I’ve seen so many books that the main character is like “I’m Kathy and I’m not like other girls because I’m edgy and my only character trait is depression” Bad representation sucks man
Now, if they weren't really like the other girls, it'd be more like: "I'm Dragonstare Hoist Nufah Honeymint, and I'm not like the other girls because I have giant tentacles arms and can breathe fire, as well as fly with ease. My teachers don't even give me any tests because they know I'm SOOOO smart! My parents were killed before I was born, but I'm raised by my brother Cthulhu. I'm the hottest girl in school and all the guys fawn over me, but I don't understand because I see myself as totally average. My best friend is named Jude and I secretly have a crush on my childhood friend Steve, but I'm too afraid to tell him despite him making it clear he is TOTALLY infatuated with me! I'm the only person who can defeat the evil dark lord Drick because he killed my parents and marked me with his blood, therefore I HAVE to kill him! Oh, and I'm also part-fairy, part-dragon, part-eldritch-goddess, part-warlock, part-deer, part-mermaid, and part-wolf! My only problem with defeating Dark Lord Drick is that I'm really sad and depressed even though I don't look like it! Don't worry, Steve always makes me happy when I see him! But don't get on my bad side, because then my secret wolf-DNA will activate and I will sacrifice you to the Great Old Ones."
@@demi_shin Shit! I was just thinking, "I once dated a depressed girl, though her name wasn't Kathy," but you win this round! (I leave a bottle of wine and a ream of paper beside the pile of skulls.)
Two hours before this video dropped, I was thinking, "Man, it's a shame Jenna hasn't done a video on this topic." Jenna: *I sense a disturbance in the Force.*
@@geraldfrost4710 yes I do wonder how to write a comedic love scene. I would also like to know how to write superpowered evil sides. (Jenna? you listening???)
I hate when reading a thriller or something and the giant twist is that the main character had some kind of mental illness. While there are many kinds of mental illnesses, it just feels like lazy writing and kind of like they're not accurately representing a person with that certain mental illness. I as well as many of my family members have a mental illness and it is so disappointing to see those kind of "twists".
They usually use the mental illness as the reason they're so violent as well - i.e "see stay away from people with mental illness they're all crazy". It's disgusting.
Not only that, but people with mental illness are 3 times more likely to be victims of crimes. They make less than 1% of the people in prison for violence related reasons.
@@mesia2453 - If done well, it's not lazy. This is the 'So-and-so did this because they're insane' cop-out -- especially if they seemed completely normal until the Villainous Breakdown.
This is so great. I'm high functioning autistic and it seems like every character written on the spectrum is written as a sexless, cyborg genius savant. It takes away the vibrancy of a community and gives people who need a diagnosis to get help not be able to recognize themselves.
I recommend Stand Still Stay Silent webcomic. It's about a post-apocalyptic world that has been hit by a global pandemic (it began long before OUR pandemic and theirs is worse). The prologue takes place 90 years before the main story. It's all set in the Nordic countries that are, by the time of the main story, are all of their known world. You may find Lalli Hotakainen an interesting character.
I'm high functioning autistic and have ADHD and I haven't even seen any media (other than the Percy Jackson books which do depict ADHD) that portrays either. :(
Whenever one of my friends asks me how to write mental illnesses, I always tell them that the only assumption they're allowed to make is that they know nothing. Research! Research! Research! Different people have different ways mental illnesses shows in them, and you have to account for that. Writing what you know can be helpful, but character has to come into it at some point.
Thank you so much for this. I have a psychotic disorder, and our representation is horrific. Simply by reminding people to research, you're advocating for and helping stigmatized people, and it's deeply appreciated. 💜
I have a character with drug addiction but she's the most powerful hero in the story, but her power leads to her destruction. It's based on a friend I knew that passed away from his 😢
Mental illness is something I feel is better done visually. I thought I could possibly portray my ADHD as sort of a crossword or word search puzzle. Each page would just become a more and more elaborate puzzle as he sinks further and further into a never ending spiral of non-sequiters until the word "door" gets highlighted before he walks into one.
Celeste, my favorite video game of all time, does mental illness in a way that I've never seen before. It is hard as nails, but if you get to play it, it may help even in solving depression. It helped me certainly well. Plus lots of people too. From depression and addictions and etc.
I like to describe my ADHD like a computer adware virus. All those pop-ups and I can never find whatever I'm actually working on, preferred or otherwise.
@@MrChristianDT exactly and there are many different types and ways a human try’s to identify with it. It’s hard to articulate what it is without offending or creating a stigma.
It’s so true about the “using mental illness as twist” being 1) tiresome and 2) insulting; I lately decided to start reading some of Agatha Christie’s work and she’s waaay too apt to lean on that trope. (BTW, If there’s anyone else out there who’s either survived or currently experiencing emotional and/or narcissistic abuse DO NOT read Endless Night - its portrayal of that experience was so insulting and and triggering that I legit threw my copy into a wastebasket a couple times while reading it.
Not even through it but thank you so much for this, Jenna. I'd love to see you speak with experts about representing gender identity, sexualities, and ethnic cultures outside of my own
Funny story about the whole "breaking into tears" scene. That's not a sign or symptom of Depression, that's evidence of *Grief.* When my grandfather died when I was still in school, I was ok for a while, and then one day, I literally did just that; I broke into tears in the middle of class because that's how I happen to express grief over a loss.
Not saying you're wrong, but you can totally cry from stress, and tiredness etc as well as grief. You don't only cry because you've lost someone. I recall a time in school (I was like 10 or something) and I just plain broke into tears from feeling stress and loneliness (though I was currently together with like 5 others). I couldn't even explain it at the time. But it wasn't grief. So breaking into tears randomly can be caused by a multitude of factors. Grief is just one of them.
I have a video suggestion for you: Can you do a video on how to write characters with disabilities I feel like that is not well talked about and written about in novels and it could make novels more diverse and more interesting
Yes! But it's important to make sure that that representation doesn't result in sad MC's who are to be pitied because of their disabilities. Disabled people don't need your pity, just your understanding and trust. At least that's how I see it, I can't speak for everyone obviously, but it bothers me that disabled people are rarely valued as equals to the other characters.
@@MerelvandenHurk I know and understand that, I’m actually thinking about creating a character that has close to the same disability as my own , since I can actually relate to that. Then I’ll create two other characters that’ll have the same disability as my younger middle brother and the other with the same disability as my own. That way I can understand my characters better and relate to them
Good idea. I would be interested in hearing about how people with disability could be someone to make an active impact on the story, not just a victim or distant side character. At least giving someone a physical disability takes away a lot of potential for action scenes, which is probably the main reason they aren't represented that much
Write a disabled character like a regular character. You know, like we're people. Then add all the crap we need to deal with every day that most people have no clue are issues (accessibility issues). Because the barriers are arbitrary, real, and maddening.
I got two great points from this : 1. Mental illness can be pretty subtle depending on environmental context like who you're around and what you're doing 2. Mental illness doesn't define personality but HOW a person deals with mental illness gives clues into their personality
@@Mecharnie_Dobbs it will affect how he does things. What the whole thing is that he’s a regular guy with depression and other things who gets super powers so he will have inward battles as well as outward battles.
I used to be a dudebro who thought trigger warnings would spoil the book but after having a few books give them upfront I changed my tune. It made the reading experience SO MUCH BETTER. Like you guys said, if you can get into the right headspace you can really immerse yourself in the book. I have been a proponent for trigger warnings for a few years now and am so happy I was proven wrong!!! Also, this was incredibly helpful. The internalized stigma section of this video hit me particularly hard. It gave me a lot to think about. Thank you so much for putting this information out there!
As an author who deals with PTSD and all the super fun symptoms that come with it, I rely on personal experiences a lot. Being a nurse with a background in psychiatric healthcare, I really try to make depictions of mental illness as trained on the characters I'm writing as possible without relying on cliches. I love and appreciate this video because it'll help a lot of people. And, of course, it's all in the name of supporting a fantastic organization, so that's amazing!
Yeah, me too. My WIP novel is kind of a dark science fantasy, I guess, and one of the main characters is an exiled prince who joined the military of the country he grew up in. He has prosthetics due to a magic incident as a child (service qualifications be wack) and had to relearn a lot of basic functions as a kid. Plot-wise; his father wants to kill all of the dragons to gain what would basically be functional immortality, and without the military knowing he was the prince he's essentially chosen to kill his father in an assassination attempt/coup. One of his best friends dies saving him from an assassin, and it drives him to cold-bloodedly murder his father and essentially get away with it scot-free. He has to deal with the psychological scars that kind of thing holds and deal with it for the rest of his life. I lost someone when I was a lot younger and it still weighs on me, so I channeled some of that hurt into his story. I also gave him ADHD because it makes writing him so much easier in some ways 😂
A great start for me was “the writer’s guide to psychology”. It was written by a psychologist and writer and really does a great job of giving examples in media of the wrong and right ways of portraying different illnesses. And it covers beyond just depression or schizophrenia
How is it you post a video about mental illness on a day where I want to do nothing but curl up in a ball, cry like a baby, and/or sleep. Thank you so much Jenna and Iona!
What absolute perfect timing, I had a new book in mind that I was STRESSED about because I realized the way I had designed the MC’s background and her current situation she had been exposed to a ton of mental trauma and would likely suffer from PTSD at least and I was concerned bc I’ve never written from the perspective of a character who suffers from PTSD so thanks for all the wonderful resources 💜
The worst piece of professional medical advice I got was “Anxiety and depression are two sides of the same coin; you are either depressed OR anxious but not both at the same time.” Needless to say I’m no longer with that therapist. She did nothing to help and I always left sessions feeling worse than when I went in. They might be two sides of the same coin but you can damn well have both at the same time. It’s not an exclusive swap over they’ve got happening.
As someone with sometimes debilitating anxiety, my book series is going to be thematically centered on the idea of fear itself, with multiple characters having some form of anxiety disorder. It's honestly cathartic to think about how different people react to fear and anxiety, not to mention coming to peace with the positive aspects of fear.
Does it happen to involve something about "confronting the dragon of chaos"? 😊 It's really quite amazing that to this day, despite all the technological solutions we've found to other problems, when it comes to fear, we really still only have one: Confrontation / exposure. Gradual, yes, first imagined, then real exposure, sure - but it all boils down to the same thing in the end.
Trigger warnings would be great! When I read the book Unwind for a school book club group, I ended up having a PTSD attack because of the sexual assault scene while reading and not only was it constantly brought up throughout the rest of the book, but it was also a constant discussion point within our group because they thought it was “okay” and “not that bad”, and thought my reactions to the scene were “funny”
I'm sorry they reacted that way. I also believe there should be trigger warnings in book. It's not a spoiler at all. Also in case of reading books for school with such topics it should be optional. Everyone who has ptsd has different triggers, which should always be taken into consideration. No matter how "strange" it sounds.
@@cartooneyedTRIGGER WARNING TO ANYONE READING THIS COMMENT: it was a sexual assault scene where the main character was confronted by this guy in the bathroom while everyone else was distracted and wouldn’t know where she was. She was pinned to the wall and threatened her by saying he was going to “help her” by getting her pregnant. It was really disturbing to read, and the fact that they said it “wasn’t bad” was horrific.
On doing research, I'd like to add that if you're going to listen to testimonials from people with mental disorders, make sure you're listening to people who were diagnosed by a medical professional. There are a lot of people out there who skim over a website, say "hey, that kind of sounds like me," and then self-diagnose. (It's basically the same thing as when people see themselves in their horoscopes.) What you end up with is people injecting the way they perceive themselves into their idea of what this particular disorder is, and then passing those ideas onto the next person.
That is so very true and as someone with a psychology degree, I'd like to add to what you said. It's easy to self-diagnose mental illnesses and disorders because a lot of the symptoms are things mentally healthy people will experience too. I'll use myself as an example. I've had anxiety before, and I'll have it again, as anxiety is a normal thing for us humans. I do not, however, suffer from anxiety because I am able to manage it fairly well, and isn't triggered by so many things that it burdens my life. On the flip side I'm that weird person with depression and PTSD but not anxiety. So don't forget that when writing "mentally healthy" people, that doesn't mean being flat either. One of my greatest teachers said on the subject "I worry for those who suffer from normality. That believe mental health means there is no highs and lows and ride a flat line. After all, mental health is by no means simply the absence of illness or hardships, but your ability to deal with life's duress."
answer to #6 is ADHD. maybe mine's particularly bad but there are some days where i can barely get anything done because of my executive dysfunction. sometimes your disorder DOES choose how your day goes.
The main character of my series, Fumiko, has high-functioning autism and mild PTSD. I'm still researching PTSD to make sure I handle it correctly, but I have her autism fleshed out by loosely basing it on my own.
This was really interesting. I'm always concerned about my writing - which is serialized pulp/action-adventure fare with about equal parts fantasy and sci-fi - inadvertently presenting a sci-fi or fantasy-related aspect of a character as a cliched depiction of mental illness. For example, a character's behavior may be a bit odd or unusual as a result of a "inter-dimensional connection" but might share some symptoms of a more conventional illness. I just don't want to trivialize the real illness in the process. Thanks again for posting this, Jenna, I always find your videos to be really thought-provoking.
This focsus a lot on mental illness as a result of trauma, but PLEASE remember that there are a lot of conditions that aren't based on trauma at all. My bipolar disorder has led to some struggles in my life that has made it harder, but ther is no trauma there. ADHD, autism spectrum disorders, and much more are similar. Please don't assign us trauma we we don't have. I spend enough energy explaining that I had a great childhood.
Definitely agree with this! While mental illnesses like depression and ptsd are often due to trauma, there are a lot of mental illnesses that aren't based in trauma such as autism and ADHD. I have both high functioning autism and ADHD and nothing traumatic happened in my childhood for both to happen. It's just the way my brain works.
Well I almost avoided this because I was worried it was going to be too heavy for my current mood, but I'm glad I watched. Very helpful! I feel pretty good about how I'm depicting mental illness, but this video helped frame it for me so I can approach it with a bit more intent and incorporate it more holistically (as opposed to: Here is my panic attack scene. Exit panic attack. Resume story.)
I love that I'm not the only dark fantasy author who writes about mental illnesses. I began my story as a journal. The fantasy aspect helped me rescript my nightmares, which is where some of the ideas come from. The Scarring of the Roshanra includes my memories. People with mental illnesses may have emotional breakdowns sometimes, but I love that you're not seeing people with mental illnesses as all bad. Love your videos!
As someone who's been clinically diagnosed with PTSD and OSDD, I've seen SO MUCH GARBAGE in fiction about characters with identity disorders. I felt it deep in my soul when Jenna talked about writers wanting to write a character with a particular mental illness because "it's SOOO COOOOL!" and Iona talking about NOT using a mental illness as a plot twist. Both of these things are done TO DEATH with identity disorders, and it REALLY needs to stop; it's incredibly damaging to our community and just increases the stigma we already face. So thank so much for making this video. And yes, Sia's 'Music' was a HORRIBLE 'attempt' at a movie depicting autism.
In my current work (mainly dark fantasy short stories) depression is written as an actual character that lives with the MC like a roommate. I tend to write on what I experience and I’m always careful on how I portray mental illnesses, you both definitely helped a lot though, thanks
21:00 Love will heal all wounds. But it doesn't have to be romantic love! Bonds like familial, platonic, cohabitational, and even competetive love can bring support and help with growth and recovery. But also self-love and the acceptance of one's imperfections and embracing one's talents.
I have watched Jenna for years, and this is one of the first videos where I see her demeanor is different. I can tell how nervous an excited she is about doing this video and about her personal connection with the topic. I think its adorable and really sweet.
For clarification (in case you want it), the main protagonist, or T as we’ll call him for ambiguous purposes, deals with severe depression caused by the trauma of losing his family at a young age, as well as the ridicule of most of his relatives. The tertiary main protagonist (as well as the main antagonist later on), or N, is heavily narcissistic and a megalomaniac, as well as a main cause as to T’s depression. Due to his obsession with bringing back his love, he directly tries to rewrite the world in his image to make her see him as her hero. As for the secondary main protagonist, or M, she doesn’t even know who she is nor what her purpose is. Her entire purpose at first is to be a catalyst for the end of the universe, and that is all. It’s T who allows her to grow as a person and become more independent. Those are just the protagonists. I haven’t even discussed the other main characters.
I love that you mention comorbidity, as somebody with a variety of mental illnesses that kind of all conglomerated together it really helped me to hear that that I’m not the only one that is experiencing that collection of crap. I love your videos to help me with my writing so much and when I get my comic book published you’re so getting a copy
There is one "savior" character I think can work: a therapist/counselor character. A mental health specialist who can help guide a character to a path that helps either cure or at least make the illness easier to live with could be considered a savior of sorts. Ultimately, the character with the illness would have their own recovery journey and probably other characters helping them get better through emotional support. Of course, this only applies to some mental illnesses. Others, that aren't treated through therapy or counseling, won't have this apply.
I use the savoirism in my story ngl But I think it’s different from the way they’re describing it. I use it as a part of the toxicity of the relationship, she doesn’t “save” him she just ends up enabling his bad behavior. She later finds out she has her own mental illnesses and starts working on herself. Through working on her own struggles she starts to realize that her bf isn’t willing to work on his problems at all. I like taking tropes like this and showing how it wouldn’t work irl. My whole story is basically making fun of and pointing out the problems in YA romances like twilight.
This is a video which was needed to be made. I suffer from depression and PTSD. I touch on the experience of mental wounds rather than explore them in depth and do so as a hint rather than list symptoms. I think writing in such a way brings a conflict rather than trait or a label. It ISIS present in thier life. Getting the input of a mental health specialist in my family is gold. Great Job @Jenna and your Patreon ppl.
OMG!!, this was such perfect timing! I'm literally working on a Story where the MC developes Depression ad PTSD after an incident that brakes down the safe and happy life he had with his boyfriend. Is like you read my mind even when you dont even know me XDD Time to watch this. Edit: Alright, I guess I'm doing good for now. My motivation for this story was due to me hating the romantization of such things as Kidnapping, R4pe and Mental Illnes (mostly seen in Japanes media with toxic relationships). My MC is male because Man can suffer the same as women and my Intention is about showing the negative side of those things that are being romanticized. I searched for personal experiences to understand everything better to the translate it to the pages. But, in general, the focus is gonna be mainly on how the incidente affected my MC as individual and his relationship with his partner. A Sensitive Reader would be so helpfull, but I don't even know if they exist in my country (I'm from Argentina). But anywho, this video was really helpfull! Thank you and keep the great work!! I'm just gonna keep looking for more Info~
When it comes to looking for a 'sensitivity reader', just get a standard beta reader. The beta reader does what the sensitivity reader does and so much more, such as pointing out what should be left in/out, offering advice to improve the novel, etc. And that's in a general sense, not just in relation to mental illness, and/or the arbitrary traits (age, gender, skin tone, etc). Also, the beta reader is likely to be more accurate when pointing out these things as they aren't looking for things that are offensive, they're looking for ways to improve the novel. But with the sensitivity reader, however, their sole purpose is to look for stuff that's potentially offensive, even if that stuff is a non-issue or minor issue for anyone that's not a Twitter banshee*. Oh, and sensitivity readers might be Twitter banshees themselves, so beware of that. *A Twitter banshee is anyone that is woke, where woke is defined as the toxic manifestation of socially liberal ideals where often flawed ideas are pushed in such a way that it works to the detriment of others. E.g, pointing out that an author could have depicted mental illness in a better way is not woke, for it's offering constructive criticism in a nice way and it actually solves the issue a bit for the author's future novels, granted that the author takes the advice. However, 'cancelling' the author on social media for that mistake is woke as it harms the author and their reputation, over a mistake that the author could've learned from. It creates a big exaggerated fuss over an issue that shouldn't be exaggerated. Yes, it's an issue, but it's one that can be resolved calmly. Woke people work on the spur of their emotions, and they tend not to be very considerate of others (ironically). Keep that in mind when you're looking for people to review your novel. Good luck!
I loved the idea of seeing people with mental illness thriving, since I usually feel ashamed because of my mental illness. Thanks for talking about pride for the journey.
This literally came up at the perfect time (despite that I’m late I know). I’m autistic and one of the main heroes in my story is gonna be autistic, based heavily on my own symptoms and triggers and whatnot. I’m pretty confident I can write it well but I never considered potentially internalised stigmas I might have, so thanks for the amazing video and advice from both of you ❤️
HOLY CRAP!!! THIS VIDEO IS A BLESSING! At least 4 of my main characters suffer from a form of mental illnesses, and i suffer from it too, BUT, it helps so much to do research and read/watch/discuss it more before i put it out there! This video helps so much, and I'll defo do more research!
Thank you for this video. In my first draft of my book, I had my protagonist attempt suicide in the first half of the book and I realized after reading this that there really was no reason to have them do that and I was doing it for the wrong reasons. I want to show her declining mental health but that could easily be shown in other ways that isn't so triggering and probably offensive so thank you
THERE SHE IS! YOU HEARD MY PRAYER YOU BEAUTIFUL HUMAN THANK YOU! One of my projects is pretty much an emphasis on diversity, so I wanted to include Neuro-diversity as well. MY QUEEN YOU SAVED ME!! I was planning on starting with the disorders I have and going from there because I know how to write those. Edit: I wanted to respectfully and accurately represent them.
Characters with mental health issues seem to make things a bit more interesting, and you never know what to expect, so you end up paying more attention to them. Thanks for the expert insights!
YES! Mental illness is a very touchy subject, and as a person who suffers from several of them, I HATE it when writers don't do it justice. I have high-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), but I'm not some super-mega genius savant. I just experience the world a little bit differently from most people. This is the only mental "abnormality" of mine that I don't wish I could get rid of. Sure, it causes me to struggle a bit with communication and overstimulation, but it also aids me in noticing small details that most people are completely unaware of. Sometimes I accidentally embarrass myself by saying something unintentionally insensitive, but after some time has passed, I'm able to laugh about it. I don't really see it as a mental illness at all, I just see it as a different way of experiencing and interacting with the world. Now, other people with autism may view it differently, but for me, I appreciate it. My other diagnosed mental disorders, on the other hand, aren't something I'm particularly fond of. I suffer from Major Depressive Disorder (usually known as depression), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (typically shortened down to anxiety), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD), Panic Disorder, and a variety of specific phobias. I also have a mild case of ADHD, but it's manageable enough that it doesn't interfere too much with my day to day life. All of these mental illnesses are something I really wish were gone, but have also accepted the fact that they're not going away until after the fact, and that I'm going to have to learn how to adapt to in order to still live a fairly normal life. I'm on a couple of daily medications to help me manage the symptoms I have, and I have an emergency medication in case something goes really wrong. Depression does not mean you're sad all the time. A person with depression may experience moments of joy and happiness every now and then. A person with depression may engage in self-harm, but they may not. A person with depression may experience suicide ideation, but they might not. A person experiencing suicide ideation may or may not have it severe enough that it requires hospitalization. It may be instantaneous or chronic. I have chronic suicide ideation, but I've never been hospitalized for it, because I have a level of it that is manageable. I frequently experience fleeting thoughts of suicide, but have only seriously considered it a couple of times. I know what to do to protect myself on my really bad days. Anxiety is not the same as nervousness or worry. It's completely normal to, for example, experience nervousness when you're about to take a big test. It only qualifies as anxiety if it interferes with your ability to take said test. Stage fright isn't the same as performance anxiety. Shyness isn't the same thing as social anxiety. Introversion isn't the same as social anxiety. Nervousness always has a reason attached, whether it's a job interview, a final exam, a doctor's appointment, a performance, seeing someone be an idiot on the road, first day of school, first day at a new job, first time boarding a plane, etc. Any of these can trigger anxiety, but anxiety doesn't always need a trigger to show up. I experience anxiety and panic attacks at completely random times, but there's also certain specific situations where anxiety always show up, most often having to do with either my PTSD, CPTSD, or phobias. PTSD is not the same for everyone. People can have PTSD stemming from multiple different sources, or it could stem from only one source. That source of trauma usually stems from events that happen in real life, but not always. For me, I have PTSD from three sources; two of them were real and one of them was just a friggen nightmare. How did a nightmare make me permanently terrified of fireworks? I don't know. Logically it shouldn't have, but anxiety is rarely logical. All I know is that ever since that nightmare, I have a friggen panic attack every time I see and/or hear fireworks going off. Which sucks, since I live in a country which celebrates its independence by blowing up loads and loads of fireworks. I can't even watch live-action movies with fireworks in them without experiencing the PTSD flashback of that nightmare. I have PTSD from a car crash, and it has crippled my ability to ever get behind the wheel again. I have PTSD from an abusive boyfriend I had in the past, and that has crippled my ability to open myself up to romantic relationships. CPTSD is similar to PTSD, but it involves repetitive injury, rather than just something that happened a couple of times. Most of the time, someone develops it from growing up with abuse in the home. Sometimes it pops up when someone grows up in a war-torn area. I have it because of experiencing emotional abuse. Yeah, it was unintentional abuse, but it still traumatized me. Even now, I find it very difficult to talk to my parents about serious issues I'm facing, because I'm so used to being told to suck it up and deal with it, to get over it, that it's all in my head, that it's not a big deal. I'm afraid to ask for permission to do anything, because I'm so used to being told "no" without being given the chance to explain why I want/need to do it. I'm afraid to tell my parents about trips I'm planning because I'm so used to them helicoptering and micromanaging literally everything I do. I'm often afraid to make my own decisions because I'm used to my decisions being ignored. I know that my parents' actions towards me were never intended to hurt me, but they still caused damage that will take me years, maybe even decades, to heal from. Fear of something is not synonymous with phobia. A phobia is an irrational fear of something that, again, hinders your ability to function whenever the trigger is present. Unlike PTSD, phobias usually don't stem from a traumatic experience. Take arachnophobia, for example. If someone has arachnophobia, the mere sight of a spider will cause them to panic. If there's a spider in the room, they'll either go out of their way to avoid it, or they'll go out of their way to keep watching it so it doesn't get the chance to sneak up on them. Someone without this phobia may still engage in this behavior if it's a spider they know is extremely venomous (such as a black widow), but people with this phobia will do it with most, if not all, spiders, regardless of whether its venom is dangerous to humans or not. If it's really bad, they won't even be able to look at a picture of a spider, even though logically they know it's not going to actually bite them. I used to have arachnophobia, but through exposure therapy I've gotten to the point where I enjoy observing spiders, while still having a healthy sense of self-preservation to recognize that it's not a great idea to try to pick up a black widow or something similar without the use of protective equipment. I won't pick up spiders unless they're in my house, but that's no longer because I'm afraid of them, but rather because I know they're afraid of me and I don't want to cause them any unnecessary fear. And the biggest reason why I escort spiders out of my house is now because I know there's other people in my house that would kill them if they got the chance.
So glad you are covering this. My protagonist suffers from PTSD, and I loathe how movies and books romanticize it and have it magically cured because a love interest is there. On the flip side, I also want to shed some light on how my protagonist’s love interest has to cope with the feeling of helplessness when his love (yes same sex relationship)is going through a particular trigger.
(me writing my most recent chapter) : "Evandalel began to cackle like a Mad-Woman as she desperately slashed at the Jade Kings chest with her Quartz blade,her heinous laugh a mix between a sob,and a Macabre giggle..-" (Notification) *HOW TO WRITE MENTAL ILLNESS IN FICTION* (Me) .....how appropriate...*keeps writing*
So, I do have a villain character with some disorders but so does the main cast. I have come up with some personality traits such as being overly friendly, her advice being a poor fit for reality, and a goal of trying to make the world a better place (but without having to touch grass) the way this goes wrong is because she can’t tell story telling conventions from physical and social laws in the real world. In her mind these two things are equally applicable to the real world. Another part of her is a savior complex that is mainly just empathy and sympathy with nowhere to go. Due to the context of the story she inhabits this results in very toxic behavior. The reason for this toxic behavior is basically cause she has the mistaken thought of “I can help speedrun this person into being a better version of themselves. I know how these sorts of things typically go. I can make them go through the steps needed faster than they could alone.” The confusion with reality and fiction is typically how her relationships with others break down. She doesn’t really understand that the healing and growth process is different for everybody and doesn’t end when somebody realizes they have something wrong with them. (In reality it’s like step 2 or 3.) hell, even when she realizes something is wrong with her though process she has to actually do the work of building up the differences between reality and fiction. Please be harsh in your critiques if needed. Edit: who this character is as a person is somebody who wants to make the world better and people happier. Thus her illnesses are filtered through that lens. The savior complex is partly a desire to be validated obfuscated with and outward but still very true layer of sympathy with no productive direction to go in. Her advice is poorly researched and spoken because she has thousands of mental shortcuts that add up into somebody who thinks they know what they’re talking about because they watched a movie about that situation. Not because she sees the movie as reality but because she thinks the structure of the movie can be applied to an analogous real world situation. Edit 2: in regards to inspiration porn as you call it, that’s literally my characters mindset when talking to people. She kinda has a dialectic of “all it takes to help somebody is love” and “love is only part of healing” which she subconsciously averages out to the thought of her having all the knowledge and tools needed to help somebody including love. Basically were she in an inspiration porn story she’d be the main character. But sense she is not in that type of story, her desire to save people is gonna be portrayed as unhealthy.
Also, can I just say I really appreciate that you're hosting a fundraiser for the Trevor Project! It really makes me happy that my favorite writing UA-camr supports LGBTQ people! So thanks!😁
Really useful video, thank you both, I love the idea of sensitivity readers. I'm lucky that my family mostly work in Mental Health, but it's always good to have work checked over too.
Interesting to mention "plot twist" because that reminded me of a moment in Warehouse 13 with Artie, but there was a great plot twist of mental illness in the SG-1 episode "Shadowplay" (originally thought of how badly it was done in Warehouse 13). As someone who's always had issues with depression and anxiety I find it easier using the guidance "write what you know" in developing characters, just makes it easier to feel closer to your own characters
I haven’t been fully diagnosed, I have most of the symptoms for ADD, I have trouble with concentrating and being focused on things I’m working on. It’s hard for me to multitask or work with being timed. That really makes me go crazy. I failed kindergarten and was held back in first, so I was 2 years behind in school. I graduated with a special education diploma. I’m 43 now, it’s still hard for me to finish anything I start. 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
I have ADHD-I (The current name for ADD) and am very glad that I have actually been diagnosed. I’m still a teen, and I keep hearing how a lot of older people that went undiagnosed wish they had known. It’s really annoying and a huge struggle that caused a lot of anxiety when I hit the burnout point around fifth grade. That’s when I started to wonder if something was wrong. It took till freshman year to learn that something was wrong.
@@carelessdreamer I’m not a hyper person, I thought the H stood for hyperactive. Back in the 80s, the thought of ADD, ADHD and Autism was never thought of. They just labeled people like me and you trouble makers. I hated myself all through school. Thank God I had a mother that loved me.
@@Joseph.S.Roberts Yeah, it’s nice having more awareness brought to people suffering from mental illness. It’s good you had a supportive mom. Parents are often most important. (Also the H did stand for hyperactivity, but for some reason they recategorized ADHD and eliminated the term ADD. Instead they made it ADHD-H for those that are primarily hyper, ADHD-I for those that are primarily inattentive, and ADHD-C for people that are equal. I don’t know why they changed it, but that’s just the current thing.)
Really good and excellent video so far, I’m also a writer and aspiring author. I’m actually writing my first book series called chronicles of the old West: tales of amarykhanta that is a steampunk western book series with some fantasy and supernatural elements, which is also a alternative history story and parallel universe fiction story. I’m currently writing book 2 of my series, called Tales of the superstition ancient mountains: whisperings of the lost Dutchman mines. Book 1 of my series, the great battle for amarykhanta is already edited and published on Wattpad
These videos are always oddly well timed, this was a topic I wanted to explore with a main character. Me and my family have a long history of mental illness that mostly affects the women in my family with very few men, but that doesn't mean I am confident that I will portray a character with these problems correctly.
Glad this is a video. I’m pretty sure I have PTSD myself as well as mild depression. Just need to look into getting proper diagnoses for both of those.
A good idea for tackling the trigger warning disclaimer in books, is to have a little initial of "tw" at the bottom of certain pages when it appears in sections of the book. So they can skip it if they like.
I have a character with mental illness, but I didn't want to glorify it, I wanted it to be something that connects to her character arc, something that is based on her past that effected her. Essentially, trauma that she has processed in a way that has negatively impacted her beliefs about the world around her and herself, which will give meaning to one of the stories themes: having trust in people who care and value you deeply. Random thing: I've literally have cried for no reason in front of friends a couple times. I don't know if it was depression (I know have exciety, but don't know if that leads to random tears). I don't know anyone else who has experienced that.
The male protagonist of the book I'm working on is someone with anxiety and depression. My whole philosophy when crafting the character was to 'write what I know', having anxiety and depression myself. I can use my own first hand experience living with those mental illnesses to get very descriptive when the protagonist is having a panic attack, or he wakes up sad for no discernible reason, or has a tendency to overblow a negative situation into being full blown catastrophe well beyond what the situation really is. Suffice it to say, when the female protagonist comes into his life she pushes him so far out of his comfort zone he literally ends up on another planet. Imagine being a lowly Terran living here on Earth, isolated from every other place in the galaxy, uncertain about the existence of aliens, rarely ever leaving your own house and all of a sudden you are eating street food in the capital city of a planet 36 light years away from home. I also want to do it that way because overcoming a mental illness is an epic thing to add to a hero's journey. Of course... even when he's overcome it... it's never truly going to be gone. He's always going to be that way... just better able to cope with it and better able to not let it hold him back anymore.
So glad that you made a video about how to write mental illness. One of my biggest pet peeves is when I read a book that makes mental illness either romantic, cool or evil. Not cool. It’s a bad message to readers in my opinion. My main character in my current WIP suffers from anxiety and OCD and maybe mild depression and I hope that I will successfully be able to write her mental illnesses as authentic and realistic as possible without doing any of those things.
I also have started writing my 2nd book series called Wilde winds of the wilderness: simple living at frontier creek. That is a wilderness and fantasy series with some supernatural and steampunk western elements. Then I also tilted my 3rd book series called Chronicles of the hauntings of deadwood falls mountains: tales of atlantemuria. Which is a supernatural and fantasy adventure series with some wilderness and steampunk western elements. But I haven’t starting writing those two yet, I’m waiting till I write my first book series first.
5:12 I like the dead writer rule, but even the most skilled writer can't predict how a certain types of readers will interpret their work without being those types of readers. You paint a picture as honestly as you can, but the reader/viewer will see what they want to see in your work. The other issue is even if you depict mental illness with perfect attention to the latest research while using accurate clinical terms, the science itself might be obsolete within 10-15 years. Think about writers who wrote their books when mental retardation was a common clinical term.
My main character has PTSD and Insomnia because of it so this is super helpful to make sure that I'm going to write it well and not romanticize it. I've gone a research spiral about it to make sure because I'm so concerned about doing it right.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE this video. My daughter has struggled with her mental health for years and is currently doing well thanks to therapy, medication, and learning how to work through bad times/days. I now work for NAMI DuPage (thanks for the shout out for NAMI!!!!) working to end the stigma surrounding mental health, specifically aiming at youth and people that live or work with them. Because of this, my current WIP is about mental health (YA). Even with my experiences I plan on having beta and sensitivity readers. Is there a link for Iona? (It will probably be a year or two before I use it but would love it now.) Thank you for covering this topic!
I’ve seen so many books that the main character is like
“I’m Kathy and I’m not like other girls because I’m edgy and my only character trait is depression”
Bad representation sucks man
That’s bad writing, that’s what that is.
Now, if they weren't really like the other girls, it'd be more like:
"I'm Dragonstare Hoist Nufah Honeymint, and I'm not like the other girls because I have giant tentacles arms and can breathe fire, as well as fly with ease. My teachers don't even give me any tests because they know I'm SOOOO smart! My parents were killed before I was born, but I'm raised by my brother Cthulhu. I'm the hottest girl in school and all the guys fawn over me, but I don't understand because I see myself as totally average. My best friend is named Jude and I secretly have a crush on my childhood friend Steve, but I'm too afraid to tell him despite him making it clear he is TOTALLY infatuated with me! I'm the only person who can defeat the evil dark lord Drick because he killed my parents and marked me with his blood, therefore I HAVE to kill him! Oh, and I'm also part-fairy, part-dragon, part-eldritch-goddess, part-warlock, part-deer, part-mermaid, and part-wolf! My only problem with defeating Dark Lord Drick is that I'm really sad and depressed even though I don't look like it! Don't worry, Steve always makes me happy when I see him! But don't get on my bad side, because then my secret wolf-DNA will activate and I will sacrifice you to the Great Old Ones."
@@demi_shin Shit! I was just thinking, "I once dated a depressed girl, though her name wasn't Kathy," but you win this round!
(I leave a bottle of wine and a ream of paper beside the pile of skulls.)
Two hours before this video dropped, I was thinking, "Man, it's a shame Jenna hasn't done a video on this topic."
Jenna: *I sense a disturbance in the Force.*
yesterday, I was wondering why we hadn't got a video on this yet. and this dropped. I swear Jenna is a mind reader.
@@tbnrrenagade9507 It's her cyborg side. She paid for the mind-reading upgrade.
@@geraldfrost4710 or maybe Jenna's using spy satellites plus the upgrade to read all our minds at once?
@@tbnrrenagade9507 How do I write a comedic love scene?
(think about it; let's see if that pops up on her cyborg radar!)
@@geraldfrost4710 yes I do wonder how to write a comedic love scene.
I would also like to know how to write superpowered evil sides.
(Jenna? you listening???)
I hate when reading a thriller or something and the giant twist is that the main character had some kind of mental illness.
While there are many kinds of mental illnesses, it just feels like lazy writing and kind of like they're not accurately representing a person with that certain mental illness.
I as well as many of my family members have a mental illness and it is so disappointing to see those kind of "twists".
They usually use the mental illness as the reason they're so violent as well - i.e "see stay away from people with mental illness they're all crazy". It's disgusting.
what if we see elements of it earlier on in the book and then it is revealed what was going on in his head from the character's perspective??
Not only that, but people with mental illness are 3 times more likely to be victims of crimes.
They make less than 1% of the people in prison for violence related reasons.
@@mesia2453 - If done well, it's not lazy. This is the 'So-and-so did this because they're insane' cop-out -- especially if they seemed completely normal until the Villainous Breakdown.
Mental illness is fairly common. It's not unexpectable at all.
This is so great. I'm high functioning autistic and it seems like every character written on the spectrum is written as a sexless, cyborg genius savant. It takes away the vibrancy of a community and gives people who need a diagnosis to get help not be able to recognize themselves.
And they all seem to be male. It’s distressing
At least there is the Good Doctor, a cyborg genius savant who has women throwing themselves at him sexually. Not great either. ;(
I recommend Stand Still Stay Silent webcomic. It's about a post-apocalyptic world that has been hit by a global pandemic (it began long before OUR pandemic and theirs is worse). The prologue takes place 90 years before the main story. It's all set in the Nordic countries that are, by the time of the main story, are all of their known world. You may find Lalli Hotakainen an interesting character.
I'm high functioning autistic and have ADHD and I haven't even seen any media (other than the Percy Jackson books which do depict ADHD) that portrays either. :(
You're talking about Sheldon Cooper aren't you
Whenever one of my friends asks me how to write mental illnesses, I always tell them that the only assumption they're allowed to make is that they know nothing. Research! Research! Research! Different people have different ways mental illnesses shows in them, and you have to account for that. Writing what you know can be helpful, but character has to come into it at some point.
Thank you so much for this.
I have a psychotic disorder, and our representation is horrific. Simply by reminding people to research, you're advocating for and helping stigmatized people, and it's deeply appreciated. 💜
I have a character with drug addiction but she's the most powerful hero in the story, but her power leads to her destruction. It's based on a friend I knew that passed away from his 😢
I love that you talked about this. I have schizophrenia and boy oh boy do people love depicting us as the villain.
It's so absurd and unrealistic literally every time
I hate that every villain has to have a mental illness
Mental illness is something I feel is better done visually.
I thought I could possibly portray my ADHD as sort of a crossword or word search puzzle.
Each page would just become a more and more elaborate puzzle as he sinks further and further into a never ending spiral of non-sequiters until the word "door" gets highlighted before he walks into one.
Celeste, my favorite video game of all time, does mental illness in a way that I've never seen before. It is hard as nails, but if you get to play it, it may help even in solving depression. It helped me certainly well.
Plus lots of people too. From depression and addictions and etc.
I like to describe my ADHD like a computer adware virus. All those pop-ups and I can never find whatever I'm actually working on, preferred or otherwise.
@@rhiannonstrickland8943 That's really good
@@rhiannonstrickland8943 can I use that visual in my comic??
I have ADHD and I feel like a better explanation of how it works is "Bat Deduction" like in the Adam West version of Batman.
How is it you talk about mental illness the day i was insanely trying to understand my OCD & how to discuss it in a book. You genius❤️
I had an emotional afternoon processing trauma from my past literally right before this video dropped. I couldn’t believe it.
@@seanhastings4432 I’m sorry to hear that. Sending so much love and positivity your way Sean. You are not alone ❤️
That is hard, even if you have OCD, your brain doesn't always know where to start or what is appropriate to focus on.
@@MrChristianDT exactly and there are many different types and ways a human try’s to identify with it. It’s hard to articulate what it is without offending or creating a stigma.
I have OCD too. It was severe enough to affect my life until I got medicated. Solidarity, sister.
It’s so true about the “using mental illness as twist” being 1) tiresome and 2) insulting; I lately decided to start reading some of Agatha Christie’s work and she’s waaay too apt to lean on that trope.
(BTW, If there’s anyone else out there who’s either survived or currently experiencing emotional and/or narcissistic abuse DO NOT read Endless Night - its portrayal of that experience was so insulting and and triggering that I legit threw my copy into a wastebasket a couple times while reading it.
Thanks for the heads up I'm trying to get into Agatha Christie and definitely wouldn't have liked Endless Night. Have any favourites to recommend?
Also the trigger warning is just an updated ”viewer discretion is advised", which has been around since the fall of the Hayes Commission.
Honestly, when the viewer discretion advised warning came on, I knew I was in for a juicy show.
Not even through it but thank you so much for this, Jenna. I'd love to see you speak with experts about representing gender identity, sexualities, and ethnic cultures outside of my own
I would love to see this too!
It could be a bit of a video series. I'd love that! One about physical disabilities would be amazing
I would definitely like to see one about different ethnicities. I’ve noticed that my stories are a little white-washed and I want to change that. 😬
@@SageK.03 same here, for me it's due to growing up in a practically all white town.
@@Fearsia Yeah. Same.
Yup, a touchy subject for everyone, but very much important!
Funny story about the whole "breaking into tears" scene. That's not a sign or symptom of Depression, that's evidence of *Grief.*
When my grandfather died when I was still in school, I was ok for a while, and then one day, I literally did just that; I broke into tears in the middle of class because that's how I happen to express grief over a loss.
Not saying you're wrong, but you can totally cry from stress, and tiredness etc as well as grief. You don't only cry because you've lost someone. I recall a time in school (I was like 10 or something) and I just plain broke into tears from feeling stress and loneliness (though I was currently together with like 5 others). I couldn't even explain it at the time. But it wasn't grief. So breaking into tears randomly can be caused by a multitude of factors. Grief is just one of them.
I have a video suggestion for you:
Can you do a video on how to write characters with disabilities
I feel like that is not well talked about and written about in novels and it could make novels more diverse and more interesting
Yes! But it's important to make sure that that representation doesn't result in sad MC's who are to be pitied because of their disabilities. Disabled people don't need your pity, just your understanding and trust. At least that's how I see it, I can't speak for everyone obviously, but it bothers me that disabled people are rarely valued as equals to the other characters.
@@MerelvandenHurk I know and understand that, I’m actually thinking about creating a character that has close to the same disability as my own , since I can actually relate to that. Then I’ll create two other characters that’ll have the same disability as my younger middle brother and the other with the same disability as my own. That way I can understand my characters better and relate to them
Good idea. I would be interested in hearing about how people with disability could be someone to make an active impact on the story, not just a victim or distant side character. At least giving someone a physical disability takes away a lot of potential for action scenes, which is probably the main reason they aren't represented that much
Write a disabled character like a regular character. You know, like we're people. Then add all the crap we need to deal with every day that most people have no clue are issues (accessibility issues). Because the barriers are arbitrary, real, and maddening.
I got two great points from this :
1. Mental illness can be pretty subtle depending on environmental context like who you're around and what you're doing
2. Mental illness doesn't define personality but HOW a person deals with mental illness gives clues into their personality
My MC suffers from depression and I’m basing his experiences on what I’ve gone through.
@@ben696 :/
Same here, but in the case of mine, it’s more of a “break him to his lowest and then break him even lower.”
Do they make decisions based on their depression and do those decisions affect the plot or is it just pages of description about how they feel?
@@Mecharnie_Dobbs it will affect how he does things. What the whole thing is that he’s a regular guy with depression and other things who gets super powers so he will have inward battles as well as outward battles.
That’s exactly what I do with most, if not all, of my characters. Take a portion of yourself and reflect that onto a character.
I used to be a dudebro who thought trigger warnings would spoil the book but after having a few books give them upfront I changed my tune. It made the reading experience SO MUCH BETTER. Like you guys said, if you can get into the right headspace you can really immerse yourself in the book. I have been a proponent for trigger warnings for a few years now and am so happy I was proven wrong!!!
Also, this was incredibly helpful. The internalized stigma section of this video hit me particularly hard. It gave me a lot to think about. Thank you so much for putting this information out there!
As an author who deals with PTSD and all the super fun symptoms that come with it, I rely on personal experiences a lot. Being a nurse with a background in psychiatric healthcare, I really try to make depictions of mental illness as trained on the characters I'm writing as possible without relying on cliches. I love and appreciate this video because it'll help a lot of people. And, of course, it's all in the name of supporting a fantastic organization, so that's amazing!
Yeah, me too. My WIP novel is kind of a dark science fantasy, I guess, and one of the main characters is an exiled prince who joined the military of the country he grew up in. He has prosthetics due to a magic incident as a child (service qualifications be wack) and had to relearn a lot of basic functions as a kid.
Plot-wise; his father wants to kill all of the dragons to gain what would basically be functional immortality, and without the military knowing he was the prince he's essentially chosen to kill his father in an assassination attempt/coup.
One of his best friends dies saving him from an assassin, and it drives him to cold-bloodedly murder his father and essentially get away with it scot-free. He has to deal with the psychological scars that kind of thing holds and deal with it for the rest of his life. I lost someone when I was a lot younger and it still weighs on me, so I channeled some of that hurt into his story. I also gave him ADHD because it makes writing him so much easier in some ways 😂
A great start for me was “the writer’s guide to psychology”. It was written by a psychologist and writer and really does a great job of giving examples in media of the wrong and right ways of portraying different illnesses. And it covers beyond just depression or schizophrenia
I will have to say, hearing u say ur depressed never feels good😭😭
How is it you post a video about mental illness on a day where I want to do nothing but curl up in a ball, cry like a baby, and/or sleep. Thank you so much Jenna and Iona!
What absolute perfect timing, I had a new book in mind that I was STRESSED about because I realized the way I had designed the MC’s background and her current situation she had been exposed to a ton of mental trauma and would likely suffer from PTSD at least and I was concerned bc I’ve never written from the perspective of a character who suffers from PTSD so thanks for all the wonderful resources 💜
The worst piece of professional medical advice I got was “Anxiety and depression are two sides of the same coin; you are either depressed OR anxious but not both at the same time.” Needless to say I’m no longer with that therapist. She did nothing to help and I always left sessions feeling worse than when I went in. They might be two sides of the same coin but you can damn well have both at the same time. It’s not an exclusive swap over they’ve got happening.
Yep. I have a friend with both conditions!
@@darlalathan6143 I’m sorry your friend is going through these things.
@@andreagriffiths3512 Thanks!
"I mean, if you're gonna go through trauma, at least let it make your writing better, right?"
THIS ONE HIT DEEP HAHAHAHAHA 😂😂 SO TRUE
As someone with sometimes debilitating anxiety, my book series is going to be thematically centered on the idea of fear itself, with multiple characters having some form of anxiety disorder. It's honestly cathartic to think about how different people react to fear and anxiety, not to mention coming to peace with the positive aspects of fear.
Does it happen to involve something about "confronting the dragon of chaos"? 😊 It's really quite amazing that to this day, despite all the technological solutions we've found to other problems, when it comes to fear, we really still only have one: Confrontation / exposure. Gradual, yes, first imagined, then real exposure, sure - but it all boils down to the same thing in the end.
Trigger warnings would be great!
When I read the book Unwind for a school book club group, I ended up having a PTSD attack because of the sexual assault scene while reading and not only was it constantly brought up throughout the rest of the book, but it was also a constant discussion point within our group because they thought it was “okay” and “not that bad”, and thought my reactions to the scene were “funny”
Yeah, like how films have age ratings and tell you the content of the movie that may be unsuitable or unsettling, etc for some people
@@JTZombiE yesss please!
I'm sorry they reacted that way. I also believe there should be trigger warnings in book. It's not a spoiler at all. Also in case of reading books for school with such topics it should be optional. Everyone who has ptsd has different triggers, which should always be taken into consideration. No matter how "strange" it sounds.
What happened in this scrne
@@cartooneyedTRIGGER WARNING TO ANYONE READING THIS COMMENT:
it was a sexual assault scene where the main character was confronted by this guy in the bathroom while everyone else was distracted and wouldn’t know where she was. She was pinned to the wall and threatened her by saying he was going to “help her” by getting her pregnant.
It was really disturbing to read, and the fact that they said it “wasn’t bad” was horrific.
On doing research, I'd like to add that if you're going to listen to testimonials from people with mental disorders, make sure you're listening to people who were diagnosed by a medical professional. There are a lot of people out there who skim over a website, say "hey, that kind of sounds like me," and then self-diagnose. (It's basically the same thing as when people see themselves in their horoscopes.) What you end up with is people injecting the way they perceive themselves into their idea of what this particular disorder is, and then passing those ideas onto the next person.
That is so very true and as someone with a psychology degree, I'd like to add to what you said. It's easy to self-diagnose mental illnesses and disorders because a lot of the symptoms are things mentally healthy people will experience too. I'll use myself as an example. I've had anxiety before, and I'll have it again, as anxiety is a normal thing for us humans. I do not, however, suffer from anxiety because I am able to manage it fairly well, and isn't triggered by so many things that it burdens my life. On the flip side I'm that weird person with depression and PTSD but not anxiety.
So don't forget that when writing "mentally healthy" people, that doesn't mean being flat either. One of my greatest teachers said on the subject "I worry for those who suffer from normality. That believe mental health means there is no highs and lows and ride a flat line. After all, mental health is by no means simply the absence of illness or hardships, but your ability to deal with life's duress."
answer to #6 is ADHD. maybe mine's particularly bad but there are some days where i can barely get anything done because of my executive dysfunction. sometimes your disorder DOES choose how your day goes.
The main character of my series, Fumiko, has high-functioning autism and mild PTSD. I'm still researching PTSD to make sure I handle it correctly, but I have her autism fleshed out by loosely basing it on my own.
I just love how Jenna lights up when she talks about her book and characters. Also when Iona compliments her writing she does this 17:23
such a great video
thank you so much!
Perfect Jenna, thank you I was just plotting a fiction story about this topic
This was really interesting. I'm always concerned about my writing - which is serialized pulp/action-adventure fare with about equal parts fantasy and sci-fi - inadvertently presenting a sci-fi or fantasy-related aspect of a character as a cliched depiction of mental illness. For example, a character's behavior may be a bit odd or unusual as a result of a "inter-dimensional connection" but might share some symptoms of a more conventional illness. I just don't want to trivialize the real illness in the process.
Thanks again for posting this, Jenna, I always find your videos to be really thought-provoking.
This focsus a lot on mental illness as a result of trauma, but PLEASE remember that there are a lot of conditions that aren't based on trauma at all. My bipolar disorder has led to some struggles in my life that has made it harder, but ther is no trauma there. ADHD, autism spectrum disorders, and much more are similar. Please don't assign us trauma we we don't have. I spend enough energy explaining that I had a great childhood.
Definitely agree with this! While mental illnesses like depression and ptsd are often due to trauma, there are a lot of mental illnesses that aren't based in trauma such as autism and ADHD. I have both high functioning autism and ADHD and nothing traumatic happened in my childhood for both to happen. It's just the way my brain works.
Well I almost avoided this because I was worried it was going to be too heavy for my current mood, but I'm glad I watched. Very helpful! I feel pretty good about how I'm depicting mental illness, but this video helped frame it for me so I can approach it with a bit more intent and incorporate it more holistically (as opposed to: Here is my panic attack scene. Exit panic attack. Resume story.)
Video starts at 3:21
I love that I'm not the only dark fantasy author who writes about mental illnesses. I began my story as a journal. The fantasy aspect helped me rescript my nightmares, which is where some of the ideas come from. The Scarring of the Roshanra includes my memories. People with mental illnesses may have emotional breakdowns sometimes, but I love that you're not seeing people with mental illnesses as all bad. Love your videos!
I've been struggling with this in my next book. Thank you for helping me. I have a path now.
As someone who's been clinically diagnosed with PTSD and OSDD, I've seen SO MUCH GARBAGE in fiction about characters with identity disorders. I felt it deep in my soul when Jenna talked about writers wanting to write a character with a particular mental illness because "it's SOOO COOOOL!" and Iona talking about NOT using a mental illness as a plot twist. Both of these things are done TO DEATH with identity disorders, and it REALLY needs to stop; it's incredibly damaging to our community and just increases the stigma we already face. So thank so much for making this video.
And yes, Sia's 'Music' was a HORRIBLE 'attempt' at a movie depicting autism.
In my current work (mainly dark fantasy short stories)
depression is written as an actual character that lives with the MC like a roommate. I tend to write on what I experience and I’m always careful on how I portray mental illnesses, you both definitely helped a lot though, thanks
What an interesting concept. Reminds me of an edgier Sanders Sides. Best of luck.
@@marcellacassab4331 Thank you
21:00
Love will heal all wounds.
But it doesn't have to be romantic love!
Bonds like familial, platonic, cohabitational, and even competetive love can bring support and help with growth and recovery. But also self-love and the acceptance of one's imperfections and embracing one's talents.
I have watched Jenna for years, and this is one of the first videos where I see her demeanor is different. I can tell how nervous an excited she is about doing this video and about her personal connection with the topic. I think its adorable and really sweet.
The entire cast in my story deals with mental illness in some fashion, so this is like a godsend (or is it goddesssend?)
For clarification (in case you want it), the main protagonist, or T as we’ll call him for ambiguous purposes, deals with severe depression caused by the trauma of losing his family at a young age, as well as the ridicule of most of his relatives.
The tertiary main protagonist (as well as the main antagonist later on), or N, is heavily narcissistic and a megalomaniac, as well as a main cause as to T’s depression. Due to his obsession with bringing back his love, he directly tries to rewrite the world in his image to make her see him as her hero.
As for the secondary main protagonist, or M, she doesn’t even know who she is nor what her purpose is. Her entire purpose at first is to be a catalyst for the end of the universe, and that is all. It’s T who allows her to grow as a person and become more independent.
Those are just the protagonists. I haven’t even discussed the other main characters.
@@demi_shin
K
@@demi_shin Ohhhh that’s cool. I’d love to read that.
Thank you for this! My protagonist is going to be experiencing some issues with her mental health.
I love that you mention comorbidity, as somebody with a variety of mental illnesses that kind of all conglomerated together it really helped me to hear that that I’m not the only one that is experiencing that collection of crap. I love your videos to help me with my writing so much and when I get my comic book published you’re so getting a copy
This is the exact video I needed in my notifications. Thanks for uploading this video Jenna!!
There is one "savior" character I think can work: a therapist/counselor character. A mental health specialist who can help guide a character to a path that helps either cure or at least make the illness easier to live with could be considered a savior of sorts. Ultimately, the character with the illness would have their own recovery journey and probably other characters helping them get better through emotional support. Of course, this only applies to some mental illnesses. Others, that aren't treated through therapy or counseling, won't have this apply.
What a great video. ♡
thank you!
Why does it say FOUR DAYS AGO?
@@yokaiyuko0-046 patreon perks. I highly recommend it. So much great stuff. Plus the community is really awesome and lots of writer resources.
@@writinghappyhour6945 I broke and have no credit card but thanks for the answer😭😭
I'm proud you did this video. Not many writers do videos for writers who want to write about mental health. I have a mental health illness.
Yay, I have looked forward to this video its so helpful thank you :)
Time traveler
I use the savoirism in my story ngl
But I think it’s different from the way they’re describing it.
I use it as a part of the toxicity of the relationship, she doesn’t “save” him she just ends up enabling his bad behavior. She later finds out she has her own mental illnesses and starts working on herself. Through working on her own struggles she starts to realize that her bf isn’t willing to work on his problems at all.
I like taking tropes like this and showing how it wouldn’t work irl. My whole story is basically making fun of and pointing out the problems in YA romances like twilight.
This is a video which was needed to be made. I suffer from depression and PTSD. I touch on the experience of mental wounds rather than explore them in depth and do so as a hint rather than list symptoms. I think writing in such a way brings a conflict rather than trait or a label. It ISIS present in thier life. Getting the input of a mental health specialist in my family is gold. Great Job @Jenna and your Patreon ppl.
OMG!!, this was such perfect timing! I'm literally working on a Story where the MC developes Depression ad PTSD after an incident that brakes down the safe and happy life he had with his boyfriend. Is like you read my mind even when you dont even know me XDD
Time to watch this.
Edit: Alright, I guess I'm doing good for now. My motivation for this story was due to me hating the romantization of such things as Kidnapping, R4pe and Mental Illnes (mostly seen in Japanes media with toxic relationships). My MC is male because Man can suffer the same as women and my Intention is about showing the negative side of those things that are being romanticized. I searched for personal experiences to understand everything better to the translate it to the pages.
But, in general, the focus is gonna be mainly on how the incidente affected my MC as individual and his relationship with his partner.
A Sensitive Reader would be so helpfull, but I don't even know if they exist in my country (I'm from Argentina).
But anywho, this video was really helpfull! Thank you and keep the great work!! I'm just gonna keep looking for more Info~
When it comes to looking for a 'sensitivity reader', just get a standard beta reader. The beta reader does what the sensitivity reader does and so much more, such as pointing out what should be left in/out, offering advice to improve the novel, etc. And that's in a general sense, not just in relation to mental illness, and/or the arbitrary traits (age, gender, skin tone, etc).
Also, the beta reader is likely to be more accurate when pointing out these things as they aren't looking for things that are offensive, they're looking for ways to improve the novel.
But with the sensitivity reader, however, their sole purpose is to look for stuff that's potentially offensive, even if that stuff is a non-issue or minor issue for anyone that's not a Twitter banshee*. Oh, and sensitivity readers might be Twitter banshees themselves, so beware of that.
*A Twitter banshee is anyone that is woke, where woke is defined as the toxic manifestation of socially liberal ideals where often flawed ideas are pushed in such a way that it works to the detriment of others.
E.g, pointing out that an author could have depicted mental illness in a better way is not woke, for it's offering constructive criticism in a nice way and it actually solves the issue a bit for the author's future novels, granted that the author takes the advice.
However, 'cancelling' the author on social media for that mistake is woke as it harms the author and their reputation, over a mistake that the author could've learned from. It creates a big exaggerated fuss over an issue that shouldn't be exaggerated. Yes, it's an issue, but it's one that can be resolved calmly.
Woke people work on the spur of their emotions, and they tend not to be very considerate of others (ironically).
Keep that in mind when you're looking for people to review your novel. Good luck!
@@this_username_is_taken7004 I see, cool. thanks for all of that 👌👌
Thank you for bringing awareness to writing mental illness into books. This is an important topic.
Istg this is the very video I needed. You two are godsent for this and probably just made my novel 10x better
I loved the idea of seeing people with mental illness thriving, since I usually feel ashamed because of my mental illness. Thanks for talking about pride for the journey.
This literally came up at the perfect time (despite that I’m late I know). I’m autistic and one of the main heroes in my story is gonna be autistic, based heavily on my own symptoms and triggers and whatnot. I’m pretty confident I can write it well but I never considered potentially internalised stigmas I might have, so thanks for the amazing video and advice from both of you ❤️
As someone with multipul diagnosis i loved this video!!! ❤🧡
HOLY CRAP!!! THIS VIDEO IS A BLESSING! At least 4 of my main characters suffer from a form of mental illnesses, and i suffer from it too, BUT, it helps so much to do research and read/watch/discuss it more before i put it out there! This video helps so much, and I'll defo do more research!
Amazing interview ! Mental health is so important ! This was Great !
Thank you for this video. In my first draft of my book, I had my protagonist attempt suicide in the first half of the book and I realized after reading this that there really was no reason to have them do that and I was doing it for the wrong reasons. I want to show her declining mental health but that could easily be shown in other ways that isn't so triggering and probably offensive so thank you
Thank you Jenna and Iona for existing
Yes, Jenna! 🖤
Having good representation for mental illness in novels is so important, we can't stress this enough!
THERE SHE IS! YOU HEARD MY PRAYER YOU BEAUTIFUL HUMAN THANK YOU!
One of my projects is pretty much an emphasis on diversity, so I wanted to include Neuro-diversity as well. MY QUEEN YOU SAVED ME!!
I was planning on starting with the disorders I have and going from there because I know how to write those.
Edit: I wanted to respectfully and accurately represent them.
I have depression, anxiety and OCD, so I would love to have more videos about writing mental illness ;D
OMG thanks so much for the video! It is very informational!
Characters with mental health issues seem to make things a bit more interesting, and you never know what to expect, so you end up paying more attention to them. Thanks for the expert insights!
YES! Mental illness is a very touchy subject, and as a person who suffers from several of them, I HATE it when writers don't do it justice.
I have high-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), but I'm not some super-mega genius savant. I just experience the world a little bit differently from most people. This is the only mental "abnormality" of mine that I don't wish I could get rid of. Sure, it causes me to struggle a bit with communication and overstimulation, but it also aids me in noticing small details that most people are completely unaware of. Sometimes I accidentally embarrass myself by saying something unintentionally insensitive, but after some time has passed, I'm able to laugh about it. I don't really see it as a mental illness at all, I just see it as a different way of experiencing and interacting with the world. Now, other people with autism may view it differently, but for me, I appreciate it.
My other diagnosed mental disorders, on the other hand, aren't something I'm particularly fond of. I suffer from Major Depressive Disorder (usually known as depression), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (typically shortened down to anxiety), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD), Panic Disorder, and a variety of specific phobias. I also have a mild case of ADHD, but it's manageable enough that it doesn't interfere too much with my day to day life. All of these mental illnesses are something I really wish were gone, but have also accepted the fact that they're not going away until after the fact, and that I'm going to have to learn how to adapt to in order to still live a fairly normal life. I'm on a couple of daily medications to help me manage the symptoms I have, and I have an emergency medication in case something goes really wrong.
Depression does not mean you're sad all the time. A person with depression may experience moments of joy and happiness every now and then. A person with depression may engage in self-harm, but they may not. A person with depression may experience suicide ideation, but they might not. A person experiencing suicide ideation may or may not have it severe enough that it requires hospitalization. It may be instantaneous or chronic. I have chronic suicide ideation, but I've never been hospitalized for it, because I have a level of it that is manageable. I frequently experience fleeting thoughts of suicide, but have only seriously considered it a couple of times. I know what to do to protect myself on my really bad days.
Anxiety is not the same as nervousness or worry. It's completely normal to, for example, experience nervousness when you're about to take a big test. It only qualifies as anxiety if it interferes with your ability to take said test. Stage fright isn't the same as performance anxiety. Shyness isn't the same thing as social anxiety. Introversion isn't the same as social anxiety. Nervousness always has a reason attached, whether it's a job interview, a final exam, a doctor's appointment, a performance, seeing someone be an idiot on the road, first day of school, first day at a new job, first time boarding a plane, etc. Any of these can trigger anxiety, but anxiety doesn't always need a trigger to show up. I experience anxiety and panic attacks at completely random times, but there's also certain specific situations where anxiety always show up, most often having to do with either my PTSD, CPTSD, or phobias.
PTSD is not the same for everyone. People can have PTSD stemming from multiple different sources, or it could stem from only one source. That source of trauma usually stems from events that happen in real life, but not always. For me, I have PTSD from three sources; two of them were real and one of them was just a friggen nightmare. How did a nightmare make me permanently terrified of fireworks? I don't know. Logically it shouldn't have, but anxiety is rarely logical. All I know is that ever since that nightmare, I have a friggen panic attack every time I see and/or hear fireworks going off. Which sucks, since I live in a country which celebrates its independence by blowing up loads and loads of fireworks. I can't even watch live-action movies with fireworks in them without experiencing the PTSD flashback of that nightmare. I have PTSD from a car crash, and it has crippled my ability to ever get behind the wheel again. I have PTSD from an abusive boyfriend I had in the past, and that has crippled my ability to open myself up to romantic relationships.
CPTSD is similar to PTSD, but it involves repetitive injury, rather than just something that happened a couple of times. Most of the time, someone develops it from growing up with abuse in the home. Sometimes it pops up when someone grows up in a war-torn area. I have it because of experiencing emotional abuse. Yeah, it was unintentional abuse, but it still traumatized me. Even now, I find it very difficult to talk to my parents about serious issues I'm facing, because I'm so used to being told to suck it up and deal with it, to get over it, that it's all in my head, that it's not a big deal. I'm afraid to ask for permission to do anything, because I'm so used to being told "no" without being given the chance to explain why I want/need to do it. I'm afraid to tell my parents about trips I'm planning because I'm so used to them helicoptering and micromanaging literally everything I do. I'm often afraid to make my own decisions because I'm used to my decisions being ignored. I know that my parents' actions towards me were never intended to hurt me, but they still caused damage that will take me years, maybe even decades, to heal from.
Fear of something is not synonymous with phobia. A phobia is an irrational fear of something that, again, hinders your ability to function whenever the trigger is present. Unlike PTSD, phobias usually don't stem from a traumatic experience. Take arachnophobia, for example. If someone has arachnophobia, the mere sight of a spider will cause them to panic. If there's a spider in the room, they'll either go out of their way to avoid it, or they'll go out of their way to keep watching it so it doesn't get the chance to sneak up on them. Someone without this phobia may still engage in this behavior if it's a spider they know is extremely venomous (such as a black widow), but people with this phobia will do it with most, if not all, spiders, regardless of whether its venom is dangerous to humans or not. If it's really bad, they won't even be able to look at a picture of a spider, even though logically they know it's not going to actually bite them. I used to have arachnophobia, but through exposure therapy I've gotten to the point where I enjoy observing spiders, while still having a healthy sense of self-preservation to recognize that it's not a great idea to try to pick up a black widow or something similar without the use of protective equipment. I won't pick up spiders unless they're in my house, but that's no longer because I'm afraid of them, but rather because I know they're afraid of me and I don't want to cause them any unnecessary fear. And the biggest reason why I escort spiders out of my house is now because I know there's other people in my house that would kill them if they got the chance.
Love the video. I am a veteran with combat ptsd and yeah as far as odd triggers there are definitely a few for me.
So glad you are covering this. My protagonist suffers from PTSD, and I loathe how movies and books romanticize it and have it magically cured because a love interest is there.
On the flip side, I also want to shed some light on how my protagonist’s love interest has to cope with the feeling of helplessness when his love (yes same sex relationship)is going through a particular trigger.
This was a great video, I learnt so much about myself and how to write, thanks guys this is a wonderful resource ^^
(me writing my most recent chapter) : "Evandalel began to cackle like a Mad-Woman as she desperately slashed at the Jade Kings chest with her Quartz blade,her heinous laugh a mix between a sob,and a Macabre giggle..-"
(Notification) *HOW TO WRITE MENTAL ILLNESS IN FICTION*
(Me) .....how appropriate...*keeps writing*
Right when I was trying to figure out how to write one character without being offensive.
Don't you DARE dislike this video, people!
So, I do have a villain character with some disorders but so does the main cast. I have come up with some personality traits such as being overly friendly, her advice being a poor fit for reality, and a goal of trying to make the world a better place (but without having to touch grass) the way this goes wrong is because she can’t tell story telling conventions from physical and social laws in the real world. In her mind these two things are equally applicable to the real world. Another part of her is a savior complex that is mainly just empathy and sympathy with nowhere to go. Due to the context of the story she inhabits this results in very toxic behavior.
The reason for this toxic behavior is basically cause she has the mistaken thought of “I can help speedrun this person into being a better version of themselves. I know how these sorts of things typically go. I can make them go through the steps needed faster than they could alone.” The confusion with reality and fiction is typically how her relationships with others break down. She doesn’t really understand that the healing and growth process is different for everybody and doesn’t end when somebody realizes they have something wrong with them. (In reality it’s like step 2 or 3.) hell, even when she realizes something is wrong with her though process she has to actually do the work of building up the differences between reality and fiction.
Please be harsh in your critiques if needed.
Edit: who this character is as a person is somebody who wants to make the world better and people happier. Thus her illnesses are filtered through that lens. The savior complex is partly a desire to be validated obfuscated with and outward but still very true layer of sympathy with no productive direction to go in. Her advice is poorly researched and spoken because she has thousands of mental shortcuts that add up into somebody who thinks they know what they’re talking about because they watched a movie about that situation. Not because she sees the movie as reality but because she thinks the structure of the movie can be applied to an analogous real world situation.
Edit 2: in regards to inspiration porn as you call it, that’s literally my characters mindset when talking to people. She kinda has a dialectic of “all it takes to help somebody is love” and “love is only part of healing” which she subconsciously averages out to the thought of her having all the knowledge and tools needed to help somebody including love. Basically were she in an inspiration porn story she’d be the main character. But sense she is not in that type of story, her desire to save people is gonna be portrayed as unhealthy.
Also, can I just say I really appreciate that you're hosting a fundraiser for the Trevor Project! It really makes me happy that my favorite writing UA-camr supports LGBTQ people! So thanks!😁
I would recommend a video about handicaps as well. Especially ones like epilepsy which can cross lines into mental illness
Really useful video, thank you both, I love the idea of sensitivity readers. I'm lucky that my family mostly work in Mental Health, but it's always good to have work checked over too.
I can't wait to watch this! This will be so helpful!
Interesting to mention "plot twist" because that reminded me of a moment in Warehouse 13 with Artie, but there was a great plot twist of mental illness in the SG-1 episode "Shadowplay" (originally thought of how badly it was done in Warehouse 13).
As someone who's always had issues with depression and anxiety I find it easier using the guidance "write what you know" in developing characters, just makes it easier to feel closer to your own characters
I want to write a character with ADD and I'm doing some research. It was really helpful to watch a video about how or how not to depict it. Thanks!
I haven’t been fully diagnosed, I have most of the symptoms for ADD, I have trouble with concentrating and being focused on things I’m working on. It’s hard for me to multitask or work with being timed. That really makes me go crazy. I failed kindergarten and was held back in first, so I was 2 years behind in school. I graduated with a special education diploma. I’m 43 now, it’s still hard for me to finish anything I start.
😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
I have ADHD-I (The current name for ADD) and am very glad that I have actually been diagnosed. I’m still a teen, and I keep hearing how a lot of older people that went undiagnosed wish they had known. It’s really annoying and a huge struggle that caused a lot of anxiety when I hit the burnout point around fifth grade. That’s when I started to wonder if something was wrong. It took till freshman year to learn that something was wrong.
@@carelessdreamer I’m not a hyper person, I thought the H stood for hyperactive. Back in the 80s, the thought of ADD, ADHD and Autism was never thought of. They just labeled people like me and you trouble makers. I hated myself all through school. Thank God I had a mother that loved me.
@@Joseph.S.Roberts Yeah, it’s nice having more awareness brought to people suffering from mental illness. It’s good you had a supportive mom. Parents are often most important. (Also the H did stand for hyperactivity, but for some reason they recategorized ADHD and eliminated the term ADD. Instead they made it ADHD-H for those that are primarily hyper, ADHD-I for those that are primarily inattentive, and ADHD-C for people that are equal. I don’t know why they changed it, but that’s just the current thing.)
Really good and excellent video so far, I’m also a writer and aspiring author. I’m actually writing my first book series called chronicles of the old West: tales of amarykhanta that is a steampunk western book series with some fantasy and supernatural elements, which is also a alternative history story and parallel universe fiction story.
I’m currently writing book 2 of my series, called Tales of the superstition ancient mountains: whisperings of the lost Dutchman mines. Book 1 of my series, the great battle for amarykhanta is already edited and published on Wattpad
These videos are always oddly well timed, this was a topic I wanted to explore with a main character.
Me and my family have a long history of mental illness that mostly affects the women in my family with very few men, but that doesn't mean I am confident that I will portray a character with these problems correctly.
Glad this is a video. I’m pretty sure I have PTSD myself as well as mild depression. Just need to look into getting proper diagnoses for both of those.
Thank you for this!
This video was really useful. I would love to see a more detailed video about vriting mental illnesses. 💖✨
Thanks for motivating me to write! It's been a while! ♡
This is awesome and amazing, and I wish every writer would watch it!
A good idea for tackling the trigger warning disclaimer in books, is to have a little initial of "tw" at the bottom of certain pages when it appears in sections of the book. So they can skip it if they like.
I have a character with mental illness, but I didn't want to glorify it, I wanted it to be something that connects to her character arc, something that is based on her past that effected her. Essentially, trauma that she has processed in a way that has negatively impacted her beliefs about the world around her and herself, which will give meaning to one of the stories themes: having trust in people who care and value you deeply.
Random thing: I've literally have cried for no reason in front of friends a couple times. I don't know if it was depression (I know have exciety, but don't know if that leads to random tears). I don't know anyone else who has experienced that.
The male protagonist of the book I'm working on is someone with anxiety and depression. My whole philosophy when crafting the character was to 'write what I know', having anxiety and depression myself. I can use my own first hand experience living with those mental illnesses to get very descriptive when the protagonist is having a panic attack, or he wakes up sad for no discernible reason, or has a tendency to overblow a negative situation into being full blown catastrophe well beyond what the situation really is.
Suffice it to say, when the female protagonist comes into his life she pushes him so far out of his comfort zone he literally ends up on another planet. Imagine being a lowly Terran living here on Earth, isolated from every other place in the galaxy, uncertain about the existence of aliens, rarely ever leaving your own house and all of a sudden you are eating street food in the capital city of a planet 36 light years away from home.
I also want to do it that way because overcoming a mental illness is an epic thing to add to a hero's journey. Of course... even when he's overcome it... it's never truly going to be gone. He's always going to be that way... just better able to cope with it and better able to not let it hold him back anymore.
There are are few types of people who I hate more than people who think having any mental illness is quirky and awesome and fun.
So glad that you made a video about how to write mental illness. One of my biggest pet peeves is when I read a book that makes mental illness either romantic, cool or evil. Not cool. It’s a bad message to readers in my opinion. My main character in my current WIP suffers from anxiety and OCD and maybe mild depression and I hope that I will successfully be able to write her mental illnesses as authentic and realistic as possible without doing any of those things.
How to write schizophrenia and ptsd would be a great help, thanks!
I also have started writing my 2nd book series called Wilde winds of the wilderness: simple living at frontier creek. That is a wilderness and fantasy series with some supernatural and steampunk western elements.
Then I also tilted my 3rd book series called Chronicles of the hauntings of deadwood falls mountains: tales of atlantemuria. Which is a supernatural and fantasy adventure series with some wilderness and steampunk western elements. But I haven’t starting writing those two yet, I’m waiting till I write my first book series first.
5:12 I like the dead writer rule, but even the most skilled writer can't predict how a certain types of readers will interpret their work without being those types of readers. You paint a picture as honestly as you can, but the reader/viewer will see what they want to see in your work. The other issue is even if you depict mental illness with perfect attention to the latest research while using accurate clinical terms, the science itself might be obsolete within 10-15 years. Think about writers who wrote their books when mental retardation was a common clinical term.
My main character has PTSD and Insomnia because of it so this is super helpful to make sure that I'm going to write it well and not romanticize it. I've gone a research spiral about it to make sure because I'm so concerned about doing it right.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE this video. My daughter has struggled with her mental health for years and is currently doing well thanks to therapy, medication, and learning how to work through bad times/days. I now work for NAMI DuPage (thanks for the shout out for NAMI!!!!) working to end the stigma surrounding mental health, specifically aiming at youth and people that live or work with them. Because of this, my current WIP is about mental health (YA). Even with my experiences I plan on having beta and sensitivity readers. Is there a link for Iona? (It will probably be a year or two before I use it but would love it now.)
Thank you for covering this topic!