Well Said, K. Barrett.

As a person who spent 68 of almost 72 years with undiagnosed ADHD and PTSD, I often self-identified purely and proudly as ‘crazy’. Probably because my mother didn’t understand my non-neurotypical approach to life and used it when I was unable to conform to her standards (She spent much of her life under psychiatric care). So, yeah, I came from a family that I identified as ‘crazy’.

I would never call anyone else crazy. It’s rude and ignorant.

Honestly, I would rather be ‘crazy’ than ‘mentally ill’. But that's just the baggage that I put on the words. I am no more ‘ill’ than someone born with three arms or one leg.

When I was growing up in the 1950s and ’60s there was very little understanding about psychiatric symptoms and it was mostly a forbidden topic. So I maintained an optimistic demeanor for most of my life, through marriages, relationships, bankruptcies, jobs, and failed startups. Until I crashed. Therapy and study have brought me to an understanding of my conditions and brought me to a better place.

That said:
I am crazy, creative, eccentric, and many other things and that’s okay.