Letter: Language is important, especially in regard to our well being
By Letter to the Editor on August 20, 2024.
Dear editor, Our provincial government is in the process of changing Mental Health and Addictions to Recovery Alberta. I have heard lately discussions of how certain serious mental disorders do not fit into Recovery. Over the last couple of years the language has changed from Mental Illness to Mental Health, and Mental Health seems to have been replaced with Mental Wellness. It is a softening of the language. I have a major mental illness which I was diagnosed with in 1996. I spent six weeks in the psych ward. I haven’t been back to the psych ward since and I function well enough, but I don’t expect to recover. To me, everybody has mental health just like they have physical health. If we can’t say mental illness anymore and the government doesn’t even have a Ministry with Mental Health in it, I don’t know how people are going to get the proper help. Diane MacNaughton Redcliff 8-7
Excellent points, Diane. Semantics matter. I suppose the retort to your letter would be changing the language around mental illness from stigma to reduced stigma by saying mental health and mental wellness instead of mental illness. The connotation of words is powerful, for example the changing evolution of the words gay and pride. So is Recovery Alberta a good effort by the provincial government to reduce stigma, or a veiled effort to reduce services and costs? Hmm?
Thank you Ray! You are right if they are trying to reduce stigma that is fine. If they are trying to help people with their Mental Illness they need to teach them to accept it, live with it and function with it. Just like every other illness and just like every other problem that comes our way. Recovery is a word that creates stigma for me because I have nothing to recover from because there is nothing wrong about having a mental illness. So why are we softening the language?