😳"THIS IS INSANE!" World Mental Health Day and the Popular Culture

 

One day, quite recently, I decided to count the number of times I heard or read the word INSANE. Newspaper articles, titles of videos, podcasts, TV shows, you name it (even news broadcasts) - it was there, everywhere, all the time.  

In the popular culture, "insane" can mean "very, very bad", but it can also mean "very, very good" and/or "unbelievable", or even (in some cases) neutral. The term pops up everywhere, sometimes even used in a whimsical way. Science and medical videos and articles are not immune, making it seem a lot more respectable and "OK".

But doesn't anyone stop to think about what this word might actually mean? And why is there an equal but opposite buzzword floating around that means even less than that?

You know the one I mean. It's "mental health". 

Usually it's couched in rather delicate terms like "mental health issues". It typically pertains to some popular celebrity or public figure "admitting" that he or she experienced some sort of mental health crisis, but always in the deep past, at a safe distance. And of course, need we say it, they're all better now - but  SO courageous to have admitted such a thing to the world!

One day I tried to count something even more distressing: the number of times I heard or read terms synonymous with "insane", and I stopped after about fifteen. It includes nut case, whack job, cracked, batshit crazy, psycho, and on and on (I don't even need to tell you, do I?), with facilities to house these undesirables called the nut house, the booby hatch, the funny farm, the whatever. 

Want to know what Merriam-Webster's dictionary has to say? I've copied and pasted all the synonyms, verbatim. Buckle in.

Insane

as in psychotic

having or showing a very abnormal or sick state of mind 

"only an insane person would intentionally jump off a skyscraper"

Synonyms & Similar Words

psychotic 

lunatic
mad
nuts
crazy
maniacal
maniac
mental
gaga
paranoid
crazed
psycho
paranoidal
deranged
looney
whacky
disturbed
demented
strange
irrational
unhinged
loony
whacko
nutty
unbalanced
cuckoo
wacko
screwy
eccentric
certifiable
wacky
ballistic
batty
bonkers
cracked
bedlam
daft
unreasonable
around the bend

haywire
kooky
foolish
odd
barmy
depressed
daffy
loony tunes
obsessed
crackbrained
bughouse
meshuga
out to lunch
moonstruck
loco
crackpot
unsound
scatty
non compos mentis
brainsick
kookie
hysteric
bats
meshuggah
frantic
looney tunes
distraught
meshugah
hysterical
distracted
schizophrenic
balmy
meshugge
delusional
fruity
off
wud
paranoic
neurotic
delirious
cranky
loopy
fey
sociopathic
schizoid
out of one's mind
off one's rocker
obsessive-compulsive
paranoiac
delusionary
off one's gourd
crackers
queer
disordered
off one's head
oddball

aberrant
tetched
out of one's head
nuclear
touched
dotty
berserk
witless
pixillated
pixilated
amuck
raving
senseless
monomaniacal
frenzied
potty
teched
ape
amok
wigged-out
monomaniac
fixated
bananas

These nasty epithets have only increased in the past couple of years, and I sense that public contempt for "crazies" has grown exponentially. At the same time, every day and in every way, we hear the term bandied about: mental health, mental health, mental health. 

I suspect there is considerable schadenfreude involved, in that people love to watch other people's crises. It's a great spectator sport. And it's almost (but not quite) a badge of honour now for a celebrity to take a little break from their multi-billion-dollar career to "work on their mental health".

But they don't know what they are talking about. 

These people who so delicately refer to "mental health" know nothing at all of the real deal, how it can be life-threatening, and how it can take every fibre of your being to put your life back together after an "episode". The confusion and the lurching moods, the baffled and frightened loved ones, the endless trials on medications that seem to make matters worse - but this is only part of the story.

I remember sitting in a women's group in which we were encouraged to "share" some particularly vulnerable experiences in our lives. I made the huge mistake of saying I had recently been in the hospital, and as I talked, I noticed the woman sitting next to me was acting as if she had suddenly developed an all-over body rash. Then she said, "I'm sorry", got up from the chair and moved to the far side of the table. She apologized profusely, saying "I'm so sorry, I just can't listen to stories about the psycho ward." No one objected, and the group went on talking, though the temperature of the room had dipped slightly.

I've heard people blow off "psychos" with such utter contempt that I have been tempted to grab them by the collar and say, "Look into my eyes. You are talking about ME." Not only that, it might be YOUR closest, dearest loved one, or even YOURSELF who may be next to bear that label of utter disgrace and contempt. 

There is no disgrace in a condition which has been part of humanity forever, and which is poorly-understood at best, even by professionals. Why people are now pretending so hard to understand it, or at least pretend to be more compassionate about it, is beyond me. I guess it's better than nothing - but not much. Maybe it's just an updated version of "thoughts and prayers". 

Before you parrot the term back the way everyone else does, stop and THINK about what you actually mean when you say "mental health". In most cases, it's a way to display how compassionate and enlightened YOU are. It's the thing to say, after all. But can you maybe pay attention to what else you say, and what it might mean to actual sufferers?

Just STOP referring to whack jobs and nut bars and psychos and try to see human beings as human beings. Is that such a tall order?

And while you're at it: can you drop the word "insane", just for a minute? Think hard. Isn't there a more accurate term for something that is really good, really bad, or really - nothing?

. . . AAAAAND, just for reference, here are the ANTONYMS of "insane" from the Merriam-Webster dictionary:

sane

reasonable

sound

balanced

rational

clear

normal

wise

sensible

lucid

uncrazy

judicious

compos mentis

healthy

well-adjusted

unneurotic

Doesn't quite match up. Does it?

POST-BLOG THOUGHTS. This is an edited version of a  post I wrote several years ago, and if anything, it's even more true now. You can still order "mental patient costumes" online for Halloween, and in my very own neighborhood, I've seen lawn decorations that said things like "DANGER! ESCAPED MENTAL PATIENT" (or looney or whack job or whatever the epithet of the day is). "The Mentally Ill" (a separate species, apparently) are still the stuff of horror, violence, and dread. The more extreme depictions in pop culture are virtually indistinguishable from that other celebrated cultural icon, the zombie.

It's insane, isn't it? INSANE how often "mental health" comes up? INSANE how often we hear horrible synonyms for mental illness? 

Does anybody out there hear me?