You know, when I was a kid, I kind of assumed that “mental illness” meant “mental illness as diagnosed by a medical professional.”

Because that’s what the movie Freaks and Geeks was about. It was about a group of nerdy kids dealing with the repercussions of being socially awkward in a positive way, and how that positively impacted the wider world.

And I’m not trying to downplay the significance of that movie, or the damage it did. I was very young when I saw it, and the way it portrayed the world, I couldn’t have been safe in it. I was too old for that stuff to be just a metaphor for life, and I was too young to be in it myself.

But now that I’m an adult, I’m noticing that that’s not how the term “mental illness” is used anymore. It’s not just about a professional diagnosis. It’s also about “feeling like an abomination against God or nature” or “living in constant fear of dying from a disease that would have been cured in your younger years.”

And I don’t think that’s right. I think there is a real thing out there that deserves to be called “mental illness,” and that thing is trauma.

I don’t want to downplay the extent to which real mental illnesses, real traumas, exist. I know that I have some. But I also think that trauma is a much bigger part of the human experience than I realized when I was a kid.

I remember watching Jurassic Park with my dad, and realizing that I had never seen that kind of level of fear before. I had seen it in movies and on TV, but in a show about dinosaurs, it was totally novel and frightening.

I have never seen a story with the level of trauma that exists in most superhero comics, ever.

I don’t think that people who read about aliens, dragons, or superheroes should feel ashamed of themselves for not understanding how they work. I think they should, but I don’t think it’s a waste of time to learn.

People should be able to learn about the world without feeling like a bunch of freaks and creeps.

So I’m for the term “mental illness” as much as the next person, but I think a lot of people, including some people who know me, are still using it in a way that trivializes trauma.

(And that’s before we get into the whole “I was abused and I’m still abused” thing, which is a whole other kettle of fish.)