Moo's Guides/What To Be Careful About

This is the first guide! YAAAAAY!

By meee, Moo!

This will be added onto...

With no further ados, let's start! (I probably didn't even say that right *cries and cringes*)

Chapter One - Portraying Mental Illness
Yes, people do write about this.

If it's in a roleplay, don't do it at all.

With writing, it's important you write things correctly. Like if you're writing a character with a broken leg, you're not going to have it heal in a week. That's not right at all! So why does it happen with mental illness?

Mental illnesses are hard. There are tons of websites with information, but most of them talk about the symptoms, and you never quite know how someone is feeling. The problem is: people are uneducated.

If you're going to write about anything, do your research (the Erins never did this :/). It's not hard, and I know starting a new story is exciting and you just want to start writing, but the more research and effort you put in it, the better it will be.

So if you intend on writing about a character with a mental illness, research, research, research. Search the web and read everything on tons of different websites, find as much as you can. Ask people about it, I'm sure they'll be happy to help.

Something important is to never write from the P.O.V of a character who is something, has something, etc if you have never experienced it yourself. For example, if you've never had an anxiety disorder, it's best not to write from the P.O.V of someone who has it. Same goes for gay characters and etc.

Of course it's okay with side characters if you do research, but not with main characters. Why? Because no matter how much research you do, you'll never understand what it feels like (unless you actually have been professionally diagnosed with that disorder you're writing about - lots of people say they have OCD when they're just perfectionists, or anxiety when they worry about homework, depression when they're just upset, etc...).

Now for the misconceptions. Misconception #1: Depression as "being full of pain and wanting to die". No, it's not, really.

It isn't "Why is my life so painfullll", it's lethargy.

It isn't "I'm so saaaaaad", it's "I can't seem to experience positive feelings anymore."

People who are depressed are not always suicidal (I'm living proof). People who are suicidal are not always necessarily depressed.

Just do your research. Depression is a mental illness that greatly affects someone's life, and it makes the smallest tasks seem impossible. You cannot force yourself to do simple things, it's a lack of self esteem, and feeling guilty, worthless, and like you have no purpose.

It's not emo bangs and crying because your life is so painful.

The next problem is anxiety. We don't blush cutely and stammer, we don't hide behind our hair - Fluttershy isn't anxiety.

I've been diagnosed with general anxiety and severe social anxiety, and I can tell you, it's nothing like it's portrayed. We're jumpy, excessively worrying about things we know are irrational but we just can't stop it, we find socialisation hard, and we're really just an anxious mess.

You might think: "That was pointless, there aren't any fics about mental illness here."

But I have seen some.

Well, in conclusion, please research if you must write about mental illness and please don't romanticise or glamourise them, just no. So please, do your research if you do intend on writing about mental illness!