Mental illnesses or mental disorders are a group of conditions that affect a person's mood, thinking, and behavior. There are over 200 mental illnesses listed for possible diagnosis. Some of the more common ones include anxiety, depression, anorexia, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and bipolar disorder. These disorders are very real to the people living with them, and they're nothing to joke about. They're not words that you can throw around in a casual conversation.
"She looks so anorexic."
"My life is so depressing."
"You're so OCD about everything."
Stop. Just stop.
By using these illnesses as adjectives instead of just leaving them to be the name of their disorder, you are mocking the people living with these illnesses. Maybe your life is sad because you had a bad day, but it isn't depressing. Depression is an illness, and it shouldn't be used to describe a minor problem or issue.
Just because someone is skinny doesn't mean they're anorexic. Not all anorexic people are underweight. Anorexia is a disorder than causes a person to starve themselves. It isn't a word used to describe someone small.
OCD, or obsessive compulsive disorder, is an illness in which excessive thoughts lead to repetitive behaviors. Some people have to do things a certain number of times, or they fall into a routine in which everything has to be the same. OCD isn't an adjective to describe a quirk, or something a little strange that someone does.
And although it isn't a mental disorder, suicide typically will go hand in hand with mental illnesses, most commonly depression. I hear people say "I want to kill myself" almost every single day, whether it be when something doesn't go their way or that they have a lot of homework, or whatever it is. I'm even guilty of it. And it has to stop. Suicide isn't a joke. It's a real problem that so many people and families face this issue every single day.
So the next time you think about using one of these words, remember that thousands of people across the country are struggling with these disorders every single day. They aren't just words that should be thrown around without thought. They're real problems.
