Hi all!
As it was Mental Health Day yesterday I thought I'd talk about the mental health of my characters in the Elemental Dragons series. When I first wrote Blood and Water I had undiagnosed anxiety and depression. I thought that these feelings were normal, so my characters also felt the same way. It wasn't until two years later that I realised that this wasn't normal and that I had accidentally given my characters mental health issues. The characters that have mental health issues are:
Hazel.
Wes.
Marco.
Ray.
As the book is read through Hazel's eyes we see her struggles the most, especially with her anxiety. As I thought these thoughts were normal at the time I never thought anything of it when I wrote Hazel's character to think the same way. In the books she suffers with her anxiety a lot, from public speaking to unwanted attention. After I was diagnosed with anxiety I decided to keep her character that way to give some insight into mental health. Every time she second guesses herself it reminds me of when I was untreated, as I had doubts about everything I did. Including writing books.
Wes also has a degree of anxiety, though his is mild compared to Hazel's. He hates public speaking but finds his confidence through Ray. Having someone to support you at your lowest can be the best thing to have, as you don't feel so alone. Although Ray was manipulating Wes, he didn't care. He looks up to him and sees him as his saviour and mentor, someone to rely on when his doubts become too prevalent again.
Although Marco doesn't have as much anxiety, he has depression. This is in part due to trauma and also his isolation by his brother. Mason inadvertently pushed him away when they were young, which made their bond suffer. Marco feels he can no longer rely on his twin, and instead has Hazel as his 'partner in crime'. Especially since Mason chose Sadie over him in book two, this has only made those feelings worse. The others find him too mopey to be around sometimes, and Rocky hates him for his love of Hazel. While Hazel was a year behind in Primary Camp, Rocky bullied him relentlessly with his friends and pushed him further into a depressive state. As the books go on he gets better, but still doesn't feel the same as he used to.
A lot of readers overlook Ray as having mental health issues as he's the antagonist. However, he has suffered a horrific childhood trauma at the hands of the government, which cost him his best friend, Fae. Ever since he's been desperate to take them down, and finds the perfect opportunity to lead the Cindaraans. He still suffers from horrible nightmares of his burning friend appearing to him to chastise him for not doing enough to help dragons.
Some have also asked me if the dragons can suffer mental health issues, which the answer is yes. This is not explored as much in the books so far, though I hope to delve into it a bit further in the future. The main one is Bluey, who has feelings of survivors guilt due to his companion dying. He also suffers from nightmares, but puts a brave face on for his friends, who don't really seem to notice his inner feelings.
That's it for this week. I hope you enjoyed reading, see you next week!
