Loony, Weirdo, Nutjob, Psycho

[MadAboutQuavers]

There have been a couple of threads lately where these terms are used quite readily to label people who display mentally ill or psychotic behaviour.

It makes me and

Why is it ok to do this? It's not seen as ok to label people in wheelchairs or with walking difficulties "cripple" any more, but I remember a time when it was accepted.

Why is it ok to dismiss mental illness with similarly bigotted labels?

Or AIBU?

the assumption that any odd/bad behaviour=mental illness is a really bad mn cliché

inevitabily someone rocks up and makes this helpful suggestion.or the online diagnosis and guessing of "depression/pd/bunions" as likely cause of everything

In the Doric language of the North east of Scotland, Loon means boy.

loon or loun:
In Northeast Scotland, a loon is a boy or lad.
He was a local loon, born and bred in Aberdeen. copied from a Scots dicitonary.

When I had DS1 in Elgin, one of the midwifes said to me "Och, fit did you git, a wee loony or a wee quiney" Being from South of Scotland I hadn't a clue what she meant

aye quines and loons.loon a wee laddie

I tend to go with intent to hurt as the first criteria, but then I have a problem with retard and spaz being used to describe anything at all. It is a very personal thing, usually grounded in the poster's experiences.
I use loon and daftie to describe foolish behaviour by family and friends, but I'm sure someone else would take exception to that.
Agree with the Scots usage of loon as well, my father is from the NE of Scotland and uses it to mean boy, and lassie for a girl.

never knew about Doric. Fascinating. Thought it might have something to do with the Ancient Greek Doric language. It is named after the Greeks, but has no similarity to their language.

I though they were MNers names in the thread title.

Dont altogether see their is always a link between wierdo etc and mental illness. They can also be used to describe someone you consider to be stupid or a fool.

I tend to use "fruit loop" :)

I have no problem with calling someone a fool generally - simply because being foolish isn't usually used as a derogatory term for someone who is psychotic

Like Flying said, if you use these words to dismiss someone who is mentally ill, it is exactly the same as casual racism and means we risk continuing to be uneducated about MH as a society.

If someone's being unreasonable, doing something which I find bizarre in my own life, I am quite happy to tell them that I find their behaviour weird. I would never tell someone who appears genuinely disturbed that THEY ARE weird. Huge difference.

Some people clearly don't see the difference. As an analogy, it's the difference between saying to a child "you ARE very naughty" and telling them "your behaviour is very naughty"

As someone has already said, words are powerful and can be damaging.

It just makes me wonder if mental illness will ever be given the same recognition as physical illnesses and deformities in terms of the victim's suffering, rather than just waved away with a hurtful label such as "she's just a nutjob"

I have experience with mental illness too....a very close family member has mani depression and I have seen it,lived with it and felt much pain due to it. I have also suffered from depression...but I still call my DD a fruit loop now and then...or Nuts....mental illness may never be socially acceptable because it's scary. People fear those with mental illness for many reasons and some of them are understandable.

^As an analogy, it's the difference between saying to a child "you ARE very naughty" and telling them "your behaviour is very naughty"
^

I don't think either is very helpful.

You ARE being very naughty.

'Dont altogether see their is always a link between wierdo etc and mental illness. They can also be used to describe someone you consider to be stupid or a fool;

My son doesn't have a mental illness, he has Asperger's.
So some of the things he does can appear unusual to ordinary people, hence the name-calling.

Today at my DS's football match, DD was playing with some smaller children. She is 11 with LD, they were around 7.
After about 20 minutes, they were calling her a "nutter" in a really mean, mocking way. They had obviously spotted a difference but where had they got that terminology from?

Stuff like this really gets to me... these little kids weren't using jokey banter... they were trying to seperate themselves from someone different by being cruel

I have no problem with the words, it's the way they're delivered... and to whom.

Actually, I do have some problem with the words...

"I don't think she's thought this one through"

Shine, the "half a brain" reference has no link whatsoever to mental illness. I don't understand your point.

Unless a neurosurgeon comes on here and tells me otherwise, I don't think there's anyone alive with "half a brain"? Even if they were, this would be physical and tangible, so of course would elicit some understanding and sympathy.... Unlike your average psychosis sufferer.

Besides, I was referring to the point that someone who considers it acceptable to call someone outrageously racist names is probably not using any common sense. As I think you know!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemispherectomy

I agree that mental health problems carry an enormous stigma still, but I don't think that having learning difficulties/brain damage is any easier a ride in terms of the more obnoxious element of the general public.....