Words matter. I’m not one to be politically correct. Goodness knows I don’t want to be the word police. I realize that people don’t mean any harm when they say the words “crazy” or “insane”. For pete’s sake, I use those words every now and then. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t. I have made it a policy, though, to try only to use them in reference to a situation rather than a person.

The other day, I was reading the post of a blogger I really like. She was talking about how she has received very threatening and completely inappropriate tweets after she spoke out about Amazon selling a “how to” e-book on pedophilia. A few people on Twitter didn’t like the public position she took that Amazon should remove the book. They felt it was a position of censorship. These few responded by tweeting awful-with-a-capital-A, violent things that I refuse to repeat. (Don’t worry, the book was removed by Amazon after a public outcry.)

A commenter to her blog post about the threatening tweeters wrote this:

Whenever I’m engaged in this kind of controversy this is what I do: I separate the tweets into two categories. Sometimes I call them “crazy” “not crazy.” Sometimes it’s “dangerous” “not dangerous.” Sometimes it’s “needs a straight-jacket” “can ride the subway alone.” You get the idea. The classification has nothing to do with whether or not they agree with me, it just has to do with their level of sanity, if they’re actually talking to me or just shouting at me, and if there’s any small chance of having any kind of rational discussion, even if we’re totally completely on opposite sides of the issue.

I responded to that commenter with this:

While I understand your point, I’m not sure if I agree with making this a mental health issue (“crazy”, “sanity”, “straightjacket”). Plenty of people with mental illness wouldn’t say or do the things that some of these tweeters do. I would say it’s more of a maturity and impulse control issue. Just my 2 cents, as someone who cares a lot about mental health stigma … Hope you don’t mind.

And the commenter replied back with this:

That’s what I do in my own head. It’s not a mental health issue, it’s my own shorthand. I think you’re taking that part of my comment a tad too seriously.

I have to admit I was taken aback. I tried to be very respectful and thoughtful about how I put my comment to her. I would have thought she wouldn’t respond, or that perhaps she’d just say she got where I was coming from. Instead, she seemed annoyed with me. So I started to wonder if maybe I am taking this all too seriously. Maybe I should just keep my thoughts to myself. I’m sure she didn’t mean anything by it. Who am I to say anything?

Then I saw this on The Huffington Post yesterday from actress Glenn Close, who started Bring Change 2 Mind, a national organization to combat stigma of mental illness:

I will not perpetuate or tolerate stigma of any kind and will commit myself to changing the way society views people living with mental illness.

And I changed my mind.

I am someone who knows that women with postpartum depression and related illnesses need help. I am someone who knows that people making fun or light of mental illness, or associating it with violence, have an impact on whether new mothers feel safe in talking openly about what they are going through and reaching out for help. I will continue to speak out, and no one can stop me.