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.
Blaming other people and not taking accountability for your own actions is emotional immaturity. No one forced you to read the fic, you did all that on your own and blaming the author for it is just another way of not taking responsibility for your own choices. But then it’s always much easier to blame other people instead of looking at yourself. And yes messaging the author is harassing the author. Also it sounds like the person is using their mental illness as an excuse for their shitty behaviour to fanfic writers. Have I read fics I find triggering or gross. Yes I have but I’ve never once blamed the author for it because I chose to fucking read it.
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