Is Autism a type of mental illness??

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Well according to NAMI autistic people are considered mentally ill. Umm, I don't think so. Any thoughts??



http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Sectio ... ntID=66225

Technically, the set of documents generally used to diagnose AS are known as the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders," however, I personally think there's a huge distinction to be made between a Neurological Dysfunction and a Mental Illness (though its certainly possible to have both).

A Neurological Dysfunction is a disorder that causes a portion of the physical brain to process in an atypical manner, affecting perception of sensory data.

A Mental Illness is a Psychological or Emotional imbalance.


IMHO, The long term effects of a Neurological Dysfunction (like AS or Dyslexia) might lead to bouts of Mental Illness (such as Clinical Depression), but they are not the same type of phenomenon. But then, the medical community has not requested my assessment of their terminology.

I think along the lines of Neurological Dysfunction, or a handicap to greater or lesser extent, not mental illness, though bouts of co-morbid conditions are common among us. Who wouldn't with Neurological Dysfunction.

I choose to disregard any of this and just call it a neural abnormality/disorder. Because really, only YOU know if your "ill" or not. In official terms it's a disorder. The worse it gets I guess you could call it an illness, but many people consider it a blessing, and so, when one truly knows the strengths and weeknesses of their condition, but still calls it a blessing, then you truly could NOT call it an illness, because illness is related to a burden, or something that needs to be fixed. In truth we have a condition where something in our brains didn't tick the way it usually does, we learned to adapt, and the final result may be a burden or a blessing. We don't even know what causes it, or whether it was written in our genetic code generations ago as natures way of fixing a new breed of problems, so how could we even know whether it's an illness or not?
You know us aspies either fail miserably or succeed with flying colours, in completely different ways then NT's, and so NT's ONLY look at our failures and consider our condition a mental illness, but in reality, NT's can fail just as horribly but in different parts of their lives. Look at the average family man; Wakes up every morning, goes to work, comes home, eats and watches tv, and goes to bed. Any goals? None. Any contributions to society? An optional cog in the big machine that is capitalism. Is he happy? No. Does he want to be happy? Yes. Is he trying though? No. He's literally chained up by his indifference of trying for anything better, or giving anything to society or himself.
Next we have the typical idea of a miserable autistic; They grow up, they never learn to make friends, they never leave their parents house, some of them get terrible jobs if any at all, and they either write half a dozen to a dozen books/novels, (True story actually) become amazing at some random talent, or become specialized computers and push their roles onto society indirectly. They have passion, they feel awful, and they struggle like heck, but (This is the average situation.) they learn or do something way out of the bounds of their condition or any NT's ability. They contribute way more then any NT ever cared to do, all while being an emotional wreck at moms house.
We have those who really are at a disadvantage and complain about how much their lives are wrecked by their low IQ or bad looks and no quasi-savant abilities, (Who don't know any better.) While we also have an arsenal of NT druggies and/or drunks behind us.
Sure, some are happier than others, but OTHERS contributed way more to anyone then the some.
In the end some of us fail, and some of us succeed. If you look at the percentages, in all america (96% nt) we have 85% are living lower middle class to drop bottom middle class. These are usually the ones that hold the jobs and/or get married, but live awful lives of survival and nothing more.
In the aspie ratio, it's been said that their is a 15% average success (Job, some friends, living on own.) rate who also contribute to society while part of them really really succeed, while the other 85% lives at their parents but contribute way more then a hardworking NT in their own 85% ratio.

Just think: does the average american contribute to society or him/herself as anything other then a cog in our economy? (Usually the lower 10% contributes.)
Then think: does the AVERAGE autsitic/aspie contribute to society or him/herself despite their disabilities? (About half contribute.)

The point is that we have a role in society, and by the looks of it, the modern world is opening up a very important role for us. We know we're a different kind of people, but based on the differences and balances in our contribution to society or ourselves, we really are pretty much equal. In theory we're no more ill then the average NT man/woman.

Dunno about the rest of you, but I find that to be a fangled insult. I just do; don't judge me.

Autism is no more of a mental illness then being neurotypical is.

Autism is not a mental illness.

Saying otherwise seems like a poor excuse to label all Autistics "Non Compos Mentis" ("Mentally Incompetent"), and make it easier for others to legally exploit us.

This is yet another reason why I will never "come out" as having an Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism is not a mental illness, that implies it can be cured. It is a neurological disability that should be treated first and foremost with respect. Respect will help the autistic deal with many issues, everything else is secondary,

I don't know anything about NAMI but they do describe ASC as a disorder not an illness. They seem to present the main issues in a reasonable way from a quick read. I usually check their treatment information to see if there is a product or therapy being promoted.

Do you make this connection just because of the title of the organisation? It may just be that the majority of their focus is on illnesses rather that disorders. Or maybe they could not create a nice acronym with too many characters.
NAMIAD does not roll too well.