low functioning vs high functioning

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I have a IQ of 140 and am considered high functioning with OCD. I am retired, but had a long and relatively successful career due to a skill set that enabled me to work alone. I live independently, divorced with two grown children. On some levels my life has been successful, but socially I am a complete failure. The ability to carry on a conversation has escaped me. I live alone in relative solitude and prefer it that way. As much as I would like to have a romantic relationship I know that as in all past ones would eventually crash and burn.

Agree almost entirely with this.

I don't think the "two buckets" approach is ultimately valid or even useful, while it certainly has some well-documented downsides. So I try to avoid it.

You want to talk about people who have this need or that ability? Talk about them. But don't try to lump the entire spectrum into two ill-defined piles based on how well you think they "function". There is huge variation even within each autistic person - people who are very strong in one area can be very weak in another.

One of my best friends is autistic. He has moderate intellectual disabilities. There are a lot of things he cannot do that would be expected of a man his age. But I actually think the manifestation of his autistic traits is less pronounced than mine. I am reasonably capable of compensating for my weaknesses because I am intellectually gifted - I can do things "the long way around" almost as quickly as an NT will do them naturally. On the other hand, my friend basically cannot do this. He has some niche skills but he doesn't have the same ability to generalise these skills in order to compensate for his areas of relative weakness. So to the untrained eye he seems "more autistic", but actually he's less autistic but with less ability to cope and therefore requiring more support. The "2D spectrum" model doesn't explain the two of us, but something like the "colour wheel" or the ice cream sundae analogy does a better job.

Even here I find myself playing into the "medical model", but that's one reason I dislike the "functioning" labels. I think they place undue emphasis on the individual's characteristics as a reason for their failure to "function" rather than society being moulded around an expectation of neurotypicality.

One thing I learned through participation on a psychosis/schizophrenia forum is that functioning is more likely to be fluid rather than static .

Having said that it's also human nature to want to categorise things,including oneself .

A problem occurs when you don't get the support you need due to an assessment of your functioning,or alternatively you're written off with regards to the capacity to progress due to such an assessment .

My social functioning has improved greatly since I found out was autistic. I've learned a lot the last year.

I'm still new to all this, but I'm beginning to think that the difference between low and high is how well we get on in life. My son has a much lower IQ than I, but he is very affable. He has no problem holding down the same job, he's a hard worker, etc... But, he would be judged as not being very 'book smart.' I, on the other hand, have a higher IQ and can function well, if left alone. But, people don't like to leave others alone. So, I tell them to leave me alone and they don't like that. Of the two of us, I would classify him as higher functioning. Still, I am 'classified' as "high functioning."

In these sorts of discussions, we tend to forget about the autistic people who might, or might not, have chromosomal disorders, and to whom the ability to use the toilet on one’s own is a major milestone.

The parents of these sorts of autistic people tend to upbraid more Aspie-like autistic people for not wanting a “cure.”

Last edited by kraftiekortie on 23 Aug 2019, 7:28 am, edited 1 time in total.

unfortunately it seems a rotten part of human nature, to pay more attention to the stars and less attention to everybody else.

I don’t believe in a “cure” myself...but I feel we should understand the parents of severely autistic people better.

The people who desire a “cure” tend to be the parents of severely autistic children. They are sometimes the victim of unscrupulous snake oil salespeople who try to sell them “cures”

Some of these parents might want to “change” the essence of the autistic person. Through draconian methods of Applied Behavioral Analysis (some ABA is not so draconian, it should be noted). I don’t agree with that!

Most love their children unconditionally, and aspire to the best quality of life possible for their children.

Last edited by kraftiekortie on 23 Aug 2019, 7:42 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Simon Baron Cohen splits autistic traits into "differences", "disabilities", "disorders" and "diseases" - to get together the approach of neurodiversity and search for cures.
I personally believe it is more about finding cures, treatments and accommodations for all the co-occuring conditions that hinder an autistic individual's functioning than about finding "the cure for autism" - at least with the broad definition of "autism spectrum" we currently have.

Oh no, I love astronomy!

Yes, kraftie, and that's all part of the controversy over the increased broadening of the autism spectrum in recent years. They have a very good point. When I was growing up, people were skeptical of autism for me because I was good with language and took normal classes. All my quirks (delayed full toilet training, preference for repetition, pillow head-banging, and whatnot) were chalked up to me being different or unusual or weird or shy or nerdy, not some kind of diagnostic criteria. When my half-sister first broached autism with my mom in my very young years because I did some things that reminded her of things she saw from Temple Grandin, my mom mostly dismissed it. Autism didn't really come up again until I became an adult and had a surprising inability to apply my academic and book smarts to much of anything else in the real, everyday, and especially social world, including friendships and work. But even the average layperson can look at me, including coworkers who all work with relatively lower functioning women on the spectrum, and can see the differences. They don't approach autism in the clinical, systematic way of diagnosticians. I just seem a little weird to them, not stereotypically 'autistic.'

I agree with Magz 100%.

Couldn’t have put it better myself.

One area where I've shown vast improvement is the ability to change doctors and dentists to obtain top quality care. And interact with the staff and doctors to get my needs met. It is still hard but I can do it effectively now.

sorry, i should have used more precise language, by "stars" i meant the high functioning people who excel relative to their peers. sorta like star performers. we pay more attention to the star performers and less to everybody else.

It was a pun, fully intended.
I understand what you mean, people tend to pay attention to extremes whilst the most people who struggle in-between remain overlooked.

I thought that additional problems like a language delay and intellectual disability resulted in higher support needs and so these people were low functioning