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 !
I have my dilemma here on a google doc - I added possible tw at the beginning of it though I believe its rather light but I thought...just in case
Basically I developed a character in two parts because there's a timeskip and then realized I had two facts that implied something a bit awful
https://docs.google.com/document/d/11Tdh1-CoGGVDLy_n6zM60JVDmGcRxVJMxho4XRRXYp4/edit?usp=sharing
Abby hello there, i had a very close person to me who has schizophrenia read over your document and give me feedback so i could give you a good reply on this issue!
the good news is, what you’ve written so far is not extremely offensive at all. the only thing is, instead of saying these feelings of aminosity are “another self” or “another personality” of your oc, it’s best to say these are her own feelings. schizophrenia can cause extreme black and white thinking, and these feelings of anger/hatred she has could be a result of this and not some “inner separate voice” inside of her, if that makes sense.
thank you for reaching out! it’s always nice to see someone looking to better the representation of schizophrenia in their ocs❤️
daisukeverse thanks for the help and asking this person and all aaa ;; Im trying to get if possible several replies and take a bit from here and there so it helps a lot
Ive been thinking since I read this mhm...would it be best to consider these are her thoughts or something more like the idea of intrusive thoughts, like those ideas popping up in her mind even tho she might be even scared of them? (Just taking that from my own intrusive thoughts that have scared me aa...)
And last...is it ok to ask what sort of actual things can help schizophrenic people (regarding hallucinations, break down or cognitive-wise)? I have vague ideas for anxiety (helping a person focus on physical things, not overwhelming/giving space, maybe bringing to a calm place etc) and depression (mostly not judging, encouraging to go to therapy, actual listening) but not that much for this. And Id need to havr some ideas since she has two friends and her significant others who truly try to help/support her
Agreed on the autoimmune disease part! I didn’t know that people tend to give their characters Celiac, but I do know that there are other autoimmune diseases!
A possible example being eczema! Basically, immune system go BRRR and...
‘Wait, bro- bro fellow immune cell BRO- is that.... is that skin??’
‘Bro it IS that IS skin hggh I hate that guy’
‘Ok well let’s just attack skin’
‘Haha ok sounds good to me, p sure skin is an outside intruder anyway’
As for genetics, I think how it happens, in my family, at least, is that it’s like rolling dice. You ARE going to get an autoimmune disorder- however, WHAT autoimmune disorder you’ll get is randomized. Either way, your immune system gets confused and attacks it’s own body. My mom and I got the eczema, which, considering other cases of autoimmune disorders in our family, we got p lucky.
Hello! It's great to find this thread, I've been wondering about something for so long and I'd love some insight.
Is it possible or believable that a character 'snaps' at some point in their story? To put it simple, the typical story that goes something like: person with minor preexistent disorder >> trigger >> some truly awful traumatic experience >> snaps into bloody killer.
I see this cliche a lot, and one of my characters had it from when I was younger, but how accurate is that? There's a bit more detail in the toggle about her disorder and her experience.
She had shown symptoms of schizophrenia and paranoia since young age, but was only diagnosed at 14 when taken to a professional after a violent outburst in school. Under the doctor's fake promise to treat her, she was ingressed in an experimental mental hospital which very much treated her like a lab rat for months (so physical and mental torture each day for almost a year + experimental drugs). Is triggered by loosing her only friend. Basically she then attacks some people until she makes it out and runs away. Later on she's now a wild, sometimes-lucid-sometimes-extremely-unstable kind of impulsive murderer. Why? Sometimes she thinks she's saving them by taking them out of this world, sometimes she hallucinates about monsters and attacks. I have to add, those exp drugs left her brain very, very damaged.
howdy! im psychotic / schizophrenic so here's my two cents (for this reason i might use psychotic and schizophrenic interchangeably since it's late, but the trope applies very heavily to both in a similar way)
what you described is the probably one of the single most harmful trope/cliche effecting schizophrenic people. the idea that schizophrenic people will one day 'snap' is not false in anyway , psychotic breaks exist! however the way psychotic breaks are represented in media usually tends to be incredibly sensationalized and negative, putting the person suffering in a 'scary mentally ill person' situation. in reality, a psychotic break usually ends up with the person putting themselves in harms way as opposed to other people, much less going on a murder spree. in addition, i've personally never felt violent towards hallucinations, mostly afraid.
this isn't to say people with schizophrenia can't have violent outbursts, but more often than not the violence is self-destructive in nature. i can personally say for every psychotic break i've had , the only person getting hurt is me.
the whole 'experimental mental hospital' thing is also harmful in it's own but it's a bit harder to explain. it's kind of a 'scary mental hospital filled with scary messed up people' trope, not to mention abuse of mental patients is a very real thing that shouldnt be taken lightly
its late and brain isnt working but ya
Whixy i’d say the “person with ptsd/schizophrenia/psychosis/etc snaps and kills people” trope is horribly inaccurate and overdone, and most importantly: extremely harmful as zinnia said. This sort of plot point in my experience is just some contrived/lazy way to create conflict in a story. I don’t think thered be a justifiable reason to have that sort of idea. people definitely do “snap” but the idea that people with these issues are prone to harming others or even mass murder still causes a lot of stigma among real mentally ill people, even if its a fictional character who does it.
Thank you for your responses! I wrote her story long time ago (when creepypastas were something new lol, she was one of them, so literally +10 years ago) thus why is so cliche and silly.
I will think of a way to revamp her story to not make her illness the cause of her behaviour, but just a part of who she is. Her whole point is to be a killer, a villain, so I think I'll work around that to give her a real motive for it (still evil) rather than just slap an illness to it. Ya know, revenge, some desire, I'll think of something more appropriate.
It is important to me that she stil had paranoid schizophrenia because she's quite based off me and my own problems with it, just exaggerated conditions and a totally stray path. As to what zinnia said, I can add that I do show kind of "aggressive" self-defense behaviour towards these visions when reflected on people, since it's scary and of course don't want them near me (I mean, when a person with a twisted shadow-thing coming out of their face approaches me, you bet I'm gonna throw hands sorry mom). However it's true, we tend to be self-destructive so that's something in her story I will try to reflect. I mostly asked this because since I realized... stories like hers don't actually happen... I wanted to know more points of view than just mine.
However, the mental hospital is not there to demonize these places, but is a high fiction element (really mad-scientist kind of stuff, machines that don't exist and secret societies). But I think I'll make more a general place of experiments in humans beings rather than an specifically mental hospital.
There will be clearly shown that stuff like this are not actually like that, since she has an alt story. This is a "bad end" / "true end" kind of character; her story diverges at one point (in this case ends in worst case scenario) but her true story does reflect reality (or mine) of going to an actual clinic, being attended by a real professional, therapy, proper meds and months after her traumatic event (which is not the exp hospital) she moves on with an independent life as best as she can. Yes, she still has an illness, it doesn't just go away, but it's way better controlled. And is not her only trait, as like anyone else she has goals and a life (things her 'bad end' version didn't have and I will work it to give her actual characteristics rather than just her illness).
Thanks for your replies either way! I'm glad to be able to confirm these things, is what I needed to finally decide to rework it XD
[Phew, late reply, apparently I never hit post. so sorry about the 2 days later rando bump]
I have a lot of OCs with different disabilities ... I haven’t added all of them to toy house yet, but! I tend to ramble and this will likely get long, so I’ll give a snippet before a read more for each with the first three that came to mind.
Sachi is carrying around a lot of trauma from his childhood on Yomi. Both of his parents died before the people on Yomi were liberated, and he was set free in a modern Japan he didn’t fully understand, with a younger sibling to raise on his own.
He’s very responsible but struggles a lot with feeling ‘secure’, and is prone to taking others’ problems on as his own. He’s a Shadowdun character, and has sort of become the mom of our team, and while his tendency to ‘adopt’ younger folks hasn’t bitten him yet, it definitely will eventually. Currently he’s sort of assumed responsibility for our mage, a runaway rich kid who’s the same age as his younger sibling, and who has no idea how to take care of himself now that he’s cut off from his parents’ resources. Obviously all of this means a lot of stress, and Sachi’s coping mechanisms often aren’t... great. He’s an alcoholic and heavy smoker, a stress eater, and has a more lackadaisical attitude toward drugs than he likely should. While he’s very responsible when sober, there’s a reason I joke Hollywood Undead’s Riot is his drunk song. He also has a few phobias as a result of Yomi. Notably radiation. He’s a fire attuned adept and... in Shadowrun, radiation is what fire magic “corrupts” in to when it goes toxic. It’s best not to remind Sachi that Seattle’s biggest nuclear power plant is in the same borough he lives in... He's super high anxiety and constantly puts himself last. He struggles with saying no. His SURGE makes him look monstrous, but he's able to shapeshift to look normal--something he increasingly loathes doing. He was a bit self loathing before Tetsuo came in to the picture, but his self esteem is still pretty crap.
Tetsuo was a victim of a terrible car crash when he was just hitting college, and lost his limbs and vision. Shadowrun is also a setting where both trauma and cyberware cut your magic down to nil.
He went from being a promising young shaman to his friend pulling favors with Renraku to save Tetsuo's life in the blink of an eye. ...Renraku repaired the damage to his body. He was given cybereyes, four replacement limbs, and had reconstructive surgery and even new organs paid for--but he's effectively owned by the corporation now. This threw his whole life off the rails, but he excelled at training and is now a full fledged red samurai. He has PTSD going back to the crash that he does his best to hide, and until recently had flat affect and a rather grim outlook on life. He's prone to throwing himself in to things to the point of burnout as a distraction.
Events around his meeting Sachi sort of "woke his magic back up" and now he has... that to deal with. It's much weaker than before, but it IS back.
Jaeger isn't on Toyhouse yet, but I rather like the fellow and will probably add his profile later today! Benjamin "Jaeger" Zurbrück is a paranoid schizophrenic, and doctor. I've used him in a few different settings. I try to be very careful with how I handle him, both in portraying his mental illness accurately, and sympathetically, but he is not a happy man and his life is...difficult.
When I played him in D&D, my first attempt (3e) resulted in a multiclass half vampire cleric/rogue. When I tried again more successfully in Pathfinder as a dhampir, he was an inquisitor with the healing domain.
His general motif has always been a doctor perfectly willing to use his medical knowledge to harm as well as heal. He's tired of treating the "symptoms" (those hurt by the powerful) of society and sees himself as going straight for the source. He's... creepy, and unsettles people (flat affect, a very DRY sense of humor, strange methods of speaking, etc,) but he means well. In a D&D setting he's ALWAYS chaotic good. He wants what's best for everyone, but... the ends justify the means for him. If it takes killing someone to save more people, he won't hesitate.
His original incarnation was as a malkavian in Vampire: the Masquerade. He worked as a nightshift surgeon, subsisted off medical blood, and had a single Childe who he shared an apartment with.
In any incarnation, he's still schizophrenic, and still tends to come under fire for things he can't really help or control. He DOES hallucinate, (usually auditory. He often hears the voice of his friend, Alexei, and will hold full conversations with him.) He logic checks himself aggressively. He's perfectly aware of his condition, and there's a lot of "if X, then Y. If not Y, then not Z" to his thinking, and he second guesses himself a lot. Naturally he does his absolute best to prevent others from becoming aware of his condition.
Ben is... also dealing with a lot of trauma from his childhood. He views himself as a monster, (and is typically a monster HUNTER as much as a means of "redeeming himself" as anything else...) and does not like to speak about what little family he has. He was raised by a distant, abusive mother (who was likely schizoaffective) or in the least severely depressed with comorbid psychosis. His father (tw rape) was his mother's rapist. Ben looks quite a lot like the man as an adult, a fact which haunts him immensely. He tries very hard to be a good person, but even sees his work as a monstrous thing "better for a monster to do".
When Milgram was a child, they were born lacking certain human emotions. They did not feel love or pain or anger, none of that. I forgot what the term for this??
No story with this detail yet just getting the gist of what I want right now.
They’re able to express some now, but sometimes it’s not the right reaction to a situation, so they’re still working on it with the help of their support group. Milgram is definitely nothing awful, just a little mischievous and eccentric.
Also feel free to correct/ inform me in anything health related regarding what I just described. No hard feelings don’t worry.