Stop using these Phrases when Refering to People with Mental Illness

Using certain words to describe drug addiction, such as "clean" vs. "dirty," can actually drive people away from giving help to sufferers, reported The Huffington Post quoting a research study conducted by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy last March. The same research findings equally revealed that terms and phrases used to describe mental illness such as "unsuccessful suicide" can exacerbate rather than improve the dialogue surrounding suicide and depression. 

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, mental illness cuts across a wide swath of society, one in five Americans will experience a mental health issue in their lives and many of them say they feel stigmatized for their illness by friends, family, strangers and the media. 

Realising the strength and impacts media reporting has on the public's perception of mental illness and what can be fraught with tough language choices, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) put together a rubric to help journalists write responsibly about mental illness and suicide. These are listed below:

When contacted on the issue, Michelle Riba, MD, a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Michigan Health System (Riba is also a former president of the APA, but did not have a hand in compiling the organization's mental illness reporting guidelines.) told HuffPost "Words are very important,". "Let me just say that this is not just for reporters. I think this helps us all think about ways to talk about these issues and communicate."

Explaining further, Riba observed that “one of the most important changes that can be made when talking about mental illness is to stop labeling people as diseases. Instead of saying someone is a cancer patient or a schizophrenic, for example, the language should be "This is a person who has breast cancer" or "This person has schizophrenia." 

There's a phrase for this type of humanizing sentence construction: people-first language, which Mental Health America describes as "speaking and writing in a way that acknowledges the person first, then the condition or disability." 

"It helps people understand that the person isn’t the disease, the person has the illness," said Riba. "It doesn’t stigmatize the person -- it gets to the point that the person has something that needs to be evaluated and treated."

Riba also noted that the term "substance abuse" was dropped from the latest addition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which mental health professionals use to determine common language across the profession. The new terminology will be "substance use disorder." 

She said further, one way to frame conversations and reports about mental illness is to think critically about the goal of the conversation or report. "The message that you’re trying to convey is often very important," Riba said. "Then the words will follow."

In another expert opinion, John F. Kelly, associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School  noted that " the use of terms more in keeping with this medical malfunction, such as describing an affected person as an individual with, or suffering from, a 'substance use disorder' -- as opposed to a 'substance abuser' -- may decrease stigma and increase perceptions of a need for treatment,",