I was sitting in class the other day when my teacher, who was talking about high school geometry, told us, “So I’m sure a lot of you have some PTSD thinking about your junior year math classes.” Then, he stopped himself abruptly and apologized for what he said. The class got really quiet. He admitted that maybe using post-traumatic stress disorder to describe a mildly annoying class wasn’t the best thing to do.

I was honestly shocked that he didn't just breeze past this blunder and go onto the next part of his lecture. And I really admired him for that, because nowadays, mental illnesses are becoming punch lines to seemingly harmless jokes and no one seems to care. I’ve been in situations where people describe their thoughts as “schizophrenic” if they just can’t think straight, or they laugh and claim to have ADHD because they got distracted by a cute dog.

Some people might claim that I’m being too “politically correct” by writing this article, but this is a topic close to my heart. As a society, we are finally realizing how inappropriate it is to use the words “retarded” and “gay” in derogatory ways, and that’s a huge step. I am now seeing events for campaigns like “Spread the Word to End the Word” on my campus and my heart is full. I think it’s time to start taking the misinformed use of mental illnesses seriously as well. For example, the following isn’t OK with me and it’s something I hear on a daily basis: “Oh my god, I am so OCD. I have to color-coordinate my planner; isn’t that so weird?!”

I've seen t-shirts and signs that say, "OCD: Obsessive Coffee Disorder," which is just tacky, to be honest. Obsessive compulsive disorder isn’t an adjective; it’s a mental illness that affects over 3.3 million people in the United States. You have to fill out a form declaring you have the disorder while applying for jobs if that’s any indication of how serious it is. OCD doesn’t mean you just like things organized , even though that can be a symptom. It is a disorder that fills your mind with unwanted thoughts and compulsions and compels you to do things that might not make sense to other people. I worry that people don’t know enough about the disorder, and that’s why it is spoken about so casually and jokingly.

The same can be said for anxiety and depression, for anorexia and bulimia. Really any form of mental illness. I’ve heard people say they suffer from “hair anorexia” because they like getting their hair cut a lot, which doesn’t even make sense. You can’t claim specific symptoms of a serious disorder as your own and use them to joke about your life. Well, I can’t tell you what to do, but I’m saying that it’s something you shouldn’t do. You would probably never joke around about a physical disorder, so why make light of a mental one? All I’m asking for is a little discretion and respect for those affected by mental illness because it’s something they live with every day.

Don’t try and score a few laughs by trivializing someone else’s reality.