This is not a shock headline but something that is happening daily in television, radio and newspaper articles. Over the last few years I have noticed how many times the words schizophrenic and bipolar have become an acceptable adjective to use. And of course they are not used in their true sense. Schizophrenia has always been wrongly linked to a split personality thanks to the word’s original creator.
- schizophrenia
- 1912, from Mod.L., lit. “a splitting of the mind,” from Ger. Schizophrenie, coined in 1910 by Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler (1857-1939), from Gk. skhizein “to split” (see shed (v.)) + phren (gen. phrenos) “diaphragm, heart, mind,” of unknown origin. Slang shortening schizo first attested 1920s as an adj., 1945 as a noun.
- http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=schizophrenia
This led people to believe the tale of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was a truism for all schizophrenia sufferers. The fact is that your chance of being murdered by a stranger with schizophrenia is so vanishingly small that a recent study of four Western countries put the figure at one in 14.3 million. To put it in perspective, statistics show you are about three times more likely to be killed by a lightning strike.
A 2009 analysis of nearly 20,000 individuals (by Seena Fazel an Oxford University psychiatrist ) concluded that increased risk of violence was associated with drug and alcohol problems, regardless of whether the person had schizophrenia. Two similar analyses on bipolar patients showed, along similar lines, that the risk of violent crime is fractionally increased by the illness, while it goes up substantially among those who are dependent on intoxicating substances.
In other words, it’s likely that some of the people in your local bar are at greater risk of committing murder than your average person with mental illness.
http://www.slate.com/id/2280619/
In a study of three months of TV drama broadcast between 4pm and 11pm on UK terrestrial channels researchers found 74 episodes from 34 different programmes that contained mental illness-related storylines.
45% of peak-time programmes with mental illness storylines portrayed people with mental health problems as posing a threat to others.
63% of references to mental health were pejorative, flippant or unsympathetic. (Terms included:”crackpot”, “a sad little psycho”, “basket case” , “where did you get her from, Care in the Community?” and “he was looney tunes”..
45% of programmes had sympathetic portrayals, but these often portrayed the characters as tragic victims.
http://shift.org.uk/news/files/making-a-drama-glasgow-media-group-mental-health.html
These idioms in common usage are considered a compliment by some.
You’re off your head!
Mentalist.
You’ve lost the plot!
She’s a butty short of a picnic.
You’re mental!
She’s really mad.
That’s just insane!
Fighting stigma and discrimination in mental health is a difficult enough task in itself. We must start tackling the everyday usage of these terms before we can possibly tackle the bigger picture. We are all guilty of this and often these words are unintentionally used as they are just a part of our shared language.
But now I feel things are getting worse rather than better. It is a very recent thing that I hear the adjectives ‘schizophrenic’ and ‘bipolar’ being used in football commentaries, soaps, dramas and now in more highbrow political debating programmes such as Newsnight BBC 2.
Just as these words below were in common usage in the 70′s in the media and TV programmes we must now start thinking about making language around mental health taboo as well.
Phoenix is the editor of this site and was diagnosed with bipolar twenty years ago. In between 8 periods of illness and hospitalisation she trained as a garden designer and was a awarded an RHS Diploma, gained a first class degree in Cultural Studies and a Certificate in Education that enables her to lecture in Recovery in Mental Health to psychiatric nurse students and mental health professionals at universities.
Phoenix leads a diverse life which she attributes to Wellness Recovery Action Planning and all aspects of Recovery. In the last 2 years she performed stand up comedy. Laughter truly is the best medicine! Now she is concentrating on being involved in improving conditions for inpatients and service receivers trustwide. And training in WRAP, Recovery Star and the new Advanced Statement and some gardening for health. Also with some great new art projects. 
