I understand what you're saying Candy...what I was imagining at the moment of reading your post (the first one) was survival as in survival of life in general...living, breathing, etc... In the circumstance you speak of defining "survivor" then that I would not beable to tell you if you were or not. But to continue backing up what I say....if you survive severe mental illness without self harm, suicide, and the destruction of your livlihood, again you are surviving on a day to day basis and once you reach your mental health goal then you will be fully qualified as "survivor". Don't give up on that yet.