Language Matters

As mental health month winds to a close, we wanted to leave everyone with a reminder to carry with them moving forward. Our language matters. How we talk about mental health matters.

While there have been positive strides in recent years, the language we use surrounding mental health is generally still too stigmatizing. Too often we describe people as being ‘depressed’ or ‘schizophrenic’ as opposed to saying they live with depression or they live with schizophrenia. Our mental illnesses do not define us and how we talk about mental health matters.

Similarly, too many still say things like committed suicide as opposed to died by suicide. The difference is important because generally people commit crimes, but die from symptoms related to their illnesses, including their mental illnesses.

Yet the most concerning of all the outdated language that we still use is when we say that something (or someone) drives us crazy, or that we had a ‘crazy’ day, or that traffic was crazy. Not only is crazy (and synonyms like lunatic, nutty, etc) stigmatizing, these things all also have a negative connotation to them, suggesting that living with a mental illness is automatically a negative thing. And when we combine that with a frequency of defining people by their illness, then we start viewing the people who live with mental health conditions in a negative light.

This frequent stigmatizing language is generally not used with any other type of mental health condition. Yet even people who acknowledge that mental health is health often use language that leaves people in the shadows, casting negative lights on the people who live with mental health conditions.

While we are here to help support people with mental health conditions, we are also here to educate others. And you can help us do that by starting to be more mindful of the language you use when talking about mental health. And if you take something away from Mental Health Awareness Month, that is a pretty important thing.