Writing About Mental Illness

[Looshi]

One of the most prevalent misinformed and badly caricatured subjects in writing happens to be the portrayal of mental illness; from depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, to schizophrenia. The plethora of stigmas attached to mental illness often meanders on its way into characters. For example, the stereotypical villain who is evil because they are "crazy". Or using it as an excuse for characters to be violent, behave in socially unacceptable ways, and as a reason for them to be interesting or a have a tragic flaw. These are problematic views which are detrimental and do nothing to challenge the diatribe.

   Through writing we are able to explore challenges we would never be able to face ourselves, but at times those situations are not presented in a sensitive light that they need to be, or even properly researched. This is important Out of Character, even if the setting(Such as SotE's) does not have the same resources or the knowledge, as it helps us create and portray characters that are different from ourselves, sometimes immensely so. Due to the wide world of the web we find that we can write with many sorts of people; share ideas and create stories together. Occasionally those people on the other side of the screen can and do experience the struggles of mental illness in one way or another.

   We are not so detached from what we write. And that is why it is important to open up lines of discussion and dialogue about subjects that can be difficult to broach or understand. Below are suggestions on how to continue this thread if anyone feels like chiming in.

• How do you handle it? Are there subjects in mental illness you wont touch(out of lack of confidence in handling the subject, or other reasons)?
• Have you made any mistakes? What did you learn from it?
• If you have personal experience with mental illness, through yourself, friends or family members, how has it changed your view on portraying characters in writing?
• What are your pet peeves?

   For a final note, adhere to the board rules and keep it civil. That's all!

[Rhindeer]

How do you handle it? Are there subjects in mental illness you wont touch(out of lack of confidence in handling the subject, or other reasons)?

I tend to handle it by not playing characters with mental illnesses. xD;

It's not something I feel confident handling and I definitely don't want to risk getting into the blamey territory--making it seem like I'm blaming my characters' actions on their illness. My characters can be horrible people while being totally neurotypical. But mainly, I just feel like I wouldn't be able to accurately and sensitively portray it because, unlike many things in life, it's not really something I can experience for myself in order to get some idea of how it feels, if that makes sense. It's easy to write about characters of all sexes and genders in love, because love is something most of us have felt at some point (or at least read about, with how saturated the media is with romance). It's easy to write about death, because most people have lost someone. You can imagine what it's like to be in a wide variety of situations because chances are, you've been in a situation like that, or have known someone who has, or have read about it somewhere or watched it on TV.

But I can't wrap my head around how it must feel for someone with, say, DID. I have no idea, I have nothing to draw from, and I don't want to make a mockery of that experience through my lack of knowledge.

I feel more confident writing about other subjects I have little experience with because of the wealth of knowledge available about them. But mental illnesses...many are still so misunderstood. It's difficult finding a good, reliable source that tells about that illness--and then it's even more difficult finding sources that aren't just impersonal medical jargon. I want to write about people, not a list of symptoms. :

Have you made any mistakes? What did you learn from it?

Hmm...I tried to play a sociopath and failed. xD I couldn't connect and don't think I did the concept justice. I may try again one day after researching it more deeply.

If you have personal experience with mental illness, through yourself, friends or family members, how has it changed your view on portraying characters in writing?

Well, for one thing, it's always made me very aware that mental illness is not just ~WHEE FUN AND ZANY~ tiemz. It's scary, it's depressing, and people often trivialize it. "Oh, I get depressed, too, we all do." "Oh, I'm a neat freak too!" "Yeah, I'm a perfectionist as well! I get it!" "Yeah, I have bad thoughts too sometimes, we all do."

So I definitely don't want to be that dismissive if I ever do write a character who has a disorder.

I would be willing to write characters with depression or OCD, since those are all things I have personal experience with. However, I find clinical depression doesn't really translate well to RP (and I'm not a fan of angst >_>) and OCD...would be difficult to write. xD Especially the pure O side of it. I don't think that would translate well, either.
   

What are your pet peeves?

OCD portrayed as "being a neat freak" or "LOL YOU MOVED THAT PIECE OF PAPER NOW I'MMA FREAK OUT IN A HILARIOUS WAY". Not the same thing. Those can be really hilarious situations to play out and characters, like people, can have quirks like that, but just don't call it OCD, because that's not what it is. That's called a pet peeve or a quirk.

Using DID as an excuse to have a ~zany~ character who has lots of buddies in his head that he talks to and has a bunch of different personalities that always switch on and off whenever it's most convenient for the writer. That...is not how DID works. I have very little understanding of it (as do most people) but as I understand it, it's damned terrifying. Personalities don't switch when it's convenient. The person has black outs, loses control, and doesn't remember what happened when their alter took over. How terrifying would it be to lose time like that? To suddenly wake up somewhere else and have no recollection of how you got there or what you did? Nngh.

Bipolar disorder used as an excuse to have a character that is, basically, tsundere or yandere or something. That's not how it works.

BASICALLY ANY MENTAL ILLNESS THAT IS OBVIOUSLY NOT RESEARCHED. >_<

Especially when it's used solely to make a character ~quirky~...

...Or, even worse, to explain their bad behavior. Can't have a bad person without DID, amirite?!

[Winters-Feather]

Ah, DID....

I don't personally suffer from DID or schizophrenia, but I do know people that do, among other illnesses. (For the record, the DID person is very bubbly and rather romantic in all of her personalities, and the schizo... well dealing with it can lead one to become very grumpy.)

Rhi-Rhi is right; DID or schizo is not an excuse to have multi personalities in one's head, chattering non stop. It's very complex, sad, frustrating and terrifying. If you want to write a mentally ill character I strongly, STRONGLY urge you to research. Do a lot of it. I think when writing a person with mental illness, your main focus shouldn't be the illness itself, but how they cope with it; that's where their character shows through and what makes them unique. I'm not saying it can't be done- it most certainly can. I haven't yet made a character with a mental disorder. Maybe one day I will, just for the challenge of it. I haven't yet touched it because of the confidence thing, but also because I just wasn't interested, for various, various reasons. ^^;;  (Though I won't necessary call writing about characters being in love or dealing with death very easy, depending on the character.) I think I have this view mainly because I do know people who suffer from a variety of disorders; they're very real, and these sort of things ought to be treated with respect.

Pet peeves, pet peeves... Though a lot of mental disorders can come from traumatic experiences and the what not, they don't have to be. Likewise, they're not an excuse for bad behavior or convenient plot twists. (Though I'd like to point out that people with DID sometimes DO switch during certain moments. For example, a personalty who doesn't like the cold would be less dominant in winter, or a personality who has a strong phobia of pain would black out after cutting themselves.) Also, people with DID sometimes don't understand that they do have it, and often find the concept hard to accept.

[Casey]

I've had friends with mental illnesses before, though I don't suffer from one myself. In order to approach the mental illness subject with sensitivity in a character, I play them as if I were inspired by a mental illness.

So, instead of saying a character has a mental illness, I don't put it in their profile at all, but play them as if they had symptoms of it. Especially since in medieval times, they didn't have diagnosis yet. That way, they don't have to fit into the stereotype and have EVERY symptom, and they can veer away from the mental illness without seeming out of character.

Let's say I have a character who's very socially awkward. I'm not going to say he has autism in his profile, but I'll have been inspired by that disorder, and I'll show symptoms of that in his character. I find that doing this often prevents the person you're playing with from using OOC information and acting different towards your character based on that information.