Mental Health Superheroes: The Musical
I’ve always enjoyed reading and watching the stories of superheroes and people with extraordinary powers. Whether I’m bingeing “Supergirl” or revisiting some of my old superhero video games, I have always enjoyed the genre.
When I was a kid, I liked to think that a superhero wouldn’t have problems, or that their powers would solve their problems for them. As I got older, I enjoyed the idea of superheroes who had to deal with mental illness as well, whose powers gave them a different toolkit to solve their problems but didn’t actually solve them. They still had to put in the hard work to reach, as my therapist says, their individual version of normal.
As a kid, I didn’t think that a person like me could ever be a hero. I thought that even if I lived in a universe where I had superpowers, I would get in my own way too much to do anything. I would be too busy working on myself to save the world, and in that, I would be the most selfish superhero ever. Not much of a hero, and definitely not someone worthy of an epic tale.
But over the next few months, I’m going to be reconsidering that viewpoint. Now that I have my two negative COVID tests after DragonCon (which was my best con ever), I am embarking on a new project that, when I was asked to be involved, it didn’t even take me a minute to enthusiastically agree.
I am going to be writing a large part of - and managing the editing of - a musical about people with extraordinary powers who live with various mental illnesses, and find a way to work through them together.
Now, I haven’t really talked about this much in here, but I am very self-conscious about my musical ability, or rather, lack thereof. I am slowly learning how to play the ukulele, but I haven’t properly played an instrument since I was a kid (the flute, since I thought it was the most “elfy”), and I don’t know how to read music. I’ve invented little ditties for my stories and characters before now, but after enough people told me I can’t carry a tune in a bucket, I refuse to sing in almost every circumstance.
I’m going to be stepping out of my comfort zone with the music, but into one of my favorite types of stories, with this musical. When I think of powerfully-written neurodivergent characters, I think of my favorite video game of all time, where a love-interest character has to travel through various timelines to erase enough of her abuse and trauma to live. I think of a commander of knights who stands strong against the literal and metaphorical demons of her past, although she eventually falls prey to them. I think of a politically ambitious young girl who manipulates her way to the top, all the while dealing with extreme paranoia and isolation that wreak havoc on her mental health.
The only problem is, all of these characters are presented as villains.
Villains with trauma have become a favorite trope of mine, and a type of character I’ve loved to cosplay ever since I discovered conventions. I have sometimes seen examples of - and written - heroes with traumatic backstories.
But I don’t know what a hero with OCD would look like. In all my reading and playing and watching TV, I’ve never seen one.
It’s clear that there’s no one way to represent the experience, just as there is no one way to approach the challenge of writing a song that will be performed by people who know what they’re doing. I know a few things for sure - I need to represent mental illness as something that affects the character all the time whether or not it’s convenient for the plot, I need to show many facets of this character instead of just one, and I need to find a way for the character to overcome whatever obstacles are in their way without completely erasing mental illness from their life.
But everything else, how the character will move through the story and learn and grow, is entirely new.
This is a writing challenge I’m excited to face, and one that I hope will introduce the audience to the idea that someone with OCD can be a hero not just in their own story, but also in the world beyond. That their superpowers might not nullify what’s going on in their head, but they can be smart, resourceful, and intuitive about how they use their powers to overcome problems both internal and external.
I’m excited for my character, whoever they will become, to join the cast of heroes written by people who are each bringing their own unique brains to the writing room. I think this will be a great opportunity to learn from each other, as well as educate our eventual audience, as we create a new twist on an old story that will hopefully inspire people to consider that they, even without powers, can be heroes too.
Ellie, a writer in the Chicago area, was diagnosed with OCD at age 3. She hopes to educate others about her condition and end the stigma against mental illness.