On Writing: Mental-Illnesses

Things To Avoid.

In no specific order, straight from the Springhole article that inspired me to write this. I won't even edit the list, it's that fucking honest.

• The pretty little "mad" waif. You know, the characters who sit around in pretty frilly dresses, sip tea (or blood), and make pretty little babble at people (or stuffed animals). These characters inevitably make mental illness look pretty and romantic.

• The "mad" prophet/prophetess. The characters who through nigh-incomprehensible babble deliver prophecies and wisdom. This perpetuates the myth that there is something magical or mystical about mental illness.

• The perfect innocent who snaps, goes "insane," and goes on a murder rampage. For reasons mentioned earlier, this is bullshit. Plus, it reinforces the misconception that mental illness or insanity automatically means violent behaviour.

• Characters who do bad things simply because they're mentally ill. Mental illness isn't a magic switch that flips a person's morality topsy-turvy or turns it off entirely. While mental illness can in some cases contribute to a person's harmful or destructive behaviours, there is still always an underlying motivation behind the person's actions.

• Characters whose coolness, awesomeness, or badassery is supposed to derive from their "insanity" or "madness." This is a form of romanticizing mental illness, so please avoid doing this. It's fine if your character's awesomeness or coolness comes from being an offbeat eccentric, but to link it to actual insanity or mental illness is not okay.

• Characters for whom being "insane" or "crazy" is pretty much all the character is about. People with mental illnesses are people with hopes, dreams, fears, ambitions, hobbies, passions, etc. Characters who are supposed to have severe mental issues need to be three-dimensional people as much as any other type of character does.

• Anything that implies that being "insane" is something that people do simply to be irritating, difficult, different, or rebellious. Because it's not. It's the result of a mental illness. It's not something that one can simply up and decide to be or not to be.

• Anything that implies that anyone with strange or unconventional ideas, opinions, or habits must be "insane." As explored above, a person can believe or do things that would be considered pretty strange by the majority of the populace without actually being mentally ill.