Sh*t Mentally Ill People are Tired of in Fiction
All right. You have a mentally ill character in your story. Awesome! Representation is always a good thing. But there’s definitely a lot of tired tropes when it comes to mentally ill characters. And not just tropes, but stereotypes, many of them harmful to people living with mental illness. So let’s get this party started.
#1 - Characters Defined By Mental Illness
Yes, this one irks me quite a bit. A character is bipolar. Great. But that ends up becoming their defining characteristic, and drives their story. It’s their main motivator, their main obstacle, and the thing that tinges every part of their story arc. Ugh. A character can and should be more than their mental illness.
How about instead a character who just happens to live with mental illness? Sure, it can complicate their life from time to time - because damn, is living with a mental illness complicated - but other things can make life difficult, too. And other things can motivate you than wanting to get past your mental illness.
#2 - Mental Illness Breeds Creativity/Genius/Etc.
This trope isn’t born of malicious intent, so I can see why writers would want to include it in their stories. But in the end, it does more harm than good. Mental illness isn’t the “cause” of creativity and pretending that being depressed is some wellspring for creativity is DOWNRIGHT HARMFUL.
It’s fine if you have an artist or intellectual who’s dealing with depression or bipolar disorder or any other mental illness, but watch where you draw the line between them struggling with mental illness and their mental illness being the “source” of their genius. Because it’s NOT. This is a myth, and one that needs to be eradicated for the health of those actually struggling with these problems.
#3 - Too Quirky and Romantic For This World
Mentally ill people are just so quirky and different. They’re adorable and unique and special. This… is a trope that I especially hate. Okay, so let me explain why. Mentally ill people can be unique, sure, just like anybody can be fun and quirky and different. But don’t set mentally ill people up on a pedestal in your stories and act like they’re so different than the rest of the world.
In short, don’t make mentally ill people your Manic Pixie Dream Girls/Guys. Mental illness doesn’t exist just for the sake of making a character something for your non-mentally ill characters (or your reader) something to idealize or romanticize. They’re real people, with real wants and needs and issues.
Even unique and quirky characters have days where they want to lounge around in sweats and watch Netflix, rather than hit up a Farmer’s Market and play their ukulele for the adoring masses.
#4 - All Mental Illness Looks the Same
This is more of a critique of stereotypes, but really - all mental illness does not look the same. People suffering from depression will have different sets of symptoms. So too with bipolar disorder, or anxiety, or obsessive compulsive disorder, or anything else you can name. Clinging to stereotypical descriptions of these mental illnesses is going to net you an eye roll - or worse - from anybody who knows anything about these illnesses.
So stop and do your research. Read real accounts from real people who are dealing with these issues. Take your time to build real characters with real disorders. More importantly, think about their backgrounds and how their backgrounds manifest in realistic mental illnesses. A character with a history of physical abuse is going to have a very different set of problems than a character with a history of neglect.
#5 - Having Mental Illness Only Ends in Tragedy or Triumph
Finally, let’s end on this. Stories seem to think that mental illness narratives only end in two ways - tragedy (i.e. a person succumbs to their mental illness and probably commits suicide or gets lobotomized if its the 1950s) or triumphs over their mental illness to win the Nobel Prize or get the girl of their dreams or write a bestselling novel or what have you.
In real life, people with mental illness just… keep on going. We live normal lives with our mental illness. Our triumphs are typically unrelated to overcoming our mental illness, and frankly, that’s what I want to see more of with these characters. People who just so happen to have bipolar disorder and whose triumphs are unrelated to their struggles.
What about a scientist who just so happens to have bipolar disorder, takes meds for it, and who makes a breakthrough while going about her business? Sans breakdown mid-narrative. These realistic depictions are important to reducing the stigma of mental illness in the media.
Anyway, I could have gone on even longer, but this is just a brief little primer on sh*t that this particular bipolar-bear hates seeing in writing. Please add more in the comments if you think there’s anything I missed!
titsay
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