functioning?

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Heh. I eat the same things everyday for months at a time. I can't remember to clean up messes because I just do not notice them. I've never had any kind of serious relationship before... or real friends before either. Hygiene could use a little work.

Maybe it's just whoever diagnoses you's opinion and everyone's opinion is different? =/

I don't function well enough for a regular job.
I have never had a relationship for more than four months.
Any friends in the last decade have been men who are sexually interested in me, and think that I'll date them, or people that are linked to an interest of mine.
Special interests, myself, and personal experiences, or hobbies are still very much just about all I can talk about.
I think I have selected mutism.
I experience sensory overload.
I have life altering anxiety.
I have a history of staring, spacing out, blacking out, oogling
I have a social history of missing social cues to a hellishly embarrassing degree
I've been stigmatised in my community for my social behaviour.
I have two parents- one with behavioural issues, very A-typical, who refuses to look into his condition with a DX
the other has a neurological seizure disorder, diagnosed in the epileptic spectrum
I can however, make and hold eye contact with enough effort
On the surface, you would never know what I go through, I'm extremely good at hiding it.

I'm confused about the 'functioning' tags. I've seen it used in reference to IQ/learning abilities aswell as the severity of the individuals symptoms.

Well I never went to college for a major and I've read doctors decide how bad your AS is based on if you finished high school or not or ever went to college or ever got married and I think those are invalid reasons because there are NTs out there who didn't do those thing, does that make them less NT?
What's next, basing it on your income?

'Functioning' is a mixed bag.

There seem to be some aspies who are very non-social yet have a high IQ or a special talent that's allowed them to become successful despite lacking social skills. These people might not even be diagnosed.

Others appear normal socially at first glance but struggle with life in general because they haven't been lucky enough to find their niche. They've been stuck all their life trying to succeed at various common jobs that require high levels of social skills.

Then there's people like me who feel like we could be more social but often lack the energy. My inherently shy and anxious personality really compounds my AS issues. I don't feel high functioning at all even though hardly anyone thinks I look autistic or aspergers at first glance. They usually think I'm a 'normal' but weird/shy person.

Overall, I'm in the moderate range. There was a useful scale I used a couple of months ago (will try to locate it); it also showed moderate PDD, and someone checked it for me. There are some ways I'm extremely high-functioning; my skills are all over the place.

I am not really sure where I stand. Probably mild-to-moderate..
I have a hard time with normal jobs. I cannot hold them for very long when I do get them.
I stim. I have meltdowns. I don't drive a car. My obsessions can somewhat hinder my day to day functioning to a degree.
I am moderately social, but most often with non-NTs.
I am severely disorganized and really struggle with executive functioning...

but I am good at being in relationships...(esp. with Non-NT's who would otherwise struggle in relationships)...In fact I have been in relationships for so long, I don't really know how to function outside them.
My two closest friends are guys I am romantically involved with...
I have zero female friends. I question my ability to form close comfortable platonic friendships.
I have lots of acquaintances but only feel comfortable socializing with them passively and for brief amounts of time.

Last edited by poopylungstuffing on 26 Jan 2009, 4:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.

prickery? you NQ? nah....NEVER...............................

prickery? you NQ? nah....NEVER...............................

I’m not so sure that the term ‘functioning’ is actually very descriptive as to me it implies that my body functions since my heart can beat and my lungs can fill and my bowels can function properly.
Perhaps you mean ‘perform’ which may be a better term. As in can you perform a particular role or ‘function’ in society or with other people.
In this respect then I think that I ‘function’ pretty well since over time I have learned to become almost like a chameleon and can take on the guises needed for almost any particular situation. We are generally very good at adopting various personas for particular purposes.
Perhaps this is what equates back to high-middle-low or whatever. How good are you at pretending to be normal. How you are inside doesn't make much difference. It's what you can project that is important to society and determines your 'rank' in the pecking order.

I reckon that I have moderate/severe AS:

-I have been to university and have a good honours degree
-I have only ever had 2 jobs - both menial and lasted no more than 3 months
-I have never been in a romantic relationship and function terribly in most social situations
-I have a lot of sensory issues (crowds, smells, noises, some food textures)
-I am logical and honest to the point of absurdity (think Data from star trek!)
-I have no idea if I will ever be capable of living and functioning independantly or even fit in effectively with other people

Incidently, I was only formally diagnosed with aspergers in 2003 so there has been very little time (relatively speaking) for me to come to terms with my condition and I was not sufficiently high functioning to develop coping mechanisms for my difficulties prior to this

I've always wondered: What qualifies as severe AS?

I'm extra-high-functioning-to-the-point-of-looking-like-just-an-eccentric too.

Basically my symptoms are limited to really bad organization (my room looks like hell/a bomb went off), relatively poor fashion sense (steadily improving), poor short term memory (related to organization), and some social awkwardness mostly manifested as shyness. Oh, and general nerdiness too.

I like who I am, generally. I just wish I was more organized.

i see myself as mild aspergers because i have known since i was very young and didnt want to be different so i have improved alot over the years, when i was first diagnosed at about 6 i would probably classify has moderate or maybe even severe, i think poeple that were diagnosed earlier can probably improve more

severity is not the same as functioning,so someone who is 'severe' with any form of autism can be higher functioning,and some withe milder as are lower functioning,when it gets to the 'severe' side it intefers with functioning.

am know of quite a few aspies,only lower functioning and severe due to being in residential care,so to am 'severe' aspies are more common than mild,and residential care here has more severe aspie females than male, so it shows that the stereotype of females being lesser affected,only works to a certain level-once they get to a 'severe' level,they're no different,and can even be worse in things like challenging behavior.

the autistic community is really the only one who have a more detailed understanding of what functioning is,as will find support staff from the national autistic society have very basic criteria-everyone using WP would be classed as high functioning by them now,because they [this is lorna wings organisation by the way] see functioning in extremes- low functioning meaning 'unable' to do very little but mostly nothing at all as well as having significant intellectual disability and are full time non verbal [not mutism] and high functioners meaning 'not significant intellectual disability or none at all,issues around the strength of the persons autism or as traits rather than functioning'.
they use the old intelligence criteria for functioning,pointless.

am dont think they will use that criteria here,as even the most severe and mf/lf classic autist can go to college,due to special schooling,all inclusive schools,special colleges and mainstream colleges that have a floor dedicated to courses for those with disabilities.
am LFA and went to south trafford college on a asdan course for people with severe disabilities,its a mainstream FE/community college and have an entire SEN courses floor,one of the courses they had been running was springboard/where they would take the profoundly disabled autie and LD adults from albert place and meadow side [two local rubbish LD/DD day centers] and teach them different lessons in a very basic way.but,due to the council cutting back on funding for adult SEN courses,they decided they could afford to keep springboard anymore,and got rid of it-so they had to go back to being stuck in their nasty understaffed and rubbish day centres.


so,functioning is really just a load of crap as it means very little,it is used to discriminate against everyone on the spectrum by the care industry,it only makes more sense on places like WP from those who actually deal with communication/living/ability etc issues.

KingdomOfRats Speaks sence, ya there totally different when i was young i had more severe aspergers than before but i will allways have the same functionality. so you can be severe and high functioning or any combination unless it severity affetcts functioning like KingdomOfRats said