Revisiting: 7 Tips to Characters With Mental Illness

Posted on May 20, 2026 by Charles Yallowitz

(Going WAY back to November 14, 2018 for this one.  Ironically, I was touching on this subject within weeks of my divorce kicking off.)

Yahoo Image Search

As I said on Monday, this can be a very sensitive topic.  So, I’m going to try to rein in the urge to crack jokes as much as I can.  Still, this is a 7 List, which tends to have a few guffaws.  Let’s get right into it.

  1. Research.  This is hands down, without question, rule 1, the most important thing when it comes to writing a character with a mental illness.  Maybe you have personal experience or helped a loved one through an issue, which can help.  Yet, many people don’t have the specific hands-on knowledge of whatever they are going to use.  This means you read up on the mental health topic and, if possible, talk to experts or sufferers to learn more.
  2. Not every villain needs to suffer from a mental illness.  We seem to think that this gives them more sympathy because ‘they could not help themselves’.  In reality, the author can perpetuate the stigma that those who suffer from mental illness are inherently dangerous.  You can offset this with a hero who suffers or simply don’t make it clear or note that the villain has an issue.  Those are simpler, riskier versions that not doing it in the first place though.
  3. You don’t always have to make the mental illness a big deal.  It can be a secondary personal situation for the character.  Otherwise, the main plot might get overshadowed or hampered by you putting more attention on this one thing.  Now, this isn’t to say it should be ignored completely, but you should only make it the main focus if it’s the main obstacle of a story.  For example, an adventuring party could be on a quest to slay a dragon.  The priest suffers from OCD, which gives them specific habits that can cause some problems.  Yet, the audience will turn on the character and story if they repeatedly impede progress. So, it needs to remain a personal hurdle.
  4. Make sure you know the terminology.  This could just be me having a pet peeve, but I do get irked when depressed is used for sad.  Yes, people with depression can be sad, but it’s not the same.  Many times, you don’t even know the source of the sadness. If you need to use the term then you should make sure the degree of sadness meets the weight of the term.  Same goes for anxiety even though it does get dicey with the word ‘anxious’.
  5. Try to avoid characters doing psychoanalysis on their friends unless it fits their personality.  You can’t always do this because sometimes dialog is how real people can come figure these out.  I mean, that’s what therapy is.  At the very least, you can minimize it and have them figure things out then move on.
  6. Jumping off #5, be careful with how you have the other characters respond to the one with mental illness.  If they dote on them too much or act with horror then that can weaken all of them.  There can be a period of confusion, fear, or other negative emotions, but this should be an obstacle instead of the norm.  Eventually, they need to accept or cast away the character instead of always acting like they’re in shock.  The former has an interesting example, which is the character Brick Tamland from the Anchorman movies.  Played by Stever Carell, he does appear to suffer from a mental health issue, but nobody treats him any differently.  It’s done to the point where he’s just one of the gang and his ‘oddities’ are part of the social norm.  This is a comedy and might not be the perfect example, but it does work as an ideal.
  7. Not every mental illness can be removed completely.  It can be inspiring to have a character take on such a challenge and come out ‘cured’, but that’s fairly unrealistic.  It is much more common for people to get a handle on these issues and find a way to live with them.  This can be medication, therapy, change in living situation, or other coping mechanisms.  As the author, you have to decide what they will do and how it will work in the story.  After all, it’s kind of difficult for a warrior to get a handle on their OCD when they’re in the middle of a battlefield or on a quest.  The stereotypical ‘snap out of the illness’ might have dramatic effect, but it almost never happens.  I’d say total fiction, but there could be one case out there somewhere.
Posted in Thoughts | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Teaser Tuesday: Is She A Monster?

Posted on May 19, 2026 by Charles Yallowitz
Cover Art by Jon Hunsinger

Cover Art by Jon Hunsinger

Here’s an excerpt from Chasing Bedlam.  This was the second installment of my dystopian Rated-R action series.  I still have fond memories of writing these tales and should be happy that I wrote 4 of them.  2 were published and 2 were put on the blog with one having to be locked away.  It would be nice to return to the Shattered States one day, but it does feel strange to write about a world where the USA has been cut off from the rest of the world and fallen into ruin.

Continue reading →

Posted in Bedlam Series, Chasing Bedlam, Teaser Tuesday | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Revisiting: Writing Characters With Mental Illness

Posted on May 18, 2026 by Charles Yallowitz

(Originally posted on November 12, 2018.  Another from way back before the chaos.)

Yahoo Image Search

Not sure this will be a long post because this is a delicate topic that everyone seems to have a different opinion on.  Using various mental illnesses is common in fiction.  Many of us can name at least one story where a character has a diagnosis of some kind.  Sometimes it’s done with care and the other times it’s done rather bluntly.  Yet, how often is it done correctly?

I remember seeing various shows and movies where they tried to show someone was autistic or schizophrenic.  The former was usually done the extreme and the other repeatedly showed up as the reason behind a person committing murders.  As a society, we tend to look at all of these things as a hindrance and a portal to abnormality.  Many artists take that and run to the darker side of human nature.  Seems only recently that people are pulling back and showing characters who have these issues and are proving that one can live a full life with them.  Still, they do seem to be the butt of jokes such as Sheldon Cooper from Big Bang Theory.  Comedy can be a bridge to get the audience to consider mental illness, but it can’t always get them the entire way to understanding.

For myself, I don’t use a lot of mental illness in my stories.  (Boy did that change.) I’m too nervous about getting something wrong and pushing the stigma that continues to create trouble.  I might touch on depression and anxiety since I have a better understanding of that.  For example, Quest of the Brokenhearted utilized my experience and thoughts on severe depression.  Kira hit that point where she didn’t want to die, but didn’t care if she did.  I’ll admit that I’ve been there in the past.  It was fairly easy, and oddly cathartic, to do this since I had experience.  Most authors don’t have that to work with when they try to make a character with a mental health issue.  So, research is definitely a necessity.

So, I’m going to open the floor since this is a complicated topic and I’m always on the fence about it.  Don’t want to say anything as if it’s a rule even though Wednesday will have a list of tips that are done in a tongue-in-cheek style.  What does everyone else think about writing characters with mental health issues?  Do you have any advice or experience doing this?

Posted in Thoughts | Tagged , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Plant Defenses

Posted on May 17, 2026 by Charles Yallowitz

Google Image Search

Plants can’t move, which means them easy targets for hungry animals.  Yet, they aren’t defenseless.  There are tons of weapons scattered about the Plant Kingdom to help them survive.

  1. Bark– Some plants have this hard, armor-like outer covering to protect their softer insides.
  2. Thorns/Spines/Burs–  Basically, their leaves, stems, or seeds have pointy protrusions.  This makes them dangerous to touch and even worse to eat.  Most animals that try may get a bite, but they’ll suffer for it.
  3. Chemical– Some plants release toxic chemicals that range from painful burning to terrible taste to lethal poison.
  4. Symbiosis– Some plants have relationships with insects and animals in exchange for protection.  For example, a plant might be home to ants, who keep harmful insects away.
  5. Waxy cuticles– This thick layer helps protect against UV radiation, some insects, and various pathogens.
  6. Closing Stomates– This tactic is when a plant closes it’s stomates (pores) to prevent diseases from getting inside.
  7. Thigmonastic Movement– This is when a plant, or part of it, will curl away or ‘move’ at the slightest touch.  Mostly, it seems to be a plant closing its leaves to protect its sensitive bud.
  8. Mimicry– Plants have evolved to resemble other objects such as rocks.  So, they hide in plain sight.
  9. Carnivorous Plants– Venus flytrap is the most common example.  They eat insects that could be harmful, which also gives them nutrients.

Posted in Animal Posts | Tagged , , , , , | 13 Comments

Poetry and Mental Health

Posted on May 15, 2026 by Charles Yallowitz

Poetry can be very helpful when it comes to mental health.  Many people use the medium as an outlet either in writing or reading.  While reading anything can be relaxing, poetry has a few aspects that prose lacks:

  1. Shorter, which means one can read favorite poems at times of stress.  You can’t read a full novel to get out of a panic attack, but you can read a poem with a message before you lose your composure.
  2. Poetry is more open to interpretation than prose.  This means, you can have less stress on getting your analysis ‘correct’.  Whatever you see in poetry is what is true.  It’s basically watching and describing clouds, but with words.
  3. With poetry being a common release for mental anguish, it is fairly easy to find a poem that relates to what a person is facing.  Prose has plenty of themes, but you have to get through a lot to reach it.  Poetry is right to the emotional core since it typically doesn’t have to deal with characters, development, climaxes, etc.
  4. In terms of writing, there aren’t any solid rules to writing poetry.  You don’t have to stick to an established style, so everything is optional.  This allows the emotions you are feeling to flow out of you and onto the paper with more ease than if you were trying to write a full story.

All of that combined can create a tension reducing activity regardless of you being the author or the reader.  As long as you don’t think your interpretation is wrong because other people think differently.  Poetry is great because of #2 when it comes to handling mental health.  Let me give you an example:

This is my favorite poem of all time even though I typically only remember the first stanza.  I heard it as a kid at the end of a nature show about tigers, which I watched multiple times a week.  It’s relaxing and stirs my imagination while my anxiety gets heavily reduced.  Moreso if I listen to someone speaking it.  Of course, the interpretation of it helps in my tension reduction, but my thoughts can vary:

  • As a child, I really thought it was just about the beauty and danger of the tiger.  It was, and still is, one of my favorite animals.  So, I thought it was to honor such an amazing creature.
  • The more adult interpretation is that this poem is about God.  It questions how an entity could create a gentle creature like the lamb AND nature’s perfect hunter, the tiger.  Of course, I feel God is neutral, so they would create both.  Still, the poem becomes a strong philosophical question, which can help reduce stress through distraction.
  • As an author, I think of it in a similar way as the second option.  Only, I see it as how I have to create both heroes and villains.  One has to develop opinions and thoughts on good and evil at all levels.  Otherwise, everyone will turn out the same.  This can get me to analyze my own behavior and thoughts, which can bring understanding to my own situation.
  • Sometimes, I think of the poem and wonder about how we are all created to serve some purpose.  It can be minor or major, but we have to exist for more than eventually dying.  I would say breeding, but not every can or will.  So, what is our purpose?  The lamb and the tiger clearly have roles in our world, so what about us?

All of these interpretations and thoughts can distract from what is harming my mental health.  It allows me to return to the situation with a clearer mind and possibly even get over the hump.  This is part of the magic of poetry.

Posted in Thoughts | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

Poetry Day: The Invisible Switch

Posted on May 14, 2026 by Charles Yallowitz

Final Destination

(Yup, another poem about death.  I think about the subject a lot for some reason.  Not in a ‘I want to die’ way.  There’s a terrifying fascination in my brain about the whole concept.  I have grow anxious when the idea that everything that is ‘me’ can cease to exist at any given moment.  Even if there is evidence that I was alive, the ‘me’ will be either somewhere else or nowhere.  No wonder humans come up with afterlives.)

Death is inevitable
The ancient cliché
A phrase of despair
Or acceptance
Or mocking defiance
Yet we fear it

It is a fear
Twisting at our bowels
Gnawing at our minds
Teasing at our triumphs
But is it fear of the inevitable act
Or the aftermath

Heaven for the pure
Hell for the damned
Rebirth
For those that think it so
We paint these pictures
For assurance

It puts our minds at ease
To believe
To have faith
That part of us lives on
After the flesh
Has served its purpose

I pray that this is true
Even Hell
Would be better than my fear
I lay awake some nights
Imagining that I die
And become nothing

Darkness
Coldness
Yet I cannot see
Or feel
All my senses
Have ceased to be

I have ceased to be
No spirit to move on
No soul to wander
No essence to prove I was here
I am nothing
Without my flesh

This is how I fear death
Not the act of dying
I fear
That one day
My invisible switch will be flipped
And I will be nothing

Posted in Poems | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Revisiting: 7 Tips to Writing Depressed Characters

Posted on May 13, 2026 by Charles Yallowitz

(Originally posted on April 8, 2020.)

Yahoo Image Search

A few disclaimers here because we’re heading into delicate territory.  I am not an expert on mental health by any means.  I read up on it and have my own experiences to work off, which is what fuels these posts.  Also, I always try to add some humor into my posts, especially the 7 Tip Lists.  I find that humor can relieve tension and allow for serious stuff to be listened to and swallowed more easily.  Finally, this is about actual depression and not a character simply feeling sad or upset.  That brings us right to #1!

  1. Depression does not always, in fact it rarely, has a direct source.  Your character can simply go into a depressed state or be there the entire time.  Of course, it can be triggered by something, but it doesn’t always have such a direction.  Good chance that they can’t even explain it.  After all, if you can clearly explain what is causing the problem then it’s much easier to fix.  Wouldn’t that be a nice addition to the depression diagnosis.  Make my life easier.
  2. You really need to make sure that you don’t equate depression with simply being sad.  A character can use the term since people do, but you need to remain aware of what this condition is.  It is INTENSE sadness with a sense of worthlessness, hopelessness, and helplessness.  You feel like the world is crushing you or that it would be better off without you.  This is debilitating and it lasts for days or weeks or months or years to the point where life is difficult.
  3. Remember the symptoms for your character, but they don’t have to be imbued with everything off the list.  Trouble sleeping and low energy can be there, but maybe they mask their depression with a false sense of optimism.  Having a hard time focusing, being irritable, eating disorders, and an inability to gain pleasure or happiness from stuff are possibilities too.  If you slap everything on your character and them handling their depression isn’t the main part of the story then you’re going to run into a lot of obstacles.  So, consider what the story is before you decide on the degree.
  4. For the love of everything, don’t have the character snap out of their depression because a person gave them a pep talk.  That really doesn’t work.  Maybe it gets them to acknowledge the problem and get help, which is a good thing.  On the other hand, it can just as likely make a person feel like they’re not being understood or even mocked, so they curl even further inside themselves.
  5. If you aren’t sure if something falls under depression or not then either do some research or skip it.  This is like any other delicate situation that you’re including in your story.  Sure, instinct and common sense can work if you’re able to imagine what it would be like for yourself.  I do that with some of my things after reading up on the basics and factoring in my personality.  Still, you want to be careful since people will look at this character very closely.
  6. Depression does not mean the character is useless, but good luck getting them to believe that.  They will have moments where they cannot function and may fail because of their depression, which will make things worse.  They can also have times when they save the day and remain depressed.  This is the nature of the illness.  A step forward can have absolutely no effect on their mental state while even a perceived stumble is the equivalent of stepping on somebody’s newborn baby.  Not that thought specifically, but depressed people focus more on what they do wrong than what they do right.
  7. It’s very tempting for some people to use characters like this for humor or to play the ‘negative’ role.  Yes, a person with depression can be a pessimist because they have trouble seeing the positive side of things.  This isn’t always the case.  A depressed character can also be shy and only speak when they muster up a lot of courage to voice their opinion.  There’s a fear of rejection here that can be played out and create sympathy here.  Again, it also depends on personality because some may be more chatty and open because they’re hiding their pain.
Posted in Thoughts | Tagged , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Teaser Tuesday: That’s Unnerving

Posted on May 12, 2026 by Charles Yallowitz

This is an earlier part of the story where the heroes reach the first part of Delvin and Sari’s journey in the jungle.  Charms of the Feykin has them following the path that was shown in Tribe of the Snow Tiger.  Not in detail, but the major points so the heroes know what happened to their friends.  Anyway, this shows what kind of mindset Nyx is in for this adventure.  Those poor, poor villains:  (As before there are possible spoilers below that I couldn’t remove to keep the excerpt clear.)

Cover Art by Jason Pedersen

Cover Art by Jason Pedersen

Continue reading →

Posted in Legends of Windemere, Teaser Tuesday, Tribe of the Snow Tiger | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Revisiting: 7 Tips to Writing Anxious Characters

Posted on May 11, 2026 by Charles Yallowitz

(Originally posted on April 10, 2020.)

Yahoo Image Search

A few disclaimers here because we’re heading into delicate territory again. Eh, I’m just copying and pasting here.  I am not an expert on mental health by any means.  I read up on it and have my own experiences to work off, which is what fuels these posts.  Also, I always try to add some humor into my posts, especially the 7 Tip Lists.  I find that humor can relieve tension and allow for serious stuff to be listened to and swallowed more easily.  So, let’s get to this one . . . Okay . . . Yup . . . Staring it now . . . I’m really twitchy about this one because I’m not striking close to home. I’m hitting the roof dead center.

  1. Like depression and sadness, be careful using anxiety as a synonym for nervous or mixing the two up.  This can be done and I do it a lot too.  A person can be momentarily anxious and that’s fine.  When it comes to the mental illness, it’s much heavier and long-lasting.  A character with anxiety will see a small problem and have a reaction that one could say is ‘too big’ for it.  For example, maybe they are texting back and forth with a friend, but there is a sudden stop.  An anxious person will fixate on it for hours and imagine that they offended the friend, something bad happened, or any number of horrible ideas.  The possibility of the friend being busy, showering, bathroom, phone losing power, or anything innocent doesn’t click very often.
  2. Anxiety can make for awkward social situations, which may be tempting to play up for laughs.  It’s easier to do it for this than depression because people may focus on the physical side to the anxiety issue.  They may flail while babbling or comically rush out of the room in some fashion.  If this is the tone of the story then it can work since the character isn’t the only one being the source of humor.  If they’re the only ones that it happens to then you may want to rethink things.
  3. Panic attacks are a thing and they aren’t pretty.  Stereotypically, it’s shown as hyperventilating and nearly passing out.  There can be more to it and the severity isn’t always the same.  Chest pains, rabid heartbeat, chills hot flashes, and trembling show how some are visible and some are internal.  If the attack reaches the point where the character has limb spasms because of the shaking or even locking up entirely then it shows the severity.  Another symptom is itching, which I’ve noticed getting used in a few recent shows and animes.  The more anxious the character gets, the more vicious the scratching.
  4. Unlike depression, a character with anxiety can voice a source even if it’s something that isn’t a big problem.  The point is that they are worrying about whatever it is that has set them off.  It could be a clear issue like fighting with a loved one or needing to pay bills.  Yet, it can just as easily be that they have a small pain in their arm and start thinking they’re about to have a heart attack.  Could also be the wrong arm for that or it’s clear to everyone else that it stemmed from earlier physical exertion.  Again, a person with anxiety has a high chance of overreacting.
  5. Anxiety hampers the decision-making process.  Once you go past the level of thinking clearly, you can’t immediately reel it in.  So, these characters may have trouble acting under pressure.  They can lock up or focus on a small part of the problem instead of the overall issue.  Yes, the red button to save the world is in the locked safe and it’s good that you know this, but there’s also a fire-breathing dragon, lasers, and a very angry leprechaun that we have to handle first.  Anyway, these characters may be snapped back to attention in some fashion, but it isn’t easy and you need to have them work up to this.
  6. These characters don’t always have to be hyper and constantly talking when they’re really anxious.  In fact, there’s a higher chance of them turning inward because their thoughts are racing.  They are stuck in the avalanche of paranoid thoughts that they no longer realize what is going on around them.  This is not something that should be played up constantly, but it is a possibility.  Don’t use the anxiety to routinely sideline the character for the majority of scenes.
  7. You will probably be tempted to have other characters attempt to calm the anxiety one down.  Go for it, but decide on which tactics will work.  Slapping and being aggressive probably won’t help.  If anything, it will make the panic attack worse because now they’re upset that they made their friends mad.  Positivity without any meat such as inspirational sayings or mindless cheerleading will fall on deaf ears or irritate.  At least, I think they would, so feel free to ignore that one.  Personally, I think having a character softly and gently coax the anxious one out of the attack is the best thing to do if you want interaction.  Physical contact isn’t necessary, but an acknowledgement of emotions and slowly talking them out of the spiral can help even if it takes a lot of time.
Posted in Thoughts | Tagged , , , , , , | 15 Comments

Happy Mothers Day

Posted on May 10, 2026 by Charles Yallowitz

Almost put a different post here.  Oops.  Enjoy the holiday!  (Why are about half of the Mothers Day memes insulting the husbands/fathers?)

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments