Hello Marco: The General Q & A forum is a fine place to post this thread. The only thing about the General Q & A forum is that things tend to move quickly here & posts may not get the attention here they might get in some of the other forums. Also, the fact that there are other threads with similar themes doesn't matter. Over time, most concerns get visited & re-visited many times over.

Actually what you wrote makes perfect sense to me. Although I've been kicking around the mental health system for going on 20 years now, I've never received a formal diagnosis. I suppose there's something written down somewhere for insurance purposes. But that's about it. I guess there's something to be said for not being "painted" with a label, so to speak. On the other hand, it has left me wondering what all of my struggles were actually about & if it can actually be said that I was truly mentally ill... or was I just a "bad seed".

I presume the best solution to this dilemma would be to get some form of psychological testing done. I haven't ever had it. But I would imagine that is the closest one can get to a firm answer to the questions: "Do I have a mental illness?" & "Assuming I do, what is it?" Otherwise you're just sort-of left floundering in the dark. And if floundering in the dark is okay with a person then that's fine too. But if not then getting some kind of psych testing done would seem to me to be the way to go.