Fading

I once knew a boy when I was your age. He had troubles at home and often hid from everyone around him. After a while, he started to fade, and people had trouble noticing him; one day, he was gone - Old Man's experience on a Fading

Causes

Fading is caused by the mental state of an individual who begins to believe that they are not worth existing and slowly begins to fade away and, for a time, become invisible before they cease to exist.

Symptoms

Early Stages

See-through Body: As they begin to fade, their no more extended look would, and you can see through them like a mirror, but they can still be touched.
Invisible Body Parts: Some body parts will begin to become invisible but can still correctly function but cannot see by anyone.

Late Stages

Invisibility : Once they go far enough through the fading, they become invisible with no one being able to see them, but they still are felt if touched.
Vanishing From Existence: Once people ultimately give up on being a part of the world around them, they cease to exist as if they were never even there. What happens to them or where they go is uncertain, and no one will ever know.

Treatment

The only way to get help for someone facing this is by helping them open up to others who care for them, and they will start to reappear on their own and return to normal. Body parts reappear and usually work, but to those around them, they appear floating. When the afflicted finally feel they belong with those around them, they return to normal.

Affected Groups

Often, those feel like their lives do not matter or receive little attention from those around them. These cases mostly happen with children going through trouble, but they can happen with adults as they can also feel lonely or rejected.

History

Abandoning Existence

No one knows how Fading happened or when it was first recorded in the world, only that it did exist. People who never really fit in a community or have trouble within their own lives that make them question their reason to live. Their belief in this causes them to slowly fade from the world as they genuinely believe what they are being told, and its power has sway over them. They are often called the Faded because of this, the "Vanishing People" to others. How many this has happened to is unknown as those that cease to exist are hard to document, or the people that knew them as they forget about them with time. All that is certain is all across the world, some people suffer from the idea that they are not worth existing, and some still do to this day. But they are far from lost causes, as Fading has nothing to do with The Gloom, and it is more of a personal dilemma that the person causes be affected to feel like this. If they are willing to reopen themselves to people who care about them or want to help them, they will return to the world just as they were.

Cultural Reception

Often those who suffer from Fading have personal issues caused by a person or multiple individuals that cause a person to feel like they are worth nothing. Most people don't even notice them when they enter their later stages. They often ignore help from others or, at times, use their invisibility to cause trouble to get attention or petty revenge on those who wronged them. But there are always those who want to help them, as they have a right to exist and should live their lives without the need to be tormented by others.

Type

Mental

Origin

Natural

Cycle

Chronic, Acquired

Rarity

Rare

Questioning Existence

by Midjourney

I often wonder if anyone truly cared about me; if they did, then maybe I won't be like this then - Fading Man

Many have often seen how people can cease to exist just because they believe they should not, just like many that suffer from Sensitive Ailments. Often arguing that it should not even happen because they did not choose to be born into this world and have no decision in deciding. However, many have often argued that death easily wipes away the existence of those that came before and can easily be forgotten as if they were never there. So what does exist but through the belief of one's thought to prove that something existed at all and those that ignore one's existence can lead to one ceasing to exist at all, which can be aid by those that choose to deny the very existence of the said individual.