High Functioning or NT?

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Outta curiosity, how high-functioning can you be without being a NT? My mom says I'm really High Functioning that no one can tell that I'm HFA and sometimes it's to the point where I doubt I have HFA. Now and then I'm reminded that I do indeed have HFA.

I don't have any sensory or language issues anymore. I used to not be able to tolerate churches (I don't remember this, that's how long ago it was) and I had Childhood Disintegrative Disorder. That was taken care of early on, so I don't remember this period of time of my regression well. I can tolerate loud places like parties. However, I'm not so good socially. I can make new friends when placed at new schools.

In seventh grade, I entered a new school (which I graduated a week and a half ago) and the Catalina Island trip was very early on (the second week of school. The first week started on a Wednesday, I think), but I went anyway, despite not making very many friends. One kid, also new, didn't go. That kid later went up to me and said "Hey, you were really brave to go." I didn't understand this. (Sorry for some of the irrelevance to the original topic in this post) I've always been comfortable with being away from home. I didn't feel particularly uncomfortable on the trip and was happy to have an opportunity to make friends.

What were your experiences like?

I can be social... when I want to. When I get really close to someone, thats when I break the news about my Aspergers. They go: "Really?! I would have never guessed!" I guess I've just gotten better at it.

I can definitely function, so I'm not that autistic, but it's very obvious that I am if you know what to look for. I have a slightly odd gait, I almost always have a blank facial expression, and I tend to either stare at people or not look at them at all. Also, I'm really bad with introductions and any sort of small talk is just about impossible for me. But my sensory issues aren't that bad, I don't have meltdowns in public, and I can be social if I'm comfortable with the people I'm around.

I have classic autism and consider myself to be severe but still high-functioning.

I am what would be described as "high-functioning" but it's pretty hard for me to forget about my autism on account of it being so pervasive and present all the time - sensory sensitivities, lack of social perception, lack of organization, etc.

I find it difficult to manage a lot of things like jobs, education, housework, just about anything. Left to my own devices without things like the stickies app on my computer (works as a schedule/calendar/alarm for many things) I'd just spend all day on the computer...as it is I spend most of the day on the computer. Without scheduling, I even forget to prepare lunch and if someone else isn't preparing dinner I've gone as late as 11 pm before realizing I haven't eaten all day and trying to deal with the situation. I find anything more complex than baking pre-prepared frozen food or frying something basic like hamburger patties or chicken breasts, microwaving canned or frozen food, or making a sandwich to be difficult to organize - and many of these I can't always manage.

Social situations are exhausting, depending on scale. The more people involved, the more likely I am to just quietly tune out and shut down. Expectations to sustain conversations that I am not interested in are tiring and frustrating. I barely socialize with people if I can avoid it.

So, that's where I function. Some of this is ADHD, but ADHD is so extremely common among autistic people that while the DSM-IV said they cannot be co-morbid, the entry on PDDs explicitly describes ADHD symptoms as being typical.

Last edited by Verdandi on 27 Jun 2011, 11:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I'd say highly functioning AS since I don't have too severe sensory issues, I can usually pass for a normal introvert (hint: even if you are not shy, being very quiet is more accepted than being out of the spot) and I don't need special help for my daily life; however I am still in troubles with personal relationships and I stop functioning well if I am put in an uncomfortable environment. I'd say I am not impaired in terms of "doing things I need", but I can become if the social expectations are too high and wrong for me. E.g., if you hassle me to smile, make more that 2 minutes of small talk, meet a lot of people etc - these are NOT things that are required to "function", but you can be put under pressure for them.

Last edited by Tsukimi on 28 Jun 2011, 6:22 am, edited 1 time in total.

I have AS.

Sensory and conversational problems are probably my worst symptoms. I can have conversations, but:
-I like to be the one who sets the topic
-Small talk is terrible
-I usually feel really uncomfortable or awkward
-I can make eye contact with people I know very well (parents, siblings, some friends), but not at all with others
-I get anxious about a lot of social things
etc. etc.

I used to have a very strong interest in the Presidents, from about age 4 or 5 to age 12-13. I have yet to have an interest as strong as that one; I have moved onto being interested in various things. So I guess that is more "NT", but a lot of them aren't typical interests for a fifteen-year-old girl. (Too "Intellectual" or whatever, but I couldn't care less.)

I'm not NT, but literally only a couple of peers I know irl know that I have AS. I blend in with mediocrity at school most of the time, and it's tiring. Literally exhausting. I'm doing online school next year... mostly because of extreme intolerance of noise and organization problems. I have the mental capabilities to do the work and do very well, but I'm not organized when it comes to school so I end up losing things, forgetting to do homework, not studying... etc. I usually make A's, B's, and C's (and sometimes even a D...), which is, to me, somewhat disgraceful... I am hoping that I will have more success with online school. It might be easier because there won't be the abundance of sensory distractions.

So, yeah.
I guess I'll put on the poll that I have Asperger's?

That's a really tough one. I can say Asperger's or the last option because I consider myself slightly autistic or a little.

I was more aspie as a child. I had no TOM and couldn't understand why other people didn't like what I liked or the same food I liked. I thought they were all weird and strange and I couldn't understand how can they not like it. My sensory issues were worse as a kid I was diagnosed with sensory processing disorder. I also had dyspraxia as a kid and occupational therapy fixed those two issues. I also talked about my obsessions or whatever I was stuck on and I had more restricted rituals and had to do it that way.

Now it feels like I don't have AS anymore. I feel I can read between the lines now thanks to Babycenter and I have learned to catch sarcasm online and I have developed a social filter thanks to Babycenter, I don't seem so absorbed in my obsessions and I don't talk about them anymore. I have learned to be flexible and deal with change better. My anxiety isn't bad anymore like it used to be. I am still asocial and I am happy that way. Hey there are asocial NTs too. Also I haven't stimmed as much. Also my meltdowns are rare now because they don't get triggered anymore. I can do eye contact with people I am comfortable with but with strangers or with people at work, I don't feel comfortable so I hardly look at them. It's like my mind all of a sudden converted into NT. But finding jobs is still tough for me. I had been lucky in the past I actually got one. I still can't do relationships but I'm married and was lucky to find the right guy. I am still not "normal" but what is normal anyway? I think me getting pregnant and having a baby is what did this. Also thanks to Babycenter. I have sure learned more about life and what offends people. Now I always wonder if people are implying something when they say things. I also wonder when people say something, if they were really saying something else. Maybe Asperger's then since that is my diagnoses and there is no PDD-NOS option.

I get told I'm so HF that most people can't tell usually. I'm not so sure about that, because I also have ADHD and both that and AS keep me busy 24/7. People getting to know me notice really quickly that I am different, if they are interested in me. But it should still fit HF AS/HFA.

On the other hand, this happened to me recently. I got to know a child pretty well who gets tested for moderate to high-functioning AS. I do see the smallest of signs and symptoms in that child that remind me of autism.

Anyway that got me thinking, because I automatically thought back to what my autism was at that child's age and how it's now. A younger friend's and mine are fundamentally influencing our lives still (good and bad) compared to that kid's AS. We're got a lot more autism, so would that make us MF or LF or do we keep staying HF anyway?

I can't say this is true for everybody, for there might be people who do have a better insight into many forms of autism, but it led me to think that the whole HF/MF/LF issue is way too subjective for my liking.

I've got HFA because I am quite disabled by it. I thought I could get away with being an NT but most people suss me out as being 'odd' or autistic in seconds! One lady who never even met me before but knew a lot about AS worked it out within an hour of meeting me! Apparently it's because I stim a lot and have an odd tone of voice. Also I never look near people's faces which as a hearing impaired person... causes a lot of communication problems...

High functioning AS. Whilst I'm considered odd, people are generally surprised when I tell them I have AS.

How do you justify separating Asperger's from high/very high functioning? You can have serious functional challenges with Asperger's. Asperger's does not equal mild autism. Its primary difference is the age of functional language acquisition. It turns out that language can help raise functional levels, but it is no guarantee.

Come to think of it, I like that and think something like that describes me too.

My autism is probably in the moderate range, but I am high-functioning.

Sometimes I may not be, when I cannot cover up my symptoms, but even supposedly normal people have varying degrees of functioning during difficult times.

Its primary difference is the range of ages for functional language acquisition, which is to say an autistic person isn't required to have delays for a diagnosis, while a person with AS is required to not have delays for a diagnosis. The other primary difference is that AS mandates no developmental delays, but AS actually tends to come with some expected (like motor skills). It was kind of fascinating to read last night that the way my motor skills have developed seem to combine both AS and autism (fine motor skills delayed and not very good, other motor skills really good at a young age). It was also fascinating to learn how little empirical data with established measures were used to establish this information - like various studies that determined that children with AS were "clumsy" didn't even have the same definitions of "clumsy," and many were fairly subjective.

But yeah, someone can have any diagnosis and do poorly. While functioning levels are imprecise and subjective, someone labeled as "high-functioning" is still going to be impaired, often severely.