The Facts
I am on a mission. As a psychiatrist my mission is to push back and resist, any and all attempt to disrespect my patients and their suffering. A week after the FL high school shooting, the rhetoric surrounding the mental illness has gotten uglier, more cruel and is trickling down from the top. Never in my wildest imaginations, I thought that the derogatory terms used to describe patients with mental illness, would be thrown around from one of the highest offices of our country. I have heard words like, "sicko savage", "insane monster", "lunatics", "crazy", "nuts", "wacko", "madman", and the list goes on.
Please put the breaks on!!
This irresponsible and disrespectful course of using derogatory terms about patients, who suffer from mental illness, has to stop. There is a difference between colloquial use of these terms and actual clinical relevance of such descriptors. We call ourselves, our friends, and our adversaries, any and all of these words in our heads, out loud, jokingly or sometimes seriously, but with the understanding that these are expressions of frustration, humor or at times, anger. Never do we use those words, full well knowing about someone who has a truly diagnosed mental suffering. So why is it okay to vilify a whole specific population, in this manner?
Is it because they are already vilified and easy to target, or is it because the arguments of these patients as the root cause of a massive national problem, i.e. access to guns, are hollow and don't hold much ground, unless they are dragged in the mud? Mud slinging always emerges from weakness and lack of substance. It's not like, mentally ill patients aren't already defamed enough. What is the point of further dehumanization, other than a pathetic spin on a problem that is not of their making?
The defamation of defamed, has to be called out. We must resist!!!
I am on a mission. As a psychiatrist my mission is to push back and resist, any and all attempt to disrespect my patients and their suffering. A week after the FL high school shooting, the rhetoric surrounding the mental illness has gotten uglier, more cruel and is trickling down from the top. Never in my wildest imaginations, I thought that the derogatory terms used to describe patients with mental illness, would be thrown around from one of the highest offices of our country. I have heard words like, "sicko savage", "insane monster", "lunatics", "crazy", "nuts", "wacko", "madman", and the list goes on.
Please put the breaks on!!
This irresponsible and disrespectful course of using derogatory terms about patients, who suffer from mental illness, has to stop. There is a difference between colloquial use of these terms and actual clinical relevance of such descriptors. We call ourselves, our friends, and our adversaries, any and all of these words in our heads, out loud, jokingly or sometimes seriously, but with the understanding that these are expressions of frustration, humor or at times, anger. Never do we use those words, full well knowing about someone who has a truly diagnosed mental suffering. So why is it okay to vilify a whole specific population, in this manner?
Is it because they are already vilified and easy to target, or is it because the arguments of these patients as the root cause of a massive national problem, i.e. access to guns, are hollow and don't hold much ground, unless they are dragged in the mud? Mud slinging always emerges from weakness and lack of substance. It's not like, mentally ill patients aren't already defamed enough. What is the point of further dehumanization, other than a pathetic spin on a problem that is not of their making?
The defamation of defamed, has to be called out. We must resist!!!
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