20 Tips for Writing a Character With Mental Health Issues or a Disability
1. Research the Illness Thoroughly: Not a five-minute skim. Actual research, symptoms, variation, how it's diagnosed, how it's treated, what myths surround it. When I had to write PTSD for a character I made a whole google docs on: the illness itself, the illness in regards to my character’s situation, the symptoms/side effects my character would likely have, ways to incorporate them in my writing, etc.
2. Talk to People Who Actually Have It: If you don't know anyone in real life, spaces like Reddit and Quora can be genuinely useful. Nothing replaces hearing it directly from someone living with the illness.
3. Find Media Praised for Depicting It Accurately: Don’t just look for movies/shows with characters who have that mental illness, specifically research media praised for their accurate depiction of it. It's usually more instructive than any single article on the condition itself.
4. Find Media Criticized for Depicting It Inaccurately, and Figure Out Why: This is just as valuable as the praised examples. Knowing exactly what to avoid, and why it landed wrong, saves you from repeating the same mistake.
5. Remember No Two People Experience It Identically: Research gives you the general shape, but your character still needs their own specific relationship with their condition.
6. Don't Make the Condition Their Entire Personality: They still need hobbies, opinions, a sense of humor, flaws unrelated to the condition entirely. A diagnosis isn't a whole character.
7. Show It in Small, Unglamorous Moments Too: Not just the dramatic crisis scenes like panic attacks or hallucinations. The mundane, everyday impact is often more honest and more overlooked in fiction.
8. Avoid the "Cured by Love" Narrative: Unless you're specifically critiquing that trope, a romantic partner isn't a treatment plan. This one shows up constantly and it's worth actively avoiding.
9. Give Them Agency Over Their Own Condition: They shouldn't exist purely as a burden on other characters or a lesson for someone else's growth. Let them make their own decisions about their own life. Also, if this is someone who’s lived with the condition their entire life, avoid using the typical ‘they don’t know what to do when symptoms kick in and a side character has to help’ scene.
10. Research Realistic Coping Mechanisms or Treatment: Not just the symptoms. How someone actually manages day to day medication, therapy, routines, matters just as much as how the condition presents.
11. Be Careful Using the Condition as Shorthand for "Dangerous": Unless you're deliberately examining that stigma, this is one of the more damaging tropes in fiction and it's worth actively working against. This also applies for portraying a character as “damaged” or “unstable” solely because they have a mental illness.
12. Give Them Flaws That Have Nothing to Do With the Condition: A character can be stubborn, petty, or messy in ways completely unrelated to their diagnosis. That separation matters.
13. Consider How It Intersects With the Rest of Their Identity: Culture, family, access to healthcare, and financial situation all change how a condition is experienced and treated.
14. Read Own-Voices Essays and Memoirs, Not Just Clinical Descriptions: Clinical sources tell you the facts. Personal accounts tell you what it actually feels like to live inside them.
15. Avoid Writing It as a Checklist of Symptoms: Show it through behavior, internal narration, and small decisions instead of naming every symptom like a diagnostic manual.
16. Be Mindful of Language: Terms people use to describe themselves and outdated or clinical terms aren't always the same thing. Follow the community's own language where you can.
17. Think About Their Support System: Do they have one? How do they feel about needing help, and how do they navigate asking for it, or refusing to?
18. Don't Rush an Unrealistic "Fix" by the End: Some conditions aren't cured, they're managed. A tidy resolution can undercut everything honest you built earlier in the story.
19. Get a Sensitivity Reader Before Publishing, If You Can: Someone who actually lives with the condition will catch things research alone won't.
20. Write for the People Who Actually Live It First: Not for how "relatable" or "palatable" it feels to readers who don't share the experience. Accuracy matters more than universal comfort.
21. Don’t Make Their Story Revolve Around The Mental Illness: Please remember that there are millions of people around the globe with thousands of different mental illnesses who live with those illnesses day in and day out. It doesn’t define them, it doesn’t become their entire life, and it shouldn’t be the main aspect of your character’s storyline.
This isn't a list you follow rigidly, it's a starting point for actually caring enough to get it right. Happy writing! :)
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