Forums » RP Discussion » Mental illness in characters

What’s your opinion on portraying characters with mental illness? I see a lot of characters possessing mental illness and even some of mine do, so I want to know your thoughts!

In my opinion, I much prefer people only play mentally ill characters if they know what they’re doing or at the very least are sensitive about it. I have a decently long list of mental illnesses on myself and I do a LOT of research for my own writing so I can feel comfortable portraying certain illnesses (like PTSD, which my prized character Liam has, as an example). I also can tell when people have no clue what they’re doing.

To sum it up, for me, if you’re at least trying to be accurate and not just doing it to “be cool”, then mental illness in RP is cool with me. What do you guys think?

Basically as you say. If you're sensitive about it and trying to give an accurate portrayal, and really listening to the experiences of people who actually have it, then you're probably going to learn something about it. Same if you have it and are using it to help you figure out better coping methods.

I don't think it should be what the game is about, though. There are instances where focusing more on it suits, but usually... like anything else, folks with mental illness just exist and have life they are trying to live beyond that illness. Yes, it'll effect so much of how they handle things, but the illness should not, itself, be the star. The person with goals and desires and hobbies and stuff should be.

I've seen people do it really well and people do it not as well...I think it depends for me on the motive. I know what you mean about how it can be obvious when someone does it without knowing what it's like...it can be a little bit cringey.

I watched this show on Amazon called Undone that is about someone with schizophrenia, and I keep wondering if they did it justice or not (because I wouldn't know). It seemed a little cringey.

But back to the point, I think research is good and that people gotta be careful.

I think RP is a good tool to help explore concepts, conditions and identities that you're not intimately familiar with yourself. It helps create compassion and understanding in ways that just observing someone exist with a condition doesn't quite manage. I think part of that is due to the fact you have to start doing some basic research on what it is, how it manifests and how it affects people's lives.

Will some people get it wrong? Be (unintentionally) disrespectful about it? Of course. Learning about something doesn't mean being all knowing when you start, it's about opening your mind to new information and placing it as you go along and correcting bad information too. There needs to be room for error, as long as someone is being respectful about being corrected when they get it wrong and making an effort to get it right, I'll never be mad.

This also extends to other conditions, not just mental illness. As a diabetic, I've had a friend recommend a friend of theirs talk to me about a character idea, where the character's excess consumption sugar posed a risk for diabetes. They were very kind and open minded and heard me out, and made a decision based on information they obtained from someone who has the condition. It was an awesome interaction and I have a high opinion of this person for being so respectful about the whole thing, and I love my friend for asking me if I was okay with educating their friend before they forwarded them to me. I feel like everybody came out of that better informed and writing more realistic characters. I hope that people will continue this approach with mental illness and other conditions as well.

Mental illness is definitely something that can be hard to play in characters, I have characters with conditions that I personally don’t have and I try to research them as much as I can to get a better understanding of how to play the characters. There might be screw ups, but as long as the person understands what they messed up and fix the issue I think it’s fine, as they’re being more respectful of it and not just using it as a ‘quirk’.

As a type 1 diabetic with some mental conditions, my friends have asked me about this to help make their characters more realistic as well and I am happy to help them! They’re very respectful of it and one that I know in real life actually identified a low blood sugar that I didn’t catch just by talking to be over the voice chat on discord. The information really does matter, and also how it affects people!

I have... multiple characters with mental illnesses, and... I'm kind of ashamed to say that I portrey them based on what I've lived. Not exactly like me, because everyone's different, and I'm not even sure I HAVE a mental illness, so I just stand there hoping I'm doing it right, despite the fact I've already researched it. I don't usually step out of my comfort zone when it comes to mental illnesses, like depression and anxiety, and I try to portray them as differently as possible, to show how it would affect different people, despite the fact it is the same illness. The weird part is, all of my characters somehow represent me, my emotional state and who I am, what I've been through. I'm not saying I did all these things or went through all of it, like I said, I wanted them to be different, so it's alright.

One of them is more angry, trying his hardest to lock everything out, trying to show everyone he's strong, that he doesn't need anyone, but he's not. He's weak, and he's breaking appart and he needs someone to be there. He has problems with smoking and gangs, his parents only knowing he's the 'bad kid' and should be more like his older brother, a perfect child. All the expectations crumbled him down, untill he couldn't handle it anymore, he doesn't know what's wrong or what's happening to him, all this anger, this sadness, this pain, this fear. So, he pretends like he hates everyone and doesn't care, hides behind the 'I don't care' facade.

Another is the "I'm fine" person, his bright smile and laughing and joking and doing what normal kids do fool everyone, but himself. His parents are never there, and as long as he keeps his grades up they won't be there. He falls under peer pressure and starts drinking, gets a new girlfriend every week, eventually feeling numb to it all, but still faking. He hates how easily he changes himself at someone else's words. He hates how his parents are never there, he feels so horrid inside. He can't sleep, what's wrong? Why isn't he sleeping already? He should be. He one day tells a 'friend' how he's feeling when he'd asked, "Hey, how are you?", and all he gets is a, "dude, I was asking how are you not your life story" and he knew, he understood. They only asked because it was common courtesy, no one really cared, they only wanted you when you were happy, and if you stay that way then... they don't need to know anymore. If you aren't, they don't wanna know.

(The last one is too sensitive and I wasted all my brain cells rn)

While I agree that people should have liberty to give their characters flaws that they, themselves, might not necessarily have, I do also agree that when it comes to mental illness, there needs to be some understanding of the mental illness itself or else it could seem very fake, cliche, over dramatic or overdone. Not to mention somewhat insulting to anyone you might be playing with who has that particular mental illness themselves.

Personally I believe if you intend to portray something mental illness or no, that its a good Idea to do a little research even if its just a quick look at a wikipedia. If not for accurately portraying it, then to know how you choose to portray it differs from reality, in the case people ask questions to critique. I know its not everyone's cup of tea, but even when I play supernatural characters I prefer them to be as realistic and true to lore as possible.

It's obviously not a deal breaker if people don't go for realism, as I too enjoy some good fictional writing - after all not even Hollywood portrays things all that accurately and everyone is capable of taking artistic liberties (even I do). I just mean that it's important to know where the artistic liberties begin and end. For example, in the past there were a lot of people who critiqued me on a Djinn character - everyone had an opinion; so I had to be able to explain how i was aware of different lores and where they came from to convey why i played my character the way that I did.

This is no different for mental illnesses. I have had, or have been in contact, with many mental illnesses. I honestly doesn't mind people's interpretations of them as often they can manifest differently from person to person so long as they get the basics down. Like a bipolar person isn't likely to hear voices and hallucinate. But generally, I dont really mind as I dont really try to label disorders in characters, rather enjoy them for the intended personality, quirks and triggers they have.

I think the one that bothers me, the only one that bothers me, is domestic abuse (it comes with a long list of mental side effects). I had 11 years of it - and I am fully recovered from the whole long ordeal and stronger then ever- so its not that domestic abuse rp bothers me... it dosnt at all. Its when its portrayed badly that it bothers me. Somehow it feels like it undermines and makes fun of the experience I had .. like there is a serious lack of education in society about such a serious issue that happens to a LOT of people. So, I can understand why there are people who might be put off by a vividly bad portrayal of a mental illness.