Today I’m going to talk about language. I’m a huge fan of person-first language. I think it’s important that personhood is not erased by disabilities, like when you say “a schizophrenic,” “the mentally ill,” “borderlines,” “a drug addict,” “psychotic,” or
It’s time to end the stigma
By Aubrey Boggs, CMWN Advocacy and Outreach Coordinator People use unfriendly language about mental health to express negative feelings about someone quite often. People have called me “crazy”, a “nut job”, “unstable”, and many other cruel words because I have a
On “daddy issues” and the infantilization of women with absent or abusive fathers
I want to preface this by saying that I’m not angry at the person who said this. I’m angry at the society that makes saying it okay. Frankly, I had never really thought about how insulting the term “daddy issues”
Stereotyping Individuals With Mental Health Conditions
What Does Someone With A Mental Health Condition Look Like? By: Amy Brant, CMWN Intern Often times, people in our society attach a judgment to an individual based on the way they look, what they wear, the people they hang
AOT: It casts doubt on our reasoning capacity
Welcome to Part 2 of our educational series on Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT). For those of you unaware, AOT is a hot-button issue right now considering that the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act, which drastically increases funding toward
#quitdiagnosingtrump
So this petition is going around demanding that Donald Trump undergo a psychiatric evaluation in order to determine his “mental fitness for the job” of President. I understand that people don’t like Trump. I’m not going to debate his politics
All 50 states now report us to NICS. Thanks NH!
New Hampshire has officially decided to conform to public pressure and start reporting the big scary people with mental illness to the National Instant Criminal Background Checks System (NICS) so that they are flagged as ineligible to own firearms. I emphasize the
Gun violence hysteria + lime green wristbands = ???
I write about gun violence and mental illness too much, I know, but other people write about it too much too. So there. Recently we experienced the largest mass shooting in United States history at an Orlando nightclub. The gunman
May is Mental Health (Not Illness) Month
by Amanda Kearney-Smith May is mental health awareness month, a whole month dedicated to raising awareness and breaking down stigma. So why do I keep seeing headlines like this….. “How to Get the Mentally Ill Out of Jail and Off the
U.N.I.T.E to End Stigma Week Five: Embrace Treatment
By Amanda Kearney-Smith This is week five of our blog campaign on stigma. So far we’ve reviewed the U, N, I, & T of U.N.I.T.E. this week we elaborate on the final letter “E” which stands for “embrace”. U.N.I.T.E =