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Gooooood morning, I was summoned. So yes, as you might be able to infer from my being tagged, I am on the autism spectrum. I’ve only known since about the beginning of this year, so my knowledge, aside from personal experience, is limited. But I do consider myself pretty informed. As for mental disorders, I see a lot of the depictions of mental illnesses in the media are wildly inaccurate. I don’t know about Christian fiction in particular, because quite frankly, I’ve *never* seen any mental illness represented in it. I don’t read a lot of explicitly Christian fiction to begin with, but you’d think I would have seen a hint of representation somewhere.

The media in general has a warped idea of what mental disorders look like. From what I’ve seen, they’re built of stereotypes and “romanticized” versions of things that, in reality, are complicated and very, very ugly. They have the flair of someone saying “oh I’m so depressed” after dropping a spoon. It’s also a very personal thing, so the cookie-cutter image of “this is what depression/anxiety/PTSD/OCD/etc. looks like” just does’t work. Writing real mental disorders requires knowledge of that disorder, and empathy for people who have it. People don’t like to admit it, but a lot of their knowledge about things they haven’t experienced personally comes from the media. So shows like 13 Reasons Why, which romanticize depression and suicide, do more than just spread a little misinformation. They shape how people see others, and their own disorders, and it isn’t pretty.

All this to say, there’s a void of accurate representation to fill, and it’s a very important void. And who is better equipped to spread understanding than Christians? So though it is sad we don’t see a lot of it, there’s still a lot of good to be done when we go the extra mile secular media doesn’t.

As @princess-foo mentioned, autism seems relevant. I wouldn’t say it’s a mental disorder myself, but it is a mental… something. I would characterize it as, if our brains are computers, us peeps on the spectrum have a different operating system. There are upsides, there are downsides, and they’re probably not what you think they are.

It’s another case of representation being lazy and wrong and people’s collective knowledge taking damage because of it. You probably know the “white autistic guy whose special interest is space/trains/something of that nature, who’s REALLY good at math, with poor social skills that border on charming sometimes” character. Not to say there aren’t people like this, hey, I’ve had friends like this, and they’re awesome! But there are also autistic girls. Kids who prefer ancient Greece over trains any day. Teenagers who might have developed a lot of skills to mask their social skill disadvantages, but DO NOT want to touch anything with a weird texture, please and thank you. And we’re not all white, seriously. (Oh, and if you, like me at first, think autism is represented by a little blue puzzle piece, allow me to cLeAr uP A mIScoNcePtion reAL QUicK. That puzzle piece is the logo of Autism Speaks, which is not a pro-autism group at all. Look up “autism speaks controversy” if you’re curious.)

But there’s a lot about autism that gets glossed over in the media. I’m super temped to just dump everything I know right here, but that would be… a long post. XD Basically, there a LOT of stereotypes that don’t line up with reality at all. If you want to write a real autistic character, for the love of all that is sweet and crunchy, RESEARCH! Don’t believe what’s on TV. 😉 I’m also available if ya want to chat. I, of course am only an expert on my own autism, but I’m here to help!