Member-only story
The Harm Caused by Using Psychiatric Terms Incorrectly
How using mental illness terms such as psycho, psychotic, OCD, sociopath, schizophrenic, manic, psychopath, and bipolar to label people is harmful to people with mental illness and the people who love them.
Some people will look at this title and think: “Here we go again. Another silly rant with demands for political correctness.” As a writer who focuses on mental health and disability topics, I tend to roll my eyes, too, at some of the outrageous demands for political correctness in the disability community.
When it comes to terminology regarding mental illness, however, I think that as a society, we need to take a second look at the language we use and the harm that misuse of these terms can cause.
I have loved ones, friends, and people in my life with serious mental health disorders such as chronic depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. People misuse the mental health terms such as:
- psycho
- psychotic
- schizophrenic
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
- sociopath
- manic
- psychopath
- bipolar
They perpetuate myths about mental illness, create stigma, blame the mentally…
