Helpful language can have a positive effect on people’s attitudes towards mental health, and this includes young people. It can normalise conversation around mental health and remove shame. By practising using empowering language we can contribute towards a young person accessing help or talking about their personal experience. The nuances of language mean that different terms may be chosen by young people with lived experience of poor mental health to self-describe. These may be unique to the young person, and certain terms may be empowering or stigmatising depending on the young person. Examples of stigma and discrimination Psychosis Symptoms of psychotic conditions involve experiences which can be difficult for most people to relate to, meaning that these conditions carry significant stigma. This is especially true where the young person may be given a diagnosis of schizophrenia, which is an uncommon diagnosis. Such stigma is maintained by a widespread lack of understanding of psychosis, and by mistaken beliefs and language. For example, slang terms like ‘psycho’ may conflate the diagnosis of psychosis with the concept of psychopathy (85). Psychopathy is not related to psychosis and is another term for severe antisocial personality disorder, which by its definition includes a lack of remorse and capacity to care for other people. Psychopath is also associated with increased criminality (86). It is important to remember that people of any age who experience psychosis are in fact far more likely to be the victims of violent crime than the perpetrators. They are also far more likely to harm themselves than others. Unfortunately, the media tends to publicise the few people with poor mental health who become violent rather than the large numbers who don’t. This skews public perception around this topic.
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