I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Mental illness is not something to joke about.
Mental illness is a serious matter and those suffering from it are not to be joked about in any way. Ever. At all.

Am I clear?

It seems Amanda Bynes has made headlines again for her recent Twitter rants and subsequent psychiatric hold. In her tweets, she accused her father of sexually abusing her as a child and then recanted her statement, claiming, “My dad never did any of those things. The microchip in my brain made me say those things but he’s the one that ordered them to microchip me.”

Now, I won’t pretend these are perfectly normal statements to make on Twitter, but that doesn’t make it OK to joke about them at her expense. In fact, it’s cruel and insensitive.

For some reason, it seems like the rest of the world feels it’s necessary to joke about “Crazy Amanda Bynes” now, as if she just enjoys being weird or is acting out for attention and this isn’t the result of a serious combination of mental health problems that need serious medical attention.

People around the world cried for Robin Williams when they found out about his struggle with depression. Demi Lovato was given a special on MTV to talk about her trials with depression, bipolar disorder and bulimia, and we praise her as a hero for dealing with it all and being open with her struggle, as we should. I’m sure I’m starting to sound like a broken record here, but mental illness is a serious issue that is unfortunately and unfairly stigmatized, and we need to have an open conversation about it.

We can’t pick and choose which mental illnesses we sympathize with and which ones we call crazy and stay far away from. While Bynes’ family has yet to disclose her official diagnosis for personal reasons — and we should totally respect that and not throw around diagnoses like licensed psychiatrists — it’s clear from her multiple hospitalizations and psychiatric holds that she has a real health issue, and we need to take that seriously.

She’s not acting out for attention. She isn’t the latest celebrity train wreck for us to joke about, and she’s not just being crazy or whatever you want to call it. How can we laugh at Bynes’s mental breakdown and applaud Lovato in the same breath? One mental illness is not more respectable than the other and to think so is perpetuating the stigmatization of mental illness.

If Bynes needs anything right now, it’s compassion and respect and probably some space. She is not a monkey at the zoo for us to observe, and she is not a movie in a theater for us to watch and critique. She is a real human being with feelings, feelings that we should take into account before we exploit her actions for a profit (I’m looking at you, E!. Bynes should not be your clickbait.) or for a laugh.

Just like Williams was, Bynes should be an example that mental illness can affect anyone, regardless of their background or social standing. We don’t laugh at people for ending up in the hospital for appendicitis. Why should we make jokes about something like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder? Clearly, neither Williams nor Bynes chose to have their respective health problems. They’re all diseases over which we have no control, but for some reason one of them is deemed “OK” to joke about, and it shouldn’t be.