I feel kind of torn about this. On the one hand it’s clear your mother is emotionally abusive, whether or not she is mentally ill she still is, and she caused you a lot of pain and you should be able to talk about that.

On the other hand, talking about people in your family, especially when your name and photo is attached to it, it opens them up to being doxxed. People could conceivably figure out your mother’s real name, and trolls could harass her or if she had a job, send info about her mental illness to her employer. That’s why while I think it’s valid to talk about the issues, if it were me, I would do so under a pseudonym with a profile picture that someone couldn’t connect to the real you, or your mother. Because it could have unintended consequences for her, that maybe you haven’t considered and she hasn’t consented to.

And this is compounded by the fact that you are monetising your mother’s mental illness. So you’re not just telling her story or your story, but you’re getting clicks from the sensationalised retellings of her mental illness symptoms and bizarre behaviour, and you apparently made enough money from stories like that to buy a car.

Now you should be able to make money off your writing, and I’m not saying you shouldn’t be successful. However, there’s something that bothers me about the fact you’re telling these incredibly personal stories, not just about you, but your mother, and not just things that she has 100% control over, but things that she doesn’t have control over, like a mental illness — AND you’re making heaps of money from doing that, without asking her — AND by attaching your real identity to these stories, you’ve put her at risk of being doxxed and all the negative consequences that come from it.

So yeah, that’s why I write under the name Reverie, because I’ve been doxxed before, and I don’t want to be again, and I don’t want my family or my fiance or any loved ones associated with me, to be targeted because of things I write on Medium.

Food for thought.