Autism isn't a mental illness

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How I experience my Aspergers, I feel as if it is an illness, and a handicap. It restricts me from doing things other people do without effort. If people would ask me "Are you well?", I would answer "No" should I be completely honest. But I live a secret autism life, no one knows. So I say "Yeah, I'm okay..."

To me a real mental illness would be Alzheimer's, since that actually eats away at you, it makes no sense to call ASD a mental illness, it's like saying being Gay is a mental illness.

It's not like saying being gay is a mental illness at all. Being gay doesn't put any social restrictions on a person. Having autism does. Plus an illness doesn't have to completely destroy you. Having a cold, for example, doesn't destroy you physically.

What seems to be the issue here is that people just don't want the stigma associated with having a mental illness. It doesn't matter whether autism is an illness, a condition, a disorder, a syndrome or whatever - autism will always be autism. There's no need to keep redefining it all the time to make it more politically correct or whatever.

There are still plenty of places where social restrictions are imposed on those who are gay.

People call us mentally ill in order to discredit us.

That is a good point, with the implication that people who are mentally ill are not capable of making their own decisions.

If an autistic wins an argument an autistic is called mentally ill and obsessed so an autistic cannot possibly be right.

At my work neurotypicals believe that liberals are a mental illness.

Ok this is getting ridiculous, having a mental illness would not make someone 'always' wrong, ignorant people might think that however.

It feels like a mental illness to me because it makes me hit myself in the head when I'm having an angry outburst, and someone hitting themselves in the head is not healthy.

So why is is it that people want me to confess that I have a mental illness?

Is this from personal experience or an opinion?



Is everyone at your work conservative?

Which people? We need more information.

Family members think I should live on disability because I have nothing to contribute to society.

It's not a Mental Illness and I don't wish or need to be cured. I celebrate my autism each day by being the unique person that I am.

That's down to the society, not the person. It doesn't mean gay people in those places have differently wired brains and therefore find social interaction different.

That's fine. What I do not understand is why conformity is needed on these kinds of topics.
Some feel very strongly that AS is a mental illness, some feel just as strongly the opposite is correct.
Personal opinions are relevant to that person and the way they experience life.