You know, one time I read a fanfic and it triggered my psychosis, sent me into a month long episode THEN a whole year later I was on ao3 just mindlessly scrolling, I came across the fanfic title and it gave me a panic attack, but something compelled me to click it, i didn’t read it but i did scroll through it, why? mental illness. So like… yaThis is me responding to your old(?) post about someone else’s fiction not being able to hurt you, this is probably just a me thing but mental illness makes you do things and react to things in insane ways that sometimes you cant control. I knew while reading that it was affecting me in some way, but I kept reading because well, I’m mentally ill, and then a month of my life dissapeared lolI think I’m trying to make a point about something but I’m not sureI did after the fact comment to the author and just kinda, told them about what happened, but I didn’t harrassed them or something, –but when something does what this fanfiction did to me then you’re basically obligated to let the creator know I think(they are a really good writer), I’m an adult and the fanfic was in the ballpark of something I would read and if like, 59% of it was taken out and it had a happy ending I would be fine but oh well Oh boy, I’m starting to have a panic attack just typing this out holy hell anyways uh, I’m not disagreeing with you(?) but I am saying, don’t be too quick to dismiss someone who says a piece of fiction fucked with them? idk sorry, have a good one
My friend, the fiction didn’t harm you.
Your mental illness harmed you.
Random writers on the internet are not responsible for managing your mental illness for you.
You are responsible for managing your mental illness.
I knew while reading that it was affecting me in some way, but I kept reading because well, I’m mentally ill
This is self harm. You were engaging in self-harming behavior by continuing to read a fanfiction that you knew was triggering to you.
👉 You are responsible for managing your mental illness.
👉 Writers are not responsible for managing your mental illness for you.
And I hate to tell you this but messaging the author about it was absolutely harassing the author.
If you are known to cause self harm of any kind to yourself then it might be a good idea to come up with a wellness/safety plan. Blocking fanfiction websites from your devices could be method you use to do this. You could even have a friend or loved one use parental controls that only they have the log in information for. Even if you’re an adult, you can have an open discussion with this friend or relative where your mental health is taken into consideration and if you get to a point where you’re well enough to be able to start reading fanfiction without it causing this much distress, you can do remove the filter or parental block completely.
If it affected you so badly that you feel like there should be something done about it to keep you from harming yourself because you can’t help yourself, that’s a solution you need to come up with. You don’t get to dictate how everyone else lives their lives.
#you dont get to throw away all the kitchen knives bc you use them to cut yourself. other people need those to cook
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