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The Masked Man & The Sickness
[warning for discussion of suicide, depression, epilepsy, medication, self-harm, mental illness, anxiety, panic disorder, nonconsensual medicating, and suicide ideation. Also big series spoilers, rampant speculation, and some fast-moving gifs.]
THE SICKNESSTim's early treatment began when he was eight, in the mid-nineties. He was admitted into a hospital after displaying a number of worrying symptoms and then was promptly left to handle most of it on his own as his mother didn't tell him much and was, according to him, "never really around to ask" (Entry #66). It's implied his father was never in the picture.
He mentioned that when he was younger, "the doctors would never tell me to my face either but I would always hear them say things like 'violent episodes' or 'delusions,' you know, stuff you can’t just tell a little kid. They ran all kinds of tests and pinned just about every disorder you can think of on me at some point or another. They settled on schizophrenia eventually but I don’t even think they knew for sure. I was on a lot of medication most of the time I was here. I got used to it after a while. It helped but not enough. [...] Well, one of the problems I was having was hallucinations. And I had a lot of them. Part of me knew they weren’t real but that didn’t make them go away. Or maybe I just didn’t want them to at the time. At one point, they got so bad that I kept escaping from my room. I’d hide in the maintenance tunnel or run off to Rosswood Park, which you know isn’t that far away from here. And whenever they would find me, I would say that I was hiding from whatever it was I was seeing so they’d bring me back and they didn’t have much of a choice except to lock me in here. That’s when it was at its worse. I’d be clawing at the walls and screaming at all hours of the night, they had to up my dosage just to calm me down, to the point that I was almost numb" (Entry #66).
As he got older, they must have gotten a much more solid diagnosis as his symptoms aren't actually reminiscent of schizophrenia, but a form of epilepsy. The diagnosis of schizophrenia probably originated from Tim's alleged hallucinations, which both Tim and the audience know by now weren't hallucinations at all. Even as a child Tim was a subject of the Operator's interest and though the doctors couldn't see the faceless thing lurking around Rosswood Park, Tim definitely could. However, that doesn't explain his more definitive symptoms of epilepsy, or how his pills work in terms of treatment.
Tim's pills are white capsules. The prescription is specific to his condition but is presumably also one he can pick up from his pharmacy regularly. By the end of the series multiple other characters have also taken the same capsules for the purpose of circumventing the Operator's influence and preventing seizing or coughing, and they've been shown to have that universal effect though there were likely side effects to taking them non-prescription. Characters who take the pills do not become immune to the Operator but they can last longer without succumbing to its habit of fucking with neurological topography.
Said pills are pictured above. Tim's regular dosage is implied to have been a few times a day, probably two to three. As circumstances in the series grow more dire he reaches the point where he's taking them whenever he starts coughing or seizing, or takes one capsule every few hours as a precautionary measure, or, in one notable instance, downs the entire bottle in a fit of panic or possibly even a suicide attempt.
The function of the pills specifically is kept very vague. We know that they help Tim fend off the Operator's influence but we don't know how. It's probable they operate as anticonvulsants as a primary or secondary effect since, according to Tim's medical files, anticonvulsants were requested for him as a kid with a history of falls. But to better understand the treatment, we need to better understand the cause. The strongest theory is that the Operator's mere presence disrupts electrical signals of all kinds, explaining how cameras glitch and fuzz with static when exposed to it for too long and how characters that suffer from its extended interest display seizures that resemble the epileptic variety - and epilepsy is a mental disorder in which the neurons in the brain send out the wrong signals, causing seizures. Most medication can't cure epilepsy but can prevent seizures, just like Tim's pills. The theory is that the Operator's dicking around with electrical currents extends to the biological as well as the mechanical, playing havoc on cameras and human brains alike.
Because the human brain relies on neuronal synapses to function, bioelectrical currents are vital to brain activity. Epilepsy disrupts these electrophysiological currents, usually due to a lot of electrical discharge. This is what causes the seizures, characterized by losses of consciousness, awareness, sensory function, mental function, and mood, and also an influx of uncontrolled movement. Seizures do not generally cause outright convulsions unless they’re of a specific nature. Tim's seizures resemble typical tonic-clonic seizures and often involve convulsing, muscle contractions, harsh coughing, wheezing, sobbing, trouble breathing, violent shaking, and seizing. The duration of these seizures is unknown but it's likely that they last about two to three minutes like most tonic-clonic seizures.
In the postictal stage Tim is more susceptible to having body control seized by the masked counterpart sharing his brain. It's unlikely their presence is tied intrinsically to his illness, as the medical condition has lasted his entire life and the secondary consciousness only became an issue comparatively recently. It's more likely that his brain is simply in a state more vulnerable to their control following a seizure. The blacking out and amnesia following his second self's recession from his consciousness is somewhat similar to how one typically processes a postictal stage - many don't fully recall the postictal stage at all. It's likely Tim can't remember what his body does in this state because it's not technically his mind doing the remembering, but the other consciousness's.
These seizures are brought on due to one of two things for Tim, the first being extended deprivation of his prescription medication, and the second being prolonged exposure to the Operator, particularly at close range. Medicating directly before confronting the Operator can forestall the emergence of his symptoms but does not eliminate them completely.
On a semi-related note, one of the entries gives us brief insight into the sort of on-the-road diet Tim gets for Jay, who at this point has begun to express symptoms worryingly similar to Tim's. Tim gets him peanuts and beef jerky, which are important parts of a ketogenic diet - foods that are high in protein and low in fat, foods that are good for those diagnosed with epilepsy (since epilepsy can inhibit the parts of the brain that synthesize protein). It's probable he's worried about Jay developing similar medical issues since his investigation has brought him into increased proximity to the Operator. Also notable is that Tim has at this point began sharing his medication with Jay, whom he described as too "out of it" to understand who he was, where he was, or what had happened following a recent scrape with the Operator that left him seizing and nearly catatonic. The medication helps Jay recover, though Jay is understandably upset with being treated with it without his consent.
Additionally, it's very common for sufferers of epilepsy to develop behavioral problems, including but not limited to other mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression, as well as an increased risk of suicide and self-harm since risk of having one mental illness increases risk of having another. Tim has expressed possible symptoms of both depression and a potential panic disorder (irregular and/or poor sleeping patterns, finding oneself too cold or too hot in a room that should be a comfortable temperature, self-isolation, self-enforced apathy, intense paranoia,trouble experiencing happiness or pleasure, and a risk of suicide or self-harm, as evidenced by his childhood medical records).
The following are, based on likely side-effects and what we can gather from the nature of Tim's medication, the chemical make up of or some possible additives of Tim's pills, assuming he's being primarily treated for tonic-clonic epileptic seizures:
- Carbamazepine (anticonvulsant for tonic-clonic epileptic seizures; may cause seizures if regular medication stops)
- Clobazam (for tonic-clonic epileptic seizures and anxiety)
- Clonazepam (for epilepsy, anxiety, panic disorders, and some forms of parasomnia)
- Phenobarbital (for epileptic seizures, anxiety, and insomnia)
- Sodium valproate (anticonvulsant for epilepsy, panic attacks, anxiety, and as a mood stabilizer)
It's likely Tim's illness is a unique brand of epilepsy (mostly with the Operator as its impetus, though not always) with a side of depression and a panic disorder. His medication largely helps limit the severity of the symptoms that correspond to the epilepsy. It's unknown if his depression or panic was being treated. He had regular doctor's appointments before that particular rhythm was disrupted by Jay poking his head and changing everything.
THE MASKED MAN
On the note of Tim's seizures, the secondary effects of them include the transition of Tim's primary consciousness to the secondary consciousness residing in his brain.
Tim has been a subject of the Operator's interest since childhood and has subsequently been dealt a lot of additional crap because of it. He spent the majority of his childhood in the hospital and has had to deal with his mental illness for most of his life. However, it wasn't until the summer of 2006 that the secondary consciousness in Tim's head materialized and started making active grabs for the body they shared with him.
The theory of their conception goes as such:
The Operator's reason for pursuing Tim so much as a kid was that it saw...something in him. It saw something in his mind that it liked, and decided it would try to groom him into something of a physical extension of itself. The Operator primarily affects the metaphysical or neurological, so it needed a "pair of hands" so to speak, to better affect the corporeal world. So it crafted a second consciousness out of the resentment and bitterness in Tim's head and got to work. It made them physically stronger. It gave them a proclivity for violence. It made them brutal, almost feral, able to obey simple orders.
But then things went wrong. Maybe Tim resisted, maybe there was an interruption. For whatever other reason, the second consciousness wasn't refined. They had form and awareness and could follow orders, but the Operator had made a grievous oversight. It neglected to remove their sense of free will. So Mystery Fella took one look at the Operator and decided: "nah, bro." They broke away from that particular tether and became their own beast. So along came "totheark" (aka the Hooded Man), who seemed pretty well set on stonewalling the Operator to the best of their ability. Mystery Fella was made with the purpose of obedience in mind; that combined with the error of having choice allowed them to cast their lot with totheark. They worked with totheark to combat the Operator, lead Jay and Tim to infrequent clues, and make Alex's life difficult. Totheark was largely the brains of the operation - Mystery Fella went where they pointed, and so it would go.
Since they shared a body, however, and were not the true owner of that body, they could only move in to Do Things when Tim's brain was inhibited in some way. The Operator's presence and its triggering of electrical discharge in the human brain was one such perfect opportunity to jump in and abscond with Tim's body for a bit. Any other times where Tim seized and couldn't get to his medication to prevent it gave them the chance to reach in and start doing their own thing (as Tim's pills don't actually suppress the other consciousness so much as the catalyst for their emergence, the seizures. He's no Bruce Banner).
Since they are essentially an entire other being, Tim doesn't remember anything his body does when Mystery Fella is at the helm. They form their own memories and relations. Their personality is entirely independent from his: they are primarily both aggressive and skittish with a decent side helping of genuine curiosity.
They regard the tan "Member's Only" jacket and mask as intrinsic parts of their identity. If possible, they'll wear them whenever they have a hold of Tim's body.
