A Phrase To Renounce For 2014: ‘The Mentally Ill’

[kangofu]

A Phrase To Renounce For 2014: ‘The Mentally Ill’
Source - WBUR - Common Health (Boston's NPR)
By: Carey Goldberg
January 3, 2014 | 1:57 PMI wince every time I read it. So does the president-elect of the American Psychiatric Association, Dr. Paul Summergrad, he says

Comments

[alryssa]

how about we stop worrying about what to call it and start teaching people that said illnesses are not the result of a character flaw

revolutionary I know

[tsu_]

yes

[gambitia]

yes pls

[bellonia]

because the way people talk about it impacts the way people respond to it.

I tell my mother "I am mentally ill" and she flips her shit because "No you're not"; I tell my mother that I have almost delibitating depression and anxiety that lead to panic attacks and suicidal ideation, the response is completely different.

[_myaugust]

IA.

[alryssa]

which doesn't really invalidate my comment at all

people respond negatively to the words 'mentally ill' because of the social stigma surrounding it and because it's long been characterised as something wrong in someone that's under their control when it really isn't and nobody wants to think their child/parent etc is 'ill' in a way that's difficult to deal with; it's not suddenly different just because we call it something else and it's disingenous imo to try and change it to try and make it 'easier'. it'll still be mental illness and the stigma will still exist.