GUIDE WHEN HAVING CHARACTERS WITH MENTAL ILLNESSES!
[Might be a sensitive topic, just an FYI]
WHAT IS A MENTAL ILLNESS?
A mental illness is something that disrupts mood or how a human is supposed to function- mentally. It can also affect behaviors, they are usually deemed as a hinderance.
WHAT ARE THE TYPES?
- Clinical Depression.
- Anxiety Disorder.
- Bipolar Disorder.
- Dementia.
- ADHD.
- Schizophrenia.
- OCD.
- Autism.
- PTSD.
[There's probably a lot more that I didn't list out, but these are the most common types]
HOW SHOULD I TREAT IT WHEN ROLEPLAYING WITH IT?
DO NOT use it as some sort of quirk. Don't think of these as social advancements either, use it with care. Try your best to to be respectful with it due to the fact it can be incredibly insensitive if you represent it the completely wrong way such as having 0 knowledge on it. If you plan on having a character with any mental illness, make sure to rope play with it properly. Even if you don't normally seriousrp, please seriousrp when it comes with things like this.
HOW ARE THE WAYS I COULD ROPE PLAY WITH IT IF I CHOSE TO
- Make the symptoms subtle, rather than something that's in front of everyone's face [PLEASE RESEARCH ON THE SYMPTOMS OF IT INSTEAD OF JUST PROVIDING FALSE INFORMATION ON THE SYMPTOMS]
- Make your character have an intake on their illness... perhaps they'd view it as normal rather than accepting themselves as some sort of crazy person. Make how they view their world interesting and engaging.
- Make sure to add some habits that could be caused by it in your /mes
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT FOR YOU TO LISTEN TO SOME POINTS IN THE GUIDE IF YOU CHOSE TO DO SO?
Many, many, times have I seen stuff like depression used rather without care in this server. I don't mean to place shade on anyone but having multiple illnesses in your character won't make them any more developed or unique. The fact mental illnesses isn't something that needs to be applied for anymore doesn't mean that you shouldn't be insensitive or over excessive on it. Even so, making it some sort of joke won't make role play more fun for you.
This part is mostly for people who want to roleplay characters with disorders and DON’T have any. It focuses on respectful vocabulary that is agreed upon by the majority of the mentally disabled. Person First Language < Disability First Language While it might seem respectful to refer to disabled people in a way that comes ‘person first’ (ex: Person on the Autism Spectrum) people who are disabled have generally decided we prefer Disabled First Language (ex: Autistic Person). Actively deciding to still use Person First Language is patronizing toward the disabled community. Needs > Functioning You’ve probably heard ‘High Functioning Autistic’ before; While high/low functioning continues to be the medical term, High Needs / Low Needs are the preferred terms as it gives a better view of the condition. ‘Suffering’ While some disorders are based around some level of suffering (Depression, Anxiety Disorders, OCD), and other disorders have a chance of causing suffering (Disorders causing Hallucinations, Untreated ADHD/ADD/Autism), having a mental disorder does not equal suffering. And when under treatment disorders like Depression and OCD can move from suffering to coping. With treatment, most suffering is removed from disorders.
NOTE: Research on it before role playing as it please!
