1-10, how mentally disabled are you?

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On a scale of 1 to 10, how disabled are you? Not just counting autism (which we will count as a disability here) but any other mental condition you have, or a serious physical condition - but I'm focusing on mental conditions.

but before you vote, we should all know what each number on the scale should mean, so..

1. One mild disorder
- Such as mild short term depression, mild ADHD, anxiety disorder NOS, very high functioning aspergers syndrome.

2. two mild disorders
- see above

3. Mild but can lapse into moderate, meds used
- Mild aspergers, ADHD, cyclothemia, moderate short term depression, mild hypomania, moderate chronic insomnia or hypersomnia, intellectual disability

4. Slightly more likely to become moderate then 3

5. One moderate disorder, meds used
- moderate forms of 3, clinical depression, moderate aspergers/autism, Bipolar type II mania without psychotic features, Body Dysmorphic disorder, mild OCD

6 two moderate disorders/ moderately severe
- see 5, residual schizophrenia, peronality disorders, severe anxiety disorder, PTSD

7. disabling enough to warrent hospital stay

8. Schizophrenia, Bipolar type I, severe intellectual disability.

9. slightly worse then 8

10. A danger to others and self, must be kept under watch, institutionalised

hap hazard I know, but you get the idea.

I am not that disabled now and my medication works for now, but if I get severe depressive episodes like I've had in the past, I am really screwed. Those were very bad and difficult to get out of. The effects on my life were devastating.

I have never been neurological normal. In hindsight I clearly had aspergers as a kid. Then I spent my 20s trying to learn to deal with chronic depressive episodes and severe anxiety. I have had the unforuntunate experience of having bad and good experiences with
pscyhiatry.
My current DX is Bipolar 2, because I have had some mixed states along with my anhedonic depressions. Its been several months since I slid into a depression.

If you want to reduce that to an integer between 1 and 10 then go for it. I won't bother.

Wow, I clicked five before I knew what it meant, and I was still right.

I take meds for depression and anxiety; without them I'm pretty messed up but with them I'm just fine.

I am still finding it hard with hallucinations and what my psychiatrist calls "persecutory delusions" (I am really confused about this because I feel like the public are listening to my thoughts and that the Spies are everywhere, but logically I know that is a bit far-fetched.....argh). I also have rather strong AS which results in me needing a LOT of support at university. I am also in supported housing and was sectioned three times in six months not too long ago. But I am coping, somewhat.

I'd say about a three.

Sevenish on your scale. I am optimistic about not feeling disabled at all soon though. Yeah I'll still have a "different" neurology but that's not a disability in itself.

i am not mentally disabled to the point of cognitive retardation, but i am disabled enough to know that i will never know what makes people "tick". i am not stupid, but i am also not a popular person in any way, and the unfolding of my life is seen by only me.
"whatever"... i guess.

I voted #6 on the scale, even though I'm average or above in intelligence.

I wouldn't have thought I'd come out as high as five on a scale of one to ten for "How mentally disabled?" But by your criteria, I did. That's the Clinical Depression, which does need meds in the winter, and has approached suicidal at least once. My Asperger's is hardly noticeable, from the outside, except where it comes to people choosing to be friends with me, and my IQ is (or was, when I was younger) off the charts. But I never did anything important with my life as the IQ would seem to predict, just raise my daughter (NT) who is practically perfect in every way, though she does have a couple of Aspie traits, she definitely wouldn't come out of a diagnosis as anything but NT. However, she doesn't think I'm a good mother, so maybe raising her wasn't very successful either. I'm retired now, but my "career" was a hodge-podge of minimum wage or under jobs. But, on the other hand, I've done a lot better with my life than a huge percentage of the population, and never hurt anybody very much.

If you've always had your handicap, lived with it every day, never been truly 'neurotypical', then how can you ever really know 'how disabled you are'? You don't have a completely normal day in your life to compare it to.

Your brain's physical wiring is askew from the average - you experience everything you ever see, think, hear, taste or touch through a psychological lens that is subtly different than the lenses of all the other folk around you. Theirs are all pretty much the same, but yours is slightly warped, like a funhouse mirror. So what seems perfectly normal to you may look wildly off-kilter to everyone around you. Meaning you are in no position to accurately judge how impaired you really are, because even when things seem boringly normal to you, people around you may still be rolling their eyes behind your back and thinking "What a weirdo".

Besides, what isn't a problem in one environment may be a deal breaker in another. If you work in one job in a room alone, poor social skills and anxiety attacks brought on by sudden sensory changes may not be that much of a problem, but that doesn't mean if you're transferred tomorrow to an open lobby, and forced to interact with customers all day that you won't have a meltdown. How impaired are you? Kinda depends, doesn't it?

Autism is autism, its a disability and a set of handicaps. High Functioning and Low Functioning are one thing to differentiate, but trying to quantify it beyond that is counter productive. Calling yourself an 'almost normal 10' today is going to bite you in the ass next week when you find you're not doing so well after all and nobody believes you're having a crisis because your AS is 'so mild'. If its that 'mild' then you don't really have a problem and if you don't have a problem, then you're not really disabled at all. Shred your diagnosis, you're cured, hallelujah!

For me it would be a 2.

1 or 2.

I voted two. I think everything about me is mild.

I'd say 2 - asperger's + sometimes mild depression, no meds.

This is a hard one, but I voted 6, although it probably isn't accurate with me, since my mind is very complex.

I wouldn't say it's my AS that is disabling - it's more the anxiety disorder that I suffer with. It is very disabling. But then it all depends on what the situation actually is, because when my special interests are involved, my anxiety decreases. For example, I'm obsessed with buses and the drivers and all that, but I have severe attacks of anxiety when I am to go out in crowds because I don't always like facing people. So instead of walking to the supermarket (which is just up the road from me), I would sooner get the bus to the airport (which is a 10-minute ride) and get whatever I needed to get (there are little shops up the airport), because getting the bus fills me with joy - even though I would face less people by just going to the supermarket up the road.

I voted 6. I have very high intellegence, but I have moderate Asperger's Syndrome, a moderate to high anxiety disorder, mild obsessive and compulsive tendencies*, and mild PTSD-like symptoms about an unwanted suicide attempt (I'm not sure about this one, though, because the person who told me was my mom, not a psychologist). I also might have been diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder, but I'm not sure, and even if I was, it might have just been to make sense of my anger problems; I don't get depressed. I have been in a mental hospital once, but that was only for a week and it was because of a suicide attempt, not mental disorders.

*When I described my breathing habits to my psychologist, she said it was obsessive and compulsive, but she didn't diagnose me with OCD. I can only breathe when looking at certain things; I can't look at buttons, etc. Also, if there is a bad smell or I am in the path of someone who walked by and was wearing buttons, no matter how hard I try, I can't breathe. Sometimes, I get trapped in the paths and I have an anxiety attack. If there is a clock ticking or I am walking, I have to breathe in time with the beat. I also have a lot of tics.