It isn't about being politically correct. It is actually about not making patients with existing psychiatric issues feel worse about themselves. Several people with histories have chimed in echoing that it did, in fact, put them off and didn't make them feel all that great. If you want to actually help the students and physicians out there with mental illnesses and histories of mental illness, you might do well to actually listen to what the hell they are telling you about how things make them feel.
And yes, a perfectly normal person can be driven to suicide. People who lose everything to market crashes or lawsuits, for instance, or those that might serve prison time for white collar crimes are perfect examples. Sleep deprivation, substance abuse, or a mix of both can substantially alter the way a person sees the world, and result in them making a decision that they would not if they were in their right mind. If you couple stress, sleep deprivation, and high demands on a person, they might rapidly exceed their coping mechanisms and end up doing something that never would have occurred to them if they were working a chill 9-5 job and barbecuing on the weekends.
I'm going to regret going here, but here we go.
Forget the use of "normal." Instead, let's think of different groups of people. Some people are able to deal with stresses - including severe ones - with hardly any or even no symptoms of serious mental illness. Some are not. Some people develop depression or other disorders without any seemingly identifiable stressor. Some can go decades before developing a mental illness, perhaps following the death of a loved one or other traumatic event. Genetics likely play some role in this determination, but one's experiences, upbringing, and general temperament (which itself is based on the previous two) play a huge - if not bigger - role. Under this conception, no one is "perfectly normal," as you put it. Instead, we end up with a spectrum of people who represent a variety of different phenotypes: people that develop mental disorders and people that are predisposed to mental illness but don't develop symptoms. Theoretically everyone could fall into the latter category, but the fact remains that there are simply people that are more predisposed to developing maladaptive responses in response to identical stressors than others. Some are a small nudge away from mental illness, some a push, and some essentially immune.
You seem to be treating everyone as identical people that, given the right combination of stressors, could be driven to suicide. I don't doubt that you could conjure up some set of circumstances that would drive any individual to suicidal ideation or even successfully committing suicide. But the fact that remains that given stressor X, some are able to adapt and some are not. It's the latter category that's more concerning, and it's those people that are more likely to develop mental illness.
Take a more medical example: obesity. There are some people whose genetics make them effectively immune to obesity. These are the people who can seemingly eat anything and yet never gain an ounce. Others are genetically predisposed to obesity; they are less able to respond to an "adverse" diet and, without significant intake control and a regular regimen of exercise, will gain weight. Everyone falls somewhere on that spectrum. But as is becoming increasingly recognized as important, one's diet as a child and the norms that he/she develops at that age - largely from his/her family - plays a huge role. Thus, people that are at-risk but are given conditions that protect against becoming obese never develop "symptoms." Conversely, you could take that same person and put them in a household which has poor dietary knowledge, doesn't eat healthy, and doesn't understand the importance of exercise and that person will likely become obese. Do you disagree with this conception? Why is it any different in mental health?
In psychology, this is conceptualized in the dandelion-orchid theory. Some people - I'd argue very few - are dandelions and are able to adapt to any circumstance and avoid maladaptive responses. Other people - I'd argue the majority - are more on the orchid line of the spectrum. They require more care in order to develop fully - they need regular watering, a greenhouse with a closely controlled temperature, and regular changing of the soil. You can think of these things in our world as stable relationships with friends and family, support at home and at work/school, and avoidance of significant stressors, among other things.
As I somewhat alluded to in my first post in this thread which seemingly got this whole thing kicked off, if you're a dandelion, you will likely have no problem in medical school. You will be able to adapt to the stresses and power through them. You'll come out the other end in one piece with few if any "scars." If you're an orchid, medical training is a bit more of a dice roll. You might encounter those same stressors and develop depression, an anxiety disorder, or even become frankly suicidal. You may not make it through in one piece. You may turn to substances in an attempt to cope with the stress. If you're an especially fragile orchid, you may not make it through at all; you may decide that the stress of training isn't worth it or, sadly, may be driven to commit suicide. Whatever the iteration, the point is that some people will develop these things and some people don't in response to nearly identical stressors.
It really is PC in a slightly more convoluted and complex form; it puts forth the idea that we're all equal, and if only
you went through the things
I did, you would've developed in the same ways and dealt with the same things that I did. Sorry, but that's simply not true. Most research rejects that idea.
And now...
Having abnormal thoughts doesn't make you not a normal person. I would avoid using the word normal myself, and simply say "people who have a history of mental illness are at a higher risk of suicide than those who have no history of mental health issues." It says the exact same thing, but without that feeling of judgement, brokenness, or exclusion.
