I notice a lot of people use terms like "psychotic" or "psychopath" as insults and negative descriptions on here. These are clinical terms that are used to describe real people with difficulties, not boogeymen! I don't disagree with the sentiment that these people are doing wrong, but if you wouldn't use the r-slur or "autistic" as an insult (which you shouldn't) then you shouldn't use these words either. And I get the idea of calling someone delusional, but take care that you don't just mean "I disagree with them." Though by posting on neurodiverse I imagine I'm preaching to the choir.
Sincerely, a casual schizoaffective disorder haver.
I'm always willing to change my language but often find it difficult to find appropriate strength replacements. I've been dropping in "ghoul" a lot of the time but very occasionally it just doesn't feel right, you know what I mean?
Medical words I'm not too bad on and they're usually easy to replace but I think ability-based words are a weak point though. I don't have a good replacement words for when someone makes errors out of carelessness, ignorance or airheadedness. I've used dense to replace "stupid" from time to time but it doesn't always feel right to me.
Often the more common the word in society the harder it feels to find a suitable replacement for it.