I don't feel anything in common with non verbal low function

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Here's one analogy: I know someone with a brain injury from being hit by a car. Which surprised me when I found that fact out. My image of "brain damage" was of the worse forms- people who can't survive outside an institution because they can't talk, or can't move, or have an IQ of about 30. Or the cases I heard about from a flatmate who worked a secure unit where the patients had "disinhibiting" injuries, who were a danger to themselves and others because they couldn't control their actions.

This is despite the fact that when I was young we often visited an elderly relative who, due to brain damage in the womb, had to live in assisted housing all her life but could talk fairly coherently.

My friend is holding down the office job he had before the injury, just with reduced hours. Speaks perfectly normally, and is apparently actually more talkative than before. He has problems with pain and exhaustion, is worryingly gullible and doesn't always get jokes, but is otherwise fairly alert. He seems very, very different from some poor sod strapped in a wheelchair making loud moaning noises, and his life is obviously very different too. But it's basically the same condition.

We got lucky, is what I'm saying. (It's possible I got slightly less lucky than you- I CAN see faint similarities between myself and severely autistic kids.) There are also plenty of people in the middle of the spectrum, like Rabid Fox above. It's just that they're outnumbered here on Wrong Planet, 'cos forum=magnet for hyper-articulate Aspies.