forum Need help finding a mental condition?
Started by @Anonymous
tune

people_alt 73 followers

@Mercury Beta Tester

Copy/Pasted and slightly edited post of mine from another thread:

On writing people with mental illnesses

Firstly, don't rely on just my post, research into any unknown topic you want to write about is of critical importance. Find forums on the mental illness, ask people with the disorder questions, especially if you know anyone with the mental illness locally. This will help gain an understanding of the mental illness and what it involves. Disabled people often experience challenges or are unable to share the story, so it is important to note that what abled (or otherly disabled) write can and does affect perceptions of the particular disorder in wider society (For instance, fiction often portrays schizophrenia as having a split personality, but the actual disorder has nothing to do with this).

  • Talk about the person, not the illness. People are defined by things like their expertise in an area, their hobbies, their relationships etc. It is very rare for someone with a mental disability to consider themselves defined by it (This does happen sometimes with physical disabilities, for different reasons, but that's another a subject).
  • Mental illness does not automatically make a person violent or a serial killer. Mentally disabled people are actually more likely to be victims of injury or murder than abled people.
  • Pop culture perceptions of psychiatry, especially "asylums" are outdated.
  • Don't roleplay as this character. It is very difficult and often considered disrespectful to rp as someone with any mental illness if one does not have experience with the disorder.
  • Don't use quick cure tropes. They present some things as instant cures and don't take into account that people may live a long time with their disorder. Especially the idea that a character will 'shed' their 'broken mentally ill self' and become healthy once they find love.
  • DO NOT use the character for inspiration. You should be careful if any other main characters or side characters join your character because they're glad they're not him, they use his illness as motivation to reach goals or 'put life into perspective', they want to cure him etc.

Some other reading for writing characters with mental illnesses:

Some other reading for writing characters with mental illnesses:

I have posted a lot of sources here, but this is a very complex and sensitive issue that is often misinterpreted.

Links (For readers):

@Anonymous

Yeah I need to think of a rare mental condition for a female character

What types of symptoms does this character have? What do you imagine the condition to be like?

@Anonymoose

She often spends time alone and doesn't like people. She loves art and imagines her creations as if they were real. She knows that they aren't but it's the only friends she has.

@HighPockets group

I agree with Mercury's post, but I would actually say you should RP as that character to gain a sense of how they view the world. Just mention beforehand that you don't actually have that condition irl.

Idkwriter

I wanted to put APD out there. Auditory Processing Disorder. It is where you have good hearing, but the processing gets mixed up in your brain. It also has memory loss or bad memory, and so it would be cool to write with. Plus, it would raise awareness of how people with it feel.