Fair Warning: I WILL challenge this kind of bigotry.

[TygrBright]

It's pervasive, not just on DU but everywhere.

It's damaging, not just to those stigmatized, but to the success of the society that stigmatizes us.

It's insidious, I even catch myself doing it.

It's amorphous and easily disclaimed, which doesn't make it any less real.

I have a chronic brain disease. I am "mentally ill."

I am not a criminal, I am not crippled (other than occasional, private, temporary incapacity that causes me way more pain than it does anyone else.) I am not thoughtless, I am not dangerous.

I am not a Republican, a Libertarian, a Wingnut, a <anyone else whose beliefs offend you so much that you can't think of anything worse to attribute them to than the action of a chronic brain disorder.>

Chronic brain disorders affect nearly one in three people, at some time in their lives, at some degree of acuity. Some of us experience one temporarily, some of us live with one (or more) for life.

Mental illness, chronic brain disorders, distort our thinking by their very nature. It's our brain that is disordered, and that's where we think.

Some of us act on distorted thinking in ways that harm ourselves. A smaller percentage of us act on distorted thinking in ways that harm others. A much smaller percentage. The majority of people who deliberately act to harm others do not have chronic brain disorders, they are not mentally ill.

Many, even most of us, get treatment for our brain disorders. We are in recovery. We understand the effects our disorder has on our thinking and work to overcome them. We deal, on a regular basis, with pain, shame, feelings of inferiority, self-doubt, and self-hatred. We do not need to have those feeling reinforced, they are our familiar companions.

Mental illness is not equivalent to stupidity. It is not equivalent to moral turpitude. It is not equivalent to inferiority. It is not equivalent to criminality. It is not equivalent to evil, thoughtlessness, mental incapacity, etc.

When we here on DU post articles about "[this or that form of anti-social or undesirable action] is a form of mental illness" those articles are rarely making a legitimate point about symptoms of a chronic brain disorder, and how people who suffer from chronic brain disorders experience our illness in the context of our larger humanity.

More often, such articles are an explicit or thinly-veiled way of linking "bad" to "mental illness."

If you look back in history (and not too damn' far,) you can find similar articles about the inferiority and moral turpitude of melanin-advantaged humans. You can find articles equating having two "X" chromosomes to all kinds of inferior and socially undesirable characteristics. You can find articles about the dreadful, unavoidable, social and behavioral sequelae of being sexually-oriented to same-sex or other socially-disapproved gender partners.

And of course, very often, you can find those stigmatized groups stigmatized further by being presumed to suffer from mental illness.

You know what? I'm damn' proud of the fact that every group an oppressive, dysfunctional social system feels the need to marginalize has been presumed to be like me. We are the ones who are different. We are the ones who challenge. We are the ones who provide humanity with the incentive to evolve.

If you look at the roster of humanity's greatest artists, inventors, humanitarians, and idealists, you will find a very high percentage of them with chronic brain disorders.

By assuming that a disease is all we are, you marginalize us. You dehumanize us. By dismissing anything you disapprove of as "a symptom of mental illness," you perpetuate stigma.

If all you know about me is that I'm mentally ill, you don't know me. You are then free to make assumptions about me. Most of them will be wrong, but that won't matter, because after all, the most important thing about me is that I'm mentally ill, right? If you know that, you don't need to know more.

So, fair warning: From now on, when I stumble onto an OP or a subthread that equates "mental illness" with evil, stupidity, etc., either apparently with intent, or thoughtlessly, I WILL challenge that equation. I will do so politely.

But I will do so.

firmly,
Bright

[irisblue]

1. You are a blessing to DU

Your speaking out about your mental health illness is brave. I hope someday people will see mental illness as just an illness, like diabetes or heart disease or epilepsy, a condition (for want of a better word) that can be managed and lived with.

[TygrBright]

9. Thank you for your kind words.

I was originally going to try and make this post about the careless use of words... But where do you START?

Think about it, when you're intending to insult some person, or some person's actions, how much of the English language vocabulary of insults is based on the stigma of mental illness?

We have a LONG way to go.

appreciatively,
Bright

[gaspee]

2. As will I

When I see it. You are 100% correct.

[progressoid]

3. +1

[LittleBlue]

4. Good point

We should all be mindful of how we express those sentiments.

K&R

[KamaAina]

5. Well done!

[hedgehog]

6. And, if I may add, please do not pontificate to us about how pills are pushed by Big Pharma -

for many of us, those pills are the difference between living and sitting in the corner staring at the wall!

[fizzgig]

10. i remember the ugliness of being unmedicated

my meds give me quality of life.

[hfojvt]

7. kind of an anemic attitude there

I hear/see that a lot, and it usually kinda raises my hackles.

"Anemic" that is, used as a pejorative. I had iron deficiency anemia for as long as I could remember. Supposedly almost killed me when I was five. To be anemic, means to be weak, and weak, of course, is bad.

But most people, when they use a word like that, do not really mean to stigmatize any person, or group of people. It's really just a way of talking.

How, for example, are we supposed to talk about the guy who killed this little girl? http://www.kansas.com/2014/02/22/3306375/springfield-residents-honor-memory.html

Most of us have been taught to call him a "nut", a "lunatic", a "psycho", or a "freak".

They said, or did, something that is far beyond the bounds of normal, in a negative way, and beyond the bounds of "acceptable". If we cannot say that they are crazy, then what other word/words do we have? How are they NOT somehow "sick in the head".

[TygrBright]

11. "Evil" and "criminal" work for me.

I agree with you that the vocabulary of insult is largely based on this stigma. And that it's a lot to expect that we transform those assumptions overnight.

But is that any reason not to start?

Not to at least be aware of it?

crazily,
Bright

[hfojvt]

20. criminal is not nearly strong enough

Jaywalking is criminal. Speeding is criminal. Stealing food is criminal. Stealing money is criminal.

But those are crimes that at least make SENSE. Most people could see themselves doing such things, if they were in a hurry, or desperate enough.

Raping and killing a ten year old girl simply does not make any sense whatsoever. It's mind-bogglingly inexplicable. Especially in the face of the obvious consequences.

Evil is sort of too generic, and in some ways we expect the evil to at least be SANE. Evil is often portrayed as wanting power, being mean, and being selfish. All of which have a certain amount of logic to them. To be evil for evils sake seems a little bit more demented, harder to understand.

I mean this alleged guy has seemingly lived an ordinary life. Going to work, having relationships, etc. Suddenly one day he is driving around and sees a ten year old girl and thinks "hey, maybe I should kidnap, rape and kill her. I've always wanted to do that to a little girl."

It doesn't make any damned sense.

[TygrBright]

26. "we expect the evil to at least be SANE"....?

That's an interesting observation.

I'm not sure about what it says in terms of the assumption that evil is better or worse than mental illness.

I do agree with you that some human actions are so horrifying as to baffle understanding. In cases like that "insanity" is a satisfyingly awful descriptive. But doesn't the fact that it IS satisfyingly awful say something about the level of stigma we perpetuate when we use it?

If you look at the link in my response to another poster, below, you'll see a post I did on the topic of the guy who cut his own child's throat for the purpose of hurting his ex-wife, the child's mother. Another action that boggles the mind and defies understanding. Nevertheless, the automatic conflation of such actions with mental illness represents not just a perpetuation of stigma, but a barrier to working toward better medical, moral, legal, and social understanding of how such things arise within human beings.

persistently,
Bright

[passiveporcupine]

32. instead of broad brushing them as mentally ill

Can't we be more specific with what is wrong with the way they think? Like calling them a sociopath?

[defacto7]

36. Personally, I think that is very appropriate and specific.

It depicts a person who is incapable of compassion, remorse or empathy. It also covers one who can lie as if it's real to the point of living that lie to the exclusion of fact then blow it off in a moment when no longer an advantage. A true sociopath can be a very dangerous person but most sociopaths are actually called borderlines who walk both sides of the condition and can be a very good next door neighbor but they don't really see you, they only see their own will at any cost.

It's an appropriate word for criminals as well as many politicians... as well as criminal politicians... as well as politicians who would be criminals if they knew they could get away with it.

[pipi_k]

46. I think doing that

is possibly getting into the realm of diagnosis, which people who aren't mental health professionals should not do.

"Mentally ill" works, IMO, and here's why I think so...

Because people who do terrible things are NOT mentally healthy.

I guess the other choice might be to call them "evil", but then again...how can someone tell who is "evil" and who is not?

[nil desperandum]

33. taught to call it mental illness

It certainly is uncomfortable to think people can engage in this behavior and be assessed as perfectly normal and of average or above average intellect....by associating this behavior with mental illness our society can separate this behavior from those of us who are supposedly normal and not prone to killing children.

There is a certain discomfort in articles like that when the possibility exists that we are no better than any other mammal that kills its own young, or the young of others of the same species....it reveals more of our animal nature than we like to consider.

The possibility that our existence is no more than a giant cosmic joke of chemistry and we are nothing more than an advanced species of predator that kills everything including members of its own species is quite disconcerting for many people...looking at how we humans have behaved thus far I'm amazed that the earth hasn't decided that, like the dinosaur, our time has passed and it's time to try a new species and wipe us off the planet to cleanse it and make room for the next chapter.

[fizzgig]

8. i hate the conservative douchebaggery = mental illness bit

those people are just ignorant, hateful assholes.

i am medicated bipolar and open about it and am lucky to not have to deal with stigma irl. but the widespread assumption that there is something wrong with me is infuriating, the assumption that i'm violent and unstable. we do not define cancer patients or diabetics by their illness, but stigmatizing people with a mental illness is socially acceptable and needs to change. we're just everyday folk dealing with an invisible condition. we are othered by the fact that we're defined as being mentally ill rather than having a physical condition (i don't consider myself to have an illness). brain disorders are just as physical as other conditions.

i will be there with you if i see such things.

[TygrBright]

13. Thank you.

And apropos the issue of "diagnosis" and "definition," as well as a trope on the language and stigma, please let me link to this, from nearly a year ago. Alas that so little has changed, here on DU, in that interval:

Mental Illness, Evil, and Blame

appreciatively,
Bright

[HereSince1628]

16. But we aren't just everyday folk...we are people who other people discriminate against

The general public acquires prejudice based on the language and defaults to two considerations of us...

We are stereotyped as unpredictably dangerous, incompetent or both. When members of society act on that the result is discrimination against us in hiring, promotion, housing and social/family associations. The response of government and the justice system is no better.

People acquire a belief that we can't be trusted, with trivial or important responsibilities. Our possibilities are endangered by the facile capacity of many others who 'mean no harm' and whose language simply demands using us as iconic colorful disparagements to publicly heap upon their opponents.

It's a disappointing curiosity of liberal existence how so many people that fully grasp that demeaning speech about ethnicities, genders, etc harms those targets yet don't see similar dangers in using speech that demeans persons who struggle with current illness or who are marked by past struggles with mental illness.

[TygrBright]

19. I wish I could recommend your reply! n/t

[fizzgig]

42. well stated as always

[Rider3]

12. Thank you for this.

[Behind the Aegis]

14. Extremely well stated!

Mental health issues in this country are a serious problem, and much of it stems from not understanding them. Some need more attention than others, but that is the way with any disease or disorder. Understanding.

[DonCoquixote]

15. This Asberger's sufferer salutes you

and begs his fellow aspies to K and R!

[hfojvt]

25. as a borderline Aspie

I would not say that I suffer. Or really that I even have any kind of "illness".

It's probably just me, but rather than wanting some kind of cure to make me more like everybody else, I sorta think that many other people need some kind of cure to make them more like me. Not sure if there is a pill for that, though.

In what ways do you suffer?

[DonCoquixote]

27. From BS people do not understand

I myself would not change, but when people consider you creepy or stupid because youa re not like them, yes, that is suffering, and frankly, that is why the OP rings true.

[hfojvt]

28. but it is not the "illness" making you suffer

it is society.

And changing that is far more than just changing the way people speak.

[defacto7]

35. Well then...

K & R!

There are assets and there are difficulties for me; it's mostly the social difficulties where over the years I've found I have to constantly script everything in advance with other people. I've become pretty apt at it but when the script runs out, that's when being a fish out of water is an appropriate analogy. I've been pretty successful but it's been a long road. I do wish I was more fluid with people, I love people, I just see and hear very different things than most do. I suppose that's the same for most of us who have low level autism.

[Warren DeMontague]

17. What you describe is an intellectually lazy shorthand way to criticize, and I have been guilty of it

myself.

I've also been called on it by other members of this site who have privately expressed similar sentiments to your OP. As such, I try not to do it anymore.

You make an excellent point, thank you for the reminder.

[TygrBright]

18. Thank YOU for being aware.

Paying attention is where it starts.

No one is perfect, and the language that perpetuates this stigma is incredibly pervasive. We won't change this overnight.

But people who are willing to think about it, and try to change, are the "early adopters" of evolving humanity.

respectfully,
Bright

[cali]

21. I'll stand with you, Bright. Great Post.

[one_voice]

22. k&r

Awesome OP!

[Liberal_in_LA]

23. kick

[defacto7]

24. Brilliant!

This is the part most don't see, want to accept, or respect:

" We are the ones who are different. We are the ones who challenge. We are the ones who provide humanity with the incentive to evolve.

If you look at the roster of humanity's greatest artists, inventors, humanitarians, and idealists, you will find a very high percentage of them with chronic brain disorders. "

This is the fact.

I have my own asymmetrical assets but I don't usually find it difficult to hear certain words as insults that depict those of us who are eccentric in this manner and I have dropped a couple of them myself. But I don't wish to offend anyone who is sensitive to it so I'll keep myself in check.

There are real insults depicting a criminal that are not incorrectly defined or trite. Uncivil is as good as any but a person would have to be interested in advancing their vocabulary... and that seem difficult around here.

Thanks for this post.

[TygrBright]

34. I love the term "asymmetrical assets"! Thanks for the kind words. n/t

[madfloridian]

29. Well said and much needed.

[passiveporcupine]

30. This is a great take-away from this thread

If you look at the roster of humanity's greatest artists, inventors, humanitarians, and idealists, you will find a very high percentage of them with chronic brain disorders.

Without mental "differences", we would not have many of the most talented people we have in this world.

Is it really mental illness? Or are we just all somewhere on a spectrum, and some are at the top of the bell curve, while others are not?

[CFLDem]

31. Thank you for sharing.

[defacto7]

37. I think another appropriate word

that fits too many people these days is "passive aggressive". That seems almost epidemic right now. It's a very sad state of being and makes life for the possessor as well as those around them exponentially angry over nothing. It's one of the most popular forms of incivility right now and totally useless.

Humanity would do itself a lot of good to lose that one.

[TygrBright]

39. I think that what we call "passive aggressive" response is predicated on two things:

The first one is an overall emotional ignorance that has arisen out of our collective need to condition ourselves to a very dysfunctional culture. It assigns "appropriateness" coefficients to various feelings and the manifestation thereof, and relates the coefficients themselves to all kinds of irrelevant criteria, such as gender, social background, environment, etc.

Powerful emotions, such as anger, are manipulated based on the needs of our dysfunctional culture, rather than on our understanding of the feeling and how to deal with it positively. We can't teach everyone about having and dealing with anger positively because if certain classes of people started actually doing that, it would disrupt the structures of power and influence. The same is true of other powerful emotions.

We are pretty much emotional imbeciles, because the irrational, fragile but incredibly complex and powerful structure of who gets what, who does what, etc., in our culture demands that we respond to our own powerful feelings only in carefully circumscribed ways.

So that's one factor. The other is the pervasiveness of fear.

We have become almost completely dependent on fear to maintain the status quo: To ward off social disruption, disorder, and the uncontrollable spiral into destructive violence we have set the stage for.

Fear ignites our fight/flight response. But there's nothing to "do" with that response in the face of a pervasive, floating anxiety and fear. It transmutes into anger, but there's no appropriate focus for that anger, so we internalize it, and express it passively in all kinds of situations and settings whenever our anxiety is tweaked.

speculatively,
Bright

[steve2470]

38. great OP thanks nt

[totodeinhere]

40. Thank you for your very well reasoned comment. But in defense of a lot of commenters at DU,

when they call conservatives or Republicans "crazy" it is not meant as an offense to those suffering from mental illness. "Crazy" is more of a generic term which fits very nicely the Michelle Bachmann's and the Rick Santorum's of this world. I have called people like them crazy on several occasions. If that offends you I apologize but it is not meant to offend.

[BrainDrain]

41. I love these kinds of statements.....

"If you look at the roster of humanity's greatest artists, inventors, humanitarians, and idealists, you will find a very high percentage of them with chronic brain disorders. "

It is always easy to attribute disorders/non-disorders, attitudes, or imagined and barely perceived likes and dislikes to historical figures of the past. And the further in the past the better, because any statements about a well known or revered historical figure will be purely conjecture the further back you go because we have no reliable proof. No clinical diagnosis, no hard medical evidence. We have anecdotes, observations and guess work. Like the ever famous "How did King Tut die?", that is a question that can be answered any number of ways depending on who is doing the looking, and what they are trying to prove/disprove.

Hitler had one testicle, Napoleon had epilepsy, Alexander died of a rare blood disorder and so on.

My Mom had narcolepsy, a "chronic brain disorder", and would fall asleep anywhere any time doing anything. Even with her meds she would be talking to you one minute and snoring the next. Was she evil? Nope. Was she dangerous? Absolutely. Imagine her behind the wheel of a car doing 60mph and you get the idea. And please, that is not as absurd as it sounds. NY state won't take, (and didn't take my Mom's) your drivers license away from you because of narcolepsy, or a raft of other "chronic brain disorders".

This not prejudice. This is reality. Think about that the next time you have your family in the car going down the highway.

[LuvNewcastle]

43. That's a beautifully written post, TygrBright. Thank you.

[chervilant]

44. OMG!!! I cannot thank you enough for this OP!!

I hope that you will allow me to quote you in a letter I'm writing to my bipolar niece:

"Mental illness is not equivalent to stupidity. It is not equivalent to moral turpitude. It is not equivalent to inferiority. It is not equivalent to criminality. It is not equivalent to evil, thoughtlessness, mental incapacity, etc."

My niece is mired in self-blaming and shaming. She grew up with the message that mental illness is equivalent to stupidity and inferiority, because her bipolar mother (now 57) has spent decades denying her own disease and conveying that message.

Your post is a wondrous gift to me, and I hope you will allow me to quote you.

[TygrBright]

50. I would be deeply honored to be of any help to you and your family.

Living with, and maintaining recovery from, a chronic brain disorder is tough enough-- the sense of being "alone out there" makes it even tougher.

She is NOT alone, and there are some great resources for bipolar folks on the Web.

appreciatively,
Bright

[Eleanors38]

45. Fruitful grounds in the gun-control threads, here.

Good luck in your endeavors.

[cordelia]

47. This is quite lovely.

Thank you for taking the time and effort.

[pipi_k]

48. The only thing

I would take issue with is this:

The majority of people who deliberately act to harm others do not have chronic brain disorders, they are not mentally ill.

Because it suggests...very strongly...that the majority of people who deliberately act to harm others are perfectly normal and mentally healthy.

I do not think that's the case.

Normal, healthy people don't go around hurting others.


that , IMO, must mean that people who hurt others intentionally have something wrong with them.

Now, are they mentally ill...or are they "evil"?

As far as I'm concerned, calling someone "evil" without knowing that person's history (upbringing, medical, etc) is not helpful at all. In fact, it's pretty mean.


and just in passing, this is an issue I'm pretty familiar with myself...mental illness, I mean. I have a handful of diagnoses, of decades-long duration. My biggest problem is being accused of "slacking", "looking for attention", "faking", etc., by people who don't understand because they're not visible, like a broken bone.

[TygrBright]

51. Maybe rather than trying to find the right label, we should put our effort...

...into understanding people on an individual basis?

And instead of assuming that our judgment of them based on a label is a solution to our problems and theirs, we could look at ways to build a culture that does less to distort and dehumanize people?

hopefully,
Bright

[stevenleser]

49. Well said.

We can all use a reminder now and then.

[Jamastiene]

52. I wish there was something more than just a K&R for this thread.

Thank you.