My Biggest Vocabulary Pet Peeve: Making Light of Mental Illness

Sparkler K uses her razor-sharp sense of humor to take on an extremely sensitive topic!—Sparkitors

Don't mistake me for the perfect picture of political correctness, Sparklers; I can take an edgy joke every now and then. But there's one thing I can't stand, and it seems to be happening more and more. We all know it's not right to call something or someone "retarded," but lately I've noticed references to mental illness and other serious matters slipping into casual vocabulary. I hear terms like schizophrenic, ADD, OCD, and bipolar used jokingly to describe someone's temporary state. These are long-term struggles that afflict a lot of people, and they shouldn't be treated lightly. Maybe you've used them without even noticing, or perhaps it bothers you too. So how do you combat such flagrancy? Biting sarcasm, of course! Here are some scenarios:

Friend: "Can you trim the pictures for the poster a little straighter? I'm soooo OCD about that sort of thing."

You: "Yikes, I'm so sorry you have to go through that. I can imagine how debilitating it is for you to go through life seeing uneven pictures and being thrust into anxiety attacks resembling cardiac episodes. The lack of control must be crippling."

This isn't entirely fair because there are varying degrees of OCD, but you get my point. If you get mildly anxious about imperfections that's normal. You can just use the word "obsessive" by itself for have the same effect. If you really want to equate your level of stress to something severe, you can even say "obsessive compulsive," but let's leave the disorder part out of it.

Friend: "And after practice I'll stop by the store..."
You: "Are you talking to me?"
Friend: "Oh no sorry, just thinking out loud. I'm being a real schizo today."
You: "Tell me about it. Last Tuesday I came down with a case of dissociative identity disorder with manic depressive tendencies."

Although it's not a mental illness, the following is by far my biggest peeve. I don't know if you've heard people use this word this way, but I've noticed it among my friends, especially gamers.

Friend: "That song sucks. Thanks for raping my ears."
Friend: "I totally raped some n00bs in Call of Duty last night."
Friend: "I just raped that civics presentation!"

To that I'd say, "Cool man! I had a quiz last period that I completely second degree man-slaughtered, but there was this math test earlier that third degree sexual-assaulted the crap out of me."

Katy Perry: "Someone call a doctor, we got a case of love bipolar"
Thanks, Katy. This absolutely calls for some mood stabilizing medication. Can I recommend something lithium-based?

These sort of comments really bother me, but I can't get too worked up about it. By that reasoning, every time someone said "drive me crazy" it would drive me crazy! Some expressions are just so common now, like how "lame" and "dumb" were originally medical terms. I can't correct everyone all the time, but I would like to avoid trivializing severe afflictions. You just don't know what the person you're talking to has been through.

We completely agree that casual use of these words is inappropriate—we're just not sure that sarcasm is the best way to respond. What do you think, Sparklers? Does it bother you if someone jokingly uses terms like "schizo" and "rape"? How do you respond?