Anxiety, depression, Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, bipolar, and panic attacks are terms that are mentioned daily, but they are often used in the wrong context. People have been misusing mental health terms for far too long, and it is time to put a stop to it. It is time that we define these words and only use them when in an appropriate situation.
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me is a popular saying that kids grow up hearing so they will protect themselves and gain some tough skin. This is all fine, and it is a good lesson for people to be tougher than hurtful words. However, when more serious words and terms are just being thrown around, it gives a legitimate reason to be hurt. Yes, our generation is often too sensitive when it comes to the hurtful words being thrown at us. Although, in situations where mental health terms are being used like any other words, it tends to belittle the actual disorder. If people use these words to describe every day things that have nothing to do with the disease, it is hard to take that disease seriously.
I am obviously not a doctor, but I wanted to explain how these words should and should not be used based off of how I hear them talked about in daily life.
Anxiety is a disorder that causes worry and nervous behavior that can very much affect someone’s day to day ability to perform normal tasks. Someone with anxiety may not be able to go to the supermarket because the crowds and the thought of talking to others can truly frighten and affect them. Anxiety is not a mood that one feels and can brush off easily. It is not another way to say that someone is shy and it is not a cute, quirky quality.
Depression is a serious mental illness, and not “just sadness,” and most definitely not laziness. When someone has depression, they often cannot get out of bed for days at a time because the disease takes over his or her body. They can have a wonderful life, and be happy, and sad, and have any other emotion that others would, but some days they will feel down and may not even be sure why. The term depression should not be used in replacement for sadness. If you use the saying, “My significant other just broke up with me, I am so depressed,” you are using this incorrectly. By using depressed in this context, it makes someone with clinical depression feel as though their disease is seen as something much less than it is. It makes it seem like depression can be cured with some good ice cream and a walk around the block. This is not the case at all.
ADHD is not taken seriously, when it should be seen as any other illness. ADHD includes difficulty paying attention as well as hyper-activeness. By someone saying, “I am so distracted from my homework right now, I definitely have ADHD,” it demeans this disorder completely. It is important to differentiate between the disease and being distracted.
OCD is classified as obsessive thoughts that turn into compulsive actions. A symptom of OCD could be someone not being able to sleep until they have counted something a certain number of times each night before bed. This is not the same as being clean and neat. It is also important to note that getting a little upset about some extra line from a marker that got left on the whiteboard, is not OCD.
Bipolar disorder is a disease that is often misunderstood as well as a term that is misused colloquially. There are multiple types of bipolar disorder, but the basic concept is that a person can have both manic behavior as well as severe depression. First thing is first; manic does not mean crazy. This person can often be stuck in this back and forth between extreme depression and mania; an obsessive behavior. This can last for a very long time. I have heard people say, “they were so moody, it’s like they’re bipolar or something,” or “they must be bipolar because they were so mean one second and so nice the next.” These are pretty offensive statements. Bipolar disorder is not moodiness or switching from being mean and nice. By saying things like this, it can make people with this disorder feel like the world is viewing them in a completely skewed way.
Lastly, panic attacks are very real and serious, but they are not talked about as such. Panic attacks come from anxiety, but they are much more than just that. Panic attacks will often consist of having physical trouble breathing, hyperventilating, and feeling helpless. Some sayings that I have heard a lot are, “I had a panic attack right before my test but then I got over it,” or “I’m going to have a panic attack when I see that cute guy." This completely belittles panic attacks because when someone is actually having one and cannot breathe properly, they will not be taken as seriously. People will think that they are just freaking out, when this is not what panic attacks are whatsoever.
Mental health should be taken seen in the same way as physical health, and by using these as well as more likewise terms incorrectly, it takes away the seriousness of the disorders. Being too sensitive about words hurting is one thing, but having misuse of language belittle a disease, is another. I hope that people will take this into consideration when choosing to use these words during everyday, during informal conversations.
