I feel like "Show, don't tell" gets lost in a lot of character writing... I should be able to tell from reading about your character that there's something about them - even without a tag or label being attached. Make characters show the signs of their disability through writing, not just by making it explicit but through little, personal things - they compulsively wipe their glasses, or they get anxious in groups, or they only have one or two close friends and don't bond well outside them. Give them downsides, too, but smaller ones, not necessarily ones that consume their lives: maybe they haven't changed jobs in years because they don't want to disrupt their comfortable routine, or lost their job after a promotion that pushed them out of their comfort zone, maybe they move slowly in the morning as they adjust back into their pain, or lie awake at night because their ADHD meds keep them staring into the dark... I love the little human things that don't get in the way of the story you're telling - things that let you express the disability without letting it consume them. It's important to tell stories about disability, and how it impacts people, but I feel like a lot of people go too big, and the little stories get lost in that.
an idea not so subtly stolen from the LGBT discussion thread
Mental illness + disability and the space in between is something I'm interested in as someone with both lol , and outside of various 'share an oc' threads that pop up every so often I thought it'd be neat to have a place to talk about it? Plus I've seen my share of people looking for advice so hey why not.
This is pretty similar to the LGBT thread : share your thoughts about mental illness and/or disabilities in characters or ask for advice, specific or not!
This is not a show me thread ! They got those in char discussion.
For the comfort of others, please either black out (like this, changing both the background AND font) or spoiler sensitive topics like self harm, suicide, and details of trauma.
Only rule here is be civil and don't jump on people's throats...... please.........
While talking about tropes you dislike is fine, vague-posting other users is not
The reason this is posted from my side acc is so I can use blocking as a form of moderation should anything get out of hand.
if you have any problems before i can catch them ping zinnia !
physically(eds, hip issues, walks with a cane for support) disabled and mentally(autistic, depression) ill person here!
if anyone has a question about this sort of stuff @ me!
//ask me whatever, i won't get offended! i think it's better for you to ask and get an answer your question rather than making a guess that might be wrong!
Hi again, I'm gathering ideas for another character and I wonder if any of you has any resources (as in, direct experience, some youtuber or blogger you follow, a work you've done, anything basically) about the experience of a person who is both hard of hearing and nonverbal autistic? Thanks in advance if that's the case!
when done correctly and not used for 'scare', i think mental illnesses and the like are needed in writing. in a perfect world we all operate without them or with majority of us only having depression/anxiety, but in our very real world; we have all kinds of issues. writing these things should be something researched, as on the surface we can only assume this and that about a disorder. some of us don't even know that certain disorders go into certain categories (I.E: Personality disorders, anxiety disorders, psychosis disorders etc). so we should always be learning about disorders we want to give our oc.
my philosophy of it is; in the case i don't have something that i give my oc, become his parent. do my research. talk to others who struggle with it. learn and keep learning! hopefully this all makes sense? ironically enough, i'm struggling with ptsd attacks lately and low and behold; i'm vaguely fluctuating between panic and not panic right now. (trying to train my body that we're aight)
We do our best, and when we write, we shouldn't let fears of misrepresenting steer us away from doing something we love. Just give it your best effort, imo. It wouldn't hurt to do a little research, though. (:
The other night, I was talking about mental illness with an older woman who had a daughter with schizophrenia. I have OCD, which has completely ruined several aspects of my functioning in past years. When I told her about it and tried to relate to her daughter, she went, "Oh, but that's not as bad as something like schizophrenia."
OCD is often played down as a trendy, ice-breaker sort of conversation piece "oh, I can't stand my messy office, I'm like, so totally OCD huehuehe" . It's been misrepresented so much through humor that I've been tempted to explain what I've been going through as something else.
That's just my two cents, though. ^^; If you'd like to ask me anything about OCD for writing purposes, I'm open 8D
Autism, and other learning difficulties or (learning "disabilities") is often an overlooked subject when people, with them perform outside imaginary boundaries that people consider 'not-normal'. It's as if society has formed some kind of boundary that people are expected to behave in a normal way.
People with OCD, Depression, Anxiety, autism. They're all definitions to people who aren't the ones that are like typical people. Being autistic, I think these sorta things should be accepted in normal society. It's ok to have these sort of things and i wrote my main oc to be autistic; he's socially awkard but emotionally sensitive and really good with certain things. Like I am.
Just a curiosity: does anyone have a character who suffers from cluster headache or know any kind of media that features one? I know it's not considered a disability everywhere, but my father has it, it's awful, and when he'll stop having the period that has been torturing him for months now I'll probably make one of my characters deal with it themself, but as I can't do it right now it would just mean so much if any examples exist out there... thanks in advance.
I created a species for mental disabilities and illnesses. They are called soulkins, and a specifially made to represent our illness and cope with it better
I think bringing up topics such as disability and mental illness is the typical media we consume, especially in cartoons that children are being exposed to, is incredibly crucial to our development as both a generation and a society- but with that being said, it is so heavily romanticized that many simply assume that these issues are exactly how they are portrayed in media. Lately shows have been much more diligent in representing the more dark, realistic side of these illnesses, but I cannot tell you how sad it makes me when people with anxiety are treated as "uwu soft babies who just need a love interest to make them strong" or how autism is seen as "quirky gremlin" and the like. This is especially prevalent in how depression is only seen as "being sad" to a majority of the populous who does not make the effort to go out and actually learn about how it works.
The same goes for OCs imo, because I've seen both fantastic characters who represent the reality of these conditions with an accuracy not normally seen in writing, and I've seen someones attempt at making a character simply result in the portrayal of the google search definition of the subject. If you're going to make a character who has these things and you yourself do not have them, do yourself a favor and do your research! :> Don't rely on the media for your resource. Writing the conditions and illnesses are completely fine and almost all of my characters have some sort of it, because as humans, no one is perfect, and I encourage everyone to explore and learn more about those topics! Just be sure when you do choose to write about them, you know what you're actually writing about! ;v;
That's really all I have to say about it though lmao. @Aard_Rinn mentioned show and tell and I agree with them completely, as that's also crucial for portraying these things. Realistically, many people with these issues hide them and won't actively go out of their way to say "I have depression". Realistically they'd hide it and it would be up to you as an observer to pick up their behavior and realize that they aren't alright, and the same should go for writing. You shouldn't have to tell me "X character as anxiety". You should tell me how they hesitate to make decisions, how their eyes flicker between faces when there are too many people in the room, how their face turns pale or how they jump at a sudden loud noise, and how it goes downhill from there when they become a mess.
im also so tired of how ocd is romanticized as "haha im such a perfectionist my room must be clean" when it's literally so destructive in nature and leads to mental breakdowns, horrible intrusive thoughts and habits and compulsive tendencies to be rid of the thoughts and the distress. Perfectionism and OCD are two separate things sksjsk
I never see any character with bipolar but I think the general consensus is its just depression with extra dlc pack lol
As someone with bipolar it is far, far worse than depression on any level, It's more similar to schizophrenia if anything. There are more moderate and mild forms but people forget psychotic forms do exist and only portray the mild cases (having highs and lows).
If you want to understand what a manic state is since depressed states are overrepresented, imagine being on a powerful stimulant ( no not coffee, think far worse ) and never being able to calm down. It's essentially being happy to the point you are no longer happy and become numb, reckless and impulsive and that is terrifying.
idk what that adds to this thread but if anyone just thinks bipolar is just a mild mood condition, it is not.