Is it by how much support you get? I gets loads of mental health support from services.
There is not really a gauge or anything. 
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I know how severe a mental illness I have by the pain and insanity I felt those times I went off the meds.
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When I’m off my meds I start with the obsessing and intrusive thoughts, then the delusions. This happens less than 7 days when of meds.
Unmedicated I thought I was god.
51/50’d
Medication seems to have moved me from severe to a medium functioning person.
Still not convinced I’m not a god trapped in a flesh prison, and could free my soul.
I was a step away from holding a cardboard sign on a street corner of a highly obscure bible verse.
Yay!
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Delusions of reference. Everything is a sign from beyond. I’ll believe anything.
I sometimes revert back to thinking I’m a powerful person who the government has taken interest in and thats why I’m getting all this support and constant monitoring, I’m under constant surveillance. I also think I’m going to be set up for a crime I didnt commit, this thinking happens even on medication but I’m not obsessing about it like I do without the meds
When I’m off meds I get severely paranoid and violent. Also I think I can speak to angels. I think I’ve been poisoned and other strange stuff.
I think it’s all about function. You can have wild symptoms and still keep a job etc. For most of us a regular job can be problematic for example. So I am regarded as high functioning but I still can’t keep a job. A reason I don’t really hold much to labels because having sz isn’t good in any shape or form.
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I don’t handle stress very well. I go from 0 -100 in seconds if pissed off or something triggers me.
I don’t know if severe and complex are the same things, but they did a complex case review for me a few weeks ago.
Not sure what the outcome was, but I am going to ask on Wednesday when I see my lead practitioner
My pdoc refers me as complex.
I wouldn’t worry about the language these people use
Like the other day I got freaked out when they called my liver ‘deranged’
But apparently that’s a word used in medical speak with a very small threshold to describe an abnormality !
I worry that I come across as a zombie. emotionally stunted zombie.
I know my case was severe because I lived through it. Intense suffering for about every minute of every day for 2 1/2 years straight. I’m lucky I survived it and came out the other side.
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I was originally tucked into a managed living situation as I couldn’t manage my own affairs from one day to the next. That was my first clue.
I think all cases are severe if they go from positive experience to a negative one.
I’m not sure you could call it severe,but just before my late wife came into my life I was regarded as at best suitable for a group home and at worst a long stay psych ward. I’ve progressed from that point,but I’ve never had a paid job, and need quite a lot of support to lead a rather basic but reasonably safe lifestyle.
You should not worry so much comparing yourself for others. Be concerned about lows or extreme periods of instability that are relative to yourself.
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That is 100 percent the best answer
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