T'rahnu, I'm sorry you've lost sleep over the topic. It might help to keep things in perspective: that this is just a thread that holds many different subjective opinions, but isn't necessarily one of scientific fact. At the end of the day, one person's opinions aren't any more or less valuable than your own, because... opinions aren't facts, unless we want to start throwing empirically reviewed postgraduate research up in here. XD
Anyway, just trying to help relieve some of that anxiety! We're just an internet forum for a video game where we all make a hobby of playing pretendsies.
But more to the topic, personally speaking, I have a BA in Psychology, so I may have a pretty different / skewed perspective on this. Many of my jobs in my teens and early 20's involved people who were mentally and physically disabled. I really wish I could convey all the experiences and knowledge I have in my brain to everyone I meet, but that's silly and impossible. So, I'll just relate what I hope to be the cliff note highlights!
One of the first and most important things one learns when undertaking anything with "Abnormal Psychology" is that the person should always come first. When you introduce a friend with a mental disorder, you don't say "Please meet my friend, her name is Schizophrenia!", you say " Please meet my friend, her name is Alis!" Defining a person solely by their mental disorder paints a very nuanced topic with a woefully broad brush, and discredits all of the other aspects that make Alis Alis. Additionally, most personality disorders, like general aspects of personality, exist on a spectrum. Things could manifest more on the slight end, or on the heavy end, and a primary guage of whether or not someone has a -disorder- as opposed to a similar personality quirk has to do with how much it inhibits their capacity to function within society.
When viewing mental or personality disorders in RP, it's regretful that many people don't seem to put in research beyond watching a movie with someone who had X Disorder. (And many movies are notoriously inaccurate in their portrayal of more 'severe' disorders.) As with most people, I toss my hat into the "research a lot before playing" ring, and add to the "don't make this personality disorder be a solely defining aspect of the character."
My actual focus of study as an Undergrad was social and cultural Psychology, which is kind of a gold mine when it comes to thinking about and developing a character. If there's enough thought put into it, a character who suffers from utter shyness can be just as interesting - if not even more so - than one who's stuck with a buzzword Psychology label. One can accomplish many of the same personality goals by researching and using "mundane" personality traits, because people - regular, "normal" people - can act just as unhinged as those who have alternate chemicals firing in their brain to give them alternate perceptions.
So, I guess, I'd just propose giving a good, long thought to the reason why a character is going to be attributed to a crippling psychological disorder. Normal people go through trauma all the time, and it can manifest in a number of interesting ways that can change one's personality and responses forever (without necessarily triggering the ol' stress-diathesis model.)
But again... opinions!
Anyway, just trying to help relieve some of that anxiety! We're just an internet forum for a video game where we all make a hobby of playing pretendsies.
But more to the topic, personally speaking, I have a BA in Psychology, so I may have a pretty different / skewed perspective on this. Many of my jobs in my teens and early 20's involved people who were mentally and physically disabled. I really wish I could convey all the experiences and knowledge I have in my brain to everyone I meet, but that's silly and impossible. So, I'll just relate what I hope to be the cliff note highlights!
One of the first and most important things one learns when undertaking anything with "Abnormal Psychology" is that the person should always come first. When you introduce a friend with a mental disorder, you don't say "Please meet my friend, her name is Schizophrenia!", you say " Please meet my friend, her name is Alis!" Defining a person solely by their mental disorder paints a very nuanced topic with a woefully broad brush, and discredits all of the other aspects that make Alis Alis. Additionally, most personality disorders, like general aspects of personality, exist on a spectrum. Things could manifest more on the slight end, or on the heavy end, and a primary guage of whether or not someone has a -disorder- as opposed to a similar personality quirk has to do with how much it inhibits their capacity to function within society.
When viewing mental or personality disorders in RP, it's regretful that many people don't seem to put in research beyond watching a movie with someone who had X Disorder. (And many movies are notoriously inaccurate in their portrayal of more 'severe' disorders.) As with most people, I toss my hat into the "research a lot before playing" ring, and add to the "don't make this personality disorder be a solely defining aspect of the character."
My actual focus of study as an Undergrad was social and cultural Psychology, which is kind of a gold mine when it comes to thinking about and developing a character. If there's enough thought put into it, a character who suffers from utter shyness can be just as interesting - if not even more so - than one who's stuck with a buzzword Psychology label. One can accomplish many of the same personality goals by researching and using "mundane" personality traits, because people - regular, "normal" people - can act just as unhinged as those who have alternate chemicals firing in their brain to give them alternate perceptions.
So, I guess, I'd just propose giving a good, long thought to the reason why a character is going to be attributed to a crippling psychological disorder. Normal people go through trauma all the time, and it can manifest in a number of interesting ways that can change one's personality and responses forever (without necessarily triggering the ol' stress-diathesis model.)
But again... opinions!
