Mental Illness Representation in YA

To be fair, laurie17, people with mental illness do have to deal with that attitude in real life. Get tired of my parents getting so worked up every time I'm irritated or mildly upset about something, feel like screaming, "Oh for the love of God, I'm just a little sad/mad, not in a state of suicidal despair!"

But I imagine, you're more referring to promoting that attitude in which case, I totally agree. I am capable of feeling and caring about things that aren't the product of my brain chemistry, thank you. Yeah, I am on the Autism Spectrum and it does effect how I view and interact with the world, but I am more than just Autistic. I'm also a writer, a rabid fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and an amateur violinist, dang it!

Emermouse said:

To be fair, laurie17, people with mental illness do have to deal with that attitude in real life. Get tired of my parents getting so worked up every time I'm irritated or mildly upset about something, feel like screaming, "Oh for the love of God, I'm just a little sad/mad, not in a state of suicidal despair!"

But I imagine, you're more referring to promoting that attitude in which case, I totally agree. I am capable of feeling and caring about things that aren't the product of my brain chemistry, thank you. Yeah, I am on the Autism Spectrum and it does effect how I view and interact with the world, but I am more than just Autistic. I'm also a writer, a rabid fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and an amateur violinist, dang it!

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Yes, I mean writing a character so they just are their mental illness, rather than being someone who has a mental illness. It would probably be quite good to explore the attitudes of people towards it in a realistic way like that too though, showing how people can be oversensitive to tiny behaviours that would be considered perfectly normal in someone not known to have a MI.
(Off topic, but amateur violinist? That's really cool!)

Prince Anpiel said:

DID/MPD is overdone and never done well. Most writers are either too good for it or not good enough for it, but don't so many try?

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I've definitely read too many failed attempts, but I'm curious what you mean by "either too good for it or not good enough for it"?

I imagine "too good" = don't try because it's overdone, whereas "not good enough" would be "can't pull it off properly". Basically saying that those who can nail it tend to do something else.

ManInBlack said:

I imagine "too good" = don't try because it's overdone, whereas "not good enough" would be "can't pull it off properly". Basically saying that those who can nail it tend to do something else.

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Does anyone know of a novel with a character with DID where it isn't treated as a twist or a curiosity? I'd love to read one sometime.

Not unless you're counting literal possession cases.

The only novels I've read with a character with DID treated them as if they underwent some bizarre transformation as they switched between characters. The realities of the condition didn't seem to have been considered at all, kuwi.

Old Hack said:

The only novels I've read with a character with DID treated them as if they underwent some bizarre transformation as they switched between characters. The realities of the condition didn't seem to have been considered at all, kuwi.

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Hmm. I used to write a lot about characters with DID since I was dating someone with it throughout most of high school and college. I've avoided it since then for various reasons. It started feeling exploitative and I wanted to explore writing about my own identities more.

And also, because of the controversy over the existence of the condition, various people had convinced me she must have been faking it. Now, she lied about a lot of things, but I don't believe that was ever one of them.

Now I've recently dated another person with DID, and I'm wondering if I should maybe revisit it in my writing, now that I'm more mature.

I can't speak for people with DID, but I think it would be refreshing to read a book that dealt with the condition in an accurate, respectful, and non-lurid way.

I recently saw a trailer for an upcoming horror/thriller movie about a woman who is captured and tortured by an individual with multiple personalities, and it looks like it is very exploitative and hits every misconception and stereotype that's been popular since Sybil. It's rather troubling how uninformed filmmakers seem to be about mental illnesses in an age when you can do a fair amount of basic research (enough to let you know a screenplay is presenting something completely implausible and harmful, at least) without even having to set foot in a library or speaking to actual patients or therapists.

Roxxsmom said:

I can't speak for people with DID, but I think it would be refreshing to read a book that dealt with the condition in an accurate, respectful, and non-lurid way.

I recently saw a trailer for an upcoming horror/thriller movie about a woman who is captured and tortured by an individual with multiple personalities, and it looks like it is very exploitative and hits every misconception and stereotype that's been popular since Sybil. It's rather troubling how uninformed filmmakers seem to be about mental illnesses in an age when you can do a fair amount of basic research (enough to let you know a screenplay is presenting something completely implausible and harmful, at least) without even having to set foot in a library or speaking to actual patients or therapists.

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I was glad the movie at least made it clear that there were 20 other personalities all trying to stop the 3 evil ones (and that the super-shapeshifting was explicitly a scifi element that people in that universe without DID are supposed to be just as capable of), but yeah, I wish that the trailer had done better about showing the same thing.

Amongst many, MANY other things I wish the movie had handled better (and by "handling better," the list of options for doing so obviously including "cutting out" as a possibility). I hope MacAvoy gets an award for Acting, but I don't want the movie getting awards for Picture, Screenplay, Director... Seriously, that movie was a text-book set of examples of what not to do.

EDIT: and now I'm looking into DID (the way I should've in the first place) and wondering if even that wasn't as helpful as I thought it was

Roxxsmom said:

I can't speak for people with DID, but I think it would be refreshing to read a book that dealt with the condition in an accurate, respectful, and non-lurid way.

I recently saw a trailer for an upcoming horror/thriller movie about a woman who is captured and tortured by an individual with multiple personalities, and it looks like it is very exploitative and hits every misconception and stereotype that's been popular since Sybil. It's rather troubling how uninformed filmmakers seem to be about mental illnesses in an age when you can do a fair amount of basic research (enough to let you know a screenplay is presenting something completely implausible and harmful, at least) without even having to set foot in a library or speaking to actual patients or therapists.

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Given the er, controversy, I don't really blame people for taking the pop culture road, as the 'actual patient/therapist' road isn't exactly going to be either of a piece or anything many people would agree was a real representation, as so many people don't believe it's real regardless.

cornflake said:

Given the er, controversy, I don't really blame people for taking the pop culture road, as the 'actual patient/therapist' road isn't exactly going to be either of a piece or anything many people would agree was a real representation, as so many people don't believe it's real regardless.

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My $0.02

Scientists used to think that T-Rex and similar dinosaurs walked upright with their tails dragging on the ground, so that's how they set up the fossils in museums, and that's the image that captured the minds of the artistic community and the general public. By the time scientists discovered that those dinosaurs actually walked horizontally with their tails in the air, it was already too late to convince the artists and the public because the dragging-tail image was so universally embedded in the pop culture (the Allosaurus from King Kong, the mutant from Gojira...)

Until Jurassic Park Jurassic Park took the most up-to-date scientific understanding of reality, and they made it more interesting than the pop culture myth.

So I came across a forum while doing research. It's called MyProAna, and it's a group of people with eating disorders who discuss their illness, what caused it, etc. In subcategories they have forums for: Anxiety, Bipolar, BPD, Depression, OCD, Schizophrenia, PTSD, Addiction/Alcoholism, ADHD/ADD, and Autism. I've learned a bit just by browsing the boards.

There's an actual thread going on right now about DID.

Simpson17866 said:

Until Jurassic Park Jurassic Park took the most up-to-date scientific understanding of reality, and they made it more interesting than the pop culture myth.

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Interesting...a friend of mine who is knowledgeable in this area (honestly not sure if he's a professional or hobbyist) was livid that the most recent JPs were actually going BACKWARD in scientific knowledge.

To tie this back into psych, I flinched every time someone mentioned the recent movie about that "10% of the brain myth". People really don't care about the science if they'll sell tickets/ copies.

ManInBlack said:

Interesting...a friend of mine who is knowledgeable in this area (honestly not sure if he's a professional or hobbyist) was livid that the most recent JPs were actually going BACKWARD in scientific knowledge.

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And that sucks because the newest movie betrayed the first three by going so far backwards :sad:

JP: T-Rex ran horizontal with it's tail out, Brachiosaurus walked upright instead of having its legs off to the side like an alligator, and raptors were smart instead of dinosaurs being dim-witted brutes

LW: T-Rex cared for their young instead of leaving them to care for themselves

JP III: Raptors had feathers and were smart enough killers to know when not to attack something

To tie this back into psych, I flinched every time someone mentioned the recent movie about that "10% of the brain myth". People really don't care about the science if they'll sell tickets/ copies.

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:

There's a word for activating 100% of your brain in the real world.

It's called a grand mal seizure.

ManInBlack said:

Interesting...a friend of mine who is knowledgeable in this area (honestly not sure if he's a professional or hobbyist) was livid that the most recent JPs were actually going BACKWARD in scientific knowledge.

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They also lampshaded it (and the earlier movies' inaccuracies) by pointing out that the dinosaurs would've looked and behaved much differently if they had pure DNA that wasn't spliced with a bunch of other shit to fill in the gaps.

Simpson17866 said:

My $0.02

Scientists used to think that T-Rex and similar dinosaurs walked upright with their tails dragging on the ground, so that's how they set up the fossils in museums, and that's the image that captured the minds of the artistic community and the general public. By the time scientists discovered that those dinosaurs actually walked horizontally with their tails in the air, it was already too late to convince the artists and the public because the dragging-tail image was so universally embedded in the pop culture (the Allosaurus from King Kong, the mutant from Gojira...)

Until Jurassic Park Jurassic Park took the most up-to-date scientific understanding of reality, and they made it more interesting than the pop culture myth.

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I don't think 'nope' is more interesting to people than like, Sybill. The scientific community has decades of research, but there are still a lot of people who believe DID really exists, not just as an iatrogenic thing.

Quentin Nokov said:

So I came across a forum while doing research. It's called MyProAna, and it's a group of people with eating disorders who discuss their illness, what caused it, etc. In subcategories they have forums for: Anxiety, Bipolar, BPD, Depression, OCD, Schizophrenia, PTSD, Addiction/Alcoholism, ADHD/ADD, and Autism. I've learned a bit just by browsing the boards.

There's an actual thread going on right now about DID.

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I don't know the site, so it may be different, but proana sites have been a thing for a long time online, promoting eating disorders, sharing tips, etc. They're controversial at best.

cornflake said:

I don't think 'nope' is more interesting to people than like, Sybill. The scientific community has decades of research, but there are still a lot of people who believe DID really exists, not just as an iatrogenic thing.

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Ahh. Much like the female orgasm and the G-spot.

kuwisdelu said:

They also lampshaded it (and the earlier movies' inaccuracies) by pointing out that the dinosaurs would've looked and behaved much differently if they had pure DNA that wasn't spliced with a bunch of other shit to fill in the gaps.

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And that was even in the original book:

One of the scientists wanted to modify the relatively-realistic Mesozoic dinosaurs to look more like what the general public expected (Brachiosaurus walking like an alligator, T-Rex walking like Godzilla), John Hammond told him "no" because he wanted to keep the experience as realistic as possible, but the scientist thought to himself that the experience was already unrealistic enough that they might as well go the extra mile.

At the time the book was published, this was already an improvement that taught people new things. But then came the movie. Would it have been more powerful if they'd


Or was it more powerful seeing the Brachiosaurus walking like a Brachiosaurus the first time Seeing the T-Rex chase the Jeep like a T-Rex

Show, Don't Tell

cornflake said:

I don't think 'nope' is more interesting to people than like, Sybill. The scientific community has decades of research, but there are still a lot of people who believe DID really exists, not just as an iatrogenic thing.

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Maybe because they've seen the scientific research into people who can only use distinct chunks of memory at one time and who have to find ways to communicate information from one set of memories to another?

Or they believe, or want to believe that to be the case. Most everything I've seen (which hasn't been a ton; it's not a particular interest), has indicated there's nothing going on that isn't explicable iatrogenically, isn't voluntary, isn't a potentially comorbid function, etc.

I'm at a point in life where I have had experiences with quite a few things that supposedly don't exist.

People can debate what constitutes a valid medical diagnosis all they like. Except insofar as it contributes to qualifying for appropriate healthcare, I don't really care about that.

Meanwhile, I'll talk to real people, real friends, with real experiences, and try to portray their experiences as accurately as I can.

After all, I've gone through various stages of existence and non-existence throughout the iterations of the DSM, myself.

kuwisdelu said:

I'm at a point in life where I have had experiences with quite a few things that supposedly don't exist.

People can debate what constitutes a valid medical diagnosis all they like. Except insofar as it contributes to qualifying for appropriate healthcare, I don't really care about that.

Meanwhile, I'll talk to real people, real friends, with real experiences, and try to portray their experiences as accurately as I can.

After all, I've gone through various stages of existence and non-existence throughout the iterations of the DSM, myself.

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I diagnosed myself with Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder as a teenager before discovering that asexual orientation was a thing.

Simpson17866 said:

I diagnosed myself with Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder as a teenager before discovering that asexual orientation was a thing.

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Asperger's doesn't exist anymore. Surprisingly, this didn't cure my autism.

Also, I have to go get myself diagnosed with a mental illness if I ever want a vagina.

kuwisdelu said:

Asperger's doesn't exist anymore. Surprisingly, this didn't cure my autism.

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Not mine either.

Also, I have to go get myself diagnosed with a mental illness if I ever want a vagina.

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... I thought I could come up with something clever. Nope, I got nothing.

Asperger's, or the issues and behaviours, weren't said to not exist; the way the disorder is coded basically changed, as it was decided it fit better as part of a spectrum than a singular thing.

That's a bit different than disputing something actually occurs. I've seen no evidence DID does, and most professionals I've ever met are of the belief it does not. I'm not saying anyone has to agree, obviously; there are people who treat it and think it does.