Crazy?

I am currently helping a professor in the Psychology department gather research connecting integrated threat theory with mental illness. To get you up to speed, here is a quick lesson:

Integrated Threat Theory - the idea that different modes of perceived threat combine to create prejudice. Those modes are realistic threat (the fear of harm being done to one's body or possessions), symbolic threat (the idea that another group poses harm to beliefs or a way of life), inter-group anxiety (fears and ideas about another group based on an ingroup perspective), and negative stereotypes (longstanding negative beliefs about a group of people).

Through the scope of integrated threat theory, the professor wants to investigate attitudes toward people with mental illness(es). While I don't always approach things from a mental health perspective (in the sense of normative functioning, investigating disorders, etc), this is still right up my alley. It is all of the things I talk about, just from a different perspective. I'm already finding some interesting information.

For one, people desire social distance from those with mental illness. Another thing is that people feel sympathy and/or pity for those with mental illness. Some people view people with mental illness as dangerous and unpredictable. Others say they need help. An interesting bond to tie all of these assumptions is that people often do not know how to recognize mental illness, people often incorrectly recognize mental illness (schizophrenia =/= dissociative identity disorder, but it is readily painted that way in the media and common language; being bipolar is not simply switching from one mood to the next in the matter of moments), and, in general, there is misinformation about and misuse of the terms related to mental illness.

Why? People with mental illness are just like the rest of us. Some mental illnesses are dangerous, but even so, should we just write these people off as dangerous, as crazy? Should we throw around words like crazy and nuts (which I admit I do) as though they are nothing? And, very importantly, when we refer to someone as crazy, does that mean we need to separate ourselves from them as though they pose a real threat to us?

As with many things I talk about on this blog, this is not a black and white issue. As I said, some people with mental illness are a danger to themselves or others. However, people without mental illness can be a danger to themselves or others. It's time we took down the stigma surrounding mental illness and educated ourselves. It's time we learned how they are caused, what they look like, that mental illness does not mean people are going to chase us with knives, that having a mental illness (to even be diagnosed with one) someone has to be undergoing a tremendous amount of distress or pain, which is only compounded by the existing stigmas surrounding mental illness.

Maybe it's time to watch our language and treat people with respect. We don't have to keep pretending people with mental illnesses don't deserve respect or help, and we don't need to be patronizing. By changing ourselves, we can change the way people seek help, if they even do at all.

Also, insane is a legal term which does not suddenly absolve criminals of charges, and stop using the word retarded as a placemarker for stupid.