Arrow‘s Oliver Queen has been through more in the last few years than most will go through in a lifetime. And the consequences of that trauma seem to be rearing their head this season.

Since the sinking of the Queen’s Gambit, Oliver Queen’s life has been off the rails. He’s been through hell most could never imagine, yet he continues to put one foot in front of the other and ostensibly protect those he loves.

However, it’s become increasingly apparent in Arrow season 3 that Oliver isn’t quite as okay as he wants those around him to believe.

Sewing the seed

There have been several references to Oliver’s mental state this season. In “Draw Back Your Bow,” Oliver, as the Arrow, confronted a psychiatrist, who told him he could use some psychiatric help.

In “The Brave and the Bold,” Barry Allen calls Oliver out on using his personal tragedy as an excuse for hurting people, to which Oliver replies, “I’m not as emotionally healthy as you are.”

And in the same episode, Oliver tells Barry that by being the Arrow, “I’m trading away little pieces of myself. So you asked what’s wrong with me. That’s– that’s what’s wrong. Because the part that I’m trading away is Oliver Queen. And lately I’ve been feeling like there is nothing left except the Arrow.”

While one reference might be a throwaway, these numerous mentions of Oliver’s struggles have caught our attention.

Haunted by the fall

Since Oliver’s return from his fight with Ra’s al Ghul, it’s been especially hard to miss the increasingly bright, flashing warning signs about Oliver’s mental state, particularly as the characters around him, for the most part, refuse to validate him.

Oliver has struggled to find his place among the team he left behind. He’s tried to reclaim the leadership role he left behind, only to find Felicity, Roy, Diggle, and Laurel not blindly following orders — and calling Oliver on his damaging behavior, such as lying about Sara’s death and teaming up with Malcolm Merlyn.

“You know it’s hard to remember a time when I was actually in love with you,” Laurel coldly told Oliver when he tried to justify his lying. Meanwhile, Felicity refused to indulge Oliver’s hot-and-cold affections and ended up in Ray Palmer’s bed.

Trauma response

When looking at Oliver’s behavior, it seems logical that in response to the trauma in his past, he is now looking for control wherever he can find it. This is a natural reaction, but one that can lead to damaging consequences if not addressed.

Another manifestation of Oliver’s trauma seems to be behavioral reenactment. According to psychologists, trauma, particularly in response to violence, can cause survivors to reassess both their worldviews and their views of their place in the world. In doing so, they can lose their sense of self-worth and, in particularly bad situations, some may re-create the trauma they suffered in their present lives.

Sound familiar? Oliver has returned to Lian Yu on multiple occasions since his rescue. He puts himself in the similar dangers to those he faced in his five years away from home by becoming the Arrow.

And then there is Oliver’s seemingly illogical protection of Malcolm Merlyn, despite Malcolm’s role in the deaths of numerous people Oliver loves, including Tommy and Sara, as well as hundreds in the Glades. Oliver continues to keep him around and even protect him, even though his death would actually make him and Thea safer.

This insistence on keeping the manipulative and cruel Malcolm Merlyn around this season echoes the presence of the similarly manipulative and cruel Amanda Waller in this season’s flashbacks. Re-creation of trauma? We would argue so.

Moving forward

The way Oliver’s interactions with those in his life have been adding up seem to indicate the writers are aware of Oliver’s unhealthy mindset to some degree.

But to what end? What does it matter that Oliver is being influenced by his trauma?

Psychology tells us this repetition of trauma is usually unconscious and leaves the survivor with a “sense of being bad and out of control.” The only way for Oliver to move forward in a healthy manner is to acknowledge and confront what he has faced in his past and what he continues to face on a daily basis.

While one may argue that it takes a somewhat disturbed individual to put on a mask and fight bad guys in the first place, Barry Allen over in Central City proves that it’s possible to process past trauma and still be a hero.

And that, we can only hope, will be a future Oliver can look forward to. Otherwise, he is likely to alienate all those still around him — and without them, he will, in time, fail his city and, more importantly, himself.

Arrow airs Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m. ET on The CW.