This is What Anxiety and Depression Looks Like (Pt. 12)

cw: homophobia, suicide, self harm

We hear “it’s just a word” a lot for a species that relies so heavily on language.

I’ve grown quite tired of people telling me to relax on the “PC” stuff. PC, meaning “politically correct”. There’s apparently some negative connotation that comes along with being PC. Oh the horror — speaking to people in a way that is respectful and educated!

I’ve heard this in regards to my sexuality a lot, specifically surrounding words like “dyke” and “faggot”. Reclamation of these words by the people they affect is a whole different ball game, but on the whole, these words bother me personally.

I don’t know that it’s too much to ask to expect people to refrain from using hurtful, targeting language.

Which is what brings us to today’s topic: the way we speak about mental illness and the words we use in everyday life.

The other day, as a joke (? I’m just as confused as you are), I was told to “go kill myself”. Something that I’ve heard thrown at people on the internet millions of times. And just because I knew logically that this person wasn’t actually suggesting that I end my life, doesn’t mean that it hurt less. I went into full panic mode. The night ended with me, a lorazepam, and a few more scratches than I’d like.

The person was remorseful and expressed this when they realized I was upset, but I don’t think that there’s any reason why this sort of thing should find itself in someone’s vocabulary in the first place? Who are you telling on a regular basis to go kill themselves? Are you thinking about what it is you’re saying? Have you become desensitized to what it is you’re actually suggesting?

It shouldn’t have mattered that this person said this to myself, someone who is very openly mentally ill and has contemplated self injury/suicide in the past. Why not just not say that to people?

The fact of the matter is that you have no idea what goes on in someone’s day to day. Even those that you find yourself to be very close with. My best friends, my boyfriend, my Dad — I’m not in their head every second of the day. You will never understand the extent of someone’s thoughts. And so using language and phrases that can be potentially triggering to someone with a possible hidden (or not) mental illness is firstly dangerous. Not to mention just insensitive and unneccessary.

“PC culture” does not exist to make your life more difficult. It does not exist to take things away from you. So-called political correctness (can you tell I hate this term??) is in place to protect people that are so often oppressed by words, and have been oppressed by them in the past.

Listen. Our illnesses are not your adjectives.

Your jokes about suicide and self injury aren’t funny.

Think about who is around you. We are all around you. We are not laughing. We are listening.

So how about, instead of pushing back against “PC culture”, we accept that refraining from using certain words or phrases that can be very harmful to people’s wellbeing has nothing to do with being correct…just being human.

This is what anxiety and depression looks like.