The general public treats pretty much all mental health diagnoses this way. Depressed, anxious, schizophrenic, bipolar, OCD, PTSD, and more are all descriptors people commonly use to describe their emotions or personality traits in a way that’s completely disconnected from their clinical definitions and manifestations. Whether that’s disrespectful to people who have clinically diagnosable conditions? I don’t know if I’d go that far. The reality is most people just have absolutely no clue what actual bipolar disorder or actual OCD look like, and they often lack the language to otherwise effectively describe their internal experiences.
The general public treats pretty much all mental health diagnoses this way. Depressed, anxious, schizophrenic, bipolar, OCD, PTSD, and more are all descriptors people commonly use to describe their emotions or personality traits in a way that’s completely disconnected from their clinical definitions and manifestations. Whether that’s disrespectful to people who have clinically diagnosable conditions? I don’t know if I’d go that far. The reality is most people just have absolutely no clue what actual bipolar disorder or actual OCD look like, and they often lack the language to otherwise effectively describe their internal experiences.