As if mentally ill people are all self centered, murderous monsters, the media and those with no professional license to diagnose have taken to attributing all socially acceptable, illegal and/or morally reprehensible behavior to mental illness.

Last week a rapper murdered his wife and then himself; commenters on the story swore depression led him to commit the crimes. In another popular story this week, a celebrity told tales of his sexual exploits and past temper issues and commenters in the media (and on message boards) were quick to declare him bipolar. Even worse, mass shooting perpetrators are almost always assumed to be mentally ill. The worst of them being the Newtown shooter who the media says was officially autistic - which would not make him mentally ill. Yet and still he's often referred to, incorrectly, as a person who suffered from mental illness, because only a mental illness would lead him to massacre small children, right? This is really upsetting me. It is almost like MI is increasingly becoming synonymous with immorality or depravity in the same way that the term "gay" has become a synonym for bad in general conversation.

Where is the line? The vast majority of those ailed by mental illness do not murder, abuse or otherwise harm people. Yet everyday language is helping to further stigma by criminalizing us.

This really upsetting me and since I'm not terribly open with people IRL about my diagnosis, I have no one to discuss it with.

Is anyone else noticing this?