functioning?

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This is another aspect altogether as in how 'much' can you function which wasn't asked in the OP. Again here I think that nobody on the spectrum will be the same and what is high or low even for one individual will vary incredibly. In some areas I am very low. I have an IQ of 80 and have a problem telling time and doing routine mathematics. On the other hand I can create very complex computer programs, run a business, design machines, write books, have relationships and do a variety of things.
In general I am low in almost the same ratio that I am so-called 'high-functioning'. Personally I find both 'labels' high and low to be very narrow-minded, insulting and degrading. For a so-called eqaulity minded society I have yet to find terms such as 'high-functioning or 'low-functioning' Neurotypical syndrome in the national vocabulary.
Makes one wonder sometimes.

I think it's how greatly the symptoms affect someone. I don't think I'm mild. I read those posts about mild asperger's and I can't relate.


That sounds like me, but I have to admit the happiness in the relationship only lasted 3 weeks.
The only job I've ever had is through friends or people wanting me to take photos. Thanks to sensory issues I can't do that anymore.

Aside from not having a driver's license, I think I function pretty well. I have been working at the library for almost seven years, have a Master's in English and get along well with my co-workers. I don't believe I will get married and have children. I suspect I have AS, but I have never told anyone. I don't think I catch on to social norms as well as most people, but I function well in most other areas.

i think gary makes a pertinent point here.
i can paint and have amazing verbal skills on certain topics . it is however very difficult for me to do a load of washing and get it out on the line to dry. it i shard for me to get my head around shopping.
i cannot do any maths beyond basic addition and multiplication, but i can look at a renaissance painting adn talk at length about humanism, symbolism and the use of glazes and chromatics in the painting. I can break it down on the spot without any preparation as it is part of my main special interest area.

I cannot work with people - one on one is ok to talk with. groups are exhausting and the prospect of working with others is not even on the agenda for consideration. i worked one day a week at a rehab some years ago doing some admin stuff. evey morning tea and lunc while all the staff (who i have known for many years) were socially communicating, i sat on a couch on my own and read newspapers. i could not wait for those times to be over, and i often just went back to work before time if the social pressure got too much.

the issue for us is the very UNNEVEN pattern of strengths and weaknesses....much moreso than most.

There's too many factors involved in functioning and outcome, whether innate severity over the various areas affected or external allowances/help. Generally, how you visually appear and your outcome is what determines such to most people (yeah, it's superficial, but appearances are a big thing to most people).

As for me, my psychiatrist said my symptoms are run-of-the-mill for Kanner's Autism, barring a lack learning disabilities in adulthood. Moderate to severe across the lot.

I don't look that "bad" to most people, but that's because I don't interact; I don't offer anything for people to judge.

Perhaps I am high-functioning, but only after I forced myself in a quite brutal act of self-restraint to be one. As a child I was certainly "high functioning":

I had as a child unexpected outburst, today the most people how know me are amazed about how clam I am, to which extent nothing seems to touch me, even when others are just in mere panic. It took an act of self-restraint to gain this this point. Something I even think I over compensated.

I am still hardly able to manage my money: Something which puzzles friends of mine: I can read and understand the balance sheets of a bank, even do can analyse the financial instruments the central banks are using to create money and even have a theory why they do not work, at the same time, even when I earned money (and for some times I earned quite good money), I was always near bankruptcy.

I can run a household for an other person quite well (cleaning, cooking, ets.), but at same time I am hardly able to the few square meters of my own in any kind of proper order.

So I am high functioning in some particular areas, but I do fail in other areas totally.