Ink & Instability: How My Mental Illness Shapes My Fiction

As many of you, my regular readers, already know, I have been living with schizophrenia for the past ten years, soon to be eleven. Schizophrenia is a complex and severe mental disorder that affects a person’s thinking, emotions, and behaviors. In my case, it includes symptoms such as auditory hallucinations and visual disturbances. Though once classified into subtypes like "paranoid schizophrenia," modern diagnostic systems now recognize it under the broader term schizophrenia. Living with a mental illness has never been easy. However, over time, I have learned to accept myself and my condition. This journey has profoundly shaped my writing, especially my fiction. Writing allows me to channel my imagination, often placing myself in the shoes of my characters. My experiences with schizophrenia help me visualize scenes in vivid detail, lending authenticity to the narratives I create. Do My Stories Naturally Explore Mental Health Topics? While my fanfiction does not necessarily ...