21st century borderline.

I’ve been away for a while again, mostly because nothing interesting has happened in a while. Just work, work, and occasional sleep.

There is something I’d like to discuss in general- the popular misconceptions regarding mental illnesses. Of all the people I’ve seen write or RP mentally-ill characters, I think I’ve seen one that did not piss me off. It’s so easy to simply fall into the stereotypes and generalities of each condition that no one really bothers to actually research what they’re writing about. And I find it difficult to respect people who don’t research their topics beforehand.

First thing: Schizophrenia is not the condition in which sufferers have multiple personalities. That’s dissociative identity disorder. Schizophrenia itself is divided into several different subcategories, some of which are also confused with bipolar disorder. Really, all it takes is a quick Google search to discover this; you owe that much to your character, your readers, and the people who actually have those conditions.

Second thing: ADD and ADHD are essentially the same thing (at least, in America). The term “ADD” specifically refers to the predominantly inattentive form of ADHD (which, by the way, stands for “attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder). As its name suggests, sufferers of this variation are less hyperactive and more unable to focus. Again, the specifics of each can be found quite easily; it doesn’t take a psychologist to learn this sort of stuff.

Third thing: Not everyone in mental health hospitals has gone batshit insane. There are plenty of problems for which people enroll or are committed there- grief, attempted suicide, anxiety, generally anything out of the norm that is adversely affecting someone’s life. Also, not every institution puts its patients in tiny white cells. Another thing that people don’t think about is that contact in the outside world can be pretty limited. Every facility is different, but in some cases, the patients aren’t allowed Internet access, and have to turn over their cell phones and cameras (and shoelaces, pants strings, nail clips, and other potentially harmful items). This is sometimes for the patients’ welfare, but also for the facility’s privacy.

That’s just a very, very general outline of the mental health stigmas and generalizations that I find annoying. The point of this post is to stress the importance of 1) not making assumptions about mental health issues and 2) researching things you don’t know about (paging Stephanie Meyer). Your readers will thank you.

Just as an aside, I thought I would mention my thoughts on Kanye West’s new single, “Power,” which doesn’t really deserve its own post. To me, an amateur producer, the track sounds ridiculously messy- the entrances of many of the effects are too harsh, and the backing vocals muddle the lead vocals. The lyrics are lackluster as well. In this case, ‘Ye, I think “schizo” is the appropriate term.