#like. normal brains don't function like this do they

[dufferpuffer]

Stealing this post to talk about the mental disability representation, tying into a post I made here about physical disability representation

What does disability representation have to do with this post...? That's what trauma is or at least can be and should be considered as such in the severe cases OP is talking about, where traumatic backstories feel strange and flat when they don't reflect on the character in a meaningful way.

It's the same thing as having a character with a prosthetic limb who doesn't show any real sign of living with one. The character isn't disabled unless they are disabled. And if you don't want them to be disabled... why give them a disability? Whether that disability is a false limb or severe trauma that has shaped how their brain functions? It HAS to change how they live...

...good disability representation is in how the character is affected by their disability, not by just existing. And that's what I would want to share with any non-disabled person who feels excitement seeing a disabled character: think about how it affects their life. Think about the choices they make because of it.

(my quote from above link B^) )

...we have enough characters who are disabled for the sake of aesthetics. For the sake of a patronizing 'aw, poor lil guy...'

Please, give your characters trauma, or any disabilities. We love it. But remember to actually make them disabled. If their parents were killed and their life placed in the care of an abusive authority - that will change the sort of human they can be. Even if they have recovered and adjusted well - it still has an effect. Remember - PTSD can change the physical build of your brain, seen on scans.

They'll react differently to things others don't. They'll make choices others don't. They'll draw conclusions others won't think of.

The funny thing is, because we don't consider trauma and other mental/behavioral things 'disabilities' as often, especially in fiction... ...there are HEAPS of quite good, nuanced and deep representation within existing characters... put there unintentionally. We just think of it as "Has a sad backstory" Instead of "suffered severe trauma and has been disabled by it".

And much like when people point out how, eg: a character may show a LOT of Autistic traits, even if it was accidental by the author simply trying to make them 'a little weird' (etc.)

By starting to actually think about people and characters in ways that aren't "Normal or weird", "Emotionally normal or emotionally unstable", "Happy backstory or sad backstory"... we get better stories AND better recognition and understanding for real people. :^)

This is not something I usually talk about, but I feel like in the character writing landscape some people mistake traumatic experiences and elements in a character’s backstory for actual character depth. What I mean is, if you only tell me that a character’s parents died and they suffered at the hands of an abusive authority and their ex stabbed them in the stomach, well, that’s cool, but how does all that reflect on their character? How did all of those experiences and the rest of their numerous life experiences shape them, make them who they are? What sorts of relationships do they have, what do they fear, aspire to be like, love and hate (other than exes stabbing them in the stomach)?? Those are questions that are not answered with what happened in the past. Similarly you could make a character that literally had nothing bad happen to them ever in their whole life and I think you could “still” make them very interesting and extremely fleshed out and feel as real as you want to. There are several ways to make people care about characters!

[le-velo-pour-dru]

It's so comforting to realize that since the self-imposed rules I put upon myself are completely made up, I can change them to make myself more comfortable. I forget about that all the time X'3

[moghedien]

i swear if you people start uwuifying OCD like you did with ADHD and autism I'm going to start attacking

[greppelheks]

I feel so inadequate today. I'm on this job without training or guidance or experience, and I'm fucking up a lot. And I don't have answers for some questions. And it's not my fault because I was never trained by anyone and I figured most of it out myself, but I hate feeling powerless in anything.

[opens-up-4-nobody]

...

[loversandantiheroes]

It is so goddamn bizarre when you finally get meds that actually kinda work and you realize that your baseline for normality was buried so deep it could've struck oil.

[sherlock-is-ace]

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[watery-melon-baller]

its so fun :)) and awesome :)) that i cannot fucking make my brain focus on my homework :))) holy shit im gonna kill someone :)) why can't my brain just work for five fucking minutes :)) this is easy homework too I just can't concentrate on it at all :)) and it's due tomorrow morning :)))

[indigodawns]

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[didntaskforfrozenyoghurt]

ironic that after all these years advocating for photosensitivity warnings, i'm only just now realising i have probably had epilepsy that whole time too. doesn't help that my dad didn't know about the existence of focal seizures

[gurorori]

im so so sad i wish i could be an adult

[friendofthecrows]

Wish I had more of that stereotypical "refined genius psychopath mystery villain" vibes and less "dysfunctional no sleep cycle can't tell when/if they have emotions traumatized mess doesn't feel like a human paranoid future true crime psychopath" vibes. So that was word salad. Moving on.

[queerstudiesnatural]

ok well. just went to see a neuropsychologist and all she asked me were the standard questions you find in every internet autism test. which i KNOW don't apply to me ("do you find it difficult to infer people's intentions", "do you find it difficult to read between the lines" etc) and like she was literally reading off of her computer and asking me to pick one of the options between "strongly agree" and "strongly disagree" and it's like girl i could have done that at home. sure hope she's not stopping there and that she's not gonna just look at what i said but at the way i said it. idk it irked me that she just pulled up the old (as in outdated and reductive) standardised test on her computer and acted as if those questions would make me question myself like girl i've done this test fifteen times. not only is it not going to tell you anything about me but it's not going to tell you anything about most people. and most autistics. and she did suggest i come back for a more formal and global assessment, but she also kept using the words "cognitive deficit" to describe autism. which i realise is a commonly used term, but it feels reductive idk. so overall i'm not overjoyed with how this went lol.

[cheesey-rice]

anyway if you miss learning the way you used to learn as a kid you have to just like. Stop filtering sensory perceptions through "thoughts." "just do it" "Lose the ego" "Become one with the flow" etc, what these guys are all describing is just not putting your sensory stimulus between too many complicated thought pathways. Like when you're "not thinking" you're still going to experience things/record them/behave like a person but you're just putting a pause on filtering the sensory patterns you find distinct through your pre-existing probability affecting pathways. Without thinking you already have like automatic mechanisms of pattern recognition, and when learning a new skill like a language or basketball or dancing trying to push your behaviors through pre-existing connections to previous environments will Not Help because like. You don't already know how to do those things bruv. it will be easier to attach your motivational/reward/ corrective mechanisms (the sensation of emotion) to the new stimuli (how your body is moving in response to the new cues you're looking at/paying attention to) if you don't filter your attention through the momentarily excess processing space of pre-existing connections.

[unhinged-nymph]

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[wickedhawtwexler]

i need to stop reading articles about the adhd medication shortage because every time i do i see some god-awful take that fills me with rage. today i read an article that said "people who take adderall to ''feel normal'' are likely to experience withdrawal symptoms". like. people who take adderall to feel normal as opposed to what exactly????? like of course i'm taking brain medication to make my brain feel normal that's literally what it's for????