Irish singer/songwriter Ronan Keating may have put it best when he penned the lyrics, “You say it best when you say nothing at all” — and we’re willing to bet these people would agree.
Read on for the casual phrases that suggest a person is mentally & emotionally unhinged. If you’re trying to get someone’s attention by saying less, I applaud you. Make them work for it, but maybe refrain from saying these things.
Mentally and emotionally unhinged people usually say things casually:
1. ‘Dude’
“I hate when grown adults call me ‘dude.’ I am a 58-year-old man. I’m definitely not a dude.” — John, 58
2. ‘I just can’t’
“Using the phrase ‘I can’t’ while laughing uncontrollably is definitely unhinged. It makes no sense whatsoever. It’s an incomplete thought. You can’t … what? It’s the equivalent of me laughing and saying ‘applesauce,’ which makes just as much sense as ‘I can’t’ (none). Also, it suggests you can’t believe what I just said. Well, believe it. It just happened.” — Joe, 27
3. ‘ROTFL’
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“If you use the terms LOL, WTF, OMG, LMAO, JK, ROTFL — which in text terms, means ‘Rolling On The Floor Laughing’ (no, you aren’t) or anything else used in texting while verbally expressing the American lexicon, you’re mentally & emotionally unhinged. If you’re not Paris Hilton and don’t have a billion-dollar empire to go with your dollar menu brain, don’t use these phrases IRL.” — Alex, 26
4. ‘Or nah’
“Ever hear that song ‘Or Nah’ by Ty Dolla? The teeny boppers love it. I was dating this 20-year-old, and I swear every 5 minutes she’s like, ‘Do you wanna get something to eat? Or nah? Do you wanna drive to Jones Beach? Or nah? Do you love me? Or nah? Unhinged.” — Jason, 25
5. ‘Just sayin”
“‘Just sayin’ is an unhinged, annoying suffix to an unwelcome observation. It’s very much like saying, ‘so screw you.” — David, 48
6. ‘La-Di-Da’
“Have you ever seen the Woody Allen movie, Annie Hall? I’ve dated two people who used the phrase ‘la-di-da’ from the movie, and it absolutely drives me crazy because it’s such an unhinged thing to say.” — Nick, 32
7. ‘Totes cray’
“I just essentially dislike it when people want to make short words even shorter. There’s nothing worse than being in a bar with drunk people that are amazed, screaming ‘OH MY GOD THAT’S TOTES CRAY CRAY GUUUUURL.’ It’s just lazy and unhinged.” — Shamal, 27
Danielle Page is a writer and editor whose work has been featured on Woman’s Day, Bustle, Cosmopolitan, The New York Times, Thought Catalog, and Huffington Post.
