Roleplaying mental illness

[Fiery Diamond]

I think, as others are saying, that a lot depends on what kind of mental illness you choose to use, and how severe you make it. I'm very glad to see people here treating mental illness with the seriousness it deserves. Here are some you could probably role-play without doing too terribly much research:

-Clinical depression (an important thing to note- clinical depression is both pervasive and chronic, but it does not cause an individual to necessarily reveal to other people how they feel about themselves directly. Having a character always talk about how horrible life is or how worthless he feels about himself is not necessarily the way to go, despite the fact that the character may feel those things. Also, clinically depressed people cannot simply "pull themselves together." Frequently, clinically depressed people have thoughts of suicide. In case you couldn't guess, I'm speaking from experience about this. I have clinical depression and am on medication and go to counseling.)

-OCD (Remember, OCD is not necessarily "I must repeat this action over and over," though that is the most common expression. Sometimes, OCD causes an individual to want to achieve a certain state of "perfection" (what constitutes perfection and what kind of perfection varies), and they have ...erm, not sure how to describe it, but they have some kind of reaction when they encounter a situation where that perfection does not exist- they may try to achieve it, or if that is impossible, react in a way most people would consider inappropriate.)

-ADD/ADHD, which are two different things that share many similarities but should not be confused.

-Phobias. No, seriously. A phobia is essentially a very minor form of mental illness. Phobias can vary in intensity quite a bit. You know the cliched term "die of fright?" Severe phobias can actually put you in physical danger by your body's reaction.

[Vitruviansquid]

My gut reaction is it's a bad idea.

1. You run the risk of another player saying "My mother has that disease and that's not how it looks at all" or even worse, "My mother has that and I'd appreciate it if you didn't mock her by pretending your character had it"

2. It's really easy for something like a mental illness to dominate every aspect of your character. You don't want to pigeonhole your character as "the bipolar guy" or "the clinically depressed guy." Consider it the elephant in the room for your character's personality.

[Fiery Diamond]

My gut reaction is it's a bad idea.

1. You run the risk of another player saying "My mother has that disease and that's not how it looks at all" or even worse, "My mother has that and I'd appreciate it if you didn't mock her by pretending your character had it"

2. It's really easy for something like a mental illness to dominate every aspect of your character. You don't want to pigeonhole your character as "the bipolar guy" or "the clinically depressed guy." Consider it the elephant in the room for your character's personality.

This is true. To avoid the first half of number one, some research is needed, unless you happen to have lots of first-hand experience with it. As far as the second half of number one...that's why you should always okay these things with your whole group first. If you offend, you will offend big time, even if it is unintentional.

For number two, yes. The illness should not be the sole defining trait. Heck, it shouldn't be considered a "defining" trait at all, regardless of how much it influences things. If you want to do this seriously, you are not going to be bringing it up as subject matter in game very frequently, but rather playing out the effects that it has.

[Psyx]

Not particularly, no. I was thinking maybe Asperger's to low-level autism as a starting point, although bipolar might also be available. I'd actually prefer something somewhat low-key where maybe the character seems relatively normal most of the time but has unaccountable problems with certain situations. The "hears voices" has been done to death already, so that's right out.

Suggestion:

1) Immediately go to the BBC iplayer and go and watch the three episodes of 'Sherlock Holmes' that just got aired in the UK.

2) If that doesn't make you want to play a high-level sociopath RIGHT NOW, you weren't paying attention


Aspergers syndrome is quite a good one. Watch a few Gary Numan interviews, and you're set!

Tourretts syndrome is one that a lot of people 'think' they know (walk around swearing), but is highly misrepresented. Maybe do some research, dump-stat Dex and give that a try?

[wick]

I have seen, Megalomania, Nymphomania, Kleptomania, depression, OCD, alcoholism and probably a few others as well. And most of these were unintentional mental illness's not added to the character for a flavor effect, just how they played their characters. most were fairly harmless like the paladin always polishing his armor etc.

Good comments on characters stealing the spotlight. But who hasn't been guilty of that from time to time. As long as it does not happen constantly.

[TurtleKing]

Lets see. I can pull off characters with mental illnesses, and just did with the last campaign. Multiple personalities- 5 to be exact- that each have their own alignment and obsession that helps define them for easier roleplay. The DM and players knew from the start so they were ok with it, but their characters did not know until the last session when I finally decided to reveal to them. This was also after I had just revealed that I am a Doppleganger the night before after adventuring with them for so long. Now the entire party is in my world, and one of their missions is to put the doppleganger's mind back together.

[Devils_Advocate]

An interesting point is that mental disorders could be applied to world-building, as well as individual characters.

See, "mental illness" is basically distinguished as (1) abnormal and (2) impairing one's functioning in society. But different species have different typical personalities and thought patterns, and each of their societies is based around what's normal for that species. What's maladaptive in one social context might be necessary in another.

So, gnomes are obsessive, halflings have ADHD, dwarves have social anxiety, elves are narcissists, goblins are kleptomaniacs, drow are sociopaths, kobolds have persecution complexes, orcs have severe anger management issues... and they've found ways to make these things work for them, and even rely on them, although some races fare better than others.

Humanity's general problem, relative to other intelligent species, would probably be a propensity for rationalization, though our specific biases are many. (What, did you think that we're the sensible ones? HA!)