Another observation.
Whenever a person is isolated for a long time, while negative thoughts and regrets keeps circulating within their mind, it will create the corruption effect where the thinking of certain ideas and topics can instantly make that person fall into the abyss of despair.
Imagine the mind as a large place full of different kinds of things. There are thoughts that makes one happy, thoughts that keeps one entertained, and all sorts of other thoughts. The negative thoughts are usually found in the wasteland of the mind, away from the main city, so one doesn't usually think about them unless something bad happens.
So what mental corruption does, is make the negative thoughts from the wasteland slowly spread throughout the entire city. Thus, more innocent patterns, ideas, and thoughts become more associated with negativity. Suppose that there's something that when you think about, usually makes you happy, until mental corruption sets in, and thinking about it now makes you filled with despair, fear, and rage.
As this goes on, more thoughts become infected with corruption. This greatly hinders one's creativity and slows down their cognitive processes because they're always taking care not to think about those thoughts. Eventually, most of one's mental landscape becomes infected with corruption, leaving only the center of the mental city untainted.
This causes the person to do everything they can to suppress and repress the corruption. For most people, they'll either distract themselves with endless supply of work or endless supply of stimulation. Others will depend on other people around them, while some would indulge in substance abuse. However, all such resistance are futile, they do not stop the corruption from spreading at all.
When the corruption spreads to inside the mental city and starts infecting innocent thoughts, people tend to become more impulsive, aggressive, and reckless, as they try to run away from all these negativity. Due to the corruption, their intrusive thoughts becomes louder and the content of such thoughts would become more horrifying. If this goes on untreated, it won't be long before one starts hearing voices that interferes with their daily life.
Fortunately, there is one positive effect of this corruption — the strengthening of will. When the darkness fills everything, even the tiniest light shines bright. When the corruption becomes severe, there are cases when the person stops moving, they suddenly lose all their habits and stops moving in autopilot. Their body won't move automatically anymore.
When this happens, the only way they can move is through deliberate action. They have no choice but to manually move and drag themselves across the mud. Because their body won't move anymore according to predetermined choices, they will now have make their own choices. This allows them to see their inner freedom and appreciate the power of their will.
This is further intensified by the fact that they have to manually monitor and control their own mind so it will not wander around to corrupted areas. Because all their automatic functions have either completely malfunctioned or shut down, they have no choice but to take control of their own mind if they still want to keep their sanity.
To preserve the remaining part of their mind that's still not corrupted, they will have to walk on tightropes and utilize their will to balance themselves. In this last stand, they will be so cornered that they are forced to remain focused and aware, they're going to make deliberate choices and hold their sanity in the face of vast corruption and suffering.
If they're able to hold out and survive, then they may be able to turn their life around and change for the better. However, if they fail in this last stand, they will be relinquishing the tiniest freedom they have left, the last spark of change will fade, and they'll be spending the rest of their lives in mindless self-destruction.
This is often the case unless a miracle happens through a life-changing experience that completely rebuilds their mental city and annihilate all corruption once and for all.
"The entire tree may become corrupted but its seed remains immune to corruption."
"Every corruption offers a secret path to purification."
"Death and decay is just as natural as life and growth. Nature treats them as equals."