Mental illness+disability in OCs discussion

I have Tourette's Syndrome and can give advise on it if anyone needs it! (Hopefully, it fits in this thread!) I'm writing this when I a bit tired so hopefully, this isn't too poorly structured but there a fair few misconceptions or overlooked aspects that could be helpful to know if you want to write a character with tics/TS. For some background, I had very occasional tics since I was about seven/eight that I didn't pay much attention to but when I was fifteen they ramped up super severely over the course of a day and my tics have been constant (and very obvious) ever since. I am very lucky that the area I live in has a very strong TS community and so I've been able to meet and talk to many other people with it but it Tourette's can impact people very differently so it should go without saying that a lot of this comes from my own experience. 

To be honest I haven't actually seen very many characters in media as a whole with Tourette's or tic disorders in general, which is kind of surprising since it's not a particularly uncommon condition but when you do see them there is a good 90% chance it focuses almost entirely on coprolalia (swearing tics) as either a joke or in a very sensationalist way. I don't find it inherently bad by any means, they are a very unique thing to have to deal with in everyday life but it very much seems to be the focus on to the extent that lots of people assume that is all the condition is, even though it's a pretty rare symptom (I swear if I have to hear one more person joke that they must have Tourette's because of how much they swear...) There are all sorts of other tic 'types' that I wish I saw more of in fiction like Echolalia (repeating the words of others) and physical tics in general.

As for just some quick stuff that I don't see shown or talked about a lot:

If anyone has any specific questions I am super happy to answer to the best of my ability

I have OCD, feel free to hit me up - especially if anyone is wanting to write about intrusive thoughts or extremely repetitive actions.

I came seeking this thread since I'm going have one of my oc's diagnosed with OCD. I had already planned for him to have something like that for a while, but was afraid to do it wrong somehow haha.
I've had symptoms ever since I was a little kid, but I didn't think it was serious because of the way people dismissed things, or even when OCD was mentioned, it was treated like no big deal and just a quirky thing. (As some people in the thread have brought up, and it's an issue I really wish didn't exist) It only really clicked when I saw OCD actually portrayed accurately on TV. So yeah, I'm more than down to help with putting more characters like that out there! It makes me want to explore other mental illnesses more for my oc's.

I am deaf (feel free to PM me if you want to ask questions or chat!) and I have two deaf characters, Anhrefn Darkear and Jess Cloudweaver.  Yes, Anh's surname references her condition.  Because her society doesn't handle disability well.

I wrote a paper on this topic about a year ago, in which I discovered that a lot of disabled characters fall into two very broad categories.

The first, more common one is what I call Tragic Child.  In it, the character has a disability that makes them misunderstood, hurt, or a pariah.  Hearthstone from the Magnus Chase books is a good example of this.  The disability is used to give characters a dark and tragic past.  This can be harmful for a variety of reasons, not least among them for casting disabled folks as people who are invariably hurt and broken.  I know several disabled folks, and they definitely have their struggles but live happy and full lives anyway.  This is the more annoying trope to me.

The second, which is less common, is actually called the Supercrip. It's the opposite of Tragic Child; the character has a disability but overcomes it and does great things anyways.  Teo from Avatar: The Last Airbender is a good example, which brings me to a notable exception: not all SuperCrips are bad! When used in the right context (usually a teaching setting or children's media), it can show that disabled folks are every bit as capable as able-bodied (I am actually a Supercrip a bit, as a deaf musician).  HOWEVER, if done too heavy-handed, it can make it seem like all disabled folks are superheroes, which can mean that people overlook the very-real struggles disabled people go through.

Of course, there are well-done Supercrips and Tragic Children, but they tend to be extremes.  So here's some good disabled characters (imo): Toph (Avatar), Hawkeye (Marvel comics)

Anyways, that's my two cents

Personally, I think that it's super fine, as long as you do your research and don't romanticize them. Information is key, and portraying a mental illness is hard and can come out as disrespectful if not done right. I also don't think that they should be treated as a character's whole personality (much like sexual orientations), it just makes the character bad imo.

Something that I almost never see portrayed in fictional characters is anxiety disorders. I suffer from social anxiety and it prevents me from doing many things. Anxiety disorders come in many forms, and symptoms vary vastly from person to person, and of course, some forms of anxiety are worse than others.
Personally, anxiety causes me depression, paranoia, and panic attacks, as well as other things that affect my actions (I can't interact with people I don't know without feeling bad/sick, headaches, difficulty with breathing and so on). If you guys are interested in hearing more about my condition feel free to message or ping me and I'll be glad to reply to your eventual questions.

this thread's been dead for a minute but I'm here to bring in my bipolar perspective

I am severely bipolar, from being barely functional when depressed to starting 8 projects in a day when manic, but like my moodswings never cross the entire width of my emotional range, it's more like swinging from pits of despair to stable at most

every bipolar character I've seen has fucking sucked and been played for laughs and nearly every single one of them has had way too fast, way too intense moodswings

I'm at the point where I simply do not trust NTs to write diverse minds - I'd love to see a character who I can relate to in that aspect, but I'd honestly rather have no Bipolar rep than,,,, what we have now

and yes, a lot of this is me "vagueposting" about Kat from Victorious

I would personally like to see more ocs with epilepsy since I don't seem them a lot. I'm actually learning a lot of these from my psychology class! My tip is to treat them as a person; every person with a mental illness or disability is a human. How would you feel if you been tell weird because you're different from everyone else? It's not a good feeling. Just try and be their mindset but, you can ask people who have those to help you. But most of their mental illness or disability is kinda different for each person.

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Even though I may not have epilepsy; my father does. I can ask any questions to him; if you're curious about anyone living with a person with epilepsy, you can ask me. I'm his main caregiver and knows how to take care of a person with epilepsy. 

I don't see characters with a hand tremor too often, BUT here's some experiences of mine as someone with a hand tremor as an example for writing. Note; this is not a universal hand tremor experience.

First off, soup, and really any form of liquid you have to be careful handling, is like a nemesis of mine. For most people, carrying soup is probably just carrying soup. For me, carrying that hot, hot soup right outta the oven is a tense as HECK experience. I walk extremely slow, my heart jumps whenever the hand tremor worsens for a second or two, and it's a relief once I get it to the table five feet away. Then I realize I used a towel to carry it. And the bowl is tilted on the table on the bunched up towel. And I have to very carefully maneuver the bowl off of the towel and hope it doesn't spill.

My current mood on this is hoping that there are bowls out there that don't get super hot when there's super hot soup inside so I can carry them without a bunched up towel or a ton of fear.

Another thing with hand tremors is handwriting. I do not have good handwriting, ESPECIALLY writing in print. I write most of my stuff via typing, which I'm decent at. HOWEVER; in the case of my hand tremor, when I DO write on paper; it is a big example of why cursive is NOT a useless form of writing. It's way smoother for my hands, and though still messy, is way easier for me to write in than print.

Hand tremors are not super shaky all the time. Sometimes, they're less shaky. Other times, especially when I'm trying to be extra careful, they might as well be dancing along to the 'Shake Senora' song.

Hand tremors do NOT always come from an injury or disease- my tremor just is, though we suspect there's some genetics in play with mine.

Hand tremors can affect anyone at any age, for example, you may think only elderly get the tremors, but I'm sixteen.

Having a hand tremor definitely hampers some of my skills. For example, I definitely won't be getting any jobs requiring fine motor movements (if I ever become a surgeon SOMEHOW, to my future possible patients, I am SORRY.) I'm not very dexterous with many things, but the thing that gets me the most is how much it hampers my art skills. A HUGE part of art quality is nice, clean lines and stroke, but even with a stabilizer, it's difficult. I want to become really good at art, however as far as I know, my hand tremor holds me back from that, which causes me distress a lot of the time, especially since it's one of the reasons my parents won't let me take art classes since even they think that my art is severely hampered by it and that I just won't reach a very high skill level, or even a high quality skill level at all, in art. The other reason they won't let me take art is because one of them has experience in art school and college and such, and from experience knows that it is not a financially stable career path. Thing is, though, I don't plan for art college, I just want to improve in my art as a hobby.

this is an older thread but i found the link and i'd like to add some stuff, based off my own experiences

• i want to preface this with a big fat label of I DO NOT HAVE DID/OSDD! i'm friends with many systems and can provide a basic idea/list of shit i hate, but i am NOT an expert and please for the love of god talk to a fucking system if you want to write a plural character. that being said: 
  • don't make Angry Murder Alters if you plan on writing a system. that stereotype needs to burn in hell; DID is not a scary disorder (though i imagine it can be for the person who has it). alters are more likely to harm the body than they are to harm anyone else.
  • also, Please Do Not Call It "Multiple Personality Disorder." that is an outdated term and not even??? that accurate??? it's not multiple personalities it's literally whole different people/identities in one body
    
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• now, for a disorder i actually have and can talk about reliably: autism! (+ adhd though i'm not properly diagnosed)
  
  • everyone's autism is different. don't just write us as nonverbal, or obsessed with one thing, or socially awkward cuties, or super intelligent. we're all different! same for adhd: we're not all hyperactive idiots or spacey weirdos or lovable goofballs
    
    • i personally experience a lot of stimming, problems with social norms, sensory processing, and obsession with autism, and fidgeting, inattentiveness, and hyperfocus with adhd
      
  • fun fact about adhd: a lot of us can't drink anything caffeinated. stimulants actually help us focus/relax us; that's what ADHD meds are in the first place!
  • another fun fact about adhd: rejection sensitive dysphoria exists. write characters with RSD or SUFFER BY MY BLADE. basically, it's an extreme overreaction to rejection in a person with adhd; it's associated with traumatic experiences in childhood, and a LOT OF PEOPLE with ADHD deal with childhood trauma to some extent!
    
    
    

as someone who has to constantly deal with the bullshit that comes with paranoia and c-ptsd its REALLY nice seeing characters who exhibit them accurately, especially the less palatable aspects :U I see a lot of characters who are mentally ill or have disorders but the writing avoids showing the "ugly" parts of the disorder and instead shows the more socially acceptable parts. People tend to be very understanding towards people with depression when they feel sad, but are completely insensitive towards those who's depression shows thru anger issues or being completely unable to function. And thats just depression too... There are characters with paranoia/anxiety/ocd/similar illnesses or disorders that people only start to hate when what they do is "annoying" or affects other people. mental illnesses and disorders are serious things that can leave you really fucked up and i find it kinda insulting that sometimes people try to act like the ugly and miserable aspects dont exist @__@ i would love to see more realistic characters in this regard (as long as theyre accurate and not insulting of course)

wallstaples I hope you don’t mind the ping! Is there anything specific you’d like to see? That’s an area I’m not confident in for my characters, so I’d defo like a bit more perspective!