Improving Young People’s Mental Health? Understanding Ambivalence to Seeking Support Among Young Adults With Asperger Syndrome

Mental health is a ‘wicked problem’ that requires understanding the views and experiences of different social groups. Young people concerned about the stigma of being a ‘mental health service user’ are one such group. This chapter provides another perspective by exploring how young people with Asperger syndrome make sense of mental distress and how, in turn, this may influence help-seeking behaviors. It examines how mental distress is framed as an integral and enduring part of Asperger syndrome. It also explores how a rhetoric of self-reliance is linked to an ambivalence to using mental health services which, in turn, is affected by poor experiences of support at a young age.