do you consider yourself mentally ill?

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ADHD is about as much a mental illness as autism, which is to say it is not. Both are developmental disorders.

ADHD is also extremely common with autistic spectrum disorders, but I don't know how many doctors are willing to diagnose both when they occur at the same time. I know that some still subscribe to the DSM-IV perspective that ADHD symptoms in an autistic person are actually ADHD-like symptoms caused by autism and don't believe they can be co-morbid at all.

Er, random infodump there.

No, I don't; I have a dvelopmental disorder. If someone uses NT criteria they might say I do because I don't act like they do. Putting labels on someone can be very damaging to their psyche.

Yes, chronic depression.

Yes - because of of another condition.

The list of how my medical problems affect me in terms of messing my life up goes like this:

Depression
Asperger's
Dyspraxia

Quite severe depression runs in my family on both sides. AS is just on my dad's side and has never been diagnosed, anyway. My own depression is a lot more disabling.

I don't consider myself mentally ill because of autism. I consider myself to be a mentally healthy autistic person.

I've had some insane depression and anxiety, and I would consider probably the former an illness.

My current diagnoses are:

Schizoaffective Disorder
Anxiety NOS

So yes, I am mentally ill. As I keep saying, my therapist thinks I need AS assessment, but people like my friend who works with AS children say that I am not AS.

It's kind of awful to rely on meds for my sanity. If I forgot my antipsychotic, I very quickly start getting paranoid and such. If I forgot my mood medications, I can't sleep and get symptoms or either mania or depression.

I also wonder about ADHD too, but I seem to be more settled down and able to focus more than adults I know with ADHD, but I was diagnosed with that as a child.

Well anyway, there seems to be multiple things going on with my brain, but I have always been above average in intelligence and pretty unique, so that's going for me.

No. I'm not insane

I'm unsane however. Unsane means you're too stable to be insane, and too interesting and different to be sane. Its more healthy than both of those extremes.

Yes. I'm not going to deny it.
I think I've developed other issues but the AS is the root

I don't think I've ever been mentally healthy in my life because of other conditions which may be secondary to my autism. Autism is not, in itself, a mental illness but going through childhood and half my adult life not knowing why I felt so different to other people and not understanding why I have the difficulties that I have has done great damage to my self esteem, and I have an extremely negative self-image, especially in relation to other people. That is what makes me feel that I am mentally ill because it has given rise to ongoing but fairly low-level depression (dysthymia), selective mutism and avoidant personality disorder which I think possibly disables me more than my AS does. I believe that I have some degree of body dysmorphia which on a day to day basic is one of my lesser problems, but that would make it impossible for me to have an intimate relationship with anyone. I wonder how disabling my AS would actually be for me and where I would be today if I didn't have all these additional mental health problems.

I consider myself to be one of the sanest members of society. Very calm and rational most the time.

I used to have severe depression because of problems I have with Asperger's. Now I just get low every so often.

There is a strong link between having autism and a mental health problem, but there doesn't have to be. I think these children put it best:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lWZGc6-Hcc[/youtube]

I do get depressed a lot, but I'm completely sane (but, wait, isn't that supposed to be the first sign of insanity). Anyway, I've never lost track of reality or doen anything crazy, no matter how I've felt, even when the social aspects of my job really got to me.

Here's a little story that got me thinking: My husband's friend started sweating profusely in a bar one night. I asked if he was OK and he told me he had a mental illness and this was the side effect of the meds. He then went on to tell me about his mental illness, which was social anxiety disorder. I was a little confused by this as I have social anxiety, although I've never spoken to a doctor about it, so it's not diagnosed as a disorder. His symptoms are very similar to mine, but I would never consider it to be a mental illness.