Huh, that's an interesting twist on the same starting position. I'll be sure to check that out sometime, thanks.
Well, these things are always personal to some degree, but for me, the quickest way to get into a writing mood when I just don't feel like sitting down and writing anything at all and don't really have an existing project to continue on is to get engaged with the topic by other means, whether that's by reading a fanfic, reviewing it, snagging some poor bastard off my contacts list and talking their ear off about it, or just getting involved in discussions about fanfics in general like I'm doing with this post right here. Once I get engaged with talking and thinking about writing, or just stuff in the fandom, the urge to write something myself usually comes naturally.
In small doses would be the pithy answer. There's a lot to be said for expanding your writing horizons with things you normally wouldn't even consider, but there are risks involved. When the subject matter is just plain uncomfortable, there's a risk of detaching yourself from your writing and just sort of forcing yourself through it, which is precisely the kind of situation where stilted and clichéd writing tends to spring up since it's a lot more simple and accessible than a nuanced understanding of the topic. To counteract that, I'd suggest trying to familiarize yourself with whatever subject matter you have issues with. Get to know it, get to understand it, talk to people who write about similar things and see if you can get a discussion or two going. Talk to people who have to deal with these issues in their daily lives. Best case scenario, you'll finding something about it that lets you get over your discomfort, but failing that, turning the topic into a familiar kind of discomfort rather than an exotic one can still go a long way towards helping you approach it with a level head.
The other possibility would be to try and approach the topic from an angle that does have something familiar for you. Even if the story goes into uncomfortable territory, starting somewhere you at least feel confident writing about or occasionally dipping by that sort of area in your writing is still a good idea to relieve the pressure and help ground yourself again.
Well, this depends quite a lot on what kind of discussion you intended for. Are you looking to talk about the subject in general, or the subject as it pertains to your story in particular? Also, were you looking for a discussion with a group or more of a personal one-to-one sort of talk? I've seen a fair bit of the effects of both and I'd be willing to share what I can, but I would need to know more about the specifics before I could really give an answer either way.
To give the best piece of general advice I have, though, I'd say always remember to write about a person first and foremost. It's good due diligence to look up accounts and medical descriptions about the particular issues you write about, but a common pitfall a lot of people drop straight into is to simply copy-paste what they find straight onto their character as if they were some kind of blank slate until the moment they got their ailment, when in reality the effects of illness - particularly mental illness - can vary drastically from person to person. The basic thing that is wrong is the same (imbalance in brain chemistry, ingrained trauma etc.), but the way it expresses itself in the person's behavior often depends as much on what methods the person uses to cope with their illness as the actual medical effects of it. Some victims of abuse turn their hurt outward and start abusing people they have power over in turn, some turn inward and try to 'fix' themselves, some completely detach from the situation. The only common factor there is that they all act on their own particular sets of quirks, personality traits, and environmental pressures.
tl;dr version, what you should ask yourself is not 'how should I portray this illness?'; it's 'here is a person with this illness, how would it change them and how should I bring that across?'. Offensive portrayal of an illness comes from dehumanizing the person who suffers from it; the best way to avoid it that I've found is to simply write your character as any other character (one who you wouldn't consider ill) with the particular set of traits you had in mind rather than focusing on laying a specific medical diagnosis on what those traits are. If they have issues more serious than the rest, those issues should gain their weight from how they're presented, not what name you attach to them, and by keeping the specific nature of the ailment less clearly defined, you avoid speaking out of turn on the part of the topic that's the easiest to get wrong as a layman.
As said, I'm keeping it on the vague and general side since I'm not sure what you are after specifically. If you'd like more detail, let me know and I'll see what I can do.
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As an example, the two characters I have that went through physical abuse... Well, my notes mostly consist of how the physical abuse affects their daily lives and relationships with others, etc. But I still have to ask myself, "What would they be like without the pain?" Because surely that exists too. That's what I got from the "don't dehumanize them" advice, anyway. Like I said I'm not really knowledgeable about these topics right now, so I'd rather not talk in public lest I offend someone, so let me know if I can PM you details (and if so, if there's any details in particular that you would want to know).
