I wonder if I might ask something a little bit heavy: how is mental illness treated in Faerûn? I kinda doubt someone can cast cure wounds at someone’s head and their anxiety, depression, or whatever is gone.
I play Lliiran priests and actually 1/2 Have depression, so I’ll use it. I track down a joybringer & they would try to help me. Is their only offer nothing more than we have: cheering potions & therapeutic conversation, or do the gods grant a few more options to the situation?
Thank you so for your joyous self
2/2— 🏳️⚧️Jaye🦄Em🌹Edgecliff🏳️🌈 (@jayeedgecliff) April 19, 2021
1)
Priests of almost all faiths, and family matriarchs, all across Toril, are indeed the first line of defense against what most folk of Faerûn call “afflictions of the mind,” and their first reaction is usually to comfortingly “be with” the afflicted, to banish…
#Realmslore
…loneliness and let them talk of what they're feeling. Tea and cordials (often mixed with "a little something" herbal) are always part of this. From there, things progress to alchemists and "wise women," plus local priests (or traveling holy folk), and their…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) April 19, 2021
3)
…stores of “physics” and “remedies” (liquid medicines), plus priestly “mindease” spells (induced sleep, “open the gates of the mind” dreaming, and then the more powerful enchantments; remember that feeblemind can be a ‘buy time for self-healing’ casting, not…
…just an attack). Like postal/message and item delivery services, treatment of the grieving and in shock and exhausted and mentally ill is a "standard" temple service, and one of the main reasons clergy (and not just deities) are so accepted/financially…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) April 19, 2021
5)
…supported by the populace. Like any treatment, priests and the spells they use vary in efficacy and skills and success when it comes to individual cases, but at the very least, treatment can buy time for minds (and family members or friends) to rest.
And more…
…then a few folk have realized the usefulness of a trip, or an adventure, or a change in location to bring "a new life" to a person, as opposed to leaving them in the situation they're in when suffering.#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) April 19, 2021