AN EVOLVING GLOSSARY OF MENTAL HEALTH TERMS

The language we use to describe mental health and addiction has evolved dramatically and represents one aspect of the battle against discrimination. Some words have been eliminated from the mental health lexicon and are now used colloquially. Other words persist but are starting to be rejected in favour of those with more positive connotations. An illness or having an illness

“You don’t say someone is cancer, you say someone has cancer,” says Frances Jewell, executivedirector of the Mental Health Rights Coalition. “So, you shouldn’t say someone is schizophrenic, either.” People have illnesses and diseases, but their identity is not defined by it. Patients, clients, consumers

How a person experiencing mental illness defines himself or herself should be left up to that individual, Jewell says. Client is the preferred term at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Other people prefer mental health consumer or service user as more generic terms. Jewell advises to say simply: “a person who has lived experience with mental illness.” Survivors

Some people prefer to be called consumer-survivors or survivors, Jewell says, and again it’s linked to the words we use for other health problems. “No one wants cancer, but we sometimes see it almost as a badge of honour. We know people who are survivors and [say] yes, good for them! But in mental health, we’re not there yet.” Asylum, facility, hospital

Peter Coleridge, national CEO of the Canadian Mental Health Association, says that even

though the word “asylum” may have some peaceful connotations, it also implies a level of segregation or quarantine that isn’t appropriate today. “Now, you’ll hear facility’ and ‘hospital,’” he says.

Madness

There are different ways of challenging discrimination, and one way is to try to normalize it so that it loses its negative connotation, Coleridge says. Mad Pride is an anti-discrimination event organized by psychiatric consumers and survivors, and the Rendezvous with Madness, a film festival with a mental health focus, is celebrating its 20th year.

Suffering

Some people do not want to be perceived as suffering through an illness or as a sufferer. “If people are saying to us: ‘We find terms like suffering and asylum and consumer negative. And we feel shameful and it causes us to feel like there’s a weakness,’ then we have to respect that and change our language,” Coleridge says.

Commit suicide or death by suicide

“That hearkens back to a time when suicide was illegal,” Jewell says. The word ‘commit’ connotes a murderous, violent act. “It’s no longer illegal, so it’s not acceptable. Someone dies by suicide, they don’t commit suicide.”

Lunatic, crazy, psycho, nuts, hysterical

Colloquially, the meanings of these words have evolved to become derogatory, yet primarily in a light-hearted way. CAMH CEO Catherine Zahn says for the most part, it’s harmless. “It’s important that we don’t use words denigrating illness or difference, but I wouldn’t correct someone if they didn’t mean harm. There are so many more important things we need to focus on.”