is autism (including AS) a mental illness?

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i thought that i had set that as an option but appartently not. it was meant to be an option though!

also i agree that my mistake has bias the vote so i will ignore the vote & just read your comments.

sorry!

well i think it's both, autism/aspergers is a nerological issue, but many adults who grow up have co-existing depression, anxiety, stress, etc due to bullying and traumatic events. so it's both.

I define "illness" as something that is treatable, not a pre-existing condition. Yes I realize some things like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder can show up in childhood, but since both can (usually) be managed with some medication, they're illnesses.
We're just different.

I know autism isn't a mental illness but considered a neurological disorder. What I don't know is what is the difference between a mental disorder and a neurological disorder? They both are diseases that affect the brain. I think mental disorder means it's psychological and can be treated with talk therapy whereas neurological disorders are physical medical conditions involving real abnormalities in the brain. Obviously, autism isn't psychological since we are born with it so it must be a physical neurological disorder.

Mental disorders can involve abnormalties in the brain as well, but they can usually be somewhat corrected by medicine and therapy (CBT, exposure, etc). And I stress somewhat. Uusally these things occur or are triggered and then last for a lifetime at varying degrees.

I see AS as a different braint type, like NT.
In brain brain it is categoriezed somewhat like this

Aspergers
*People with mental illness
*People without mental illness

Neurotypical
*people with mental illness
*People without mental illness

Do dark skinned people have a skin disorder?


Do left handed people have a right arm functioning disorder?

Yes, they do and the left-handed epidemic is growing just like autism.

Excuse me?

I hope that was sarcasm. If it's not, then I'm offended.

I always assumed left-handedness was a normal genetic difference until I looked it up on PubMed and found research indicating otherwise. I can post the scientific studies if you're interested.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with left-handedness. I looked it up out of curiosity and found that environmental factors are likely involved, it's increasing just like autism, and it's common in people with developmental disorders, autism, seizures, and learning disabilities.

ditto. You're poll is biased into forcing people to say autism is a mental illness. Therefore, it is not even valid criteria to determine what the people who vote in it truly think

well i found that kind of offensive as well, i'm left handed, and many people are left handed. I know like a dozen people who are left handed. and also i'm not voting in the poll, it's biased. there should be a option for both, mental and nerological.

Last edited by jaydog on 30 Jan 2008, 12:10 am, edited 1 time in total.

Of course it's common.

Autism is extreme right-brain dominance. Lefties are right-brained naturally.

I think it's interesting that left-handedness is associated with autism because the prevalence of left-handedness is growing. Unlike autism, where we can't be 100% certain it's increasing (because less go undiagnosed now), left-handedness can be easily "diagnosed" so it's easy to see that it's increasing. If both are increasing, then it seems like autism can't have solely genetic causes.

The numbers of lefties are probably "increasing" because left-handedness doesn't carry the stigma it used to and so lefties are much less often forced to use their right hand for writing and whatever