'Words you might not think about before saying can have profound impacts and further stigmatize mental illness.'
It was about an hour before I was supposed to meet up with some girlfriends for dinner and drinks when I suddenly found myself fighting through an anxiety attack. Looking back, I couldn't tell you exactly what triggered it. One minute, I was getting ready; the next, I was pacing back and forth, pleading with myself to get a grip.
It wasn’t even her disappointment that took me aback. It was the fact that she nonchalantly threw out a medical diagnosis to express her displeasure with my last-minute cancellation. While she knew I struggled with my mental health, she hadn't experienced anything like it, so I explained my disappointment with her choice of words. She apologized and swore she didn't mean anything by it. Honestly, she didn't even think about what she said.
Were these words said with malice? Unlikely. Did they mean to hurt me? Probably not. But that's the thing about the words we use — they matter.