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

[nextdrinksonme]

Nope. Sorry dude, but I'm mentally ill. I have a mental illness (two, actually). It/they may have physical components since there have been studies that show bipolar brains are sometimes different than those who don't have bipolar, but it doesn't affect my body in the same ways most physical illnesses do.

Personally, I think finding some other way to discuss mental illness stigmatizes it even further, making it sound like it's something horrible that you can't even use the words for. Using people first language, fuck yeah, go at that. But I see no reason to find some prettier way to discuss what it actually is. Turning this person's reasoning around, you wouldn't call cardiac disease "happy fluffy bunny syndrome", so why do we need to nicen up mental illnesses?

[roseofjuly]

I think the point (at least of the first part of the article) is not to call mental illness something other than mental illness, but to stop saying "the mentally ill" instead of "people with mental illnesses/disorders" - or, even better, "people with schizophrenia/depression/whatever mental illness we are referring to." Because referring to "the mentally ill" makes about as much sense as referring to "the physically ill", given that there are dozens of different mental disorders in different intensities and comorbidities that affect people in different ways.

[nextdrinksonme]

And I said I agreed with that--go go people first language. I disagree with not using the term mental illness or mental health at all because it sounds scary or 'othering' according to people who are not mentally ill. The focus should be changing the stigma and myths surrounding various mental illnesses, not changing the language to make it sound less 'scary

[rex_dart]

The term mental illness is empowering. It reminds me that I am not weak or useless; I'm just sick, and I can treat it but I can't just stop being the way I am.

I do not know if I would take kindly to people who aren't close to me calling me mentally ill in casual conversation, though. I would prefer that people just call me bipolar.

[rex_dart]

yeah lol if you wanna see assholes blaming people for their physical illnesses, just go flip through the garbage found in most health food stores' book aisles.

[rex_dart]

~coral calcium~ for everyone

[romp]

true that THE mentally ill sounds as if it's a monolithic Other rather than something that almost everyone experiences as some point

[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.