Inconceivable!

“You mock my pain.”

“As you wish….”

“I’m not a witch, I’m your wife!”

“Anybody wanna peanut?”

“Have fun stormin’ the castle!”

If you are a child of the 80’s or 90’s like I am, you might recognize those quotes from the movie the Princess Bride.  I recently introduced my three boys to this essential classic.  They were hesitant at first with mom’s choice for family movie night,  but were won over in the end by the witty banter, sword fights, and Rodents Of Unusual Size.  Towards the beginning of the movie, the character Vizinni repeatedly (and incorrectly) uses the word “inconceivable.” After several repetitions, his co-criminal,  Inigo Montoya, looks at him quizzically and comments “You keep using that word.  I do not think it means what you think it means.”

There is currently a term floating around social media and in popular culture that is consistently used incorrectly, and causes me to echo Inigo’s refrain.  Every time I hear it, I cringe.  Every. Single. Time.  The word? OCD.  As in “I just organized my shoes by color.  I am sooo….OCD!”  “Are you OCD? Take this quiz to find out!” or mugs and t-shirts adorned with the words “Obsessive __________ Disorder.”  Fill in the blank with any word describing one of your hobbies.  

You keep using this word.  I do not think it means what you think it means. 

Friends. Could we please stop using life threatening mental illness as a cutesy description for personal preferences?  OCD is not something you can be.  Just as someone cannot be "so cancer" or "so diabetes".   You can have an illness, yes.  But you cannot be an illness.

Now I promise I’m not trying to be super politically correct here.  I can take a joke.  I’m not easily offended.  I have a sense of humor, and I really love to laugh!  So why not just let it go?  No harm, no foul right?  Because words matter.  How we discuss something influences how we perceive it. 

When we use mental illness diagnoses as a joke, how can people with them ever hope to have their pain taken seriously?

Currently there is great fear and cultural stigma surrounding mental illness.  It is going to take a million tiny changes to transform that culture.  One of those changes is the way we speak about mental illness.   By simply changing the conversation, we can begin to work together to create a society where anything but sincere compassion and empathy for those who experience symptoms of mental illness would be truly inconceivable.