is autism (including AS) a mental illness?

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i was having a discussion with my NT friend last night about mental illness as he has a debate on it coming up. i told him that i did not think autism was a mental illness but he said that he thought it was. i have never thought myself mentally ill so i looked the definition of mental illness up in the medical dictionary & it says:

mental illness: a disorder of one or more of the functions of the mind (such as emotion, perception, memory or thought), which causes suffering to the pateint or others. If the sole problem is that the individuals behaviour as a whole is not in line with society's expectations, then the term illness is not appropriate

so based on this what do you think? the poll is rather specific so if you have anything else to add please tell me

NOTE: i did mean to include a "No" option but i must have pressed the wrong button or something as it is not there, sorry!

Last edited by Sally on 29 Jan 2008, 5:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Missing option: No, Autism is not(all forms)

Pedantically, you can argue via dictionary terms that autism is indeed a mental illness/mental disorder.

Neurological disorder fits it better IMO [as there's far more to autism than just behavioral manifestations]. There's many altered sensory perceptions and a high incident of motor difficulties in autistic individuals (even those who're "high-functioning"); which is like many other neurological conditions, it's just that it's not progressive like MS for example.

It is a neurological disorder.

I was just about to say that . . .

I think this arguments has been argued too many times, so whats the best cell phone?

Autism is classed as a Neuro-Biological Disorder. NOT a mental illness.

Like everyone else is saying, it isn't a mental illness.

I vote for the missing option: No, Autism is not(all forms)

No it is not classified as a mental illness. It is classified as a developmental disorder.

No. Mental illnesses are things like Clinical Depression, some varieties of Schizophrenia, Dissociative Identity Disorder, and Bipolar Disorder; basically things you are not born with and are not really based on brain wiring except for some degree of genetic disposition in certain cases.

Mental illness is also considered Neuro-Biological disorders because they involve the neurotransmitters (brain chemicals)
within the brain. Autism is better classified as a Neurological Disorder, not as a Neuro-Biological Disorder.

missing option, "no, ASD is not a mental illness"

A lot of people won't vote, which makes the poll extremely biased.

I voted that LFA is, the rest isnt but that's only because I can't choose that all forms of autism isn't a mental illness. Because it is NOT a mental illness. atm I'm helping many autistic people. LFA and HFA. and they are just different then non autistics. that doesn't make them menatlly ill! If everybody had autsim, non-autistic people wouldn't automaticly be mentally ill now would they?

I am the hidden vote too.

I have been assessed for mental illness and found to be mentally well-balanced, all things considered.

As has been demonstrated numerous times, autistic brains are built on a non-standard blueprint, including differences in the amygdala, hippocampus, parietal lobes, and cerebrum. In cases of mental illness, the patient's brain is pretty close to standard issue (leaving aside such aberrations as lesions and tumors); the patient merely displays thought patterns, whether due to biochemical maladjustment or maladaptive thinking, that differ significantly from the norm, and cause distress to the patient or others (a psychopath may be perfectly comfortable with his need to ritually kill and eat three human beings every full moon, but it definitely causes his victims distress!).

By the same token neither hydrocephalia, fetal alcohol syndrome, nor Down's syndrome is a mental illness, even though they present quite clearly in brain function, as they are matters of neuroanatomy, not maladaptive thought processes.

Forget that. Why is it an illness OR a disorder?

So the assumption is that because I'm unusual, I'm obviously incorrectly assembled?