mental illness shaming

[Warpy]

1. Funny, I don't call people with psychiatric issues "crazy."

I reserve it for people who walk among us, watch Pox News, go to megachurches with fire and brimstone preachers who preach bigotry, and vote Republican.

I think the bigger problem with shaming people with mental illness is telling them to snap out of it, act better in public, and generally treat them like they've got a moral failure instead of a sick organ. The brain is the only organ that gets treated that way when it becomes ill.

Besides, one thing the truly sick know for certain is that they're the sane ones and the rest of us are totally bonkers. Pejoratives like "crazy as a shithouse rat" mean little to them.

FWIW, I'm a garden variety depressive with years of experience working in psychiatric hospitals.