do you consider yourself mentally ill?

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Anxiety often is a matter of losing touch with reality just enough to cause problems. You're not entirely disconnected, but interpretations of what is real are skewed.

I think that a lot of people carry such negative connotations for terms like "mental illness" that they catastrophize the label itself and distance themselves.

Maybe that's what it is with me. When I was younger, my bipolar aunt was in a psychiatric hospital a lot of the time and didn't have a clue where she was. I can't relate to that at all.

If it helps, I'm not criticizing at all. It's actually really frustrating that the terminology to discuss disability is so fraught with negativity and prejudice. It's not any one person's fault.

Don't worry, I didn't take it as a criticism at all. I understand what you're saying. I've also worked in mental health administration. The people that I dealt with were at the severe end of the scale, being hospitalised against their will, for their own safety. These are the people that we hear of more often.

Yes, because I have mild OCD, a moderate phobia and severe anxiety. However, I don't consider myself "psychotic".

"Psychotic" has a specific meaning:



It's frequently overused and misused in describing mental illness.



Also, I know people who were hospitalized against their will for ... well, honestly, very little reason. And people who needed it but were abused in the system. And, thankfully, people who needed it and were treated well.

There have been times when I probably should have been hospitalized but I managed without it. Which doesn't mean I didn't need it, because it meant I continued for years with serious issues undiagnosed. I have mixed feelings about not seeking treatment on those occasions.

I don't like seeing myself as ''mentally ill'' because it sounds a little bit harsh. I'm not saying that this is it, but to me when I think of the words ''mentally ill'', I picture a crazy person in a mental hospital, a person with Alzheimer's, or a person got brain-damage and is in a coma. I'm not saying that's what they mean, I'm just saying that that's how the words sound to me. I prefer to call myself ''socially challenged'', or ''neurologically disabled'', or just ''neurological''. I have high anxiety disorder, and that can be very disabling, especially when it comes to pressure and responsibility, all at once.

There's a limit on how many negative insults that "normal" people can call the person with AS before their self-esteem crumbles; the person with AS ends up believing those insults. that they are worthless, stupid, slow and defective.

Anyways, I didn't vote, because my answer would be both yes and no. Yes, because Asperger's Disorder is listed in the DSM (as well as the fact that I still take meds for co-morbid ADHD). No, because sometimes I view AS as more of a way of being than a disorder that needs to be treated.

It's interesting to me that before I knew I was autistic, mentally ill, disabled, that I was weighed down with many negative insults others called me: worthless, stupid, lazy, etc. I knew these weren't true, but I couldn't contradict them because I didn't even understand myself. Now that I know what I do, I know I'm none of those things, and that I simply have limits, like everyone else. My limits are just a bit more restricted than many.

I consider myself mentally Ill.

A part of me wishes I had never been diagnosed, but even without having been diagnosed its obvious.

I hate trying to "act" normal just to blend in with normal society.

I wish everyone could accept other people and themselves for who they are whether they are crippled, obese, anorexic, slightly-smelly, boyish, childish, etc..

>_< I gave up trying to act normal.. But I always end up doing stupid things that I regret..

I wish I had the ability to see my future and then prevent it from happening.

I wish I could get better grades.

If there was an official Cure for Autism/Aspergers I would take it because I feel left out even though it is "me" who is avoiding people.

*sighs*

I am not "Mentally Ill", nor do I "suffer" from AS.

I said no because I do not see autism as a mental illness.

Actually, I do have Depression which is a mental illness.

Paranoid, anxious, quick to anger, and rapid mood swings.

I would say yes, yes I am mentally ill. And apart from the anger I think they all have little to do with autism.