#(Congrats Vel I have a whole new level of trauma for you: let me project on you)

[y-rhywbeth2]

So, understanding and handling of mental health in the Realms is apparently a fucking delight (full sarcasm intended). I am still looking at certain characters in a whole new light.

Here's a cut because, oh boy, ableism.

General understanding of mental health is poor.

I don't know how they handle PTSD, anxiety, depression or some various personality disorders so far, though I suspect that the answer depends on exact symptoms and is ultimately 'with a great lack of sympathy.'

Your best hope is the local churches, preferably of one of the gentler gods: temples and monasteries take in many who need charity (so this covers the mentally ill and disabled, as well as the physically disabled, orphans, the homeless, etc) and feeds, clothes and shelters them in exchange for them helping around to the best of their ability. It's usually cloistered communities. They do their best to treat and manage symptoms, typically with herbal physics (medicines). Sometimes more elaborate 'cures' are attempted, and sometimes that goes down a dark path into human experimentation.

The 'slow' and those who are 'a little funny' - people whose divergencies are poorly understood, but don't instill too much fear in their neighbours (the categories also includes things like epilepsy and Traumatic Brain Injury symptoms) - are generally tolerated in society although not with much respect by and large... and you'll possibly be described by your neighbours with the charming phrase 'every village has its idiot.' People whose behaviours are deemed erratic, such as the psychotic or those with severe mood disorders, are referred to as the 'crazed witted' or 'madfolk.'

When your symptoms start to scare neurotypicals too much you may well be driven from settlements and left to fend for yourself in the wilderness. Or there's locking you up!

'Howling keeps' are what are known on Earth as asylums. They're fortress like stone constructions. They are, of course, named after the screams of the inmates. From what I remember from the Waterdhavian asylum shown in Vampire of the Mists: furnishings and clothing are spartan; you're kept in cells, like criminals; the wards are gender segregated; the food and amenities are subpar; the staff tend to be dehumanising; local priests tend to visit to administer care to the inmates/prisoners (it was a priest of Lathander in this case).

People who are highly dependent on assistance or deemed frightening are at risk of being kidnapped or deliberately sold as sacrifices to evil temples and cults shopping for an offering to their god, or for 'parts' to necromancers and evil alchemists.