Are you very high-functioning?

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High Functioning Autism refers to cognitive functioning not societal functioning. Autistics with an IQ over 70.

I am high functioning until I'm not - if you know what I mean. I am great with facts and information. Good with budgets and spreadsheets and numbers - I am good with task lists and being organized. I understand Psychology, Neuroscience, real estate, mortgages, and many other complex tasks BUT I have laundry waiting to be folded all over my kitchen table.

I can barley navigate large gatherings of people. Office luncheons make my head spin because I cannot keep track of everything going on. I don't naturally understand the rules of conversation and tend to monologue and interrupt people if I let myself relax - so I hold back constantly (fooling people into thinking I am normal or high functioning).

Acting like I am high functioning has a price - it wears on you.

I am high functioning when I am allowed to work from home and not forced to socialize with coworkers but I get sick with sensory overload attacks when I push myself just a little to hard.

I am high functioning and I am low functioning because I have a spiky profile.

I'm quite content.
My unhappiness comes from groups of people.
I keep my interactions brief, and with individuals. So they can't gang up on me and do the whole clique/gossip/"he's not one of us" thing.
I also keep people separated from each other, my 'friend' won't know about another friend.
If I have a funeral they can all meet and gossip about me then.
I make sure they only know one topic about me - the interest that we share, hobby.
Most people will judge you very quickly if you say something that is not politically correct, even if it is the truth, even if they secretly believe it themselves!
They won't mind too much if you are indifferent about things or fail to have an opinion - being fickle is the Neurotypical way, you'll appear as 'Normal'

Very similar but not married.

I feel like I've learned to blather on well, say all the right things at the office, and I can make a broader swath of acquaintances than I could years ago. It still doesn't make me less weird though, and I really think sometimes the lack of fundamental conformity is a bigger gap than social skills in the raw.

High functioning enough that I feel dumb around normal people only to realize later I was misunderstanding them because of their lower functioning ways of thinking, otherwise I tend to be several steps ahead of people when it comes to ideas and concepts. Although when it comes to social ques and interactions I do seem to be about as dumb as a rock until I learn the social skills that others seems to be born with.

^^ That's another hard one too. I've had enough hard life experience to know that beating on myself when I don't fit in is the best policy (a habit I'm trying to break) both when I'm functioning above the crowd and when I'm functioning below or outside it.

Absolutely not, even when I was quite successful it took all the effort I had to just about stay afloat and juggle too many dishes and they eventually shattered one after the other in quick succession, only realized years later it was like balancing on a tightrope and spinning dishes at the same time.

I've really enjoyed this thread.

I sometimes seem to be a social expert and have expert executive function...then the next day I'm resenting anyone for saying "good morning" to me and staring into space at my office. It's a bit like Flowers For Algernon.

I have taken learning social skills as a special interest, so it's similar to how my abilities in a foreign language work: when I'm stressed, I'm not as good at French. It's the same for arithmetic. So it seems social skills are just that: skills.

If I stay away from people for a while, I'm very happy, but then my skills atrophy. Like, if I don't practice a musical instrument for a while then try to play it. My authentic voice is not...NT friendly. I speak in weird poetry and big words. It's not the current idiom, cadence, everything.

Of course, social skills are different from all that, because of the huge amount of focus they take to get right. I need to rest alone and quietly for at least as much time as I'm in a conversation, possibly more. I get dizzy and my vision gets strange (lights, colors) after particularly difficult conversations.

And if I don't rest enough (never sure what counts as "rest" and how much is "enough") I WILL shut down. But usually my body just hijacks my next sleep, and I don't wake up until 10,11,12 hours or whatever. A few times, two days!

But successful job, marriage, etc. I'm the highly verbal, able to be charming and thoughtful -- and also rebellious and hard to work with -- kind of aspie. The one who no one thinks could be autistic but everyone thinks is weird, blunt, and rule-focused. As a result, some people immediately take to me and others can't stand me. I don't seem to have much control over it, which drives me crazy.

I've decided I am just going to be me. I want to be polite, but I don't really understand the rules. So I practice empathy (also a skill) and try to believe in the best in everyone. But I'm going to be myself.

I'm also basically out at work now, and I want to be an open advocate for us. I am tired of having to bend to their unwritten rules.

I've spent all my damn life trying to understand them and accommodate them. They need to understand us and accommodate us, too.

teachers and professors used to tell me i had a bright future ahead of me. my therapist used to tell me that i was eligible for government benefits. they were both mistaken. sums it up

I'm considered high functioning in the sense I have "above average intelligence" and "no intellectual impairment" but I'd say I'm low functioning in the same way a depressed person might be low functioning, or someone who has other problems and it affects how they live.

Functioning labels don't always make perfect sense, a non-autistic person could be considered low-functioning. People still have the idea of low functioning and high functioning autism as being two distinct conditions.

I'm pretty high-functioning for a Wolfman.

With the vague definition of high functioning I think I am

I am 34 years old. I own my own business. I work full time, but with a lot of control over down time at work.I have a masters degree. I love picking up projects and focusing on them for a short time and being super productive (unrelated to my job). I have saved up some $$ from living extremely frugally (a project/special interest) and hope to retire somewhat early. I have a partner and hope to have a kid. I have a lot of female friends, but I prefer to have one on one time for an hour regularly (like at least once a month, ladies coffee dates). I am terrible with the opposite gender, because I can never differentiate between platonic and flirty male friends. So most of my male "friends" are more like acquaintances or my boyfriend's friends.

I "act" mostly normal. I just frame it to people that I am extremely shy and introverted and only good in one on one situations. I tell everyone I can do stuff for just an hour. I'll help out with "x" just for an hour. If I have a "purpose" serving, photography, ushering, etc. I can kind of function with large groups of people for maybe an hour, but if it's just like cocktail hour no way!

On the ASD side, I experience really high amounts of anxiety, depression, insomnia, digestive problems, chronic pain, and a lot of shutdowns. I work in holistic medicine so I can help myself manage some of that (which is really nice). My childhood was really terrible with a lot of bullying but I saw good grades as my way out, so I always fought really hard for those. (Special interest special project) I do much better once I have some control over my environment. I panic whenever I feel super restricted. Or at things like weddings, I don't go to those.

I do okay one on one, but there's seems to be some triggers where with certain people I just have to flee. I can't really deal with them at all in a casual social context, but work's fine.

It's great to see this thread in these forums. I'd like to feel not so alone with my ASD. I'd like to make some new friends and share strategies for coping with life so pm me