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I am not concerned with how I perceive mentally ill people. Mental illness touches different facets of my family in different ways. I am quite familiar with it, it’s challenges and it’s stigmas. I don’t look down on mentally ill people, because I love and am friends with many people who suffer from mental illness.

My objections are due to the societal biases that others hold against mentally ill people. My problem with calling Autism a mental illness is twofold. 1. It is factually and scientifically incorrect. Full stop. End of story. This should be enough for you, but whatever. 2. When you call Autism a mental illness you take a group of people who struggle and suffer and loop them in with another group of people that struggle suffer. Autism has enough social stigma attached to it already. When you apply more social stigma to it by attaching other labels to it, you are actively causing more harm than good.

It would be one thing to offend based on a factual argument, but you have neither facts nor a moral/ethical argument on your side. There is no reason for one to call Autism a mental illness other than a factual misunderstanding of Autism. To cling to that ignorance and claim superiority is both arrogant and egotistical. It lacks any semblance of empathy whatsoever.

I hope that as you grow as a person you will adopt a more empathetic attitude towards others, and see how your words harm or have the potential to harm others.

If you want to call Autism a “mental disorder” you would be correct to call it that, as it is a neurodevelopmental disorder and cognitive disability. It is not however a mental illness. The DSM V classifies a lot of different disorders, some of which are mental illnesses and some of which are not. Conflating that something being defined in the DSM V also classifies it as a mental illness when the writers of the DSM V were very careful not to use that language, shows the very misunderstanding which I am trying very hard to show you (and failing) at best, and intentionally misleading on your part at worst.

There is no “modern discussion” around if autism is a mental illness. It is settled scientific consensus that Autism is a cognitive disability and NOT a mental illness. This “modern discussion” you speak of consists of a single commenter on Hacker News making an unsubstantiated arm-chair assertion that Autism is a mental illness. I’m sorry to bust your bubble, but you are not important enough to overturn settled scientific understanding and consensus with a single comment on a web forum. Now, I want you to understand that no matter how you classify different disabilities and afflictions inside your mind, when you speak such mistruths you influence and affwct the world views of others. Other people are going to read or listen to your comments and they are going to begin to conflate Autism with mental illness. They are going to loop me in with folks who can be treated with medication, or with psycho therapy. They are going to wonder if I’m going to exhibit symptoms of mental illnesses since I am autistic. They are going to wonder if I am depressed, or have anger or personality issues. They are going to wonder if I am a danger to them, and in turn, that mentality is going to cause direct harm and danger to me and other people on the spectrum. It will deprive us of opportunities. It will lessen our ability to make social bonds, in which we already struggle. Your words have power, and in this case I find it disappointing that rather than use your words to benefit others you have chosen, through arrogance, to engage in half-truths and misunderstanding at the detriment of myself and others. Please, consider if it’s more important for you to put forth an opinion that is actively harmful to others, or to approach your discussions and opinions in a more empathetic way.

Autism is not a mental illness. I am not mentally ill. I was born with a disability which causes social impairments and a host of other symptoms. Being Autistic is beyond my control, and is untreatable other than just trying my damndest to “pass” as neurotypical whereever and however I can. I find it incredibly insulting and damaging to label me as mentally ill.