Mental Illnesses as Adjectives

I'm not entirely sure what the deal is. You're making a comment about how you like things to be neat and tidy and "Oh, I'm so OCD!" comes flying out.

Out of all the beautiful, colorful words in all the languages, people nowadays tend to choose to wrongfully assign names for various mental illnesses to inanimate objects, living things that aren't capable of having mental illnesses, and themselves even though they do not struggle with mental illnesses.

You may be rolling your eyes right now saying, "Good grief Kate! It's just a joke!" Well if that's what you're thinking, I'm glad you're here. Let me show you what exactly your "jokes" are doing.

About one in four people struggle with a mental illness. There are a variety of different diagnoses and names, some more well known and some that very few people have ever heard of. Recently I've become more aware of people using the more commonly known diagnoses as adjectives to describe next to everything. Why is this a problem? Well, when you describe your house as "schizophrenic" because it's decorated for two different holidays (even though the correct term would actually be DID), it is incredibly degrading for those of us who have been diagnosed with schizophrenia for a similar disorder. It makes us feel ashamed and invalidated. It promotes the stigma that already surrounds all types of mentally ill people every day.

When you say "I'm so OCD!" because you have to wash your hands every time you touch something nasty, remember there is a person out there who is trying to complete their routine flawlessly because if they don't they will have to repeat it, or harm themselves.

When you say "I'm so depressed because I couldn't get those pants." remember that someone can't convince themselves to do anything because they are so overwhelmed with numbness and color and joy has disappeared from their world, sometimes without reason.

When you say "She looks so anorexic!" about a thin girl at school, remember there are dangerously skinny boys and girls in the hospital fighting for their lives because this disorder is telling them that they shouldn't eat and they do not have the energy to take control by themselves anymore.

When you say "he went all schizo", remember a person is curled up in bed trying to block out voices in their head that are screaming terrible things about them and that they have no reason to live anymore. Remember sometimes that person is me.

So don't contribute to the stigma. Just like you wouldn't tell rape jokes or cancer jokes, don't tell mental illness jokes. We are humans with emotions and a need for love and our illnesses don't take that away from us. There are billions of words in the English language and billions more in the many other languages this beautiful world holds, so when you have the choice to use one of them instead of a diagnosis, please do. We all thank you.