his ability to fight against the darkness would one day reunite him with his friends and get them all home. From day one, Sora hasn’t been allowed to process any of his pain.

Lack of the care typically received in a home can somewhat be supplemented by the warm company of loved ones. Again, since the beginning of the series, loved ones have rapidly come and gone from his life. People he knew he wholeheartedly could rely on have held no consistent permanence, and while Donald and Goofy appear to stand with him statically, it’s important to remember that their primary attitudes coming into his life were to remind him that there just wasn’t time for his emotional baggage. People Sora have most felt he could rely on since childhood are repeatedly stolen from him, as Riku and Kairi fade into dark or lose their hearts during various horrible acts of violence themselves.

After Kingdom Hearts meets its first conclusion, Sora enters a series of plot lines where his very existence is exploited for the gain of others. He is used time and time again by the series’ various antagonistic figures. He is seen as a tool in their hands, he is broken to pieces, he is kidnapped. Even his death in the first game is weaponized against him, with the intended use of his Nobody, Roxas, by the Organization, and the fabrication of Xion as a tool. His memories are unreliable to him, his perception of who may or may not be friends is put into question, and steadily his confidence is eroded away into the nothing that becomes painfully clear during the final chapters of Kingdom Hearts 3. Sora is kept together widely by the presence of loved ones in his life, and he feels more and more powerful the more allies he is slowly able to bring to his side. Without them, however, he feels powerless. He is too aware that he relies on them to feel strong, and especially after the events in Dream Drop Distance. With the violation of his dreamscape during the Mark of Mastery exams, Sora is robbed of, finally, what was most important to his faith in himself. He believes himself to have been bereaved of the one thing that would have made him invaluable to the side of Light. If he can not wake Ventus, and bring together all the warriors needed, he feels useless. It doesn’t help that, especially during the introductory to middle chapters of Kingdom Hearts 3, when everyone takes a turn reminding him how dumb he is, or during a particular scene where everyone laughs at him in Yen Sid’s tower.

Throughout Kingdom Hearts 3, Sora’s symptoms of depression finally bubble to the surface. It’s important here to realize that clinical depression, or major depressive disorder, does not exempt one from ever appearing happy. Many confuse routine sadness or grief with “being depressed,” but the reality is that depression affects more aspects of life than outward mood, and often has many faces for the people surviving with it. Symptoms of depression typically show themselves in different ways, depending on the type of episode the person is working through, including, but not limited to: feelings of sadness or hopelessness and trouble concentrating or making decisions, as well as contribute to anxiety.

Sora’s feelings of sadness and hopelessness plague him throughout the plot of Kingdom Hearts 3. Under the constant stress of reclaiming the Power of Waking, Sora finds himself at war with himself over his ability to feel useful alongside his friends. As he wanders from world to world with no luck toward finding the secret to the Power, he repeatedly offers to enter the Darkness to search for Aqua, because he is becoming impatient with himself and the ability to find what he’s lost. He looks to his friends for purpose, and believes that his strength all comes from them, completely disregarding the abilities that are so unique to him, if only because he knows himself to be an unreliable narrator in his own life. That is why, when he sees his allies lost to him in the Keyblade Graveyard, he is willing to simply give in. Without the allies that he looks to to guide his way, he is lost. In this case, Riku, who Sora still sees as a more reliable source than himself, is there to remind him that he is able to make a stand. In this case he still needs to rely on Riku to be the voice of reason, reminding him that there is so much more to fight for. (Riku is a pretty central driving force for him throughout the series, but this scene in the Keyblade Graveyard is the most poignant in regards to Sora’s self worth.)

Sora’s difficulty as far as concentrating or decision-making falls easily into the background of the story, but happens enough in Kingdom Hearts 3 to talk about. He knows he needs to find his was to the Power of Waking once more, but has no idea where to start, and throughout the game ends up in so many plots that one could presume he’s forgotten entirely. An increase in purposeless activity falls in line with the symptoms of depression as well. This would serve to make some sense of the purposelessly wandering that happens throughout the game, leading to him eventually running into more and more Organization members, which also play their part in reminding Sora to feel down about himself. I’m sure that there’s so much more that could have been touched on, and I am certainly no expert on these matters, I hope what I’ve been able to assemble here today has helped you to see the experiences of Sora in the Kingdom Hearts series in a new light. Characters in Kingdom Hearts are rather surprisingly relatable and spectacularly human. Sora, I feel, manages to deal with the traumas of his adolescent years with just as much beauty and grace and any of us here in real life.

All that being said, much like Sora, it’s important to remember that we are never alone. If any of you are dealing with anxiety and depression, don’t be afraid to reach out and seek options for managing these symptoms that might help. It’s okay to talk about it, and it’s okay to seek help. If things feel too much, and moving on seems too hard, don’t let your adventure end too soon! Here’s a list of hotlines to call if you need someone to lend an ear.

Love you!