I read recently on one website that to call a person ‘manic depressive’ was to ‘stigmatize’ that person. The implication was that to call a person ‘bipolar’ was not ‘stigmatizing’. ‘Manic depressive’ may be archaic, but I don’t think it is any more ‘stigmatizing’ to call a person ‘manic depressive’ than it is to call a person ‘bipolar’.
The way I see it, there’s little difference between calling a person ‘bipolar’ or ‘schizophrenic’, and calling that same person a jackass. I find myself offended when people refer to me by such offensive terms.
I also see where elsewhere a doctor from Australia wants to bring back the classification Melancholia to the next revision of the DSM. All I can say is, if I ever get melancholy, don’t lock me up for it.
A bunch of psychiatrists telling me who I am isn’t exactly my idea of a good time. Even one psychiatrist telling me who he thinks I am, gets me steamed. I often feel I must answer insult with insult, but I’m learning that maybe that isn’t the best course of action to take either. Sometimes you just have to learn to walk on.
I support every individual’s right to define him or herself in any way that individual chooses. Three thousand million non-individuals be damned.
Filed under: Alternatives, Biological Psychiatry, Discrimination, DSM, Education, Human Rights, Literature, Recovery, self help | Leave a comment »
