Crazy is everywhere: on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, in the news, in books, in films, in music, in our words, in each other's eyes and even in our blood. So much so that the meme cray cray has emerged as a catchall phrase.
Mental illness or mental disorder or brain disease or brain disorder or mental disability or whatever you want to call it, shows up a lot in my family and in multiple, continuous generations. And the fact that we don't know what to call it -- on the eve of another National Mental Illness Awareness Week (Oct. 5 through 11) -- tells us we are at a critical juncture in the mental health movement. As more and more ordinary people break the silence about mental illness, as more research uncovers the mysteries of the human brain, as we discover new ways to prevent and treat brain disorders, we strengthen our understanding of this complex phenomenon and thus our language in public discourse continues to evolve.
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