What's the difference betewwn High and Low Functioning AS?

Post Reply New Topic

What's the difference between High Functioning AS and Low Functioning AS? I'm not too sure where I fall on the scale. I function well in some ways and not too well, in other ways.

I think low functioning AS would be an aspie who is unable to take care of themselves and live a normal life because they will always need assistance. They are unable to hold down a job because they are so effected by it in some areas it keeps them from having a job.


A high functioning AS is able to hold down a job and live a normal life and they can do things on their own with no help like normal people can.


I feel low functioning because of my learning problems and I probably will never be as successful as Temple Grandin or Laine Holliday Willey. I have heard about lot of aspies going to college and getting a degree and succeeding in their majors and I look at myself and wish I was like them.

I think Likedcalico's definitions sound right. What I find interesting the more AS people I meet is how there is such a vast difference among the higher functioning. Like some will be able to hold down a job and drive yet they are difficult to communicate with so you still see signs of low functioning among those labeled high functioning.

But what about the ones that go to college and work for their parents, but still lives with parents and his mom leads him around like a 2 yr old in town? I know someone like that. I consider him low functioning, yet at the same time he is in college. I think there is a huge grey area within the definitions.

That doesn't surprise me that there would be a huge gray area. Assuming I am an aspie, I think I'm generally really high-functioning, although at the same time I turn to a few people (like my mom) when dealing with something unusual to come up. I can cope fine with my regular everyday life, but when big changes come about...not so much sometimes.

FUNCTION and INTELLIGENCE are two completely different things.
Thought I would throw this out there.

I know with High Functioning Autism it doesn't necessarily mean you can do everything it generally means you are above or at normal IQ level. Low functioning is close to that of mental retardation. Most AS is co-morbid to HFA thus being on the Autism spectrum.

However, if saying that High Functioning Asperger's is dependent on not your intelligence but your ability to function most of us would be low functioning or on the lower end of the scale as it seems the higher your intelligence the harder it is to fit into current society. Once you've reached a level above the level below that everyone else is becomes garbled nonsense and you often find these necessities and social ritual a) unnecessary or b) "too simple" to understand.

Than again, that IS Aspergers isn't it?

So all in all, I don't think there IS a High or Low function in aspergers as AS is what I said before, on the high end of Autism.

Also I wish they wouldn't come up with such dumb phases in the first place. They should put a bit of thought into it before they name a diagnostic criteria.

I would say that, under that description, I'm probably medium to high functioning. I can hold down a job and have four college degrees, but I don't drive and am not sure I will ever have a romantic relationship. As I have said, my abilities are not on the scale of a Temple Grandin, a Liane Holliday Willey or a Roger Bannister, but I have improved greatly over the years.

Probably a lot of anxiety.

Well, I hope I'll one day be able to hold down a job and live an independent life without much help. Right now it's hard to say where I fall because I haven't worked on achieving either yet.

By those definitions, I'd likely be around medium functioning vs. high functioning. I have a hard time keeping jobs, I'd definitely not do living alone with me and the boys without support. I have a degree in network admin and all but I have hard time putting knowledge I learned in school and all into practical use and all so it makes things difficult as well as the ADHD on top of things and having a higher level of executive dysfunction. Two years of university living in dorms was a rough challenge as especially where I was 3 hours car drive from home. I often went home on weekends my first year vs. staying in residence. I lived otherwise with my parents till I was 26 and had met my SO and he was the first other person that I lived in the same house with that I had to share my personal space with and it's been a struggle at times.

I feel very much in the middle too, I have real trouble with work and people in general, but anything else I can do on my own, I feel best all be myself, I learn real easy, but cant take social situations at all.

All I’m good at is worrying and punching trees….

Where does that put me on the 'trum?

I am probably what you would call high functioning I live independently, have worked in the past, have a college degree and a car learners permit. However despite this I still have incredible difficulties in making and keeping friends, romantic relationships and understanding boundaries leading to abuse and being taken advantage of.