That's the trouble with using it as a euphemism (as if it needs one; there is nothing wrong with the original term) for "mental health." It's incomplete. I suppose they act on the assumption that the medication will change your behavior by changing your brain chemistry? Not that it's right. I am a believer in medication when necessary, but it doesn't do the whole job. It is also helpful to know what to do to calm yourself down when your thinking goes haywire. I've decided that thinking is a behavior, since it's something we can somewhat control, and since behaviors (such as breathing) are not always strictly conscious and voluntary.

The definition of behavior, loosely, is "what an organism or object does." Plants open their leaves toward the sun, spread their roots out in the soil, and convert carbon dioxide to oxygen. That's plant behavior. There's no value judgment to it, no should or shouldn't, no right or wrong, it's simply what a plant does. Generally, plants don't get up and walk around, or talk, or groom themselves, or write novels. I would feel very disturbed if I saw a plant doing any of that, because it's not their typical behavior.

I think the biggest reason I don't like the term "behavioral health" is that, as mentioned, it echoes that command an angry parent barks at an errant child. "Behave!" This suggests that I, as a middle-aged adult of what I'd like to think is reasonably high intelligence, don't know how to behave myself properly, and need to go to a clinic and have someone tell me what to do.

And this, I believe, may be an assumption made by others which leads to denial of somebody's need for professional help. For example, a mother may balk at the idea of getting counseling for her daughter because "all she needs to do is listen to me, and straighten up and fly right. Why pay a counselor, when I can tell her how she should behave?"

Come to think of it, even when said to a child, "behave" is incomplete. What is the child supposed to do in response? How exactly should he/she "behave?" In my childhood, the command to "behave" usually meant, "Stop drawing attention to yourself. Sit there quietly and act as if you don't exist, while I'm busy taking care of everything but you." I'd guess this is why the word "behave" is so odious to me.

By the way if I'm correct, the state of Texas still calls their state-provided clinics "MHMR," or "Mental Health, Mental Retardation." Someone getting treatment for depression or schizophrenia is lumped into the same category with a person who has a serious learning disability. No wonder psychiatric illnesses aren't taken seriously, because this classification calls their very intelligence into question.