I really want to add my own comments on depression and anxiety, as I suffer from both and do so without medication to manage (though I was medicated for the depression for a couple years), and I've seen it in many of the people in my life. I was medicated for a couple years, went through many highs and lows of different medications (including some that didn't work or made it worse or stopped working after a few months), eventually took myself off medication and taught myself to manage without because of how not normal it made me feel, and then years of seeing and recognizing depression, bipolar disorder, and anxiety in a parent, two of my exes, and several of my friends. But it's also after 1 after 13 hours spent in the heat, and I'm running on fumes and not entirely sure how to word it?

So I'm gonna come back after some sleep. Or I'll drop this massive info dump in a PM for you in a few hours because I'm still awake and we'll see how hilariously unintelligible it is.

I agree with pretty much everything ColourSynesthesia has sad already. I actually used to write mental disorders when I did write.

On the self harm flip side, though. The amount of blood that spills from self harm wounds doesn’t have to be 2 liters (exaggeration but...). Make it reasonable. The deeper the gash, the more blood - obviously. I just sometimes read stories where blood pours and it seems slightly unrealistic. TvT

When it comes to OCD, I actually think it’s one of the hardest mental disorder to write about. Depression is so well-known and easy to research that it often doesn’t leave you with a whole lot of gaps but OCD is not just compulsive behaviors. The mental aspect, the constant mental torture and the repetitive thoughts is something I struggled with a lot when writing. I will say, though, that research is key and I have no doubt you can do it.

Also, I don’t know if you’re thinking of writing auditory hallucinations, but if you are, I would consider how you want to do it. Find a way that works for you that doesn’t make them seem like thoughts. :)

OCD is pretty basic. not the disease as a whole but the symptoms. It doesn't have to be a compulsive need to wash hands like is most common, it can be the reason that people hoard, eat weird stuff, check door knobs 50 times before they leave the house. It is a repetitive behavior that makes them feel safe and in control.

depression isn't always visible, some of the most depressed people are the ones that appear to be happy and smiling to the world around them. faking it is a key component, until they can't anymore and that is when the breakdown happens.

anxiety is like a blanket that smothers you. you can't escape it no matter how hard you try and it can be triggered by the slightest things. it steals your breath, coherent thought and self worth in one fell swoop.


This is my interpretation, I hope its a little bit useful

I should also say that if you have any more specific questions, my inbox is always open, and I will talk about whatever, I guess >.< again, not that I am a good writer lmao, I just have experience with this and with writing it >.< uwu you're probably better at me than portraying it anyway xD

Hey! So, writing mental illnesses is definitely difficult, but firstly, you should be confident - the fact you are putting in research shows that you care about this and want to equip yourself thoroughly with the ability to present a realistic view on it, and that's great and really encouraging, because too often people go into it without knowing much about the illnesses themselves. Even as someone who has suffered from mental illnesses in the past, I am always wary about how I present them in my writing. There is no "one size fits all" approach, but there are several tips that help make a more realistic and convincing interpretation:

#1 Don't feed into a romanticised portrayal
-This is incredibly important because I think what a lot of recent portrayals of mental illness suggest is that by the changing of external factors, the illness can be eradicated - which, for many sufferers, is not the case. Things such as depression are the product of chemical imbalances within the brain, so it is unrealistic to expect the prince-on-his-white-horse that charges in will be able to fix that in the protagonist (despite the fact in many fics, this is what happens). Don't write with the perspective of fairy-tale stories and endings, romanticised tales and visions - that's primarily unrealistic.

#2 Realise that depression itself is not one constant mood
-Of course, within depression, there are a lot of exaggerated periods of suicidal thoughts, or intensive self-hatred or despair - however, for many sufferers, a lot of the time there is simply this numbness, this emptiness. It isn't always an illness that has you on the verge of suicide, but one that might push you to the edge, let you crawl back slightly, and then push you there again. That being said, there can also be times of happiness for sufferers of depression, too - it isn't that people who have depression are immune to the sensation entirely. It's just rarely felt in the humdrum of their life.

#3 When writing, make sure you know what type of depression you are writing about
-I don't want to go into too much detail, but there are a lot of different types of depression, including things like manic depression or psychotic depression. Make sure you know which of these you intend to write about, because - although they are all similar - there are differing symptoms that characterise the strands.

#4 Be very careful with how you present self harm (if you do)
-Firstly, there are many different kinds of self harm aside from the conventional razor-on-wrist; you can burn yourself, pick at the skin, expose yourself to freakish temperatures, rip out your hair, snap elastic bands against your wrist, force the wires from your clothes to pierce into your skin - there are a lot of ways to self harm.
-If you are presenting self harm, do not get bogged down by the romantic version of cutting, with the thin slits and cherry red blood aesthetic on the wrists. TMI a little here, but it shows my point; I am in recovery from self-harm addiction, and I remember back when my cutting was at its worst, I cut so deeply one night that the fat was pretty much spewing from the cut. It looked like an ugly little eye blinking at me. Anyway, the cut became infected, so not only did I have to deal with the nausea etc associated with that, and with the pain of an unstitched wound, but the cut itself smelled a little icky, and was covered in blue pus. Much nice uwu I never got the cut stitched because at the time nobody knew what I was doing, and now there's a very visible, very ugly and likely very permanent raised scar on my arm from where the cut was. I literally juts out from my skin. Aesthetic e.e)

#5 Be aware of how little suicide attempts actually are successful
-A lot of the time, suicide is more difficult than people believe. Of course, some methods are more fool-proof than others, but some of the commonly-romanticised methods are damn difficult to get right. I think the success rate for overdoses is only something like 2%, with everyone else either being revived/rescued or suffering permanent organ damage, whether to do with their brain or vision etc, otherwise. Furthermore, slitting the wrists in a typical horizontal fashion is also very hard. To get to the vein you need, you practically have to saw through your hand - you're more likely to sever nerves first that will mean you won't actually be able to use that hand at all. Most of these attempts are also futile therefore, and most people who try it end up with either ugly scars or nerve-damaged hands.

#6 Familiarise yourself with the common symptoms
-insomnia, chronic fatigue, weight gain/loss, irritability, psychosis, paranoia, hallucinations, panic attacks, chest pains, headaches, vivid nightmares and an increasing black-and-white style of thinking are just a few

#7 Don't forget how the other characters might pick up on the victim of the illnesses
-Typically, there are either two responses - concern or ignorance. The truth is, those surrounding a victim can be all too aware, but just not know what to do. Portray characters as uncertain, as fearful, as worried - of course, there will be those who don't believe or understand and those who are falsely concerned, but try and write a range so as not to unrealistically antagonise the rest of the world.

#8 Try not to make the sufferer too self-centred and annoying lmao >.<
-whilst mental illnesses are technically often a self-centred thing, requiring over-thinking and deep focus on the self, showing too much internalisation can make a character annoying, or having them complain too much on the woes of their life can be irksome. Of course, those woes are realistic, but this is more to just create a character we want to read about (unless your purpose is to make them seem selfish of course >.<)

I could say a lot more but it is 5am and I haven't slept yet haha >.< I was actually planning on doing a blog post about writing mental illnesses soon though (coincidence, right? >.<), so if you watch out for that, I will probably explain everything and more there >.< not that my points are the gospel lmao like I can't write for but xD I hope this helps :3 !