mental illness writing advice

[they/it] • this blog was made to inform writers and facilitate positive, accurate representation of various mental illnesses and neurodivergence. read pinned for more info.

[mental-illness-writing-advice]

Hello and welcome. I made this blog to help people educate themselves while writing neurodiverse and/or mentally ill characters. I can offer help for many different types of mental illness.

My goal is to help writers in creating characters with accurate, sensitive, and tactful depictions of mental illness. I believe that representing mental illness in a positive and understanding way is extremely important.

Things I have good knowledge about:

ADHD

Autism

Mood Disorders (Depression & Bipolar) without psychotic features

OCD and other obsessive-compulsive related disorders (such as BFRBs and body dysmorphia)

PTSD and C-PTSD

Personality Disorders (especially Cluster B)

Dissociative Disorders, including but not limited to DID*

ARFID

Things I have okay knowledge about:

Psychotic and Schizophrenia-spectrum Disorders

Certain Eating Disorders (anorexia, bulimia, pica)

Mood Disorders with psychotic features

Anything not listed here is probably something I have limited knowledge on. I will try to offer help and redirect you to outside resources if in doubt.

So uh, please send an ask if you’re looking for some help!

*footnote: I recognize and support many forms of plurality. Because this blog is centered around mental illness, I do not feel comfortable grouping all plurality under the umbrella of mental illness. Thus, I will not be covering non-disordered plurality on this blog. To all the non-disordered plurals out there, I see you and I support you.

[mental-illness-writing-advice]

hi gamers! sorry it took me a while to get to my inbox, i had to wait til i had a minute to write some half decent responses. i can’t ever promise perfection or professional-level expertise, but i can give my two cents. hopefully my two cents are a valued two cents. :)

[mental-illness-writing-advice]

I know you said you are not knowledgeable about this, but I genuinely can't find any place that could answer me this, and maybe you know something:

How do I describe a visibly emaciated love interest who has an eating disorder in a way that does not fetishize or glorify the disorder, but still shows the POV character is attracted to them?

Came up with two different male characters in different stories, one who also has a chronic illness, the other who sees his eating disorder as a twisted form of rebellion against the golden cage situation he is in. But I guess this would be generally helpful

hmm, i suppose in this case i would think about the connotations of your words and the feelings that you are aiming to describe towards that love interest.

to elaborate, what might a character feel when seeing their love interest in a clearly emaciated state? they may feel affectionate because they are looking at their love, but it is likely that they might feel concerned, sad, or angry to see their lover’s body in such a state.

when describing the love interest’s body, i would lean into a complex range of emotion. if you want to describe a particular detail of his build that shows how emaciated he is, i would sprinkle in the emotions of the character observing him. maybe it’s the desire to protect or feed. maybe it’s grief to see their love interest suffer. maybe it’s anger that their love interest was driven to this state.

i think just generally telling the reader that the lover is concerned for their crush is a great way to show that they do love and care about the character they are looking at.

i do want to add that i think it is okay if your character thinks their love interest’s body is beautiful. after all, true love persists no matter what the body looks like. but if you want to make sure you aren’t romanticizing something unhealthy, adding some of the negative emotion to balance it seems like the key to me.

hopefully this is helpful! good luck writing!

[mental-illness-writing-advice]

I saw in your pinned post that sending asks for help was okay, so here I am. I think I might have a personality disorder? I wanted a second opinion of someone who looks like they know what they're talking about. I've been struggling a lot with the concept of morality and empathy and literally just caring about other people and their problems, which as you can see, I'm only willing to admit anonymously. I've also had an insanely inflated ego, but I'm not sure how plasable that is considered my only comparison is feeling like the scum of the earth. To be clear, I also have anxiety, depression, adhd, and potentially autism. Don't know how much is just that or if it's something else.

Sorry for the long ask.

hi anon! it sounds like you’re doing a lot of identity exploration right now.

both autism and personality disorders can contribute to the things you’ve described. it’s tricky to know for sure what disorders could be causing what, especially since i don’t have a lot of info to go on, but i can still offer you some words.

the traits you have described can often be associated with narcissism—most pwNPD struggle with empathy & sympathy as well as ego related issues. it is highly common for pwNPD to have inflated egos that are “false” in the sense that their high confidence covers for lack of inner self worth.

however, the reason diagnoses exist is to facilitate treatment. i think the most important thing is finding out what frameworks serve you the best. looking for resources to help with personality disorders can be harrowing because a lot of narcissism resources are targeted towards “victims of narcissists” rather than narcissists themselves. even so, if you manage to find some good ones, they can be extremely helpful! keep in mind that you don’t have to have a PD to benefit from these resources. if you feel like a certain coping technique or therapy worksheet can help you, you are welcome to use it regardless of your diagnosis.

if you are concerned with professional treatment and are able to access mental health care, bring up these symptoms to a professional you trust. if they are good at their job they will be able to help you navigate these things. if they are extra good at their job they can help you receive an accurate diagnosis.

i do not mean to discourage you from seeking an answer to these questions. it can be really clarifying and helpful to have a name to certain experiences. i only mean to tell you that overall, helping yourself and treating your problems is ultimately more important than labeling them.

i hope this was at least a little bit helpful for you! good luck on your journey, i hope you can find an answer that satisfies you.

[mental-illness-writing-advice]

Hi! I'm writing a character that struggles to eat food due to an intense fear of food poisoning (he's incredibly susceptible to illness and he's had it three times before) and I was wondering if that would fall under ARFID?

sounds like it might! food restrictions in arfid can happen for many different reasons. most commonly you’ll hear about arfid happening for sensory reasons, but fears of choking, illness, and more can contribute or cause it as well.

generally with arfid it is identified by the impact it has on the person. if it is causing significant social impairment (ie. anxiety at functions involving food, inability to socialize with others due to avoiding food, and more) and/or malnutrition, then it would probably be considered arfid.

long story short, if your character’s diet is extremely restricted to the point of adverse health impacts, then that does sound like arfid to me (as someone who personally has arfid).

[mental-illness-writing-advice]

hi chat, i accidentally left my asks CLOSED. guh. feel free to send one in now lmao.