ok so, just looking at him surface level, you can immediately see his depression, anxiety, and anger issues, as well as his general sensitive/emotional nature. getting deeper into it, he's practically insanely bpd-coded from his need to be needed (fear of abandonment) to his questionable self esteem/desire to live to how every relationship he has is rocky at some point. i'd also say if he were any less adjusted/had the time, he'd fall into maladaptive daydreamer. he's got some autistic/adhd behaviors, namely unable to be still, nervous talking, sensory seeking/sensory overload, and trouble with change. he's also very conscious of other's view of him and how he's expected to act, which is probably why he has so much trouble accepting himself as queer.

i'm not going to say if he's in love with el at all or not for sure bc we don't know, but i don't think he ever loved her romantically, much like i don't think she ever felt that for him, really. case in point, el refers to mike as her brother is s1, and mike is near constantly seeming to worry about if he's doing enough for her/he honestly doesn't seem to care much about their break-up in s3, since he's seen fucking around with lucas after, half complaining about the seemingly failed relationship.

he also clearly has a lot of trauma regarding his family; starting with his dad, who likely doesn't pay much attention to him except to make remarks, neutral at best but usually negative; his mom doesn't seem to give him much attention either i don't think. she does try harder, talks to him, tries to get him to open up, but she doesn't vouch for him or talk to him about what he likes a lot. i can count on one hand how many times we see her hug mike, which could be because of it being the 80s, but he IS still a kid, so... ; nancy is better than their parents, but is still lackluster and we see that clearly because of how awkward they are around each other, even in s4. she clearly cares, but mike is hesitant to trust her about certain things and she tends to dig too much and keep secrets that she should probably talk to him about. ; factor in how he never sees his parents interacting with each other, and you've got a good mix for instability of trust and intimacy issues, as well as a bit of commitment trouble, usually in the fact of him either investing too much or not enough.

then you've got the c-ptsd.

clearly, with s1, you've got survivor's guilt for not asking will to stay, troy threatening dustin if mike, essentially, doesn't kill himself by jumping off the quarry, the party seeing the fake body. s2, mike had a front row seat to will's possession, watching will slowly lose the hold over his own body and the only one of the two kids to actually see the massacre the mind flayer causes through demo dogs at the lab. s3, i can't really say for sure, but his instability with relationships is shown very clearly here through him blowing will off to fighting with him, to him grabbing lucas and riding *across town* to apologize to will when he doesn't really do that with anyone else, which leads me to believe will is mike's fp. plus, he's there when billy sacrifices himself after actually fighting the older teen and losing when it had just been him and max and he was protecting her. i also think it's likely he has survivor's guilt with hopper as well, even if the two of them didn't seem close. he also does with bob, too. then you have s4 with the raid on the byers house, the shootout, burying a body in the desert, presumably being responsible for *el's life* as she takes on henry from the freezer. you can literally see his heart *shattering* when will reminds him that he's the heart and his speech to her is a crude copy of what he said to a possessed will in s2. i can't say too much else about s4 since i haven't finished but-

OKAY FULL POST TIME BECAUSE SO MUCH OF THE ANTI-MIKE AGENDA IS HATING HIM BECAUSE HE'S AN ASSHOLE FOR THE SAKE OF BEING AN ASSHOLE, AND I'M GONNA TALK ABOUT IT THROUGH THE LENS OF SOMEONE WHO'S ALSO MENTALLY ILL BECAUSE I SEE SO MUCH OF MYSELF IN THIS KID IT ISN'T FUNNY.

Borderline Personality Disorder.

STARTING OFF - NUMBER ONE: FEAR OF ABANDONMENT.

we literally see this manifest as a fear of not being needed, mainly. for mike, not being needed means he isn't useful enough, which leads to the person leaving BECAUSE why else would someone stay? he doesn't believe that just existing is enough for people to want any kind of relationship with him.

NEXT - NUMBER TWO: UNSTABLE/INTENSE RELATIONSHIPS WITH EXTREMES OF "YOU ARE PERFECT" OR "I HATE YOU".

this is seen pretty much throughout the series; mike's relationship with will is implied to be rocky, switching from losing his mind at will's disappearance in season one to their fights in three and four (the first to come to mind). his relationship with lucas is an example, too, with their fight in season one most glaringly.

ANOTHER ONE - NUMBER THREE: IDENTITY DISTURBANCE.

wowie this one is so easy to see; identity disturbance in bpd can be explained as not really knowing who you are outside of other people. and we can see this is true for mike mostly because he doesn't really seem to like being alone for too long, even back in season one or during times of supposed peace. and he seems easily swayed/convinced and most of his interests - minus one or maybe two if i'm missing something - are group and/or shared interests, like D&D or comics.

ON A ROLL - NUMBER FOUR: POTENTIALLY SELF-DAMAGING IMPULSIVITY IN TWO+ AREAS.

not gonna mention his st/self-harm tendencies because that's a different criteria number, but sometimes it seems like he intentionally does reckless things without thinking about the consequences; staying in an unhealthy relationship, suddenly starting/quitting something, and general impulsive behavior.

NOT DONE YET - NUMBER FIVE: SUICIDAL TENDENCIES.

quarry cliff scene, quarry cliff scene, quarry cliff scene. the fact that he spent seconds thinking about whether he should jump - which he does. he's intentionally reckless (like i already said), but it goes farther than just impulse control: at multiple points in time it feels like he genuinely wants to die because of the way he puts himself into situations that don't have a visible way out.

GETTING THERE - NUMBER SIX: UNSTABLE MOOD.

seriously? you want me to get into this? the way he goes from happy to sad to angry to whatever seemingly at the drop of a hat? this one can also cause a bipolar misdiagnosis, mainly because mania fits here - the difference being the time frame, which is hours to three days for bpd and 4+ days for a hypomanic bipolar 1 or 2 episode.

LUCKY NUMBER - NUMBER SEVEN: CHRONIC EMPTINESS.

i'm not entirely sure about this one but also by this point he already qualifies for a diagnosis - needed: 5/9, so far: 6/9. but i think this is something he has, too, as someone who also has a rbf and bpd. i don't remember exactly what moments they are, but he gets this look at least a few times where it isn't exactly defeat or annoyance, but i can tell he doesn't really know what to feel/display.

ALMOST ALMOST - NUMBER EIGHT: INAPPROPRIATE AND/OR UNCONTROLLABLE ANGER.

i literally don't have to say a word here.

LAST ONE LET'S GOOOOO - NUMBER NINE: SEVERE DISSOCIATION OR BRIEF PARANOIA CAUSED BY STRESS.

he falls more on the paranoia here than dissociation, but that might be because i'm used to my own dissociative disorder-level dissociation. even then, i'm still pretty aware of what paranoia looks like due to having it in the background all the time, and when you've been through what he has, it's hard not to have paranoia.

• uses a cane most days
• bedbound on really bad days, usually along with depression episodes
• on good days, he insists he can function like the rest of his friends, even if he realistically can't always
• can't be too hot or too cold (regulation issues), can't move too much or too little
• has trouble balancing his downtime with uptime/unintentionally triggers his chronic pain sometimes bc of stubbornness
• has both heating pad and a fan set up in his room
• is actually very grateful for his friends being there and not babying him
• he sometimes hangs off one of them if he feels his legs giving out/knees getting weak
• will or lucas are the ones that usually fetch his cane if he forgets it/needs it but doesn't have it close
• also hangs off his friends if he needs to walk more but can't use his cane bc of his wrists
• also has restless leg syndrome, missing his medication results in flareups 95% of the time
• used to be very embarrassed of his mobility aids until dustin (who promptly told him fuck that, use them and i'll protect you like the great friend he is, even if none of them were very strong. little lucas and will also helped in their own ways. max threatens people with her eyes. it can be scary + el sticks to his side and is not afraid to help no matter his protests)
• also used to be embarrassed of using his friends to keep himself up but none of them let him get out of that bc he usually hides it till the last second anyways and they do not care if it is mike, they want you to be able to lean on them and Not be on the ground
• gets the depression kind of restless often and that can also cause a flare-up if he moves too much and then he gets frustrated and just tells people to “leave him in his misery” then he has tylenol or some other painkiller and everything is at least a bit better
• feels like he needs to stretch everything much further than he physically can to get relief at times

• impure regressor mike crying about how he wishes his dad could just pay attention in nancy's arms as she does her best to comfort him, shushing him gently, rubbing his back, and rocking both of them.
• tiny mike trying his hardest to draw like will when they color together
• tiny mike loving to play pretend bc he can make roaring sounds with roary again
• tiny mike getting upset when he gets hurt but cheered up when the bandaid gets kisses
• tiny mike loving to watch cartoons with will
• tiny mike liking vegetables more than big mike
• tiny mike asserting that he can pick his own clothes but they never match
• tiny mike lets himself get tickled more
• tiny mike loves cuddling during naptime with will
• tiny mike that likes being called bubba or kiddo but only holly can call him mikey
• mike who has trouble regressing and needs someone to ease him into it. he's always nervous about being "too much" as a person bc he feels everything strongly but he gets that feeling more when he's planning to regress
• cg will is baby mike's favorite cause he reads the best stories
• baby mike would like a lot of movies but his very favorite would be gremlins!!! they're very silly and he's also silly but he'd hide at the scary parts... (thats why eddie or will have to watch it too)
• baby mike that likes crawling and bein held and falls asleep having bottles... hes wearing spaceship jammies and has little glow in the dark stars on his paci
• will gets him a lion, nancy get him a wolf, max gets him a tiny beanie baby that looks so stupid it's cute, steve gives him one of those really big fluffy kind, eddie gets him a different wolf, and i know he'd carry them around for comfort when going out when hes tiny
• both an involuntary and voluntary regressor; eddie is the one to inform him of what age regression is and is the one to convince him to do it most of the time when he's overwhelmed or really stressed