about the term High Functioning

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https://www.telethonkids.org.au/news--e ... kzhZeYdyms

It makes perfect sense why the term should be discontinued. However, there still seems to be value in distinguishing between needs, which (I think) was the original purpose of the term. Without useful alternative terminology, it could be hard or impossible to wean people off the old.

Even if the label was scrapped, 'high-functioning' autistics will still slip through the cracks. You can tell I'm high-functioning just by looking at me and if you were told about my life, which is a 'normal' life basically (employed, living with boyfriend, engaged, paying bills, etc). So why not just keep the flippin' label? I like to refer myself as high-functioning because I AM high-functioning. It's fact.

The labels for ASDs keep changing all the time, which just gets everybody even more confused. Like everything, there are levels of autism each autistic individual has.

It's bad enough that Asperger's syndrome apparently doesn't exist as a label any more in some countries, yet adults are still being diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome in the UK.

I have a hard time because I can be more 'high functioning' when alone or when my time around people is limited, but when I have to be around people I can't function. I think people here will understand. I want to keep my friends but some don't understand that you can be friends with someone and still not do things together or talk often. Trying to find a compromise between not doing things with them but doing things with them is hard.

Many of my friends are online ones so I don't have to worry about as much stimuli.

But 'real life' friends always want to do things together. I don't want to lose their friendship by always refusing to spend time with them so I agree to do things. But that leads to overstimulating.

If I have a week where all I have to do is shop, then my autism is more 'high functioning'. But if I have to do something with a friend, have a doctor's appointment, or anything like that I become more autistic.
People don't understand that I am more autist than they see me. Inside of me, I have to be alone or I get worse. My sensory overload is getting worse.

THIS^^^
I've literally said in past conversations (with a little joking undertone) "I'm not autistic, it's the environment and people in that environment that are making me autistic"

Does this mean I'm high functioning? (My functioning levels vary greatly, from being a university student, top of my class, to rocking when overloaded, shutting down and not being able to process speech anymore...)

JSBACH, I wish I had the answer to your question about if you are 'high functioning'.


I am much less functioning than I look like. People confuse 'cure' and 'coping'. And no one realizes how exhausting coping can be or how exhausting sensory overload is.

I wish autism were more visible. Wheelchairs are visible. Autism is one of those things that you can't see unless the person is in a shutdown or meltdown. The rest of the time I look much more 'high functioning' than I feel. I hate it.

I totally agree with you! I have had denial of accommodations at university because of 'too high functioning'.
Once a doctor asked me: are you able to dress yourself, can you feed yourself, drive a car? Yes to all of this? You're not disabled!

It is shocking how little even the so called professionals know about our condition. Even worse, our needs are too often dismissed as nonsense.

A paralyzed person uses a wheelchair, a blind person uses a service dog, but beware the autist that uses earmuffs or that has to stim in public to stay regulated. He will surely be ridiculed!

The thing that shocks me the most is that in our capitalist world, high functioning autists seem to be neglected. I guarantee you that more than half the students of the IT department at my university are auties. In the electronics and engineering (my field of study) autism rates are also very high.
With a thoughtful approach, HF auties are very valuable to society, no doubt about that!
(I still don't understand why there is so much unemployment amongst us)

What an uncompassionate doctor to say a thing like that.

I don't really like it as I do feel it minimises my issues. If people say "you must be high functioning" I say "I have good and bad days"

Plus traditionally it's been used for people who had a speech delay as a child and I didn't.

I do think it would be useful to have a term for people with Autism but no learning difficulties.

Are you sure? I thought they could only be diagnosed with "Autism Level 1" now?

Why has it taken researchers like 50 years to work this out? I've been saying this since 2012

the reason - is that only a "talented tenth" with strong STEM talents and brute-force intelligence [like yourself and bill gates] can smart their way through most things and be tough to distinguish from an NT. the rest of us just can't do it. i had a low-level civil service job that almost killed me after 2+ decades of it. i am still recovering from it, and my last duty day was way back in february 2006. i cannot get hired for anything now. too many problems.

My brother has been officially diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome earlier this year.

If I am on the spectrum, I want to be high functioning so I can tell people I am brainy! Haha!
Not looked at the link yet... May do later.. Things to do...

I am still high-functioning, even during a depressive episode. But NTs can have breakdowns or develop things like agoraphobia or sign off work due to depression, etc. I've never been signed off work due to stress, anxiety or depression, even though I suffered with it a lot and it has affected the way I felt about my job, and I hated my job too. But I was still able to carry on.

I'm good at communicating my feelings to other people no matter how badly affected I am with emotions. So I would say I am high-functioning.

I think it's the "high" that's the problem....

I would consider myself high-functioning now, as I have learned quite a lot in just the past six years or so: driving, gainfully employed (albeit just part time) for nearly seventeen years at my current workplace, a busy social schedule and a variety of intellectual and athletic pursuits. I have a way to go in attaining full independence and have not yet experienced success in romance, love and dating. This last one may be the most difficult one for me to attain.