forum Help writing a Bipolar character
Started by @SHEELOH group
tune

people_alt 67 followers

@tiredandconfused group

I'm not bipolar myself, so I probably can't speak the best to the representation of that group, but from what I know I'd warn you to tread carefully. People with mental illness, especially bipolar, are overly represented as villains. Mentally ill villains in fiction have been very harmful to the community, as it's stigmatized certain disorders and caused mentally evil people to be viewed as dangerous when most of them are just as harmless as anyone else. From a little bit of her personality and her role as a villain in your story, I'm worried she could be teetering into that trope. I'd personally recommend all together against portraying your villain as bipolar, but if you still want to, then research into the experiences of bipolar people and be aware of harmful tropes. If you're going to write her as a bipolar villain, perhaps try to show her in a sympathetic light, making it clear that she isn't a villain because she is bipolar, or have other bipolar characters who aren't villains. Here's some articles to maybe start researching from that I found on a quick Google search:
x This one is about the portrayal of mental illness in horror video games, but I still think it could provide some helpful insight
x and this is an author talking about their experiences with bipolar and how to write it

I'd also say to be careful about your representation of African American characters. Scanning over your main characters, I saw most of them were white. Positioning the villain as being African American while your cast of heroes is mostly white could send a poor message, especially when there's a long history of black people being portrayed negatively in fiction. There is also a trope of the "Angry Black Woman" (x), which also has been a long used trope that African Americans have spoken out against, which Andromeda's personality could possibly fall into with some of her traits. Ways to amend this could be to change her personality and role to stray away from that trope or have positively portrayed and developed characters that are black women.

From what I can tell, you had good intentions but ended up writing a character that could apply to harmful tropes because you weren't aware of them. I recommend doing further research into bipolar disorder and the representation of African Americans and relate it to how you've written Andromeda in your story.

@larcenistarsonist group

^^ pretty much what tiredandconfused said.

I am bipolar, I have been for a few years and while I was tabbing through Andromeda's character sheet I noticed a few things. You never mentioned her bipolar-ness anywhere other than in "conditions". I recommend elaborating on that a little bit. People all over experience bipolar disorder differently, but one real thing we all experience are manic and depressive episodes. In your mannerism section, instead of maybe listing other personality traits (that could easily go under the personality section), list how she deals with manic and depressive episodes. In manic does she work until four am to get tasks done? Does she have this new energy about her? In depressive episodes does she hide away from her peers more? Does she get out of bed in the morning? These are some important things to consider.

@Fenris-Wolf group

I am not bipolar, but my sister is and I'd like to add that I've noticed people mix bipolar and dissociative identity disorder up. It's important not to confuse the two or blend them into the same disorder. When people go through those depressive or mania episodes with bipolar disorder, people may think that they gain a whole new personality. Same when people with bipolar have those "highs", they are not a completely different person, they simply are in a different state of mind.

I'd also like to suggest this video of Anthony Padilla who talks to people with bipolar disorder. I think Anthony talks about some important aspects of bipolar disorder that are often glossed over in movies, books, and media.

@SHEELOH group

thank you guys sm! I wanted to clear a few things up, @MJ-the-Arsonist you noticed that i didn't mention Adromeda's condition anywhere else, and that i should include other scenes in my book where she is suffering from her condition. the reason for that is i wanted to learn more about this particular condition before i wrote it in so i wouldn't have to go back and fix it all later. You all had great points and i will definitely be looking into them, Thank you all so much!

-Shilo