A Guide To Writing Characters With OCD and C-PTSD

Information About Asks

The question box will always be open and available for anyone to submit questions relating to OCD and other mental health and neurodivergency topics!

Here are ideas of what you can ask:

Symptoms your character(s) have. If you're wondering what symptoms to add, how to execute them, how they're experienced, or other questions regarding symptoms, please ask away!

If something makes sense. If you're wondering if what you've written or how your character's OCD comes about, go ahead and ask! OCD is complex and if you don't have it, it's hard to know if what you've written makes sense, so I'd love to help!

Clarifying questions or misconceptions. If you're confused about something regarding OCD, a stereotype, two disorders sharing symptoms, or anything else related to that, go ahead and ask! Don't be afraid of saying the wrong thing; this is for learning!

Wanting feedback on a scene. If you've written a scene and you hope it portrays OCD well, submit it and me (and others with OCD), can give feedback. However, I will ask that scene submissions be under 2,000 words.

Questions about C-PTSD, ADHD, autism, depression, and/or GAD. If your character also has any of those other conditions and you're wondering how those interact with OCD, please ask away! Those are all things I have, have researched, and have friends who are also in those groups to give insight.

Questions about unlisted disorders/neurodivergencies. If I'm comfortable and know a lot about an unlisted disorder or neurodivergency, then I'll answer! If I don't feel comfortable or if it's an in-group type of question, I'll be honest and say I cannot answer. However, if I know a blog or resources, I can most certaintly provide those!

Needing resources. If you want resources on information for OCD, what to look for, what to avoid, or anything else to add to your OCD information collection, don't be afraid to ask!

Rules Regarding Asks

To keep myself and yourself comfortable, there are a few rules for courtesy on asking questions!

Here are the general rules about asks:

Don't be afraid of asking any question! A lot of people are worried about being offensive or rude, which is good because it shows you care, but don't overthink that on this page! Asking raw, genuine questions would be something I'd love to reply to and I'll correct any misinformation or phrasing you'll have! You'll never be shamed or put down here. Also, questions are unlimited; ask as many times as you'd like!

Try to do minimum research about OCD before asking. This isn't a requirement, but Googling what OCD is and getting a jist can help you ask more complex questions! I encourage brief research before asking if you didn't have any previous knowledge!

Please scroll through previously answered questions before asking. Someone may have asked your question and I would hate if you waited for a reply only for me to say "That question was answered below!" Plus, you may learn something new! I have a table of contents listed under the "Notes" section here.

Make your questions comprehensible. I understand many people struggle with grammar, English may not be their first language, or they have a disability that makes writing or typing hard, but please try your best to make your question understandable! I don't want to misunderstand your question or scrape together what your message says and answer wrong!

Other Guidelines

These are other general rules for this blog, aside from the question box, that feel important to include.

Promotions will be limited. If you ask to promote your blog, product, or another promotional proposition, I'd like to know the details of what you're promoting to avoid spreading misinformation, accidently promoting scams or bots, or encouraging others to buy an untested or fad product. Any promotions must also be related to mental health, disabilities, or neurodiversity.

Don't dogpile others. If a person asks a question that seems obvious, "weird", rude, or they messed a rule up, please don't comment about it. I will address anything concerning that needs correcting and I don't want a person to feel like they can't ask questions if they said something poorly by accident.

Don't be afraid to correct information or ask clarifying questions. If any responses seem incorrect, don't be afraid to correct them or ask clarifying questions; misinformation is the opposite of what this blog intends to do.

Don't shame other disorders or neurodivergencies. This blog is to destigmatize a heavily stigmatized disorder and shaming other disorders is not welcome. People with NPD, schizophernia, bipolar, and/or any other heavily stigmatized disorder are welcome here and demonization towards them will not be tolerated.

Notes

A few notes and disclaimers now that we're at the end of the post.

This blog should not be used for diagnosis. If you think you have OCD, I suggest getting professional help or finding reliable resources for a self-diagnosis (if you are unable to get professional assistance). Don't use social media as a way to diagnosis yourself, as statistically, there's more incorrect information than correct information.

Reblogging is appreciated and credits are not required. Reblogging this page would help spread awareness and give resources to others, so please do that if you can! You also don't need to give credit if you used this page to learn about OCD, but mentioning it would be very thoughtful!

There is a table of contents for my posts. I have made a table of contents for all of my relevant posts for you guys to scroll through so you don't have to search too hard in my blog.

My experience with OCD and mental health/neurodivergency:

College classes and education on psychology (3, so far, with multiple other classes with related subjects)

Using reliable information through multiple scholarly articles, textbooks, and videos

Life experience with having OCD my whole life

Understanding how my disorder works in my life

Being in recovery

Communual experience with having friends with OCD being in support groups for OCD

Concerns

I'd say that if the demon causes real world harm, then that'd be a more harmful trope. People with OCD don't act of their intrusive thoughts and don't agree with them; intrusive thoughts are not repressed urges.

So, if he summoned a demon that then started hurting other people or him, then it might translate into "Intrusive thoughts = repressed feeling of hurting others."

Also, is he the only one who can see the demon or can others too? Is this demon instrinsically tied in association with him? If this demon hurts someone, will someone correlate it with him? If so, then that might also portray the idea that people with OCD have repressed desires over it being an unwanted intrusive thought.

An example of where this would be bad is if your character has something like harm OCD and summons the demon, then the demon goes off and kills a bunch of people. Intrusive thoughts aren't acted on so the demon acting on it wouldn't make sense and it would come off as "holding back" on a secret desire to hurt others.

If this demon is just symbolism for his mental state and showing the havoc OCD has in his mind as a seperate entity, then I honestly love that idea a lot! I love when people write/draw disorders (to an extent: some need to be done with tact and some are ableist).

Compliments

I love that you acknolwedge the demon isn't inherently bad and that its just in his mind! Intrusive thoughts aren't good or bad-- they're just thoughts and thought crimes don't exist.

I think just the fact you're aware that OCD is stressful and bad, the thoughts themselves aren't morally tied to being good or bad. They're simply there but them being there is the stressful part because people with OCD tend to tie morality to thoughts that never had moral value to begin with.

End Notes

You're doing great! I love this idea a lot and I'd love to hear future updates with it :) I also love that you're writing a character with OCD to begin with. Please keep up the great work and don't be afraid to ask more questions!

My blog is about writing characters with OCD and conversations about other mental health topics.

Let it Sit; Don't Correct

When you first get an intrusive thought, your natural instinct is to correct or ruminate on it. Us people with OCD go into fix mode and we feel urged to make it go away or neutralize it.

Don't.

Instead, let the thought/image/urge sit with you. Don't agree or disagree with it. Yes, even if your mind is saying you have to or else. Not reacting, labeling, or trying to manifest an emotion to an intrusive thought does not make you bad.

No thoughts are good or bad; they're just thoughts.

Get comfortable with the thought being there, and get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Sit with it.

Delay and Distract

Instead of acting on a mental compulsions the second you get it, such as ruminating, recognize you're having a mental compulsion and try to steer it away for a doable time-frame.

An example would be putting off a compulsion for 10 minutes, or setting a certain time of day for you to ruminate but you aren't allowed outside of that time.

This builds tolerance towards discomfort, as well as helps you break future cycles.

As 10 minutes get easier, increase the time! Do your compulsion in 20 minutes, 30, 40! It gets easier with time.

Distract yourself with something non-triggering and distracting while you wait.

Try ERP (Carefully)

At home ERP can be difficult, but its possible!

Read your intrusive thoughts outloud on a piece of paper, touch a door handle, think about what it would mean if your intrusive thoughts happened-- see? And the world is still okay and no one is hurt.

I'd just be careful with pacing and finding good sources for at home ERP!

Resources

Self-Directed Treatment for OCD - International OCD Foundation Delaying OCD Compulsions - NOCD "Just Sit With It" - NOCD

End Notes

I hope you're doing okay and that this helps! Stay strong<3

Thank you all for reading! I'll try and answer submissions when I can!

My blog is about writing characters with OCD and conversations about other mental health topics.

Anti-Social Personality Disorder (and Others)

As a general note, the term "sociopath" is seen as outdated and as a stigmatizing term; please avoid using it! Don't worry though! We all make mistakes! I may need clarification from the ASPD community, but I believe just the term "anti-social" is okay!

A disclaimer for this advice is that I do not have ASPD but I've known people with it and I've researched it! So, please correct me if anything is wrong and do research outside of this post!

The disorder you're most likely refering to when talking about "sociopaths" or anti-social disorders is anti-social personality disorder.

The DSM-5 defines it as "a mental health condition characterized by a pervasive, consistent pattern of disregarding and violating the rights, feelings, and safety of others."

As for writing characters with ASPD, I'd keep these do's and don'ts in mind!

DO

Learn from medical articles

Learn from the community (but still fact check)

Make your character well-rounded and complex

Make them a person; not a disorder

Dive into where their disorder may have stemmed from

Include a wide scale of relationships they have; not just bad

Show their traits through habits, body language, thoughts and don't just tell the audience (a great example are autistic coded characters since they aren't confirmed autistic but its shown through traits they may be)

Try alternative moral codes for them; people with ASPD may have their own sense of morals, how they view/understand empathy (since emotional empathy often isn't felt), or different societal beliefs.

DON'T

Don't use out-dated terms

Don't make them a serial killer

Don't try and "fix" them and "get rid" of their ASPD

Don't make a character arc be "developing emotional empathy"

Don't do research on Tik Tok or get information there

Encorporate how their disorder impacts their life; not just others

Don't be afraid to add the harmful traits, just be mindful how you do it

Don't make them soley "evil"; they are people and people are complex

Other disorders to look into are other Cluster B disorders (which is the cluster ASPD is a part of)!

Autistic and ADHD Characters

A quick clarification is that a person cannot have "occasional autism and ADHD". ADHD and autism are permanent and just how a person's brain is! Everyone may have occasional symptions, but not everyone has autism and ADHD.

For AuDHD (autism and ADHD), I suggest making a well-rounded person who is AuDHD coded rather than explicitly said to have it!

I'd try and stay away from stereotypes or making it who the character is as a whole. Everyone with AuDHD is different and it's a spectrum.

Tips for Characters with Disabilities

I think it's amazing you want to include so many different types of people, but I'd also make sure not sacrifice complex characters just to try and add as many disabilities as you can!

Adding representation is useless when the characters aren't relatable as people or their disability is just there to be there.

Also keep in mind many disorders co-occur together! Maybe a character with one disability can also have another disability or disorder! A lot of disabled people or people with mental disorders tend to have other co-existing ones.

Another way to add diversity is to add different races, ethnicities, religions, sexualities, genders, etc.

I suggest definitely asking @cripplecharacters for more questions about your disabled characters as well! I love their blog and they have amazing mods as well as valuable information! I may know a lot, but I don't know as much as someone who has ASPD and I may mess up sometimes as well!

As for resources, I'd use websites that have .edu, .org, or .gov since they're usually scholary.

Avoid social media to learn; a lot of it is often wrong. I'd say use it to utilize personal stories and experiences, but be wary of taking facutal information from people on social media, whether they have the disorder or not, because social media tends to have a lot of misinformation.

Another tip is to avoid articles that use the word "sociopath" or associate the term with serial killers. A lot of articles that are .coms tend to be able to post whatever they want, including stigma.

Resources

Anti-Social Personality Disorder: Often Overlooked and Untreated ASPD National Library of Medicine ASPD Myths 6 Tips on Writing Characters With Disabilities

End Notes

Thank you so much for your question! I think what you want to do is amazing and you should keep working towards it! Don't be afraid to ask more questions!

People giving advice or opinion in the comments, please be nice and gentle! This is a constructive environment.

My blog is about writing characters with OCD and other disorders!

PAN/PANDAS and OCD

I'm no medical professional, but this could be correlation with no causation.

If the OCD only appears during PANS/PANDAS flares, then its most likely PANS/PANDAS and not OCD. If OCD symptoms appear without other PANS/PANDAS symptoms present, then it most likely can be OCD.

Still, it may not be PANS/PANDAS that caused actual OCD and you could be dispositioned to it or something triggered it (like learning OCD behaviors from your PANS/PANDAS flares).

Disclaiming Character's PANS/PANDAS vs OCD-like Symptoms

I think mentioning that it's not OCD but looks like OCD would be good! A lot of people don't have knowledge about differential diagnosis or some people self-diagnose without knowing all factors to consider (which hurt them and other people who actually do have that disorder). Mentioning an OCD look-a-like would be great and extremely thoughtful!

End Notes

Thank you all for reading! If you have any more questions, please ask!

My blog is about writing characters with OCD and other mental health topics! Don't be afraid to put a question in the inbox!

Intrusive thoughts: Intrusive thoughts are unwanted thoughts or mental images that make people feel uncomfortable. 

Paraphilic thoughts: intense, persistent sexual fantasies, urges, or attractions focused on atypical things like nonhuman objects, suffering/humiliation, or nonconsenting individuals (children, unwilling adults).

To be noted, not all paraphilics thoughts are bad. There are paraphilias (an atypical sexual interest and pleasure) and then paraphilic disorder (an atypical sexual interest and pleasure that causes harm, dysfunction, and/or impairment).

Intrusive thoughts are ego-dystonic, meaning that it goes against your values, morals, and self-image, causing distress; they are unwanted and not a reflection of you or what you believe.

Paraphilic thoughts are ego-syntonic, meaning that they agree with your values, morals, and self-image and the person having them doesn't see an issue with them and gets pleasure from them; they are wanted and enabled.

OCD and Fear of Finding Pleasure in Thoughts

Many people with OCD typically question if having these intrusive thoughts means they enjoy them, or if they secretly are finding pleasure in them and are "holding back"-- this isn't true.

If you're scared of your thoughts secretly being enjoyable or pleasureable, then that's a sign in itself you don't find pleasure in them and that they're unwanted.

It's common for OCD to also make you want to compulsively react to your intrusive thoughts, or else it means "you agree with them".

For example, a person with OCD may get a thought like, "If you don't disagree with [sexual thought that causes harm], then you enjoy them." Then the person with OCD compusively tells themselves they hate the intrusive thought, starts labeling the intrusive thought, and gives themselves anxiety.

The best course of action when getting those thoughts, though it feels opposite of what you want to do, is not to neutralize thoughts and instead respond with, "Maybe, maybe not. I don't need to know." Or "OCD is making me want to reassure myself; I don't need to."

Making yourself label a thought and react to it is a mental compulsion and sets you back! Try your best to stay neutral to all intrusive thoughts rather than labeling or anaylzing the meaning of them.

Resources

False Attraction and OCD How to Stop Hyperfixating on Intrusive Thoughts OCD and Fear of Thoughts Coming True Resources for People with Paraphilias Resources for Paraphilic Disorders Treatment

End Notes

Thank you for your question! This is an important clarification to make!

My blog is about OCD and other mental health topics.