I mostly get offended when these labels are applied to people who do not have a severe diagnosable mental illness. Also when person has a mental illness that does not come anywhere close to the diagnosis of psychotic... the person is high functioning and rational.

For example, calling someone psychotic simply because you don't understand their differences, despite the absence of any real mental health issues. There are two people close to me who have been clinically diagnosed as psychotic, and I have personally witnessed why. Calling a healthy individual by the same term is ignorant and slanderous at the least.

Another example; calling someone messed up because they smile at times when you don't think a person should be smiling. Or calling them messed up because their father was absent or died when they were young. Or even in the case when a person actually does have a mental illness instigated by childhood events (such as PTSD), it still bothers me. To me, to label someone messed up is to label them as 'less than fully human.' I find it to be invalidating and derogatory.

Or how about calling someone crazy because they are more daring and show less concern for their own well being than is typical, for example people into high risk sports. Or because they have strange beliefs and opinions that you don't find to be valid. I agree with the above posts, the term crazy has no credibility with me. I find the term to be more of a reflection on the person using it than a reflection on the person it is meant to describe.

And no, most people don't walk around with a working knowledge of mental illness and a DSM in their pocket. This is exactly why they shouldn't diagnose people and label them as mentally ill!!!