#thinking about my friend who reacted to me using the word ''spastic'' to describe a character who was spasming

[charlemane]

i feel like fiction authors are so scared of using the word "psychotic" when it's actually the right word to use. read a book where one of the protagonists (who had just left inpatient treatment and lost his medication) asked his friends if they happened to have any "anti-hallucinatory" pills. not what they're called. the word you're looking for is anti-psychotics. but over the course of the entire book where one of the main characters experienced differences from reality, i don't remember the word "psychotic" ever being used seriously. you can't have a psychotic main character!

and in another book i'm reading now, the main character wonders if she's having a "hallucinogenic episode." not what they're called. not what "hallucinogenic" means. the word you're looking for is psychotic episode. egregious because mere moments later she describes an antagonistic character as a "psychotic killer," so like, okay, you know how to spell it, but apparently only when it's an insult. cool.

and like, we've seen this happen with other medical terminology around other disabilities. "r*t*rdation" used to be the accepted medical language for developmental delays and disabilities, until it got so inextricably entwined with insults that it's impossible to use neutrally, so the accepted language changed. and maybe that's inexorable but like, i don't want to watch psychotic and delusional become unsalvageable words. and part of that is people need to stop using them as insults and part of that is people need to stop being scared to use them when they're not insults