I don't consider myself as having ongoing/lifelong mental illness. I think I have predispositions and had a few challenging periods in my life. I also don't think that therapy is necessary to manage my challenges - tried it for a couple years in my early 40's, in part out of curiosity. I did psychoanalysis for about a year then another roughly one year with a T who describes his approach as eclectic (psychodynamic, psychoanalytic, coaching, CBT, narrative, interpersonal). I liked the eclectic much better.