Well, we can't really say Alex was completely balanced all his life. He had to live in some sort of delusion world considering he was shunned from his family his entire life. I mean, he could talk to Josh if his father wasn't around and Elle, and from what it seems, that's about it. He didn't have many friends, his parents were distant to him, so he had to create something to entertain himself and sustain his mind until he could get out of there. I think the whole thing with Josh though was just a trigger that forced him into that world permanently, until he was proven otherwise.AuraTwilight wrote:He was still playing toy army games when he was like...17. Boy's not right.They get PTSD, repressed memories or phobias, they get depressed or turn to addictions. But what Alex has done, goes beyond simply denying it happened or developing a fear of water or getting flash-backs. Alex went to "war" during which time he got imaginary letters from Margaret and Elle, befriended an imaginary merchant kid, Sgt. Nash and had a whole platoon of imaginary buddies. There, he was doing all sorts of war related activities including watching the said imaginary buddies getting blown-up and, apparently imagining an injury which made him loose the use of his legs.
If Alex had issues with mental illness all of his life I would have bought it, but he didn't. In fact, Alex was portrayed as a perfectly balanced, healthy individual before the accident, and with that in mind you can see that his delusions were simply too complex and long-lasting to be caused by one trauma. No matter how horrible that trauma was.
...and hey, I like playing with toys from time to time :< What's so bad about that?