We’ve all heard it: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” That little saying used to comfort me quite a bit, but it doesn’t any more. Words really do hurt people, and you can’t take them back.
Words can cause pretty deep emotional damage, and they can also perpetuate ignorance. I thought I’d look at some of the words used (or misused) to describe disease and how they influence how people perceive the disease.
Schizophrenic. It’s interesting to look at the origins of this word. According to Here To Help, a website operated by BC Partners for Mental Health and Addictions Information, the schiz part of schizophrenia refers to the split from reality that sufferers often experience.
Many people use the word schizophrenic to mean split personality. I’m often surprised to hear it used this way by media people, who might be expected to know better. Dissociative Identity Disorder is the diagnosis given to people with symptoms of a split personality – not schizophrenia.
Then there are the fuzzy terms given to blood conditions. For example, blood poisoning is often used to mean septicemia, infection of the blood. This can happen when you have an infection somewhere in your body, and if it is not controlled, the infection can enter the blood stream – which is never good. Calling it blood poisoning, to me, is sinister, as if the sick person has arsenic flowing in his veins.
Another blood-related misnomer is blood thinner.
“Yep, they put gramps on blood thinners.”
Sounds like paint thinner. You can almost smell the turpentine, and you can imagine this watered down red stuff freely circulating around grandpa’s shrivelled body.
Blood thinners are actually anticoagulants, medicines that make blood less likely to clot. They are given to people who are at risk for a stroke since many strokes are caused by blood clots. So, when someone is taking blood thinners, they’re blood is really not any thinner.
And then there’s flesh eating disease…Hmm, I see this post is getting a bit long. I’ll save the rest of my rant for another day.
