Imagine you were taking a test when your heart started beating uncontrollably fast. Thump, thump. Thump, thump. Sweat began running down your face, and your fingers trembled with every pencil stroke. As advised by your nurse, you decide to see a therapist. The next day, you tell a friend, and by the end of the day, the word spreads and everyone knows what happened, and they ask: “are you crazy?”
There are many issues with this statement. First, asking if a person is crazy almost always implies they have a personality flaw. For a person who is presumably struggling with a mental illness, insulting them in such a way can make them feel even worse about themselves.
The word crazy is insulting to whoever is called that, not to mention linking mental illness to the word crazy is also demeaning. When someone with a mental illness is called crazy, the underlying meaning is that, because of their illness, there is something wrong with their personality.
However, this argument doesn’t only apply to those afflicted with a mental illness, it also applies to people who are just loud, annoying, or just different.
Crazy, as defined by its first definition, is someone who is mentally deranged, especially as manifested in a wild and aggressive way. A word, when said to someone, isn’t a big deal to you, but can completely change a person’s life. A word is more than just a word.
You are making a person, who might already be struggling to cope with their differences, appear, per the definition of crazy, as if they are unstable, overreacting and manipulative. Although illnesses can change personality, minor psychotic illnesses do not change the morals and guidelines one abides by. Major psychotic illnesses, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, although often cause such severe changes to one’s personality and break ethics, is often because it causes one to be unable to healthily choose the right decision. So rather than not having any moral ground, it is more often that they choose the wrong decision. However, this doesn’t validate using the word crazy to define someone’s identity.
By calling someone crazy, you are disrespecting all the efforts they have ever made to recover from their illness. If someone has different views than you, calling them crazy is telling them that they can’t control themselves and that their behavior is unpleasant.
So, when exactly should the first definition of crazy be used? The answer: never. It’s a negative stereotype that is used too often, even in TV shows, movies, novels, and more.
Some patients who really need psychological counseling tend to not go because they are afraid of being called “crazy.” Think about it: about one in five adults have a mental illness, which would be around 66.28 million adults in the United States alone. These adults are struggling, trying to cope with their own difficulties of living with a mental illness, and are being given the name “crazy” for no justifiable reason.
If there is a dire need to use the word crazy, and no other word can be used as a replacement, try not to use it in a hurtful way. But more than often, there are always other words to use as a replacement, such as “my friend has a mental illness,” and/or “she doesn’t tend to display typical behavior”. If a friend goes to a therapist, just be their support, helping them through difficult times.
If a person just thinks differently from others and has a unique viewpoint about the world, try to understand their viewpoints and see why they are making their claims. Just because they have a different opinion about a subject doesn’t make them “unstable, overactive and manipulative.”
The first definition of crazy should be eliminated from the dictionary because of its harmful connotations. Although avoiding the word crazy does not erase the harm done, it is definitely a big step towards erasing social stigma as a whole.
