色吧亚洲

CU 色吧亚洲 students create PSA to illuminate language that stigmatizes mental illness

Consider the following comments you wouldn鈥檛 be surprised to overhear in a coffee shop:

鈥淪he鈥檚 so bipolar! One day she鈥檚 happy, and the next she鈥檚 completely depressed.鈥�

鈥淵eah, that guy is completely schizo, totally unpredictable.鈥�

鈥淢an, I鈥檓 so OCD about what shoes to wear.鈥�

Each one makes colloquial use of a word or shorthand phrase related to a mental-health diagnosis鈥攂ipolar disorder, schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorder. All are not just imprecise and misleading, but also have the potential to stigmatize people with mental illness.

鈥淲hy do we casually insult others with mental health labels such as 鈥榩sycho鈥� or 鈥榠nsane鈥�?鈥� asks Meagan Taylor, a 2002 journalism graduate who is now studying integrative physiology at the University of Colorado 色吧亚洲. 鈥淲e will never get rid of stigma unless we can change our underlying perceptions of mental illness, and that begins partly with how we use our words.鈥�

So, she decided to do something about it. Tasked with creating an outreach project for her abnormal psychology class, Taylor worked听with Andrew McGraw, a film studies major, and Lisa Solheim, a former CU art major who is now a mental-health advocate, to create a short public-service video to highlight the problem of stigmatizing language. That was published this week.

鈥淲e don鈥檛 go around saying 鈥榯hat鈥檚 so gay鈥� anymore, or calling people 鈥榬etards,鈥� because we realized that the way we used those words could be harmful to people who overhear them,鈥� Taylor says. 鈥淥ur underlying attitudes need to change, so language has to change, and bringing attention to this is a start.鈥�

Taylor and McGraw鈥攚ho met while working for CU鈥檚 Emergency Medical Services鈥攔ecruited volunteers to talk about their experiences with language that stigmatizes mental illness. After conducting pre-interviews, they sat conducted on-camera interviews on April 13.

鈥淭here is really a desire in the market to tell these kinds of stories, to challenged people鈥檚 reality and use of language,鈥� says McGraw, who began making films for YouTube in high school. 鈥淚 like telling stories that make a difference, make people question their world and challenge them to do better.鈥�

Besides their student volunteers, Taylor and McGraw also turned the lens on Solheim, who has served on the speaker鈥檚 board for the nonprofit Mental Health Partners.

鈥淎 lot of times, somebody says 鈥榮chizophrenic鈥� and they mean somebody who鈥檚 just having a hard time or something,鈥� Solheim says. 鈥淏ut mental illness isn鈥檛 the same as someone who鈥檚 just screwed up. The guy in Las Vegas who shot up all those people? There was no evidence of mental illness.鈥�

But tossing out 鈥渕entally ill鈥� any time someone does something harmful or anti-social is surprisingly common, says Solheim, and that can reinforce harmful stereotypes. Solheim recalls the time she sat down for an interview with a man who was renting a room in his house. After he told her he was an alcoholic, she decided to open up about her diagnosis.

鈥淚 thought, 鈥榃ow, we鈥檙e admitting our foibles here,鈥� and said, 鈥榃ell, I鈥檓 schizophrenic,鈥欌�� she says. 鈥淗is immediate reaction was to say, 鈥榊ou aren鈥檛 going to come kill me in the middle of the night, are you?鈥欌��

Polls have found that 60 percent of Americans believe people with mental illness are 鈥渓ikely鈥� to act violently toward others. While some studies have found a slight correlation between certain specific diagnoses and violence, more refined investigation has found that other factors, including substance abuse, childhood abuse and family history, are more important.

The 2005 MacArthur Violence Risk Assessment Study at the University of Virginia, for example, controlled for substance use and other environmental factors and found no significant difference in the rates of violence among people with mental illness and other people living in the same neighborhood.

Taylor, who plans to become a physician鈥檚 assistant, said her work as a volunteer at a hospital and working in emergency services increased her compassion for people with mental illness. She hopes the PSA will be a small step to help change the way we use language.

鈥淭he mental-health community and their allies need to stand up for proper use of terminology, stop casual labels, and promote language empathy if we want people with mental illness to be culturally integrated,鈥� she wrote in her proposal for the PSA.

鈥淲e鈥檙e not talking about political correctness or policing language,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e鈥檙e talking about being sensitive human beings.鈥�

is taught by Professor June Gruber.