Mental Health Mental Health: Words Matter

By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

“I just cleaned all my closets — I’m just so OCD.”

“I’m so depressed that I forgot to eat my takeout leftovers — again!”

“Ugh! Rain again?! I’m getting PTSD over the rotten weather lately.”

Posts such as these on social media may seem humorous to the posters, but they all misuse words associated with mental health terms, reducing the meaning of the words.

“Each diagnosis has a set of criteria that a person has to meet,” said Kimberly H. Fortin, licensed clinical social worker in private practice in Weedsport. “If there are 10 criteria, you need six or eight of the 10, depending on the minimum for the diagnosis. On top of the list of symptoms, part of it is that it has to disrupt your functioning in life, interactions with others, and functioning at work or school.”

Typical spring cleaning, forgetting about leftovers or experiencing a rainy day are everyday occurrences but typically do not disrupt activities of daily living for days and weeks and require treatment. Using mental health terms as part of hyperbole can feel dismissive of the genuine struggles of people with these conditions.

In additional to minimization, using mental health diagnoses to describe garden variety preferences and inconveniences defines the diagnoses inaccurately. Fortin used obsessive compulsive disorder as an example.

“Cleaning your closet is not OCD,” she said. “You completed your school day and came home to clean your closet. You didn’t have any OCD symptoms throughout your day that prevented you from doing your work. Nothing impacted your performance on other tasks. A true mental health diagnosis will hinder activities of daily living and cause distress.”

Obsessive compulsive disorder doesn’t always present as washing hands 20 times before leaving home