Mental "disabilities" do not exist

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there are dis abilitys in it, as with most people will have dis abilitys, its the impact/severity it has on a persons life that make majarity in the pesentage a dis ability. If you find your niche then all is good and you get left alone. I am dis abled in what i do until i can find what i fit into and make work. Co morbids are a bigy and confusing aswell.

Interesting view. I agree I HATE the term Mental Illness IMO "Psychological Issues" seem a lot better since it is a behavior problem/issue/illness so Behavior issue/illness sounds better IMO. Mental=crazy and Mental illness is frowned upon still in todays era IMO. So I like Psychological issue much better.

I believe they are considered a disability in that the individual who is afflicted must attempt to cope in a world designed for and by the neurotypical.

Not everyone with Aspergers experiences positive effects of the condition to make up for the negative effects of the condition. For them, it is just a disability. Are we talking about mental disorders, as well? What about anorexia? Is there a positive side to that?

I would normally take offense to this but after reading the explanation about it, I can see your point of view and I agree. Society does make things a disability.

But how far do you draw the line for mental disabilities for society making them one?

Thanks for all the responses, glad to see that there are lots of opinionated people here The point I was trying to make with this post is similar to what anxiety25 rases in this post. The vast majority of mental differences (and a lot of physical disabilities) are purely genetic mutations, most of which can be passed on through breeding. I strongly beleve that what people today call "disabilities" are just examples of evolution in practice. The pseudo-random nature of genetics produces differences in offspring, and the strongest survive.

What is a 'normal'? Nothing more than the largest common denominator. If Aspies were the highest common denominator, then the normals of today would be labelled with some "disability".

Diagnosis of Asperger's and autism has been on the rise. While improved diagnosis techniques have certainly played a part in this, the ability of the autistic mind to understand, handle and program the computer infastructure which drives the modurn world must also be a significant factor. If Aspies are better suited to the increasing number of computer related jobs, they are more likely to breed.

Of course genetics will generate people that are totally incompatible with the current world, or appear to have "evolved backwards". Unfortunately that's just the nature of a random system.

Mental disibilities exist.

Downs syndrome is a mental and intellectual disibility.

Aspergers can be seen as a disibility, and is in many ways. Its not itellectual, but it is mental. For example, the NT who I live with doesn't get depressed or have meltdowns. She can socially interact well.

Yes there are positive things with it but that doesn't mean it can't be seen as a disibility.

I think you're being myopic. Just because you have Asperger's and you're successful doesn't mean that everyone with a mental disability is the same. What about mentally ret*d people or lower-functioning autistic people? They aren't going to be as successful as someone as high-functioning as you.

They do exist, just not all things currently called disabilities are necessarily disabilities. What makes mental condistions trickier than physical is that it is rare to have a physical condition that has some good and some bad. Witha physical condition, a broken bone is never a good thing, MS is never a good thing, etc. Sickle cell is one rare examples of something that is a mix of good and bad: it's health problems and physical pain are well known, but what is lesser known is that it provides immunity to malaria, which can be a huge benefit for the Africans who have the sickle cell gene considering that malaria is one of the largest health threats over there (could save one from death, which is well worth the side effects).

With mental conditions, there are some that I think are hard to argue have anything positive and thus should be called mental disabilities, things like Downs, Alzheimer's, dementia, etc.

Something like Asperger's is different because for some people it is a net benefit and for some a net deficeit, others perhaps neutral. Even something never called a mental disability might qualify in some cases: academic giftedness. How many gifted bullied nerds suffer from severe depression and wish they weren't so smart so that they wouldn't be beat up by the football jocks?

For such conditions I don't think you can call the condition generally a disability, but you could call it a disability in specific cases. "Asperger's is a disability for Bob who can't hold down a job because of Asperger's, but not for Joe who is a successful systems administrator because of Asperger's."