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Hey all, hope your having an amazing day!

So…I’ve been thinking a lot about mental illnesses and disorders recently and was wondering if anybody had posted a thread on here about such things. I couldn’t find any. (If there is one, please do share. 😉)

I have multiple reasons for starting this thread. For one, I think it would be good/helpful to start a discussion on here about mental illness in christian fiction. But also because I’m looking for good resources on mental health, whether that be blogs, or articles, or books. I feel like I know very little about mental illness/disorders and am looking to educate myself, for personal reasons and because I am writing about characters with mental disorders.

Merriam-Webster defines mental illnesses (or mental disorders) as:

any of a broad range of medical conditions (such as major depression, schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorder, or panic disorder) that are marked primarily by sufficient disorganization of personality, mind, or emotions to impair normal psychological functioning and cause marked distress or disability and that are typically associated with a disruption in normal thinking, feeling, mood, behavior, interpersonal interactions, or daily functioning source

I understand that this can be a very tough/painful topic and so if you don’t feel comfortable with sharing, that’s okay. And if you have dealt with mental disorders yourself and you feel like something said on this thread was disrespectful or unhelpful, please say something. I don’t want this to turn into something damaging.

And to everybody who will be commenting please speak with grace and respect. If you have no clue what your talking about please make sure you clarify that and don’t just throw opinions out there like it’s the truth. Thank you! ❤️

So to get the discussion flowing:

Do you feel like mental disorders is something Christian writers have done well with in writing? Or have we done poorly? How could we improve? What would you like to see more of in christian fiction that relates to mental illnesses and disorders? What is your personal experience with mental illnesses? If you have a mental disorder/illness have you read “christian” books that had characters (with mental illnesses) that you could relate to?

In your stories or WIPs, do you have characters with mental illnesses/disorders? What has helped you write them realistically?

And if you know of any resources concerning mental health, please do share!! I’ll give you a…virtual pizza. (And if I’m feeling really generous maybe I’ll throw in a hedge-hug or two. 😜)

@r-m-archer @evelyn @bama-rose @cassandraia @ericawordsmith (don’t know if you guys are actually interested in this, but I’m taggin you because I know you…and can remember your tags. 🙃)  Anybody else who has interest in this topic…