Missouri Partners in Crisis Advocating Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services

Loaded Words and Entertainment 

            A while back, a news story on local television in St. Louis was titled, “Normal or Nuts?”  It was a light-hearted attempt to poke fun at our eccentricities—counting steps, putting our hands in our pockets a certain way, twisting our hair when we’re upset, etc.

            A CNN report by Soledad O’Brien titled, “Criminally Insane,” showed officers trained in Crisis Intervention techniques gently talking with a man.

            An episode of the TV program The District titled, “Criminally Insane,” showed a CIT officer warning a hospital psychiatrist, even threatening her with arrest if she did not admit a man who was clearly delusional.  If he were released and stepped out into traffic, the psychiatrist would be responsible, the officer said.  The psychiatrist admitted the man. The female CIT officer did a great job of using de-escalation skills to calm down the delusional man who was pacing in front of a liquor store, worried that the CIA was controlling him.  She also did a great job of advocating for him with the doctor. 

            While the “Criminally Insane” stories showed excellent examples of professionals dealing with individuals in mental health crisis, their titles were stigmatizing.  So was, “Normal or Nuts?”  The words “nuts,” “crazy,” and “insane” are loaded words, painful words that hurt individuals with mental illness and their families.  People with juvenile diabetes or epilepsy should be referred to as people with diabetes or epilepsy, not as diabetics or epileptics.  They are not their disease. Neither are people with mental illness. 

            People with mental illness should not be referred to as schizophrenics or psychotics but as people with schizophrenia or psychosis.  Nobody chooses to have diabetes or epilepsy.  No one chooses to have a mental illness.

To learn more about fighting stigma, go to www.nami.org, the National NAMI website.  Click on “Take Action” to learn about the Stigmabuster Campaign and to receive Stigmabuster alerts.

For an additional resource on stigma, see the Missouri Dept. of Mental Health site: http://www.dmh.mo.gov/cps/initiatives/stigma.htm.

--Deena Dailey 

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