To Writers of Mental Illness

Mental Illness is an interesting writing prompt; I personally love to read about it. So, I wanted to do a blog mentioning some slang/phrases I have come across in dealing with mental illness personally.

Disclaimer: I don’t know everything about mental illness as no one does and I live in Arizona so it’s very possible that these words are only used in my state or on the western side of the U.S. But I thought this little list would help someone.

Slang:
A kind of language occurring chiefly in casual and playful speech, made up typically of short-lived coinages and figures of speech that are deliberately used in place of standard terms for added raciness, humor, irreverence, or other effect.
Vocabulary, idiom, etc., that is not appropriate to the standard form of a language or to formal contexts, may be restricted as to social status or distribution, and is characteristically more metaphorical and transitory than standard language.


List of Slangs:

Contract for Safety:
It’s less of a contract and more of a written promise. It states that while you are where you’re at or going to be (if you decide to go home) that you will not harm yourself or others. Also if you do have thoughts you will contact someone immediately.

Groups:
Usually happens every three hours when you are inpatient at a hospital for mental illness. Some kind of therapist comes and asks you about three things. What is your mood, goal, and coping skill at the moment.

Mood:
Emotional mood only. Tired is not an emotion! If you say Depressed, be prepared to answer on a scale measurement and make sure you know their personal measurement.

Goals:
Everybody knows this word but when mentioned here it usually means a goal for the day. They want something simple that you can reach at the end of the day so they can help you reach it and make you feel better for accomplishing even the smallest of things. Keep productive!

Coping Skill/Skills:
Anything you do to make yourself feel better when you start to feel bad, suicidal, etc. When asked for a skill they want a positive skill. So don’t say hurt yourself (self-harm) or get intoxicated (use drugs or alcohol). My coping skills include; listening to music, reading, and writing. You can pick anything; painting, drawing or even socializing.

Depressed on a scale of 1-10:
“What is your depression on a scale of 1-10?” In my experience this is asked on a 1-10 scale. 9-10 being the highest. Now I know you are quick to jump to the highest number if you’re feeling really bad but wait!

9-10
You can’t even answer the question. You would be in bed all day and wouldn’t get up to even eat. So if you’re up and interacting enough to tell someone how bad you feel and can eat. You’re not on the 9-10 scale.

7-8
This is probably a more reachable and normal depression for most. You are most likely in your pajamas and most likely didn’t shower and if you did, that was a nearly impossible task. You can come out to eat but mostly sleep in your room all day or lay in bed. I had a roommate at the mental hospital who only came out of the room to eat and slept the rest of the time the whole time she was there. I’m pretty sure she showered once. She never went to groups or anything. That’s a good 7-8 scale marker.

4-6
You have to fight to stay out of your room. Actually around this time you probably took at least an hour nap sometime in the day. You have clothes on but probably spend all day lying down wrapped around in a blanket.

1-3
You have depression but it doesn’t stop you from doing anything really. You feel it but can still function, not saying it’s not hard but it’s a lot easier than the higher numbers.

P.T.S.D.:
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. You may have heard of soldiers having this but anyone that had a traumatic event happen that later give them some sort of fear can have it. A sign you have this is if a trigger related to the incident causes your brain to make you believe you are in that situation all over again resulting in usually fear or anxiety.

Trigger/Triggers:
Something that activates negative emotions. Triggers can start your depression, anxiety, PTSD, etc. For example, my triggers are stress (isn’t that everyone’s?), loud popping noises, older men, too much boys, my grandma’s house (too many bad memories), the whole city of Phoenix Arizona (not kidding or being dramatic).

Mania:
Usually mentioned with Bipolar Disorder. It’s what makes bipolar, bipolar. It’s more than mood swings and depression. Mania is the complete opposite of depression. You feel happy, energetic, have racing thoughts, and need way less sleep than normal. It’s kind of exhausting but still the best thing about Bipolar (personal opinion).

Voices:
You’ve heard this before. Talking in your head, mostly seen as bad. That’s debatable to me though but that’s another story for another time. If you take medication to stop voices and miss one day of pills the voices don’t back right that second. Everyone is different and all medications take longer than others to wear off but that’s what research is for. Look up how long until the medication gets out of your system. It takes about a week on average for my voices to come back with the stop of medication.

Paranoia:
Is someone after you? Are they watching you right now? Do they want to harm you or your family? If you answered yes to any of these thoughts you have paranoia!

Harm:
Usually asked in the form of “Do you have any thoughts of hurting yourself. Do you have any thoughts of hurting others?” Don’t take offense they ask everybody.

Homicidal Thoughts:
Do you want to kill someone?

Hallucinations:
Is the pink elephant riding the unicycle again? Totally kidding! It’s not usually that intense. Sometimes it’s as simple and small as seeing a shadow at the corner of your eye or thinking you feel a cat walking by your leg. Be honest! You might not be crazy; it could be your medication.

S.M.I.:
Severe Mental Illness. You can’t really get/keep a job or take care of yourself due to mental illness. This makes you eligible for social security, disability, etc.

E.C.T.s:
Electricity. Electric Shock Therapy… Yep… Still happening. It’s not in the way you think though. You are put under for almost an hour for about 15 seconds of actual shock. You do not feel a thing and people who have had it told me they barely close their eyes to sleep and open them and they are done. Usually messes with your short term memory for a little bit (30 minutes to an hour). The more ECTs you get the less you forget things each time and/or faster the memory comes back I am told. You have to struggle with S.M.I. for years and nothing you’ve tried is helping before the doctors even suggest it. Kind of like a last resort.


That’s the things I can remember. Granted I don’t know everything. These come from experiences I’ve encountered. Some background on me, I’ve been hearing voices since I was 10, been to therapists on and off since then, have been self-harming since I was 12, been diagnosed with major depression since I was 16, been diagnosed with Bipolar since I was 17, been inpatient twice in a psych ward, attempted suicide twice, been to the ER four times, been in contact with a crisis unit five times, been on 6-7 different depression/bipolar medications since I was 16.

I am in no way saying I know everything but I just wanted to answer the question “How do you know this?” before you asked. These are kind of like a helping tool for writers who want to write about mental illness. These are some common words/phrases I’ve encountered over the years. Please send to other writers or feel free to add to my definitions or tell me some other words I don’t have listed.

I am very welcome to broadening the list and my mind on this subject.
August 10th, 2013 at 02:09am