Psychotic (adjective); crazy, mental, reckless,

Out of control, violent, strange, scary-

You throw around the word psychotic as if it won't hurt

anybody, as if it doesn't describe a group of people suffering with a mental illness

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What you say- "She's psychotic!" or "She's a psycho," "He's crazy," "They're nuts."

What you meant to say- "She's acting irrationally, maybe even violently," "She's weird," "He's reckless," "They're strange."

The message your words sent- people who are mentally ill are irrational, violent, weird, reckless, strange, freaks, bad people, abnormal, the punchline to a joke, an insult, the worst thing you could be

Who your message hurts: It isn't just me. Mentally ill people are everywhere. You interact with depressed people, anxious people, schizophrenic people, people with OCD, personality disorders, psychosis and other illnesses far more than you'd think. You're probably even friends with one of us. And every time you use words like psychotic to insult someone, you throw us all under the bus. You contribute to a culture that demonizes and mistreats mentally ill people, sets us apart like we aren't the same as you, we are the same as you- we're just sick

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Psychotic (adjective); the state of having psychosis, not a joke, not evil, not an insult

Psychotic isn't an insult (my mental illness isn't an insult)