"Say it with him, folks!"

Deltarune Fun Fact:

Adding both Rowan and Key’s tags to this actually because like. Yeah. Yeah exactly. And on the inverse of fanon ableism I can personally say that Tennas coding spoke very deeply to me while I was playing and with each replay and analysis spoke to me in a way that I hadn’t seen before- where there were symptoms of BPD without the character being treated as irredeemable or a massive burden but someone who is scared for good reason and struggling. Like you can imagine that it feels like a personal punch to the face when you then turn around and see people making jokes about him suicide baiting people and straight up attacking them or using his size to intimidate them or yandere aus or just. A variety of content thats just a caricature.

And it’s fine if you realize you might have a bias you haven’t assessed! Every single person has a bias, no matter what- and everyone is constantly learning and growing. It’s good to learn and grow and change! There are people who might just not connect the idea of “oh hes showing these signs of mental illness associated with BPD such as massive abandonment issues and struggling to navigate relationships in his life as well as lashing out or black and white thinking or breaking down over things I feel aren’t that big, therefore he must [insert stereotype here]” or even realize that that’s the thought process in the back of their head. That’s why people talk about it, thats why people say “wow the yandere trope is really ableist” or “it’s ableist to insist tenna beats people”.

doesn't matter if you're glooby, gay, or dumb. youmatter.

JONG FOR JUESDAY HAPPY JUESDAY

Okay actually I've been meaning to like. Make a diagram of this situation to word it better. My only disclaimer is the third example could also literally not even be a delusion and just... Be Tenna getting tricked, but either way it still can count!

narcissistic does not mean Evil Bad Abusive Person. delusional does not mean Crazy Stupid Person With Bad Opinions. dealing with things such as narcissism or psychosis can and will absolutely ruin your life. and i mean, DECIMATE it. that's not to say other people won't be affected either, but the sufferer is the one who has it the worst. do not use words unless you actually know the meaning behind them, and who is impacted.

i should note that there are various different types of delusions, and the way to handle them depends on which specific type they are. persecutory delusions, characterized by believing someone is out to get the person in some way, may require you to be even gentler than normal in your approach due to that extreme paranoia (very common in BPD). but something such as somatic delusions characterized by thinking something is physically wrong with oneself can require a different approach.

generally speaking, the way to handle delusions is to validate the feelings caused by the delusion, without feeding into the delusion itself. this can show up as you saying "it sounds like this is really upsetting you, can you tell me about it?" this helps the person feel seen without having their delusions worsen. obviously this is not an end-all-be-all statement, but you should keep this general sentiment in mind when interacting with someone experiencing a delusion.

dealing with things such as narcissism, psychosis, psychopathy, and more is actual hell on earth which i would never wish upon my worst enemy. please be mindful of the language you use to describe people/characters because there ARE real people out there who are affected by these things. i am one of those people, as are many others.

Sorry that I'm adding another addition four months later- but this also has really been bothering me. I'd say it's incredibly annoying at best to see people referring to a canonically true thing as a "delusion". It's not! Spamton is meant to LOOK delusional to other people in game, but he isn't!

I think content where he has psychosis in some way is interesting, but it often hinges on the idea that something canonically true is what he's "psychotic" about. When it isn't. It can for sure trigger some other type of psychosis, don't get me wrong! Like him acting religious about it for sure could be something else, but it also could just be the fact that he's praying to an eldritch being. We don't know!

Some defernull doodles then I crave rest because it's past midnight rn

Full sheet beneath cut