Words that matter...

Last night I did a stupid thing. I wrote about mental illness when angry at the very illness itself. Not good policy for a blogger who is trying to help others gain insight into a bipolar disorder. Thank God it only got two reads before I deleted it!

The subject of my blog was whether words matter when discussing mental illness. Words like psycho, crazy disturbed, nuts, are all being singled out to be eradicated from our speech so as not to stigmatize mental illness. I get it. I have been extremely hurt by these words in my own journey with bipolar disorder. I too think they should be removed from the conversation. However, I don't think some things should be changed. It is being suggested that we say a person is "living with"mental illness instead of suffering from it. I beg to differ. I suffer from mental illness. In every sense of the word my life is affected by bipolar disorder. I suffer from extreme depression. It is debilitating. I feel like I am swimming in mud, trapped in a pit with no light and no way out. I feel like everyone else is breathing and living their lives out while I am gasping for air. It is suffering at it's zenith. I think that if others get a glimpse of how painful it is they will respond with empathy and understanding. Isn't that what stigmatization is all about? The misunderstanding of the impact and nature of these mental illness with the result of labeling us with words like psycho and crazy?


The new vernacular when discussing mental disorders is confusing. Another suggestion has been to change the word Schizophrenia to a more socially acceptable name. I don'r know what that word would be. I do know that bipolar disorder used to be called manic-depression. Perhaps it was thought that manic was too controversial of a word to describe the experience. Mania conjures up images of bizarre behavior and out of control actions. Perhaps the word mania in labeling the disease was more stigmatizing than "bipolar". I have even read recently that we should take the "mental" out of mental illness" and seek a more holistic moniker. I can see how these attempts are being made to make mental illness more acceptable to society but are we losing something in the process? We quibble over words when so much else needs to be done.

I think the most effective way to fight stigma is to put a face to the diagnosis. If a person sees a living breathing person behind the label, they are much more likely to be open to their experience. The more that people come out and share their stories the better. It's hard to stigmatize when given a lot of information on the plight of a person.

Mental illness is like any other disease, it affects people, living breathing human beings! We are not our diagnosis. I am not a bipolar. I am Donna. It is important to make that distinction. I believe that if we get to know the people behind the diagnosis we will be less apt to discriminate and to label. If you know me as a mother, a daughter, a sister,a friend you will not see me as someone consumed by a mental illness. Yes, I suffer from it, it takes it's toll, but it does not define me. I hope I am defined by more than just mania and depression! Like everyone else on a journey to become a fully realized human being, I want to be seen as compassionate, kind, loving and gracious. These are all qualities that I need to work on, just like everyone else. I am much more than my diagnosis and I hope that the more people hear stories like mine,
the closer we will be to a true picture of what it's like to be mentally ill.