Portraying Mental Health, and Neurodiversity in Roleplay
(1899 Time-lock)
By Christopher Alderson, Jaena Shaw, Jack Carter, Rose Avery
Howdy, folks!
As we are a large, inclusive, and diverse community, we felt this was an important topic to bring forward. Mental health is something that everyone deals with on some level, and nobody is a stranger to it. Given that, we also recognize that not everyone has awareness, or knowledge on mental illness, and neurodiversity!
We think it’s important that players, who wish to portray symptoms in their characters, have done ample research, and have a good grasp, and understanding of what they are attempting to portray. In this guide, we are going to go over some things that should be helpful to players, and the creation of their characters! This guide will also include PROPER terminology, as WWRP takes place in the early 1900s, with tech/history lock to 1899!
(1899 Time-lock)
By Christopher Alderson, Jaena Shaw, Jack Carter, Rose Avery
Howdy, folks!
As we are a large, inclusive, and diverse community, we felt this was an important topic to bring forward. Mental health is something that everyone deals with on some level, and nobody is a stranger to it. Given that, we also recognize that not everyone has awareness, or knowledge on mental illness, and neurodiversity!
We think it’s important that players, who wish to portray symptoms in their characters, have done ample research, and have a good grasp, and understanding of what they are attempting to portray. In this guide, we are going to go over some things that should be helpful to players, and the creation of their characters! This guide will also include PROPER terminology, as WWRP takes place in the early 1900s, with tech/history lock to 1899!
What is a Mental Health Disorder/Condition?
Characterized by changes in behaviour, emotional regulation, cognition, or perceptions, which cause significant distress, or difficulty to the person with the condition. Some common conditions are depression, and anxiety disorders.
What is Neurodiversity?
To put it simply, it is a way of thinking that falls outside of “normative” society. Not everyone who is Neurodivergent has a mental health disorder, but some do! This term is vast, but if you have familiarity, you may have seen it connected to the Autistic Spectrum.
Proper Terminology, and Brief History:
Due to the time-period in which WWRP takes place in, (tech/history-locked to 1899), it is very important that players are using proper words that are historically accurate to the times. This means that terms like, “Schizophrenia”, “Bipolar Disorder”, “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder”, etc, were not used during this time. There are some equivalents you can use to describe these conditions.
Many terms were not coined until recently, especially within the last 50 years, terminology has been expanding, and ever-changing. During the late 1890s, and early 1900s, terminology was much more sparse, and they tended to use umbrella terms for many conditions due to a lack of deeper understanding. If you are unsure, you can simply describe symptoms, instead of giving it a term for your character. If you are playing a psychologist character, you can do the same. Not everyone of the time had vast awareness of such terms!
Schizophrenia - The word Schizophrenia was coined in 1911. What to use instead? Dementia Praecox! During this time, doctors believed that the symptoms of what we know today as Schizophrenia, were actually symptoms of Dementia that affected the younger population.
There were many misconceptions during this time-frame, most of the research happened after our 1899 time-lock.
Bipolar Disorder - This term was coined in the 1980s. (Not within time-lock). During the 1800s, doctors of the time noted that certain people experienced extreme depression, followed by manic excitement. They may have even used “Dementia Praecox” to describe this condition, as well. In the 1850s, one doctor referred to it as, “circular insanity”.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - This term was coined in the 1980s. (Not within time-lock). For this, people in the 1800s may note emotional shock, or trauma, following an impactful event. However, no term was used at the time. Occasionally, it would be referred to as “Soldier’s Fatigue”, or “Battle Exhaustion”. Doctors also noted at the time that people not involved in war also experienced such symptoms, following other traumatizing events.
Dissociative Identity Disorder - An earlier term for DID, was “Multiple Personality Disorder”, however, this was coined in the 1980s, and then replaced in 2013, with what we use today: Dissociative Identity Disorder. Benjamin Rush, and Pierre Janet were notable figures within time-lock who studied the concepts of dissociation, even noting a "doubling" phenomena of the mind.
Pierre Janet is stated to be the one who coined the term "dissociation" in his writings in 1887. So, it is within time-lock! Most of his work was published in French, however, psychologist William James, in the 1890s references back to the term in English.
Dissociation, in a vague sense, is a disconnect from yourself, or the world around you.
Personality Disorders - Between the late 19th century, and early 20th century, was when psychologists at the time emerged with systems of indicating “normal”, and “abnormal” personalities. Different degrees/types/sub-types, were all being studied during WWRPs time-period.
However, given that, many of the terms we use today were not coined during our 1899 time-lock. In historical articles, the symptoms of Personality Disorders were described as: Sensitivities, apathy, intelligence, temperaments, activity, and reactions to their environment.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder - This term was officially added to the DSM-III in the 1980s, meaning, it is out of time-lock. Historically viewed from a religious standpoint, perspectives began to shift to one of psychiatry. Near the end of the 19th century, it was noted that symptoms of OCD seemed to stem from symptoms of melancholy, and severe anxiety. In the beginning of the 20th century (out of time-lock) was when treatments started to emerge.
Panic/Anxiety - Anxiety, and panic is something everyone experiences at some point. Using these terms is entirely fine, as long as it is not within a modern context. It was often described as an inner tension, distress with connections to Anhedonia. They were less seen as their own separate disorders, instead, they were seen as symptoms to other disorders. These symptoms may also have been categorized under “Psychasthenia” at the time.
(For a source of information that has sources in time lock for "Pshychasthenia" Manual Of Psychiatry by Aaron J. Rosanoff has many sources from the 18 hundreds but was written in 1920, and has many sources that are out of time lock. However it can be useful read but keep in mind not all the information would be in time lock.)
Psychosis - Psychosis was coined within the 1840s. Yes! It’s within time-lock! Psychic Neurosis was also likely used to describe this term. They noted at the time that patients had changes in personality, as well as mental, and physical processing differences. “Psychosis” was widely used as an umbrella term, encompassing an array of mental disorders, and conditions.
In a modern context, Psychosis means a loss of reality. It did NOT always mean this within our time-lock. Be mindful when using this term.
Psychopath & Sociopath - The term “Psychopathy” comes from German psychiatrist Julius Ludwig August Koch. The German word, “Psychopastiche”, translates to “suffering soul.” During the 19th century, concepts about psychopathy were being explored, and categorized. “Psychopathy” was seen as very broad at this time.
The term “Sociopath” was popularized in the 1920s, and 1930s, way out of time-lock.
Using the term “psycho” to describe someone is too modern, and not within time-lock. People often misuse the term “psychopath”, and “sociopath”, as well. There is a lot of stigma attached to these terms, often used as an insult, or umbrella term, without knowing the true meaning.
During our time-frame, the term “psychopathy” is okay to be used, but please refrain from calling people “psychopaths”, “psychos”, or “sociopaths”.
Autism - Coined in the early 1900s (out of time-lock). Likely also called “Dementia Praecox” during WWRPs time-period. During these early stages of research, many doctors thought that Autism, and Schizophrenia were the same thing. It wasn’t until the 1960s that the two were separated, and people began to categorize them differently.
ADHD/ADD - The concept was officially identified in the early 1900s, (out of time-lock) but even traces back earlier in some cases. Mostly as a way to describe children displaying difficulty with focus. However, the terms we use today were not used until about the 1970s-1980s.
When in doubt of terminology, simply describe the symptoms! Many symptoms for all of these conditions have been known about for hundreds, upon hundreds of years, people have just not always had the language, or knowledge to label them.
A Word On Hysteria:
Hysteria was a diagnosis placed primarily on women when another diagnosis could not be reached. There are inherent sexist connotations with the term “Hysteria”, ranging from sexuality, to being the “weaker” sex, and even placing blame on the uterus. The symptoms of this “disorder” were vast, and widely different. To put it simply, doctors of the time did not put much effort into understanding their female patients, and often diagnosed them with “Hysteria”.
There were some studies where men were diagnosed with Hysteria, following traumatic events, as well. Often, it was used as an umbrella term, but predominantly, it was used against women of the time.
If you plan to use this term, be incredibly mindful.
A reminder: Sexism is not tolerated in WWRP.
Realistic Portrayal:
To do a realistic portrayal, you HAVE to do research! If you watch the movie “Split” starring James McAvoy, and immediately assume you have an understanding of Dissociative Identity Disorder, please know that film is not an accurate portrayal. In fact, a lot of film/television deals in a lot of inaccuracies, which only fuels further stigmatization, and stereo-types. You must dive deeper!
People who share the same disorder can have very different experiences in how it affects them. Certain symptoms can be episodic, or consistent. You need to flesh out a complete character. People are more than a diagnosis, or their symptoms. While their symptoms may impact a large part of their life, please also keep in mind that all characters should be multifaceted.
Give them life goals, treat them as you would any other character that you’re playing. For example, making them want a successful business, wanting to have a family, getting rich, and so on! Remember this if you are creating a Neurodivergent character, as well! Please be mindful not to create a caricature, or use offensive stereo-types.
It is also perfectly okay if your character does not know they have a condition. It happens every day in modern times, and a lot of people go undiagnosed for prolonged periods, or even their entire lives. In 1899, this was extremely common for people to be undiagnosed, and unaware. You can portray this IC, but it is important that YOU, OOCly, do know, so that you can portray the condition accurately, and respectfully.
If you have a character who hears voices, or experiences hallucinations, how do you plan to portray that? Please keep in mind that symptoms like these do not equal an evil, murderous, or criminal character. Yes, you can have a character who experiences mental illness, who perhaps is a killer, a criminal, etc, but be mindful when navigating it. It is important to not villainize mental illness. A fact of the matter is that people who experience mental illness symptoms are more likely to be victims of violence, not perpetrators.
Playing a Psychologist/Psychiatrist:
If you have decided to play a character with a background, or education in psychology/psychiatry, then you are setting a precedent for how mental health is viewed in-server. If you diagnose someone with “Bi-polar Disorder”, other players may think that it is acceptable to use modern terminology such as that. Playing a doctor during this time-frame requires research. Psychology/psychiatry was a very new field, and was continuously going through major changes, and discoveries.
Therapies, regiments, practices, and so on, were very different in WWRPs time-lock of 1899, versus our modern day. For example, Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) was created in the 1970s, primarily as a treatment for Borderline Personality Disorder. Using that type of therapy within our 1899 time-lock would be unrealistic. Now, we aren’t saying that your character cannot experiment with certain treatments, you definitely can! Just be sure to remember the time-period when doing so, and make sure not to use modern terminology.
It is often thought that mental institutions (asylums) of this time-period were horrible, and terrifying places. While there were some instances of this, it was not always the case. It was more-so that many of them were ineffective with their treatments, due to the knowledge of mental health at the time.
A quick note: If you are not playing a character with a background, or education in psychology, or psychiatry, be mindful when using any of these terms, even if they are within time-lock. Think to yourself, would it make sense for your character to know, or understand it?
QUICK-LOOK GUIDE:
If you're needing to figure something out quickly, refer to this, but please take into account everything stated in this guide.
When in doubt, or if there is no specific term, either describe the symptoms, or use umbrella terms!
Umbrella Terms:
- Nervousness
- Melancholia
- Anhedonia
- Psychopathy (Be mindful!)
- Neuroses
- Psychoneurosis
- Hysteria (Be mindful!)
Schizophrenia - Possibly Dementia Praecox.
Bipolar Disorder - No specific term. Possibly Dementia Praecox.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - Soldiers Fatigue, Battle Exhaustion, mental wounds
Dissociative Identity Disorder - No specific term.
Personality Disorders - No specific terms.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder - No specific term. May be seen from a religious standpoint in some cases.
Panic/Anxiety - Terms are fine to use. Seen as symptoms of other disorders.
Pyschosis - Term is fine to use, but not within a modern context. Psychosis does not always mean losing touch with reality in WWRPs time-period.
Psychopath - Term is fine to use, but not within a modern context. Psychopathy was often used as an umbrella term for many mental health conditions.
Sociopath - No specific term.
Autism - No specific term. Possibly Dementia Praecox.
ADD/ADHD - No terms.
If you are unsure of how to realistically, and appropriately roleplay something, please open a Support Ticket via our Discord, and we can assist you!
Thank you!
Thank you!
Last edited by a moderator:
