How do you guys feel when people say “don’t hate on the otherkin community because we are/they are mentally ill” ?
I’ve seen people both inside and outside the community saying things along these lines in order to defend us. Personally I think it does more harm than it does good, but I would love to hear your opinions!
I hate it. Not only does it conflate nonhuman identity with mental illness, but it suggests we should ONLY be respected because we’re supposedly mentally ill. Like. I deserve respect regardless of whether I’m mentally ill or not.
Are there mentally ill otherkin? Yes. Are some people otherkin as a result of neurodivergence? Hell yeah. Does that make it okay to make a blanket statement that we’re all mentally ill and that’s why we should be left alone? No.Beyond that, plenty of neurodivergent people, even ones with “mental illness”, don’t LIKE the label of being “mentally ill” applied to them. Plenty of ND people are against the idea of pathologizing NDs. So it kinda shits on that group, too.
Beyond that it takes a GIANT dump on those whose otherkin identity comes from their cultural spirituality. Suggesting that the spiritual beliefs of other cultures are inherently linked to mental illness is racist af.
