One of the greatest attributes that someone can have is a good sense of humor, and an even better one is that they can laugh at themselves. Life is weird and things happen, but if we can make light of it then it seems a little easier.

Jokes are funny -- until they aren’t. When it comes to mental illnesses, the jokes quickly turn. There are so many other words you can use to describe something other than the names for the serious diseases that people are battling right now.

Chances are you struggle with some form of illness like the ones listed below, and so you know exactly how horrible it is to suffer every day from it. The chance that you know someone with one of these is incredibly higher and so you’ve seen what they have had to deal with every single day of their life. When you use the word retarded as an insult, you probably aren’t even hurting the person you are meaning to. The people that truly get hurt are the ones who are affected by it directly.

Most jokes are funny. Jokes about someone else’s serious health problems are not. Do you really understand what you are doing when you say any of the following in this form?

“I’m so depressed.”

“Stop being so OCD.”

“They go out so much, like, they are probably an alcoholic.”

“I wish I had ADHD so I could easily get the medication for it.”

“You’re so back and forth, stop being so bipolar.

“I’m going to kill myself if I don’t get an A on that exam.”

“I ate too much today, I need to make myself throw up.”

“I think I’m getting fat, I’ll just stop eating.”

“They talk to themselves sometimes, I bet they’re schizophrenic.”

“You read so slow, what are you dyslexic, geez.”

“You are crazy all the time I swear, you need to be committed.”

“Just forget about your anxiety and then we can go, you’re such a wuss.”

“Wow, they are so retarded.”

“You’re retarded I swear, lol.”

“Haha, I am so retarded.”

As someone who has and does suffer from some of these I can tell you this, when you are struggling with something like this it’s everything. It’s not like physical pain in the slightest and that’s a common problem in society. Generally you can’t just take a pill and have the pain go away or stop moving a certain way to avoid the suffering. However you move or whatever you take, those struggles and thoughts will always be there.

On the days where the clouds part and people with these ailments can truly laugh and enjoy their life while everything is still clear. It doesn’t help when you hear someone use your illness as an insult to someone else or even yourself. Everyone is trying every single day to get through another day, fighting some battle or another.

It all is pretty simple if you just think about it. There are how many words in the dictionary? You can use any one of them to describe something or someone. Mental illness is not a joke, it’s just not… life is hard enough with things out of our own control so maybe it’s time that we all stop making it harder for everyone, including ourselves.