what are your thoughts on the "high functioning", etc labels

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Yes, like myself. I blend in to society. As a toddler I had no speech delays and as a kid I was articulate on the same level as my peers (meaning I wasn't a little professor nor delayed). I didn't have echolalia or anything like that.

I'm watching all three series of The A Word at the moment (a British TV drama about autism). I was nothing like Joe when I was his age. Not one bit. Yes he can talk but not on the same level as his peers, and he is unable to chat to his peers.

I've only ever been in cleaning jobs but that's because I find it hard to learn new skills, due to attention deficits, and I have dyscalculia (which is classed as a learning difficulty). I call myself 'mathematically dyslexic'. And I lack confidence too. Communication at work isn't difficult for me, unless it's dealing with the public, because of how my anxiety disorder can make me cry easily when feeling intimidated by a difficult customer. I seem to fear strangers for some reason.

I'm successful in a relationship. The only thing that sometimes causes friction between us is my noise sensitivities with neighbour noise, but that is only one thing, also quite minor (not for me but relationship-wise). My boyfriend is NT and we've been living together over 5 years. I feel I have no difficulties in communication at all, in fact it all comes naturally to me. He's more or less my first true boyfriend, yet when we were first dating I seemed able to go along with the flow and didn't fail or feel confused or anything.

Making friends with my female peers seems to be nearly impossible for me, even though it doesn't feel difficult to communicate with them or anything. Just friendships don't seem to form, they may become acquaintances then it fizzles out. This makes me feel sad and unsure of where I'm going wrong, if I can succeed in the dating world so well (I went on some dates before I met my boyfriend but I was the one who dumped them because of reasons I won't go into right now). Maybe my female peers just think I'm boring because I don't drink alcohol.

^Yeah. That would be my understanding of the meaning of the label "high functioning" in autism.

Of course my understanding is colored by the first time I ever heard the phrase "high functioning" when I was a kid...maybe 12.

It was back around 1970, before anyone applied it to autism, when I heard it it had to do with schizophrenia, and it was when mom and dad were talking about one thier longtime grownup friends who was even a coworker of dad. And still had a high status job like my dad.

They were discussing how he was literally psychotic. Overhearing it I was incredulous that "one of the regular grown ups in my life was considered a nutjob". Dad had to turn away from mom and explain to me how this guy "is what they call 'high functioning schizophrenic'...can hold down a great job and blend into respectable society etc...". But there are still nutso.

So this family friend guy is kind of my template for what the label means.

I wish there were a better terminology to use, as the functions themselves can be dependent upon the situation and somebody can generally be OK, except in one or two areas where they really struggle. Support levels are somewhat better, but it's a pretty general thing and may not really convey useful information.

I'm guessing that I'll be classified as Level 1 support needs. But, I do have to be fairly careful when I'm out and about because it's been a thing where I completely lose vision if there's too much stimulation and crossing busy streets blind is no fun, although it is a bit easier these days now that there's usually an auditory alert to tell you when it's your turn.

And I did just about drink myself to death on water because I didn't realize that I was no longer thirsty when it was extremely hot out and regularly have to manually add electrolytes to help balance that out. These days, I tend to need a specific set formula for drinking or I don't.

I do get the feeling that they ought to have split the diagnosis into two pieces and made the dividing line based more on the person's ability to meet their lower level needs. Or the degree to which the support needs can be met with passive technology rather than with an actual person or AI assistant.

"Support needs" as described today don't refer to needing a support person or AI. It means any type of support like products. It doesn't even mean the person will be successful with those supports. It's not like having a person beside us or a pair of polarised sunglasses actually helps us overcome our struggles.

The way it was explained to me, they assume no one has any support. In reality that's true. Most of us don't have caregivers or special products even if they were available and affordable. Without any such aids, how do we function? If you can manage fairly successfully without significant mental and physical health repercussions you're HFA. If you do have serious mental and physical health repercussions you're Moderate. If your life is in danger like skibum, you're Level 3.

It's all about risk management and insurance liability. The doctors who diagnose us provide an assessment of our support needs so that they're documented on paper. That way if we die by misadventure / lack of skill, or we even commit suicide, they can't be held responsible. They can say that they flagged the risk and gave recommendations. We are then out of their hands. If we can't find or afford those supports, that's on us. They've done the best they can by making us aware of our own vulnerabilities.