I need no introduction. Nuff said.
After letting my fee-fee's override my logical brain earlier today and make a fool of myself AGAIN, I think I might now have a solution to the overarching problem I've always had as a content creator in terms of getting exposure for a comic of mine that also needs no introduction. And before I go any further, I just want everybody to know that no, I don't expect to suddenly become one of the top creators of this proposed category if Staff decides to branch out and create it. My art would see against that for sure. And no, I'm not asking for this category to be made just for my own benefit.
Mental health is a serious topic that unfortunately still is considered "taboo" if not also extremely stigmatized and unfortunately, because of the aforementioned stigma society has with those with mental problems they either can't help or can only do so much to mask, these types of people often suffer in silence afraid that they might be judged unfairly or because they don't want their disorder or illness to distract from the beautiful person they are underneath or even because like most people, they don't know where to turn or are afraid to ask for help perhaps because of bad prior experiences of being misunderstood or even abused. And of course, there are cases where they don't want to be babied by family and peers.
Like how the movies provide a distraction from real life for a while, I honestly believe that in the same way a gay teen can read about fellow LGBT peers even if they never meet them irl or are otherwise fictional and they can feel better about their sexuality, I believe that the same would and should hold true for somebody who reads about a fictional character or a real person behind a screen who has the same mental problems they may suffer from in their personal life. I should know. I experienced it all growing up (minus the abuse part unless you count verbal abuse which I got a fair amount of)
For example, growing up, I was always the outcast and always the lone wolf growing up in public school. From the time I was a child until I hit sixth grade, I imagined entire worlds, not imaginary friends like most kids, worlds. Worlds that only I could see and because I looked like a mad man walking around talking to himself and bouncing around making awkward gestures to everybody else, I can understand now why I was bullied and why I never connected with my peers. And that's not getting into all the social faux-pas I made (and still make) including heat of the moment things I said that later got me in trouble even though I didn't mean anything by it or had people laugh at me, not with me even though I didn't know the difference (and probably still don't at times) even when others bluntly pointed it out to me.
And like how many would deny they have a problem, my short sighted logical way of thinking as an aspie had and still continues to work against me because as some of you regs may have picked up on, I'm stubborn as all hell and am so convicted in my beliefs that its hard for me to see things from other perspectives because I'm all about the logical side of things because logically, if everything checks out, then why shouldn't it work the way it should according to the evidence and facts presented?
Despite all that though, I keep trudging forward no matter what because I know now from doing this webcomic thing for two years now. Two awkward and painful years worth of learning basic things that others already knew or learned far faster than I did that somewhere out there, there's somebody who gets where I'm coming from. There's somebody out there who might be reading my comic and thinking to themselves "Why wasn't this comic made sooner?" or "Why didn't I have this type of comic growing up?"
Basically, I'm more aware now that despite all the obstacles being thrown my way partly due to ego and partly due to how the cards are stacked by society, I'm in a few peoples eyes, a superhero. And yes, I honestly like to think that I am because of how heartwarming its been to receive all the nice comments telling me I'm doing a good service through LoaA.
I may have mentioned before here on these forums and probably elsewhere that I've had readers with whom the main protagonist from Life of an Aspie struck a personal chord with. Autistic or no. Now when I started my comic two years ago, I didn't expect that anybody would read it because of the subject matter not because its something that I wouldn't want my mom to see (bless having a cool mom), but because I know that the subject of Autism/Asperger's isn't discussed that much and a main lead who's on the spectrum? Get out of here! Sure I might have a few stragglers who read everything or who genuinely like what I have to say, but not in a million years would I ever have considered that the people who do love that I'm openly writing about AS from a shoujo-ish viewpoint (though really, you could argue that LoaA might have shades of Josei or Seinen) would be not just a tiny minority, but a significant amount (for me that is).
Yes, I've had autistic readers who told me they like LoaA, but for me, the biggest thing was that for every autistic reader I gained, there were also normal-ish people who also told me they loved what I was doing because they knew somebody in their personal life who was on the spectrum. Hell, I had a grandpa looking guy who regularly comments and likes my pages who told me that by reading LoaA, he was better able to understand his nephew/niece . To date, that is the most life changing thing I've ever done beside being there for that aforementioned friend in my personal life. Wow!
Anyway, its not just comics about mental disorders like Autism, PTSD, Bipolar Disorder, that would benefit from a Mental Health category, Mental illnesses like the various forms of depression or anorexia for example would hugely benefit from said category as well. I've had bouts of depression before and though it was never severe enough to where I was one of those people who can only see a tombstone before them, I know how much of a drain it can be on anybody's life.
So what about my fellow content creators? Got any stories you write about a mental health issue or would love it if Tapastic and other sites adopted a Mental Health category so that you may be able to reach out to a larger audience full of people who get what you are preaching?