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So You Wanna Be Mentally Ill

Charybdis

Screaming Cat
Pronouns
They/Them
Disclaimer: This is not an attempt to tirade and be all 'reeeiiii social justice' or holier than thou. Just do your research and be respectful of people's issues, and as in all aspects of roleplay, try to aim for some realism. Ily.



mental illness
n.
(Pathology) any of various disorders in which a person's thoughts, emotions, or behaviour are so abnormal as to cause suffering to himself, herself, or other people

Sections:
+ Introduction*
+ What mental illness is and isn't*
+ What causes mental illness
+ Common mistakes/overused tropes
+ Treatment of mental illness in Altera**
+ Big ass list of ideas
+ Helpful resources*

*bits I recommend if you skip the rest, don't blame you tbh

"An estimated 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older or about one in four adults suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year."
- The Kim Foundation
(it ain't uncommon)


SO YOU WANNA BE MENTALLY ILL
by i-am-procrastinating-kill-me-charybdis

What's your reasoning? Are you doing this to toss an extra 'quirk' onto the character trait pile? Are you committed to actually trying to roleplay this correctly and do the research? If not, that's fine. Go ahead, but just please, don't slap a severe label on something that's not. Trivializing is not cute, and can feel a bit... isolating for people who actually experience it. A disorder isn't a plot device to be 'rescued' from or a trait to add uniqueness. It tends to be more of a flaw than a trait.

Example; I have ADHD. This enables me to be very creative, and sometimes (such as now ayy lmao) insanely focus on one thing for a long period of time. On the other hand, I constantly forget everything, frequently mentally check out of activities and conversations, procrastinate, act brashly, burn myself out, get distracted very easily, the list goes on. Obviously, it's imbalanced in the favor of being a downside.

You can have a character with say, schizophrenia, who is Lawful Good or Chaotic Evil, or anywhere in between. It's not a one-tone defining thing; many people of all different types have disorders. Get creative. A Neutral Good Dwarven Ranger and Lawful Evil Elven Mage can both be just as mentally unwell and be very different individuals.

As a final note, from what I have gathered, this community's majority ranges around teenagedom. This is when our mental health starts getting reaaaal shite, and from speaking with people, it seems it's a common trend here too. Depressed teens on the internet and all-it's hard to talk about but I'm aware that a lot of people here struggle with this. Shoot me a PM if you wanna talk bud I'm like your weird cool aunt Sally.



What mental illness is
+ Lifelong
+ More than a nuisance
+ A good way to add humanity, and depth to your character, making them relatable/realistic
+ (In terms of psychosis-types) an altered perception of reality that you truly believe
+ An enjoyable challenge to roleplay if you're looking for something new
+ shitty lmao
+ Something one can't usually immediately see in a person
+ Relevant OOC and IC
+ An aspect of one's life and personality

What mental illness isn't
+ An excuse for your character to kill people or be violent (people can just be jerks)
+ A moment where someone 'snaps' and goes 'crazy'
+ The reason why your character is super quirky and random (they're just eccentric which is fine reasoning on its own.)
+ A very rare phenomenon that few people have
+ Expecting somebody to save you from yourself and your 'inner darkness' and blah blah plsstop
+ What defines your character as a person (see: one-trait chump)
+ Inner darkness that I hate myself for and I must control my inner monsters grr
+ Being a whiny wimp who agonizes over past tragedies-pls research PTSD
+ A mild inconvenience (straightening things habitually, 'ooh look shiny', sometimes getting a bit nervous)
+ An isolated period of anxiety or depression-everyone feels that way sometimes! It's when it's chronic, frequent, and life-interfering that it becomes a problem
+ Psychosis by itself-there's a spectrum
+ Always caused by a traumatic event/exposure to negative things during childhood-some people just have bad genetics

When in doubt, Google it out.



Causes of mental illness
There's also lots of contributing factors that can affect your character's mental health, even if they don't directly have a disorder. Stress, chronic pain, sleeping issues, substance abuse, are all relevant.

+ Chemical imbalance of the brain (see: shite genes)
+ Childhood development (abuse, neglect, exposure or lack of exposure to certain behaviors, etc)
+ Traumatic events
+ Physical trauma to the brain (see the case of Phineas Gage, clicky clicky link)
+ Neurodegeneration (you brain breaking down in a sense-commonly due to age/genetics)

Keep in mind there are spectrums; common symptoms shared through different disorders and the like. The spectrums of anxiety, OCD, ADHD, and autism can all be related to one another; I know this through my own heritage and seeing all of these pop up throughout my bloodlines. It has the potential to give very interesting family dynamics if down the line your character reproduces.



Common Mistakes/Overused Tropes

I'm not saying that these ideas can't be done-just do so carefully, as they are frequently played (especially by inexperienced rpers), and played poorly.

My main beef with these is that they tend to mis-portray mental illness and make people wince at any mention of disorder in a character.


The Dreaded Edginess Mistakes:
+ Making your character dark, tortured, and angsty due to a traumatic event and that's why they're 'crazy' and/or eeeeevil and vaguely mentally unsound
+ Blaming being a bad person on mental illness
+ Bringing up tragic past way too much and constantly sidetracking RP due to 'snapping'; PTSD doesn't make you an obnoxious attention-seeking toe
+ Having an evil dark side (see: multiple personalities, 'true nature', etc)
+ Enjoying hurting people and/or killing because that's what all crazy people do
+ Making disorders 'cool' or 'pretty' for whatever reason why is this a thing
+ Being aloof because 'I don't want to hurt you I'm a monster reeiii'
+ Characters that are eccentric, weird, and quirky because of some vague disorder??
+ Really, 'snapping' in general and descending into full-on psychosis or whatever. People can certainly 'snap' when it comes to anxiety, anger, recalling trauma, or whatever, but it's highly unlikely and unrealistic they're going to go on a killing rampage while hysterically laughing
+ Having a phobia (or disorder in general) but it's only relevant when directly addressed



Treatment of Mental Illness in Altera
This is a medieval setting. These are the times when 'doctors' would drill into people's skulls to release spirits. Something broken, slap a leech or five on it. Creepy asylums are applicable; unwell people are seen as untouchables, and it's better to lock them away for both their sake and ours. Who knows if it's contagious?

Additionally, the vast majority of people are religious. If you act strangely, against social norms, you're 'touched by Jishrim'; a broad and inherently negative label. People who are either too open with their issues, or suffering too much to function, probably end up homeless and shunned, seen as a blight upon the local community to be avoided at all costs. Similar to lepers, infected, and even just minorities. Gotta please the gods, yo.

Naturally, your character would probably feel the need to hide their struggles, for their safety and to be accepted as a person in the world. Trying to 'see someone' would likely result in you being locked in a terribly cruel and inhumane institute for many a year, only to come out worse (if it all).

Due to the treatment of mental illness, inherent guilt and self-loathing would likely also manifest in sufferers on top of their already present problems, feeling that they are somehow 'wrong', 'broken', and a general insult to most of the gods as well as people.



Big Ol' Repository o'Disorders and Conditions
(I haven't bothered listing super common ones, let's get creative.)

Huge-Ass List Link

General
I am not a certified psychology and am not good at categorizing

+ Seasonal Affective Disorder
+ Depersonalization/Derealization Disorder (often accompanies anxiety-can also be triggered by cannabis use)
+ Panic Disorder
+ Muncahusen Syndrome (affected person intentionally fakes being ill)

Personality Disorders
Deeply ingrained patterns of behavior that causes many difficulties socially and emotionally
+ Avoidant
+ Paranoid
+ Borderline
+ Histrionic
+ Narcissistic
+ Dependent
+ Obsessive-Compulsive Personality (frequently what people misunderstand OCD to be)
+ Schizotypal
+ Schizoid

Developmental
Tends to manifest earlier in life than other disorders

+ Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (to note-one can be exclusively attention deficit or hyperactive; or both!)
+ Tourette's Syndrome (swearing is a highly uncommon tic, usually it's physical)
+ Autism

Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum
Characterized by repeated, inescapable thoughts, usually with compulsions
+ Misophonia/Misokinesia (negative physiological and emotional reactions to certain triggers)
+ Trichillomania (hair picking)
+ Dermatillomania (skin picking)
+ Body Dysmorphic Disorder (not exclusive to transgender people)
+ Hypochondria
+ Social Anxiety Disorder

Neurodegenerative
Progresses over time due to the decline of your brain's health; can be early onset and is not exclusive to the elderly. Usually genetic.

+ Huntington's Disease
+ Dementia
+ Alzheimer's

Eating
+ Anorexia Nervosa
+ Bulimia
+ Binge Eating
+ Pica (a need/want to eat non-food substances)

Phobias

Phobias inhibit day-to-day existence due to fear; the sufferer is often haunted by the fear even when not present and will take extreme measures to avoid it-even if that means affecting themselves negatively

+ Agoraphobia (open spaces, crowds, new places, etc)
+ Acrophobia (heights)
+ Nosophobia (thunder and lightning)
+ Rupophobia (fear of dirt/filth-germs weren't really a thing in this time)



Helpful Resources
Yes these are links, clickity click

+ Google, you clod
+ Psych Central
+ Reddit
+ OCD Centre of Los Angeles

+ That one kid down the street that tried to sell you meth
+ TeensHealth (click Mental Health tab)
+ National Institute of Mental Health
+ Google
+ People that you may know-be brave and learn
+ Me if you want idk?
+ TVTropes (for what not to do)



this was a great way to procrastinate but back to commissions whoops
 

The Cinnaroll

The Cinnamon Roll
Very Sweet
Legend
Retired Staff
Pronouns
She/Her, They/Them
Asirel_Luik
Asirel_Luik
Sweetheart
I will bookmark this. The only character I gave with "issues" is Tsarra. Who began to have moments where she would cry and panic from stress. Since she got herself out of that situation, she's better. But that'd be it. I didn't wanna make a character have something I didn't understand.
 

Cymic_

Better than sliced bread
Legend
The Dreaded Edginess Mistakes:
+ Making your character dark, tortured, and angsty due to a traumatic event and that's why they're 'crazy' and/or eeeeevil and vaguely mentally unsound
I want to mention, The Courier 's Sif Sigurd has something like this, if what i was told is correction. Sailing through bodies for 5 miles-- I think Sif is a good example of how to RP this correctly, as he doesn't constantly run around, hollering about the tragic things of his life.

*... strutting in a black coat with red trim*
Nikolaos Raphael_Payne
 

CyberChaosV2

Lord of Altera
This is really well done :D though I will have to say that trying to give a character autism would be quite the challenge as... the thinking is different and the actions are different, but not entirely. From my experience (Being diagnosed with what used to be called asperger syndrome and is now mild autism) the biggest difference is the thoughts you ahve about your actions. Whereas many people are more inclined to have a sort of suspension of disbelief, people with autism (Mild-Moderate) tend to focus more on how it wouldn't happen/work/be realistic. (That's probably why I have a hard time keeping my mouth shut about topics that I find have flaws (no matter how slight and ignorable they may be) and when it gets more severe, you tend to notice the world less except for personal guidelines set for you repeatedly, no matter how weird they may seem (There's a book called "Rules" that addresses this topic very well.) It would certainly be interesting to see a character with a higher level, though still functioning, of autism... but I highly doubt it would be done well to be honest, especially since it would be really boring to play due to the more isolationistic style of those diagnosed with autism.
 
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