Thread by @DrJessTaylor

We need to stop using ‘mental illness’ as a reason for abusive & criminal behaviours.

People like that are not ‘mentally ill’ - they made an active choice to do something horrific, & cos you can’t understand why they did it or what they gain from it, you call them ‘mentally ill’

I see it all the time on social media

Trump does something horrendous and everyone claims he’s mentally ill

Someone commits a horrific crime and everyone diagnoses them with something

They aren’t ‘mentally ill’, they are just a fuckin horrible person who chooses to abuse.

Someone you don’t like tweets something you don’t agree with and you’re all in the comments claiming they have a personality disorder.

No they don’t, you just don’t like what they said and you’re using psychiatric terms to label and stigmatise

You know why you all do that?

Because you know full well that psychiatry and mental health stigma oppresses and harms people - which enables you to use it as a slur.

If the field was as progressive as we all claim, no one would do this

It’s high time we stopped labelling abusers, rapists, dictators, murderers etc as ‘mentally ill’ for two reasons:

It minimises their choice to harm others and dismisses their agency

It stigmatises people who are struggling with trauma and their own mental health