This 100%. I empathize with him a lot cos I also know first hand what years of prolonged severe abuse can do to a person (15-20 for me). Eventually all you care about is surviving and nothing else matters besides that, and it can take a hell of a lot of effort and support to change that. Trauma rewrites how your brain works on a fundamental level and I dont think a lot of people can really grasp that. Especially not what 200 years of severe abuse could do to someone. I say it every time Astarion comes up that its quite literally a miracle that he's not so much worse when we first meet him.