An Orphan Process is a computer process whose parent process has finished or terminated, though it remains running itself. It no longer has a _purpose_ but continues to use system resources.
I started writing this shortly before I wound up terminating with my psychiatrist, not because anything was wrong, but by mutual agreement that I was about as stable as I was ever likely to be, and I don’t think that was all coincidence.
I started writing this in the first place because identified with a character who had strongly implied canonical mental health issues (Root from Person of Interest,) who spent time involuntarily hospitalized (mostly) off screen, and I wanted to explore that time, and that inner world and see some of my own experiences reflected in a character I love.
And then I started getting comments now and then, some from readers that have commented many times, other times from people who haven’t commented before, or anons, talking about the realism in the portrayal of what it’s like to have high functioning mental illness. Some about Root, and some about the mentally ill OCs who inhabit the hospital she’s confined to. I hadn’t set out to do that. I never thought other people would see themselves there too, but that they have means a lot, and it means almost as much to me the few in the comments who are ‘well’ and ask questions and learn things they might not have known about what it’s like to live as a functional mentally ill person.
So yeah… it’s still in progress, but I’m sharing it again today because of that. It’s World Mental Health day, and it’s about mental health more than anything else.