"Ugh, this weather is so bipolar!"
"Oh my gosh, she looks so anorexic!"
"Wow, this movie is making me so depressed."
"I'm so OCD about my schoolwork."
"That almost gave me a panic attack!"
Mental illnesses are serious diagnoses, not adjectives to just be thrown around. Now, hear me out. I'm not by any means saying that people who use these words as adjectives are purposefully using these in a malicious manner. Because 9 times out of 10, that is not the intent whatsoever. But while people who use these illnesses as adjectives don't mean any harm by it, it not only trivializes the severity of these psychological disorders, but it also perpetuates further misunderstandings and stigma surrounding them.
Bipolar disorder, also called manic-depressive illness, is not simply flipping from one way to another in the blink of an eye. Bipolar disorder is, as defined by NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health), "a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels, and the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks". The weather being sunny one day and rainy and cold the next is not "bipolar". It's unpredictable, volatile, fluctuating, erratic, wavering, uncertain...there are plenty of other words to use instead of bipolar.
Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder. Anorexia is characterized by severe restriction in food intake, inaccurate perception of one's size (seeing oneself as overweight even when clearly not), excessive exercise, and intense fear of gaining weight, among other factors. Anorexia is a mental illness, therefore it is hard to tell if someone has an eating disorder or not simply by just looking at them. Some people are naturally thin, while some people actually do suffer from eating disorders. It is important not to use the term anorexic when describing a complete stranger physically. There are other words that can be used to describe a person who is thin...or what if we just didn't comment on weight in general?
The movie you're watching is not making you depressed. Depression isn't simply an extreme version of sadness. Depression is a common but serious mood disorder. It causes severe symptoms that affect how you feel, think, and handle daily activities, such as sleeping, eating, or working. Many people also don't realize that to be diagnosed with depression, these symptoms have to be present for at least two weeks. I can guarantee that the sad movie you watched is not going to cause you to be sad, lose interest in your normal daily activities, or want to just lay in bed all day for two weeks. The movie didn't depress you. The movie mad you sad, upset, blue, gloomy, unhappy, heavyhearted...not depressed. There is a difference.
Many people use the phrase "being OCD" like it is a positive thing. Mental illnesses are not positives, and OCD is no exception. While being neat and orderly is a good thing, that isn't what OCD is. This is an example of a mental illness being used as an adjective that has perpetuated a misunderstanding. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, according to NIMH is "a common, chronic and long-lasting disorder in which a person has uncontrollable, reoccurring thoughts (obsessions) and behaviors (compulsions) that he or she feels the urge to repeat over and over." OCD and being organized aren't the same thing.
Maybe you had something happen to you that made you really confused or frustrated or surprised or caught of guard. But you probably didn't almost have a panic attack. Panic disorder is an anxiety disorder that is characterized by the fear of losing control or the fear of disaster. When someone has a panic attack, their symptoms can be comparable to that of a heart attack. In fact, many people who have panic attacks end up in the hospital because their symptoms are so close to heart attack symptoms. A panic attack isn't the same as the slight "freak out" you had when you nearly rear-ended the car in front of you while driving or nearly forgot about turning in an assignment.
I don't give all of this information to be condescending or to reprimand people who may use or have used these disorders as adjectives in conversation. The reason I am giving all of this information to to inform people. Mental disorders have such a stigma surrounding them in our society today that unless you've personally dealt with one or unless you're a psychology major, you probably don't quite understand what they are. And that's completely fine. But I do want to point out that it is important to be sensitive to those who may be around you when you say these things. Those people who may feel like their problems are trivialized when they hear these phrases, or people who may feel like they are "weird" or "strange" because of what they have been through.
Just like we don't use physical illnesses to describe things, let's be sure not to use mental illnesses to describe things either, because either way, physical or mental, they're both serious illnesses. One of them just happens to be in the brain, one happens to be in the rest of the body. And plus, we have a plethora of words that we can use instead. Choose one of those.
