Well, giving up the use of the word crazy would certainly put an end to my breaking into one of my favourite songs, none other that Patsy Cline's 'Crazy'

On a more serious note, I think we will never eradicate words like this, but we can at least try to label behaviours and not people as 'crazy.' Then again, I would certainly hope for a level of sensitivity and respect toward others that would make such labelling, in the face of actual or even possible mental illness, just unthinkable.

Personally, I have felt far more stigmatized and rejected (i.e. written off) by professionals' use of actual diagnoses. Having been mislabelled as having Borderline Personality Disorder on more than one occasion, I am well acquainted with the sound of the doors to all future serious interest or offers of help slamming shut in my face.

Then again, I myself have been known to say "well, then I just went completely crazy", when trying to explain my at the time incomprehensible decompensation, when PTSD finally burst through all my defenses.

dlross