MENTAL DISORDERS ARE NOT ADJECTIVES

image source: https://www.instagram.com/p/BaGxSSJFNB8/
I thought of posting this kind of blog just earlier upon scrolling my other social media account. This is somehow an eye opener not only for me but for everybody. I guess many of us are guilty of innocently perpetuating the stigma related to mental illness. Admit it, even in just a simple conversation with our friends we unintentionally utter these lines such as "oh you're bipolar" or sometimes "i'm so depressed", and its easy for others to say "you're a psycho" ...
Others may think this is just an expression when we have nothing else to say or when we ran out of adjectives to describe someone. As a mental health advocate; being a licensed psychometrician and a member of Psychological Association of the Philippines (PAP), I feel the need of spreading awareness to the common public about these issues and somehow promoting psycho-education. And I find the steemit community as one good avenue in promoting mental health awareness. Depression is more than being sad. Schizophrenia is far more hard to spell figuratively than it is literally. And a number of mental disorders found in the DSM are far more complicated to understand than how it is read.

5 REASONS NOT TO USE MENTAL DISORDERS AS ADJECTIVES:

1. It's stigmatizing. By using mental illness in this way you are adding to the various stereotypes these disorders carry, which for the most part are untrue. Depression is more than being sad, OCD is more complex than just being a tidy person, anxiety is more than just being a little stressed.

2. It makes the conditions sound less serious than they really are. There are many different mental illnesses, and they are all complex and present themselves in different ways in different people. By using mental illness in this way, you are breaking the illness down to its simplest form, which often than not wrong anyway.

3. It discourages people from being open about their illness and may even stop them seeking treatment. If people hear their condition being treated like a joke they can feel invalidated and may be less likely to talk and be open about it for fear of being ridiculed.

4. The people with these illnesses are people, not their diagnosis. They deserve to be treated with the same respect you would show anyone else, without having their condition being treated like a joke.

5. It spreads misinformation. Mental illness is already a fairly misunderstood topic, and that needs to change. Let's start not using mental illnesses inaccurately in everyday conversation.

references: https://themighty.com/2016/11/why-you-shouldnt-use-mental-disorders-as-adjectives/

I hope I have shared something really valuable. Let's do our part to lessen these stigmas.

Thank you for sparing some time to read steemians! If we share the same advocacy, you are free to resteem this post. 😉

Much love,
-jinky-