Stigmatizing Synonyms for Mental Illness

Posted on April 25, 2015 in Mental Illness Stigma Vocabulary

I started this list in my head just before I took an afternoon nap. The urge to complete it was so strong that I dreamed additions to it. I do not pretend that it is the last word on the subject nor do I endorse the acceptability of most of them, but I have taken several days to compile it. If you want a list of stigma terms, this should be a good start.

ADD*	anal	anal retentive	apeshit
attention seeking nutters	ax murderer	barking (mad)	barmy
bats in the belfry	batty	berzerk	bipolar*
bipolar bitch	bonkers	borderline*	breakdown
broken	circus freak	compliant***	consumer****
conspiracy theorist	control freak	cracked	crackers
crackpot	crazy pills	creep	creepster
creepy	daft	dangerous	delusional
demented	deranged	dim	dingy
dippy	drama queen	emo	erratic
evil	few fries short of a happy meal	flaky	flipped out
fool	freak	freak out	going darth
going postal	gone	happy pills	have a screw loose
hysterical	insane	intense	kook
lazy	looney	looney bin	looney tunes
loopy	loose penny	loser	lost in space
lunatic	mad	mad as a hatter	mad as a March hare
mad(wo)man	maniac	mental	mentalist
mental health****	monster	moody	moonstruck
noncompliant***	nut	nutcase	nutjob
nuts	nutter	nutty	nutty as a fruit cake
obsessed	OCD	off the deep end	of unsound mind
nutty	nutty as a fruit cake	out of it	out of his/her mind
out of his/her tree	out to lunch	pedo	potty
psycho	rageaholic	retard	roller coaster rider
round the bend	scarey	schizo	screwball
screwed up	screwy	slut	space cadet
spaced out	spacey	stalker	tetched
touched	treatment resistant***	unbalanced	unglued
unhinged	unzipped	wack job	wacky
weird	weirdo	wingnut**	zombie
zombie	zombie meds	zoned out

Notice how many of these terms also suggest stupidity (e.g. flaky, a few fries short of a happy meal, etc.) or declare our madness a character flaw (e.g. evil, lazy).

British politicians came to an agreement not to use phrases that were perjorative towards the mentally ill in their campaigns. Why not come up with a list similar to this and ask that American political parties honor the same list?

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*Flippant use of these words to describe behaviors or individuals who are not diagnosed with the illness demeans those who are. Mental illness is not a joke. Just because she’s mad at you doesn’t mean she’s “bipolar”. Just because he wants to spend a little time getting his room clean doesn’t mean he is OCD. A typo doesn’t make her ADD. Stop using our diagnoses as insults or wit. These illnesses wreck our lives.

**This is used to imply that certain RW extremists border on insanity. This blindly insults them and it also tars people who do not want to be associated with their politics.

***Psychiatrists and other mental health professionals label us with jargon that can suggest that we are willful or stubborn about taking our meds or sticking to our treatment.

****These are terms which the therapy community tries to foist on us in an effort to prompt us not to think of ourselves as sick. Instead of promoting wellness, the tactic leads to denial and an unwillingness to face the symptoms that afflict us and make the lives of those we love difficult. They also imply that we are somehow to blame for our disease by failing to see it in the best possible light. Studies show that positive thinking has no more efficacy in the treatment of mental illness than pessimism; we need to replace it with realism.