#problematic asks

Ayanne

Have they ever been too afraid to help someone?

Have they ever been complacent while something terrible happened?

Adahlen

What was the worst decision they made?

Have they ever antagonized someone who didn't deserve it?

I'm answering these problematic asks :)

Thank you thank you thank you <3

…

Ayanne

4. Have they ever been too afraid to help someone?

Of course. Ayanne is no hero in the traditional sense of the concept. During Veilguard she's on "extreme solutions for extreme situations" mode, so she's more reckless and helps no matter what, but before that, in a more normal scenario, she would try to preserve herself.

Which goes from "that time when they were kids and she accidentally hit a bee hive while they were playing at 'mages and hunters' and she run away, leaving one of their friends surrounded by angry bees (while Adahlen remained to help and got stung too)", to "that time when she was 20ish, a woman was drowning into a fast flowing river, Ayanne tried to help by reaching out with a long branch, but got almost dragged down into the water too, which got her so scared that she wasn't able to do anything else to help (the woman ended up surviving anyways, but the Keeper was furious and didn't lose the chance to remind Ayanne how inconvenient it is that she didn't learn to swim, and Adahlen had to bite his tongue 100 times to avoid telling her 'I told you')".

13. Have they ever been complacent while something terrible happened?

Mmmh. Not exactly. But, like, she knew bad things was happening far from her, like idk, let's say elven slavery in tevinter, and she never did nothing about it, not even get information, until Veilguard when she starts to get more closely involved because she is *right there* and surrounded by people who care for the cause.

Adahlen

10. What was the worst decision they made?

Ooh. Mmmh, hard to pick "THE" worst, and I don't have a clear headcanon on this yet, but definitely something that put the clan in danger and/or in a difficult situation, even better if it happened because he didn't listen to elders' advices or because he got influenced by something personal or irrelevant (which is super rare for him, but hey, he's just a person, right?). Maybe he decided to move camp somewhere not ideal (eg too close to a dangerous area), or NOT move camp when they should have moved away instead (wrong season / super bad weather?).

Good thing for him, he's quick to realize when he's done something wrong and he has no problem admitting it, so he would fix whatever situation he created very quickly. BUT he will reprimand himself forever for it anyways.

12. Have they ever antagonized someone who didn't deserve it?

Oh, it's definitely a problem.

I'm just powerless to stop it at this point. 😉

This premise needs some work. If you want your character to have been mentally ill all along, you can’t work backwards from the demonic-like symptoms.

You’re going to need to come up with the disorder first, then figure out how the symptoms of said disorder could be misinterpreted as demonic possession. You’re also going to have to include symptoms that don’t fit with the stereotypical depiction you’ve described.

As a starting point, you might take a look at the following disorders:

Dissociative identity disorder

Bipolar I (likely with psychotic features)

Schizoaffective disorder

However, as it is right now, your character does not meet the criteria for any of those disorders. You can’t slap one of those labels on your character and call it done.

You’ve got your work cut out for you, Anon, but I promise you, this will make for better representation and a better story.

Good luck!

The first part of this ask didn’t come through, sorry! 

And to answer your question… schizophrenics are just as capable of violence as any other human being on the planet.

Mental illness can do a lot of things, but it doesn’t strip a character of their inherent humanity.

Please also note that people with mental illnesses are more likely to be the victims of violence than commit it.

The diagnosis that comes to mind immediately is Intermittent Explosive Disorder (see here).

However, if your character is mentally ill, and has such strong impulses that he attempts to kill people, it is not going to be the only thing he’s impulsive about. He won’t have the stable facade you’re describing. 

I really, really suggest you consider your character very carefully. You’re going to want to do a lot of research if you go forward with this; this really could end up being a problematic depiction of mental illness. 

PS - “Off their rocker” is a really bad, even possibly ableist, way to describe people with mental illnesses.

part 2: or provokes depression, anxiety, ADHD etc. The truth is I don’t my MC powers to be associated with any mental ill because I know how much will be affect neuroatypicals in a negative way. I was myself depressed. Yes, my MC will suffer from depression or PTDS bc of certain events, and her power instability is rather associated with her feelings. Can I still use this explication for her powers with brain hyperctivity without writing that provokes also depression? Or should i give up?

Actually, “electrical brain hyperactivity” like how I think you’re describing it means your character is probably going to have seizures. Lots of them. However, neuropsych is not my forte, and I don’t know enough to answer your question fully.

So I need to clear up one thing, anon.

Your character is already neuroatypical.

Neuroatypical literally means that someone has an atypical neurological configuration. In layman’s terms, that means that their brain isn’t like most other people’s brains.

Unless the other people around her have the same “brain hyperactivity”, your character, by definition, is neuroatypical.

Sorry, I'm not going to give you advice about SANE people. This blog focuses on mental illness and the treatment thereof; I do not answer questions about neurotypicals unless said neurotypical is a therapist.

I'm answering these problematic asks :) Thanks for asking!!