Before I explain what happened, let me inform you that this situation may sound completely dumb to many of you, but that’s why I think it should be on a forum about mental health issues. First let me explain what an online art community is. It is a community that an artist on social media amassed over a period of time to fluctuate support for their work which can be pieces or even made up characters of theirs which in that particular culture is referred to as an OC (original character). Users sometimes copy another user’s work or “steal” their characters and claim them as their own sometimes making a mockery of them with the intent of bullying or sabotaging the original creator.

I believe that this has happened to me as my character concepts seriously appear to have been stolen (Designs are extremely similar and even names have been copied verbatim) on instagram by a user who is being rather racist about it. It bothers me a lot because I’m attached to my characters and storyline and their fans have created a fan-page for the female one which is thrown off as a better version of mine, where the secret admirer will be revealed once they reach 500 followers. I’m extremy anxious that when they do reveal it will be something that’ll destroy me, like my male love interest. I have absolutley no clue what to do if I’m against someone’s entire fanbase. 

Aside from typical promotion anxiety of my own creative expression, I would like to add that this has been bothering me so much that I’ll admit that I am not getting out of bed readily in the morning and I’m not eating well because I’m so apprehensive of what this user and their fans might do to me on Instagram whether I can see it or not. My parents have expressed concern about me but I can’t really tell them about this because they just wouldn’t get it. The thought of losing my male subject (character) to strangers online in a way that ridicules me is aggravating my depression symptoms because he, feels almost like a boyfriend to me and I created him after a string of emotionally abusive relationships. I think that I do carry traits of schediaphilia (sexual attraction to fictional characters).

I hope that this reaches at least someone on here who can be understanding to this and also help me through this form of online harassment.