{"id":61398,"date":"2019-01-15T13:35:22","date_gmt":"2019-01-15T18:35:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?p=61398"},"modified":"2019-01-15T13:36:48","modified_gmt":"2019-01-15T18:36:48","slug":"what-are-you-crazy-changing-the-way-we-speak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/health\/mental-health\/what-are-you-crazy-changing-the-way-we-speak\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWhat Are You, Crazy?\u201d Changing the Way We Speak"},"content":{"rendered":"

I used to work for an organization that was composed of some of the most creative individuals you could ever hope to find. The down side was that, when we had a staff conference, trying to get them all where they were supposed to be was like trying to herd cats. When I lamented the inability of gathering this talented group, I was told by one of them, \u201cThat\u2019s because we\u2019re all ADD.\u201d<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t discount for a minute the possibility that some of these imaginative multitaskers may in fact have had Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder but I truly doubt that it was a universal characteristic of the entire staff. I suspect that it is more likely that many of them \u2013 probably most \u2013 simply had other things to do that they deemed more important. But you\u2019ll note the casual way in which people bandy about being ADD.[1]<\/p>\n

The same is true of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Insisting that you complete a task or straighten your desk before you go for the day doesn\u2019t mean you have OCD. When people want to be a little neat or in some other way exacting, they don\u2019t hesitate to say, \u201cI\u2019m a little OCD\u201d but it\u2019s not true. Try going downstairs to check that you\u2019ve locked the back door and\/or turned off the burners, half a dozen times, getting out of bed each time. That\u2019s perhaps a better idea of what OCD is like.<\/p>\n

The truth is that people don\u2019t hesitate to make a joke out of mental health issues in a way that they never would when it comes to physical health issues. Imagine if a physically-healthy person turned down dessert saying \u201cGotta watch my diabetes, ha ha.\u201d Or responded to \u201cYou\u2019ve lost weight\u201d with \u201cWell, you know, I\u2019m a little cancerous.\u201d I\u2019d like to think that no one would ever do this and, in the unlikely event that someone did, it would be met with \u201cHey, man. Not cool.\u201d Yet we ignore things like \u201cpsycho,\u201d \u201cschizo,\u201d \u201cbipolar\u201d and the ubiquitous \u201ccrazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the most politically-correct people I know recently referred to someone online as a nut. I sent him a private message giving him a heads-up that this is a derogatory term for a person with mental health issues. It literally hadn\u2019t occurred to him and this is a person with greater-than-average sensitivities in matters of race and gender. I imagine that this issue similarly hasn\u2019t occurred to most people reading this. Collectively, we have a long way to go in this area.<\/p>\n

A brief history of mental illness: In ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, mental illness was attributed to evil forces and the standard treatment was exorcism. In Medieval times, people with mental illnesses were often locked in cellars or caged in order to hide them away from the world. It wasn\u2019t until the 16th century that asylums were widely established but these were not places of treatment; they were essentially places where families could abandon members with mental illness. Until asylum reforms were instituted in the 19th<\/sup> century, \u201cpatients\u201d were actually inmates in inhumane living conditions, often in literal chains. It is in this 16th<\/sup>-century context that the term \u201ccrazy\u201d (literally \u201ccracked\u201d) was coined. It originally meant \u201cdiseased\u201d and its intention was to dehumanize those suffering from mental illness, in order to justify the conditions they were expected to endure. While we may no longer interpret the word that way, it carries centuries of stigma.<\/p>\n

When we misuse \u201ccrazy\u201d and other words for mental illness, it is potentially hurtful to people struggling with mental health issues. Not only that, the stigma associated with acknowledging mental illness discourages people from seeking help. The number of people affected in these ways is not insignificant. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, one in five US adults experiences some form of mental illness in any given year; 1 in 25 experiences a serious mental illness, which is defined as one that \u201csubstantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities.\u201d That\u2019s a lot of people potentially hurt by people trivializing their conditions or discouraged from seeking help for fear of social stigma!<\/p>\n

For years in my capacity as an editor, I have enforced a moratorium on the word \u201cawesome.\u201d It\u2019s overused to the point of meaninglessness. \u201cI went to an awesome Shabbaton with some awesome people. The food was awesome and everyone had an awesome time.\u201d We still know nothing about this Shabbaton other than it was attended by a person with a remarkably low threshold for awe. The same is true for the word \u201camazing\u201d and, let\u2019s face it, the word \u201ccrazy.\u201d The word is used in so many capacities that it has ceased to have any real use in communication. Since it\u2019s offensive, potentially harmful and essentially useless, let\u2019s examine some alternatives:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n

Instead of:<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Try:<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Last night\u2019s episode of The Good Place<\/em> was crazy.<\/span><\/td>\nLast night\u2019s episode of The Good Place<\/em> was unbelievable<\/u>.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
That rollercoaster is so crazy<\/span>!<\/td>\nThat rollercoaster is so thrilling<\/u>!<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
I was cut off by a crazy<\/span> driver.<\/td>\nI was cut off by a reckless<\/u>\u00a0driver.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
The weather this week has been crazy<\/span>.<\/td>\nThe weather this week has been unpredictable<\/u>.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
My colleague had a crazy<\/span> idea.<\/td>\nMy colleague had an\u00a0outlandish<\/u>\u00a0idea.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Your political positions are crazy<\/span>!<\/td>\nYour political positions are untenable<\/u>!<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Isn\u2019t that better? Not only have we removed an offensive word from these sentences, we actually understand what they\u2019re supposed to be communicating!<\/p>\n

Some might see this as a case of political correctness gone mad (instead of \u201cgone mad,\u201d try \u201cout of control\u201d) but such is not the case. If we haven\u2019t completely eradicated \u201cthe R-word<\/strong><\/a>,\u201d we have successfully gotten to the point where few people use it and many people point out \u201cHey, man. Not cool.\u201d We can do that for mental health issues, too.<\/p>\n

This is going to take some doing. We have a lifetime of casual usage behind us, bolstered by centuries of people with mental illness being marginalized by society. I\u2019ve recently started attempts to improve in this area but I have no doubts that you\u2019ll catch me in the occasional lapse because, as we all know, old habits die hard. But this doesn\u2019t have to be an immediate all-or-nothing proposition. We can all work on gradual improvement over time. As we go, we\u2019ll improve communication while decreasing causing unnecessary pain and discouraging fewer people from seeking useful treatment.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Regarding the question of whether or not ADD or ADHD is a mental health issue, it is technically classified as a “psychiatric disorder,” so yes, it is. As with physical health issues, mental health issues can range from mild to severe. Anxiety, for example, need not be debilitating to be a legitimate\u00a0mental health issues.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    \n

    Rabbi Jack Abramowitz is Torah Content Editor at the Orthodox Union. He is the author of six books, including\u00a0The Tzniyus Book<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0The Taryag Companion<\/a>. His latest work,\u00a0The God Book<\/a>, is available from\u00a0OU Press<\/a>\u00a0as well as on\u00a0Amazon<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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