How to Write a Story Character with a Mental Disorder

Show how they act socially. They might try to avoid interacting with people altogether. They might be mute due to past trauma or extreme social anxiety. They might be very social and charming, but deceiving with their words. There could be one person who they specifically talk to and have a lot of trust with, but fear making new friends.

Give them a background. Each character in a story has past moments that shape who they are in the present. Create an interesting background. For instance: a 23-year-old man named Aaron was sexually assaulted by his partner when he was 17. He felt weak and ashamed and refrained from telling anybody about the incident, so he kept it down. Throughout the story, he builds trust with a new partner and is encouraged by them to see a psychologist. He was diagnosed with PTSD at 22 and receives treatment later on.

• Try not to make their background too cliché. Do not romanticize mental disorders in your story: this is inappropriate and happens far too often in stories.

Create the character, then apply the mental disorder. While a mental disorder is associated with a person, the character is more than just a mental disorder. Give them personality traits and an appearance before working on their mental disorder. You cannot simply create a character with a mental disorder and leave it at that. Everyone has a personality or traits that make up who they are. Create a character, not just someone who's has schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.^{[6] [7]}

• Give them strengths and weaknesses. These are essential to make a character realistic and relatable. Ideally, they should have more strengths than weaknesses, or a fair amount of both.
• Create an appearance for them.
• Add in other details. Details that should be remembered when creating your character are their age, gender identity, and so on.

Apply relevant challenges to their life. People with mental health conditions face many daily challenges, just like anyone else. You'll want to connect these challenges to the mental disorder you are giving your character to make them more accurate. This is also where research comes into play. When you thoroughly research a mental disorder, you also learn about challenges and symptoms associated with that condition.

• For example; many people with PTSD show avoidance by refusing to discuss to traumatic event(s) they experienced and isolating themselves from others. It's also likely that they will have reoccurring, unwanted thoughts about the event and what is to occur in the future.^[8]

Let the character have the mental health condition by the end of the story. Almost all mental health conditions cannot be cured. However, as mentioned earlier, they can be treated and people with mental health conditions mental disorders can lead great lives. The character with the mental health condition can go with or without treatment in your story, but shouldn't be "cured" at the end of the story.

Allow them have positive times. When a character has a mental disorder, their life doesn't need to be dark, gloomy, and negative. Have them do positive things sometimes or let their life revolve around positive things with some negative moments. A character with anxiety for example, might spend most of their time by themselves overthinking, but when a friend invites them to play video games, they could accept.

Know what terms you shouldn't use to describe a character with a mental disorder. All language used to describe characters with mental disorder should be respectful and as neutral as possible. Using negative terms for mental disorders in your writing can offend readers with mental health conditions. If another character were to discuss the character with a mental disorder, you should avoid having terms like these used:^{[9] [10] [11]}

• "Mental": Using the word "mental" to describe somebody with a mental disorder is offensive, derogatory, and dehumanizing.
• “Mentally disabled:” This is an outdated and offensive term to use that has been replaced with "mental illness" or "mental disorder".
• “Mentally ill:" Use "has a mental illness" instead of "mentally ill," as it's more respectful.
• "Mentally handicapped:" Handicapped is for someone that is physical differently-abled, not for somebody with a mental health condition.^[12]
• "Mentally r*tarded:" This is an outdated term that has been replaced by "intellectual disability" or "developmental disability".

Avoid stereotypes. Mental disorder is different for everybody. Despite this, there are many stereotypes writers will divert to when they know little about a mental disorder or don't have the mental health condition themselves. You've probably read or heard about stereotypes in stories with characters that have a mental disorder. Here are some to avoid creating in your story:^[13]

• People with mental illnesses are violent. This is a widespread myth about people with mental illnesses. Many folks with mental disorder are actually not violent, crazy crime committers as the media portrays them to be. The truth is that a very small percent of people with mental disorder are violent and most people with mental disorder never commit crimes. They are actually more likely to be victims of violence than people without mental disorder are.
• People with mental disorder are incurable or there is no hope for them. Lots of people with mental disorder get treatment and can live amazing lives. While most mental disorder cannot be cured, they can be treated.
• People with mental disorder are unpredictable. While people with certain mental disorders might experience mood swings, extreme highs and lows or other symptoms doesn't mean they are unpredictable.
• People with mental disorder can't be trusted. Simply because somebody has a mental health condition doesn't automatically mean they aren't to be trusted or can't be trusted. Being untrustworthy is a personality trait, not a default for someone with a mental health condition.

Avoid using insensitive terms. Insensitive terms dehumanize people with mental disorders and minimize them to their "habits" or behavior in a rude and unprofessional way. Readers with a mental disorder will more than likely be offended if insensitive language is casually used throughout the story. You don't want to include terms such as these to describe the character in your story: ^[14]

• "Crazy"
• "Junkie"
• "Psycho"
• "Deranged"
• "Insane/nuts"