The Flyer
*Hi, welcome to Mettle, and to my first Author's note which you're probably going to skip through but I might as well include it haaa. If you couldn't tell by this description, this is a realistic fiction book with some mental health themes included. I'm going to address some of the terms used in this story (some of these definitions are essentially just paraphrased from Google lmao) I would recommend reading them for a better understanding but if you don't want to, feel free to skip ahead.
Terms Used:
Intrusive Thoughts: Unwanted and unpleasant thoughts, can vary from sexual to emotional to generally disturbing. (They are completely normal and everyone experiences them.)
OCD: A mental disorder where the victim acts on their intrusive thoughts by engaging in compulsions, obsessions, and rituals.
Scrupulosity OCD: A form of OCD where the compulsions and obsessions specifically revolve around religiousness and morals.
Anxiety: A mental disorder where the victim experiences feelings of worry, anxiety or fear that interfere with their daily lives.
Social Anxiety: A mental disorder where the victim fears being judged, negatively evaluated, or rejected.
Eating Disorder: A range of psychological conditions that cause unhealthy eating habits and obsessions to develop.
Orthorexia: An eating disorder where the victim develops an unsafe obsession with healthy food and foods they consider "pure."
Depression: A mental health disorder caused by a constant depressed mood or loss of interest in activities.
ADD: A condition that causes attention difficulty, hyperactivity, or impulsiveness.
PTSD: A disorder where a person has difficulty recovering from a traumatic event they experienced or witnessed.
So I know that was long but I gotta note that although this story is largely about mental health, I'm not a professional psychologist/therapist. I'm researching as I go along because I'm interested in the psych subject, but there's a lot of stuff I might not convey 100% accurately. I'll try my best to do accurate portrayals of mental disorders, but I'm not an expert so take what I write with a grain of salt.
I'll stop my incoherent babbling now, on with the story
Chapter 1: The Flyer
On a windy Saturday afternoon, Iris Mettle Carter discovered the most important flyer of her life.
It hung on a lamppost, blending in with the posters advertising soft drinks and dance studios. Unlike the other posters, it had been taped, and the rapid wind along with the withering tape caused the flyer to slip off of the lamppost and fall into Iris's hands right as she passed by.
Feel & Heal
Weekly Therapy Group
Helping Teens With Mental Disorders
Sundays, 11-12 PM, St. Helena Church
Admission: Permission Slip
St. Helena Church. That name sounded familiar to Iris, but she couldn't quite place it. Not that it mattered. She was in the middle of an internal crisis.
Iris had been diagnosed with scrupulosity OCD and social anxiety a year ago. The diagnosis was cheap, the therapy was not. Iris knew her mother had enough to think about. Her grandma's medication, a pile of taxes, household chores... adding therapy to the list wouldn't decrease stress for the family. Besides, Iris's OCD wasn't atrocious. She wouldn't call it mild, but she could manage it. Until recently...
"Iris, we're through."
The statement kept ringing and ringing through her mind. Each time Iris heard her voice, or was in the same room as her. Certain words triggered painful memories. A need for closure spiraling through her, pounding, shaking every cell in her body, needing to be satisfied. And the scrupulosity didn't help matters. But there was nothing she could do about it.
Until now.
A ticket to free therapy, sitting in her hands. The solution to a problem.
"And a ticket to anxiety." A voice in Iris's mind said."Talking to complete strangers who won't understand your condition at all. Everyone thinks OCD is just cleaning. None of them will understand. Even if they do, it won't fix things with her."
"Still..." Another voice said, a much more welcoming one. "A chance like this won't come again. Are you going to pass it up? You could get better, Iris."
Iris brushed both thoughts aside. She couldn't make a decision like this right now.
She glanced at the flyer in her hands, and the small permission slip attached to the bottom of it. She shoved both items into the pocket of her jacket. She would think about this later, research the program a little bit, maybe mention it to her mom. But Iris knew deep down that she wouldn't actually end up going.
...Probably.
This is really good