Social conditionings are a huge source of mental illness and your sister imposing her IDEA that people create their own mental illnesses is an example of the power of social conditionings.

She isn't exploring the topic with you but telling you what she believes but to her it's the truth. To the person called mentally ill, it's frustrating because why would anyone knowingly create mental problems for self? And if being happy is merely a decision away, then why don't people decide to be happy?

The real mental illness is not self-inflicted but socially inflicted. Since we were babie, the social institutions have taken the eager minds of the trusting young and indoctrinated those minds with ideas of self, of God, of nation and so on. Before any other knows what happened, those ideas have become habitual thoughts and those thoughts are in contradiction to our true nature, our true being.

The mental confusion that results is a mental illness. To be constantly confused means to be constantly thinking and thinking consumes our energy. Thinking is our self-absorption but these thoughts don't lead us closer to finding answers so that we can rest because the questions we are pondering don't have answers except that the whole thing is an illusion. But because these thoughts are habitual, they feel like they are the truth.

Turning ideas of life into habitual thinking steals our innate nature that allows us to learn and grow. It keeps us stuck because whatever is said that contradicts the habit is instantly rejected by the mind. Just try to change a habit and you know what a fight your mind puts up.

This constant mental confusion shifts us from living authentically from the heart and makes us TRY to live logically from the head. Your sister is living logically and unable to see that she is destroying love. She doesn't get that the mind creates ideas to help us, but those ideas are meant to be tested by life, not imposed on life. By testing ideas, we learn what we knew and didn't know and become smarter. By imposing ideas, when people don't support our ideas that we think are truths, we end up being controlling of those people, demanding compliance and getting upset when we don't get it.

99% of people are living in ideas when it comes to love, self, God, nation and so on. When life is most personal, we are raised to be the most logical and the end result is the death of love. The energy that could be shared in love is wasted thinking and arguing.

As far as Asperger's is concerned, check out Waldorf-style schools.

Ron