Innocent language that's actually quite painful

One day I came across a headline that irritated me a little. It read “Doctor says robber is a nutcase”.

What’s the first thing that comes to your mind after reading a headline like that? The first thing that came to my mind was anger, sadness, irritation. I was angry because the media is very instrumental in shaping perceptions, and when they stigmatize through their use of language, society might think it’s OK to act likewise. The media’s mandate is to educate, inform and entertain the populace, so what do people learn from such negative use of language? Do not mistake me, I have no mercy for robbers, but I hold sufferers of neurological or mental conditions near and dear to my heart and get very hot under the collar when people make fun of their conditions. These are conditions that affect families in a way anyone who knows nothing about them can even begin to imagine. Only someone who has never loved anyone with a mental condition can call someone living with it “a nutcase”.

People with psychological conditions aren’t nutcases. They are people who either have shattered dreams because of how their conditions have affected them, or are still living their dreams regardless of the conditions. They don’t need people who have total disregard of their plight and go on to call them names that try to exclude them from society.

Many a time I’ve had to bite my tongue to avoid biting people’s heads off when they make certain statements lightly, yet the statements are pregnant with meaning for people in certain circumstances. Statements like:

 “He was drooling like an idiot”,

“There she was, laughing like a brain damaged child”,

“He refused to talk to me and I thought, lol what a retard!”

These are examples of really bad use of language that’s probably worse than the f-word. My son is autistic and he drools because he has low muscle tone, which his therapists are working on rectifying. He’s certainly not an idiot. People who have suffered strokes, or have other medical afflictions can also drool.

I have seen a few brain-damaged children, and when they laugh, it’s the most beautiful music to their parents and caregivers because it’s one of the few indicators that the children are happy, as they have no other way of expressing their joy. This can’t be equated to diabolical laughing, or any laughter that sounds indecorous.

I have observed how some people call someone who is being nasty a retard. Retardation simply describes a situation where there’s developmental delay in a person, and it’s not remotely funny when people throw that word around. Retard is a derogatory term for the developmentally challenged. Those living with individuals with retarded growth or development have very difficult lives trying to make the best out of their loved one’s lives. It’s an insult to people who have any form of retarding condition to be likened to obnoxious people.

On the same day that I saw the headline, I was actually going to the newspaper that published it for a job interview. Somewhere along the way, one of the panelists asked what I would do to change the paper if I joined their team. I said I would start by doing away with the kind of headlines like the one I referred to above, because many of the paper’s readers are probably living with mental illnesses. It won’t sit well with them to be categorized as nutcases. By all means let’s be irate with robbers, but let’s not poke fun at medical conditions that people did not bring upon themselves. I just wonder what kind of doctor would go around granting interviews to journalists about the medical history of his patients, even if they are alleged robbers. What happened to doctor/patient confidentiality?

I pray that everyone who passes by this post will be more mindful of what they churn out of their mouths. Let’s all be sensitive to those around us and what they might be going through. It might not just be about mental or medical conditions. It might be about someone who just had heartbreak or has some form of turmoil in their life and you just eject something that sends them off the edge or worsens how they are feeling.

And by the way, the newspaper never got in touch with me after the interview. I hope it had nothing to do with what I said about the nasty little headline with big effect on people suffering from mental conditions.