Stop Giving Your Jerky Friend A Pass: Five (5) Things That Are Not A Mental Illness

In recent years, many people have adopted, accepted or acquiesced to the use of various mental illnesses to define or describe unacceptable behaviors. It’s fine that you don’t want to call your friend a jerk, but why should people with mental illness bear the burden of being associated with them.

Certain illnesses such as bipolar disorder, mental retardation have been so unfairly used in place of words like stupid, idiot. People describe behaviors as psychotic instead of rude, erratic, aggressive or plain old jerky. We don’t associate negative behaviors with physical ailments, and the same should apply to mental ailments. You don’t say someone is a heart attack when they say something ridiculous, so why would anyone think it’s acceptable to say that they are mentally retarded. If you won’t say your jerky friend is a tumor, why would be suitable to say freely that he’s bipolar.

People who suffer from mental illnesses have enough of their own troubles to deal with. They don’t to be lumped in with the rude, the ignorant or the uncaring jerks of the world. So next time you need to define a behavior, please use your words correctly. Call someone a stupid idiot or a rude jerk if they deserve it, but don’t offend people with mental illnesses by putting them in the same category.