‘That’s So Crazy’

Why the way we talk about mental health matters

Sandy Allen
Gay Mag
Published in
8 min readJul 16, 2019

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Illustration by Louisa Bertman

AA year ago, for one month, I ran a private experiment. Whenever I heard someone say the words “crazy” or “insane,” I surreptitiously recorded the event in a notes doc on my phone. I recorded instances of “schizophrenic or “schizo” too, though those happened less often. I wrote the time (most of the time) and context and only noted the speaker if it was…

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Sandy Allen
Gay Mag

Author of A KIND OF MIRRACULAS PARADISE (Scribner, 18) | Host of podcast MAD CHAT (www.madchatshow.com) | www.hellosandyallen.com | they/them