Psychotic is Not a Dirty Word!

The direction of this blog post just took a quick turn when I visited dictionary.com, thesaurus.com as well as merriam-webster.com and looked up the terminology “Psychotic” as well as “Psychosis”. I was originally going to give a brief background of psychosis knowing that I have already given much detail in the past and then discuss my own experiences with psychosis- which I have not yet done in detail on this blog. However, upon looking at the definitions that these particular websites furnish for such terminology, I find myself completely and utterly appalled and find the desire bring attention to these websites.

Before I get into the definitions, synonyms and antonyms that these websites provided for the terms psychotic and psychosis, I would like to begin by saying both of those terms are clinical terminology. Psychosis is a clinical term used to describe a set of symptoms that someone is experiencing and psychotic is the clinical term used to describe that someone is in a state of psychosis. Neither of these words are by any means derogatory or slang words and they should never be mistaken or used as so.

Psychosis is a loss of contact with reality that can include the following:

• Delusions: False beliefs about what is taking place or who one is
• Hallucinations: Seeing or hearing things that aren't there
• Disorganized thought and speech
• Disordered thinking: thoughts that jump quickly between unrelated topics

Psychosis or psychotic symptoms can be found in:

• Most individuals with Schizophrenia or Schizoaffective Disorder
• Some individuals with Bipolar Disorder
• Some individuals with Personality Disorders

The following is taken directly from dictionary.com- psychotic definition

Psychotic:
adjective
1. Psychiatry. characterized by or afflicted with psychosis.  
Synonyms: (in nontechnical usage) insane, psychopathic, 
lunatic, mentally ill; mad, disturbed, deranged, demented, non compos mentis.  
Antonyms: sane; compos mentis, clearheaded, lucid
2. Psychiatry. of or relating to psychosis: psychotic symptoms; psychotic delusion.
3. (loosely) mentally unstable: The man who threw a stone through the convenience 
store window must be psychotic. Synonyms: loony, crazy, nutty, nuts, bonkers;
 kooky, cuckoo, daft, batty, screwy, potty.
4. intensely upset, anxious, or angry; crazy: My dad gets so psychotic when 
I come home even a little bit late.  
Synonyms: crazed, furious, enraged, wrathful, irate, incensed, infuriated; livid, pissed off.
noun.
5.Psychiatry. a person afflicted with psychosis. 
Synonyms: (in nontechnical usage) psychopath, madman, maniac, lunatic.
6. (loosely) someone who is mentally unstable: I always cross the street when 
I have to go past that homeless shelter; it's full of psychotics. 
Synonyms: nut, kook, cuckoo, loony, loon.

The following is taken directly from thesaurus.com- psychotic definition

Psychotic:

Part of Speech:	adjective
Definition:	mentally deranged
Synonyms:	certifiable, crazy, demented, distracted, flipped-out,  insane, lunatic, mad, manic-depressive, mental,  non compos mentis, nuts, off one's rocker, over the edge,  psycho, psychopathic, schizophrenic, sick,  unbalanced, unhinged

The following is taken directly from thesaurus.com- psychosis definition

Psychosis:

Main Entry:	insanity  [in-san-i-tee]
Part of Speech:	noun
Definition:	mental illness; foolishness
Synonyms:	aberration, absurdity, alienation, craziness, delirium, delusion, dementia, derangement, distraction, dotage, folly, frenzy, hallucination, hysteria, illusion, inanity, irrationality, irresponsibility, lunacy, madness, mania, mental disorder, neurosis, phobia, preposterousness, psychopathy, psychosis , senselessness, unbalance, unreasonableness, witlessness
Antonyms:	balance, sanity, soundness, wellness

The following is taken directly from http://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/psychotic

Psychotic: having or showing a very abnormal or sick state of mind <the identity of the psychotic murderer known as the Zodiac Killer remains an intriguing puzzle>

Synonyms balmy, barmy bats, batty, bedlam, bonkers, brainsick, bughouse, certifiable, crackbrained, cracked, crackers, crackpot, cranky, crazed, crazy, cuckoo, daffy, daft, demented, deranged, fruity, gaga, haywire, kooky (also kookie), loco [slang], loony (also looney), loony tunes (or looney tunes), lunatic, mad, maniacal (also maniac), mental, meshuga (or meshugge also meshugah or meshuggah), moonstruck, non compos mentis, nuts, nutty, psycho, psychotic, scatty [chiefly British], screwy, unbalanced, unhinged, unsound, wacko (also whacko), wacky (also whacky), wud [chiefly Scottish]

Related Words dotty, fey, loopy, off, potty [chiefly British], teched (or tetched), touched; aberrant, delirious, delusional, delusionary, disordered, disturbed, neurotic, obsessive-compulsive, paranoiac (also paranoic), paranoid (also paranoidal), schizoid, schizophrenic, sociopathic; eccentric, odd, oddball, pixilated (also pixillated), queer, strange; foolish, senseless, witless; irrational, unreasonable; amok (or amuck), ape, ballistic, bananas, berserk, nuclear; depressed; distracted, distraught, frantic, frenzied, haywire, hysterical (also hysteric), raving, wigged-out; fixated, monomaniac, monomaniacal, obsessed

Near Antonyms clear, lucid, rational, reasonable; judicious, sensible, wise; healthy, normal, well-adjusted; unneurotic

Antonyms balanced, compos mentis, sane, sound, uncrazy

Reading these defintions, synonyms and antonyms absolutely infuriated me. Had I sat down and wrote this blog immediately after reading them without first digesting them, I would have just been spouting negativity, which would achieve absolutely nothing. After digesting what I read and giving myself a chance to think about it, here is what I came up with. These definitions are wrong and should not be on these web pages. Individuals go to these pages as a valid source for definitions of all kinds of words. These websites are doing nothing other than perpetuating the stigma associated with mental illness. Here is what I think we should do; we need to write letters to all three of these websites. I can't do it alone, there is something to be said about doing things in numbers, 1 person just isn't enough. I will gladly draft the letters but I need your help distributing them and personalizing them if you so choose. I plan to post this idea to my Facebook followers as well, which is over 800 followers at this point as well as others who hold pages just like my own. It is the job of those of us who live with a mental illness, love someone with a mental illness or just plain care about individuals with a mental illness to fight this fight when we find something the perpetuates the stigma. Are you with me? I need about 4 or 5 days to develop appropriate letters to address the situation and once I have developed it, I will post it on my blog, my Facebook page and will send it to others who have pages like mine who share the same stigma fighting passion as mine! Together, let's see if in numbers we can get those hateful definitions removed.

You will be hearing from me soon with a letter and the contact information! Thank you in advance for helping me fight a fight that is so important to me and all my loved ones!

Thank you for reading!

-Kissing Stigma Goodbye-