2016 is (thankfully, finally) coming to a close, which means the new year is just around the corner. With the new year comes New Year’s resolutions, and I’ve got a great one to propose for everyone reading this. In 2017, we’re all going to stop using legitimate mental illnesses and their associated terms to describe our own and other people’s little quirks.
It might be second nature for you to describe that professor who seems to be in a drastically different mood every lecture as “bipolar,” but by doing so, you’re trivializing mental illness to be something simple and in the control of the person who has it, while simultaneously strengthening the negative stigma surrounding mental illness by using the term as an insult. I’ve compiled a list of commonly misused mental illness terms, aided by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, so maybe you can use this as your handy guidebook for 2017 when the urge to describe something hits.
1. Panic Attack
What It Is: An uncontrollable, intense surge of anxiety and fear that can be triggered by a specific occurrence like speaking in public, but can also happen out of nowhere for no apparent reason. Symptoms of a panic attack are sometimes physical, such as hyperventilation, numbness, and chest pains. If panic attacks are more frequent, they may be associated with panic disorder or agoraphobia (a fear of getting trapped in small or public spaces).
What It Isn’t: The feeling you get when someone scares you, the feeling of being nervous before a test, the feeling you get when you sleep through your alarm.
Word Substitutes (for when what you’re experiencing isn’t a panic attack): really scared, terrified, nervous, worried, made my heart race
2. Anxiety
What It Is: A disorder or mental illness that includes phobias, social anxiety disorders, and generalized anxiety disorders. Anxiety looks different for different people but sometimes includes excessive worry or fear over minor concerns or an overwhelming fear of being embarrassed or judged by others, to the point where it can impact performance at school or work.
What It Isn’t: Being shy, getting nervous about speaking in front of people sometimes, worrying about unnecessary things sometimes.
Word Substitutes (for when what you’re experiencing isn’t anxiety): nervous, shy, uncomfortable, worried
3. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
What It Is: A mental illness made up of obsessions and compulsions. Obsessions include thoughts and images that can be distressing and uncomfortable, while compulsions are actions meant to reduce anxiety from the obsessions. These obsessions and compulsions are uncontrollable, even if the person experiencing OCD knows they don’t make sense.
What It Isn’t: Having a lucky routine, being very organized, liking things to be clean, wanting items to be in a certain order.
Word Substitutes (for when what you’re experiencing isn’t OCD): organized, orderly, neat, clean
4. Depression
What It Is: A mental illness that affects a person’s mood. Depression can make it hard to make decisions, concentrate, or enjoy things you used to be interested in. Depressions sometimes changes a person’s eating and sleeping patterns, and may result in physical changes.
What It Isn’t: Feeling sad, having an off-day, not being in the mood for something you love, having trouble sleeping.
Word Substitutes (for when what you’re experiencing isn’t depression): sad, down, unhappy, feeling blue, in a bad mood
5. Bipolar Disorder
What It Is: A mental illness also affecting mood, where a person will experience episodes of depression and mania. Mania is an unusually high mood, and a person may act without thinking or do something risky while experiencing an episode of mania. Bipolar disorder looks different for everyone, with varying frequencies of episodes of mania or episodes of depression.
What It Isn’t: Experiencing mood swings, being moody, being very emotional, someone being uncommonly rude
Word Substitutes (for when what you’re experiencing isn’t bipolar disorder): moody, emotional, not in the best mood
6. Anorexia Nervosa
What It Is: An eating disorder where the person restricts the amount of food they eat and increases exercise to try to reduce their weight to one that isn’t normal for their body. A person experiencing anorexia nervosa may think about their body weight as a measure of their self-worth. Signs of anorexia nervosa appear in many ways, so weight isn’t the only measure of the eating disorder.
What It Isn’t: Being smaller for your age, not eating as much as other people, having a naturally smaller body type.
Word Substitutes (for when what you’re experiencing isn’t anorexia nervosa): There really isn’t any reason why anyone should be commenting on anyone else’s weight. Eating disorders affect all different sizes of people, so any kind of assumption about someone’s eating habits because of their size is unnecessary. So if you’re tempted to comment on someone’s weight, perhaps out of worry for their health, try asking if they’re OK, or if they’ve been feeling alright lately. That will show you care more than incorrectly labelling them with an eating disorder ever will.
7. Trigger
What It Is: A sight, sound, touch, smell, or taste that causes the person to flash back to an event of trauma in their past. Triggers may cause a person to relive their traumatic experience or remember details they had been trying to repress.
What It Isn’t: Something that reminds you of something emotional or a past memory, a joke.
Word Substitutes (for when what you’re experiencing isn’t a trigger): flashback, reminder, bad memory, emotional memory
Unfortunately, the stigma surrounding mental illness still exists, and using these terms in the negative ways we often do doesn’t help. Though it may not be intentional, every time we use these words in trivial, negative ways, we cause someone we know and love to realize that they can’t trust us with the seriousness of their own mental illness.