Sometimes, anti-stigma efforts focus on the kind of language people use to refer to mental illness. Word policing, or language policing, involves identifying certain language as appropriate, telling people what to say and/or what not to say, and scolding people who say the "wrong" things.
There are a few problems with this. One is that it can trigger reactance, which is a type of psychological resistance that causes people to push back against what they perceive as threats to their freedom, including threats to their freedom to choose their own words.
Another problem is that really enthusiastic word policing is sometimes aimed at people with mental illness, telling them how they should talk about themselves and their own mental illness experiences. When it comes to stigma, that kind of strategy targets very much the wrong people.
There's more on this topic in these MH@H blog posts:
To me, some of the strangest language twisting happens when people use mental health as a synonym for mental illness. They're not the same thing, just like physical health and physical illness aren't the same. If mental illness sounds too stigmatizing, that's a problem with stigma, not the illness itself.
