Post here some of your defense mechanisms against mental illness/your bad life.
My defense mechanism is that I have another selves with their own history and things who sometimes take over and I act like I'm them (Because I believe I am). Sometimes I just think about my/their past and it actually calms me down. It's not serious as I realize how crazy that sounds so I don't tell anyone and it makes my life better. Does anyone have something similar? I have it since I was 10 and I like it.
I have generalized anxiety disorder which turned into depression because of the stress.
Abstract paintings/writing. Making music. Showering. Cooking.
I think I do something similar to you OP, I find that I talk to myself in English with foreign accents sometimes. I just babble or sing songs with the accent. I guess it's more distracting that way.
>>29670770
I just start memeing whenever I get super uncomfortable, and I've mastered how to deflect conversations by having interesting topics on backup just in case
I have a fantasy world I daydream and write about. I test it by muttering dialogue to myself to test how it sounds when I'm alone. I draw the characters a lot. Maps, too. I base it off of dreams, sometimes, because my dreams are often odd stories. When I'm lonely I slip under and try to think of ways where I left off writing could go.
I've been diagnosed with nearly everything but schizophrenia, I think all of it but the major depression is bullshit. And even then I think it's just because of how big of an aspie I am and it's frustrating sometimes.
>>29671036
Where do you put your stories? I like writers who actually live with the story and have their own world and it's not just the creativity, but also something more emotional.
Just hide behind humor.
"Haha yeah those jokes about being miserable sure are funny guys good thing they're jokes amirite hahah"
>>29671074
I just have a couple word documents. The story then one where I keep notes on characters, places, etc. I used to keep scrap papers to jot down or doodle ideas, but I like word better. Makes the 'work space' feel cleaner, more sterile. I like clean things. I also keep a dream sketchbook where I sketch things or write things that were said or read in my dreams for later inspiration.
It is oddly personal to me, I've come to realize. Even more than most things, I'm normally a very private person. I've stopped trying to see how it reflects on me at the time. At my worst it was just getting started and I wanted happy things. Now it's getting a bit darker as my life improves. One character in particular, I've realized, resembles me when I was suicidal more and more. Suicidemouse.avi. But I like putting in things that make me happy, that I like in other things, that I wish to see more in fiction, things that remind me of happy things. Very self indulgent.
I only have one friend I share its existence with. And I'm the only one he shares his own very involved fantasy world with. We bounce ideas off each other. It's nice to have someone who understands and to understand someone.
>>29670770
Hide behind thick layer of jokes
>>29671245
I actually like this. My characters are (were) also personal but I've met some people who have the same thing and we talk about it. It's great. But I wouldn't share my stories with normal people, it's really personal. I understand that you don't wanna share. But try to find people (even online) who will understand if you want. It's actually more common than it seems.
Usually one of characters in my story is who I am (sometimes like me, sometimes not really) and the rest is there just to go on with a story. But I think that it's almost the same as I keep on realizing myself through the character.
>>29671347
I'm glad that so many people here are writers. It can be cathartic, even if it's just a one page thing.
My characters have the vague sort of conflicts I do, but different. I don't like adding myself or anyone way too similar to myself. It seems wrong, somehow. But giving them similar challenges, however passing or abstract the resemblance, can be a nice way to work through things.
Part of it is I like to write characters who have very different ways of looking at the same things, some that see things similarly but still different enough that it's not boring. That I can make compelling enough characters my not aspie friend likes how I write POV and never picked up on me being an aspie.
What genre do you like to write? Mine is fantasy.
>>29671474
I usually write parts of it. But in my language. I rarely give it to someone to read it, they usually know what is this about.
Yes, metaphors are great in this case. It's a good way of dealing with things. But my character is quite a optimistic and outgoing person which helpes a little bit (but he has some issues)
Mine is also a fantasy but sometimes it's just a normal person struggle who "happens" to live in a fantasy world which makes everything different. Not harder, but different. My friends though write even some events in future real world. I should also say that some of characters are my friends actually who kinda joined it and care of their characters and create their own story so sometimes it gets to be a roleplay.
