I like and read a lot about psychology, and two of my boys are supposed to be mental ill, one of them seems to be narcissistic according to what i read about narcissism. but the other boy Luke he's a bit confusing and unstable, he seems to have depression, other times he seems a bit attention seekers/challenging, other times he seems a lot more like a psychopath. his childhood: he has a crazy, violent father who's busy with his work and act before thinking(he also has mental illness running in family genes), he killed his wife when that boy Luke was 2 (his father didn't get arrested though since he works for the corrupted government militarily and they need him so they do what he wish for as long as he do what they demand), so Luke was raised alone, ignored, getting hit or yelled at or challenged, he was also getting bullied at school since childhood. they tried to take him to asylum and speak with him but his father didn't allow them and Luke himself didnt want any help. so i will write his actions/what he does and see what do you think of him or if there's something is much in his character but i had meant to make him very dark since my series will be about dark love more like devil and angel love. all of this prove's he's more a psychopath -Very dark, humorless, expressionless, low empathy, smart, he plans his actions as he can, he likes taking what he want in whatever way. he doesn't love anyone but willing to be loyal to certain people and reward in his own way as long as he's in control and that person obeying. a bit attention seekers/challenging - He self-harm, more as habit and challenge he used to say "I like burying deep down to find the buried bones", and tried to suicide several times at some times it was for a reason not really because he's tired of life as depressed person. so i think when he has depression it would be because things not going as he want or because he lost someone from his close circle. -he used to be addicted because it was fun and challenging to go as high as possible -and there's tiny things he hated as kid and doesnt like coming near them. as for his narcissistic friends they are only together because they have plans together not because they want to be friends and they fight a lot. but usually psychopaths don't like challenging people nor being friend with narcissistic person? So does he has medium psychopathy level or something else? the reason i ask to focus on what mental illness he has exactly to read a lot more about and if you think something is much i can try to work on, i am trying as possible to keep their character as real as possible. i havent focused on doctors diagnosing him as i mentioned before because neither he nor his dad allow them, and so readers don't think i put false information, but it would be better to know.
I think it has potential. What exactly does the father do in the military or government that they would protect him from his crimes? Is he like a colonel in the military? In the CIA? What was the boy addicted to? What happened to the other boy? What kind of mental illness does he have?
The label "Mental illness" is a lame way to say that a character has a problem. Most cases of mental illnesses are directly related to perfectly normal conditions of life that could happen to anybody on earth. They don't usually come from genes like your hair color might, but mostly from circumstances we go through. And seeing as just about everyone goes through some sort of trouble or another, putting the problems down in medical reference might be alittle besides the plot points you're trying to make. If these kids have problems, you should just say they have problems.. It'll be obvious why they have the problems if your giving enough background. No diagnosis neeeded right?
I strongly urge a SPAG cleanup on this post. In a writing forum, even “just” forum posts should be more or less correctly written.
yes i do know that mental illness doesnt pass through genes, but i'd meant that it had been passing through some members of the family as they were having life troubles as well, grandma then her son then her grandchild exactly my point, but im trying to keep their problems a bit pointed so it wont be messy or overdoing. without mentioning it, just for me when i write. i also show how psychiatrist sometimes dont need to focus sometimes not in all cases on what the person have exactly and just focus on how to help, of course diagnosing is better but for some cases it's better to just find solution, especially when someone is acting suicidal or in dangerous way.
they are actually a corrupted military and government and there's many political issues in that place so they hired the father to assassinate specific people after training him, since the father is a weak man he's ready to do anything for them as long as he get anything from them and keep his son safe(even if he's harsh, he's still trying to take care of him and love him), he doesnt ask for money or much just protection and ready to obey, he was easy for them to use with other assassins. i believe such things may happen in real life. the boy was addicted to drugs and alcohol for short time, only smoking for long time especially since he started at a very young age, he used to sit with older boys when his dad is not at home so they pushed him to try drugs and smoking. as for other boy he came from a rich family which only cared about their position, money, simply think they are above all people, but they werent giving him enough care especially since he's youngest son with 10 years so he was as well going out with random people when his parents are not paying attention to also do bad things, thats how he met the first boy and found him special and trying to do something no one can do so it seemed like a good challenge and something to make him famous.
i'm sorry im trying to write fast as i dont have time at all at university, i promise as soon as i finish my final exams of this year i will try to recheck all mistakes as possible, please note that english is not my first language and i'm self learning but im trying as i can and i will fix punctuation and everything as soon as i am more free. i just wanted opinions on this point to continue writing on holiday rather than waiting for replies, just to fix anything before going further. and i will for sure ask editor to recheck with me when i finish writing this series
Heheh sorry. I didnt read the sucidal detail of the paragraph. Yeh in that case, it would be perfectly feasable that they would be watched over by medical health professionals. I think that's the only really nessecary time to use them, when problems are reaching critical mass in a persons life. Especially if they had more than one serious attempt.. I thought they just had typical problems, I didn't know they were on the deep end of the situation. I read one really interesting book awhile ago about an 15 year old evil genius who was being sent to a psychologist by his parents for being too "smart". During the entire procession of the book the psychologist took notes about the boy, and marked down all his psychological and emotional changes. It was a cool concept. Maybe you could have something similar in your story. The children get assigned a particular psychologist, and that person looks after them he entire story. Great way to bring out internal information in the characters, and the psychologist themselves could be used as a plot device.
whats this book name, could you tell me? yes I'm actually doing that part and not only psychologist, also other people, like on older reply regardless of corrupted government and political issues which do happen in real life, or just bad bosses in companies/facilities which do happen as well, there's still good people who try to take care of others and do their job. there's a good psychologist who try to help them even when he saw how bad the boy's plan he still tried to make it work in a better way. that's why i felt it might be better to know psychology well(actually i did want to study psychology but it didn't work with my country university system, but i will still try to study and read online as much as i can) as it might not be a good idea to add psychologist without enough knowledge in psychology, but honestly psychology and brain are complicated, like for this character Luke it might seem like he's a depressed and suicidal person who attempted suicide many times mostly for fun but it might be just a psychopath trying to hide by acting like a depressed person, thats actually the best diagnose i came up for him at the end to work for plot. this series even if it is just about dark love and i will also include some fairytales by me or famous ones as they are part of main plot, it will be also about dark side of life and not because some have troubles or mental issues means they are worst people or bad im showing both types good and bad on some main and side characters and same for people who had good life yet are of bad family or became spoiled, and how there's a way to fix anything, work out or accept, destiny, sometimes history repeats itself...etc and so it wont be messy it will be main plot and a daily events/adventures showing everything else, like for us we might experience something new in every day life.
Just looked it up, The book was "Evil Genius" by Catherine Jinks What do you mean knowledge in psychology is tough? Doing a story involving a Psychologists work should be one of the easiest professions to write about. All a Psychologist does is ask there patients about their personal life issues, and then link all these general easy to identify symptoms, to a generally established mental health disorder. Nothing too difficult about that. As long as the patients are mentally healthy enough to answer your questions, there should be no issues. Definitely an easier job to write about than a clinical physician, or a engineer, or laywer. The biology of the brain is complicated, but psychologists don't deal with the medical part of mental health. Thats for psychiatrists, who prescribe patients medicine based on the information they get from the psychologist. All you need to do is search up known psychological issues, and then pick one that matches your characters mental health symptoms. But I do like the fact that your trying to weave in different themes to your story. Even if it is the dark side of life, a story having perspective like that can make it readable. Which is good for people like me, who get bored quickly and easily.
There isn't anything wrong with a character having a mental illness, but, unless it is the absolute entire idea of a story, it's best to not directly explain or state that a character has any mental illness, let alone any specific mental disorder. Readers like to wonder about a character's struggles and where they originate from, or why they occur, especially when it's something mental. It's basic show don't tell; show how it can be understood he/they has/have a mental disorder, and don't simply say they have it to reason for their actions in the story (Unless, again, if that is the whole central idea).
thank you i will try to read when i'm free. yes well i think it's better to take it a little easier in that part anyway as i wont describe that much in the series. it was confusing at first, but now i see it more clear according to his life that he became psychopath and just act as a depressed person to hide his real self thank you, i did want to know if such idea would be good or no, i know some dont prefer dark stories, but maybe the idea itself would let some read. i too prefer reading books which seem like adventures and include many things not only that it wont be boring, i also prefer when a book try to speak about real life with interesting story or about things we dont usually see in our daily life, it's like a way to say not everyone living a good normal life and actually those who have good life might have issues but hiding/or accepting it. thats why i choose the dark side of life and how things can get better.
yes exactly and so they wont feel like i gave wrong information, like books which speaks about depression and they mention that this person is suffering from depression, but the author did not actually do it correctly so readers who do suffer from depression start complaining that this book giving false information. i did see it was a must to write this boy life from childhood and till specific point of the main series, even if it's far darker than main series books, it was a must to write his story and i will explain the father issue and some of the families and elders life shortly and why this place having political issues and corrupted government in a prequel.
