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Why the use of words such as "psycho" and "crazy" is stigmatising and shouldn& #39;t be tolerated: A Thread
Let me preface this by saying that I am NOT a professional. I am merely someone interested in psychology - yes I have studied and researched it, no I do not have a degree. I hold matters about mental health close to my heart. So yes, I am capable of making mistakes in this thread
If something I said is wrong or you have personal experience with some of the mental illnesses I mention here, please feel free to call me out or discuss it with me.
Also - TW for mental illness, mentions of depression, murder and suicide. Stay safe.
Also - TW for mental illness, mentions of depression, murder and suicide. Stay safe.
First: what is stigma and why is it an issue?
Mental illness is stigmatised and discrininated against. This dates way back in history, when people didn& #39;t know much about mental illness and thought mentally ill people to be lesser, to be dangerous, or to have no human rights
Mental illness is stigmatised and discrininated against. This dates way back in history, when people didn& #39;t know much about mental illness and thought mentally ill people to be lesser, to be dangerous, or to have no human rights
What causes stigma? Just as POC have been defined by their skin colour, people with mental illness have been defined by their illness. This is why saying someone is "psychotic" instead of "a person with psychosis" can be harmful - it& #39;s a label, and it has negative connotations
Stigma has awful effects. It causes people with mental illness to ignore their symptoms, fear seeking treatment and hate themselves. Moreover, it causes others to treat mental illness like something dangerous or even bully people with mental illness
How pop culture and terms like "psycho" come into play:
People mostly learn about mental illness through pop culture. Most of you know The Shining or 13 Reasons Why. People with psychosis, depression, etc are used as entertainment, diminished to their mental illness
People mostly learn about mental illness through pop culture. Most of you know The Shining or 13 Reasons Why. People with psychosis, depression, etc are used as entertainment, diminished to their mental illness
Instead of showing people deal with a painful illness it& #39;s used to make them into a more scary villain or an interesting character. Mental illness is NOT a character trait, nor does it make anyone a murderer! People with psychosis are VERY rarely a threat to anyone but themselves
If you want to learn more about how pop culture is harmful for mentally ill people, I highly suggest you watch this video. I won& #39;t go into depth in this thread as this video explains everything in a much more effective way https://youtu.be/yFBbxvHWe_A ">https://youtu.be/yFBbxvHWe...
Anyway, terms like "psycho", "crazy" and "delusional" are co-opted by pop culture to paint mental illness as something negative, mentally ill people as less than others. Even the term "psycopath" and "sociopath" have no definition in psychiatry - what they refer to is ASPD
ASPD does not equal a cold-hearted murderer, in fact it& #39;s a spectrum, with most cases being mild. Words such as psycopath shift the focus from those genuinely struggling and lead the vast majority to believe ALL of them are bad people and criminals when they& #39;re not
I& #39;ve seen SO MANY videos conspiring which celebrities are "psycopaths" based on how "shitty" they behave (which again, isn& #39;t a thing, someone can have ASPD but can& #39;t be a psycopath) Trying to insult people by giving them a mental illness - do you see now how harmful this is?
In this study ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1925070/#!po=0.925926)">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/artic... teens were asked about words they associated with mental illness. Most of the terms were DEROGATORY. These are the words kids learn to associate mental illness with. It& #39;s a serious issue.
So, we& #39;ve tackled the stigmatising aspect and negative portrayals. What about taking words such as psycho and making them "positive", you say? This is what we call reappropriation. You might think, "oh, like POC and the n word or the LGBT community and the f and d words?"
Notice how this is _within the community_. Outsiders still can& #39;t use these words, because they& #39;re derogatory. Similarly if you don& #39;t suffer from psychosis, you don& #39;t call yourself a psycho, nor anyone else. You& #39;re just taking a word and ignoring those who are affected by it
No matter what your intentions, it& #39;s still harmful. For example, these days people love joking about depression and suicide, even if they& #39;re not depressed. This shifts the focus from those actually struggling and creates a distorted image about people with depression
And notice how mental illnesses like depression and anxiety are memed but psychosis and schizophrenia are painted as dangerous and disgusting? Mental illness is mental illness. It& #39;s not something cute nor is it something disgusting. This is why people struggle so much to get help
We need to stop using these derogatory terms if we ever want to live in a world where people with mental illness don& #39;t have to fear about being bullied or end up harming themselves because no one understands them.
I& #39;m not good with words or getting my point across clearly so I hope this thread helped at least a bit in understanding why it& #39;s important to be mindful of the true definitions and the stigma behind such normalised words.
I& #39;m not attacking nor berating anyone for not knowing - the media has done a thoroughly good job of misrepresenting mental health that we don& #39;t even think about it. All we can do is educate ourselves, the people around us, and try to make the world a bit better one step at a time
