highfunctioning

Problems with the terms high functioning and low functioning to describe autism

When you use those terms you are subconsciously creating a caste type hierarchy/system where the people labeled as high functioning get better treatment and more opportunities than those who are labeled as solely autistic or are labeled low functioning, leading to the Matthew effect.

I've noticed that it has come to the point where almost everyone who is verbal claims they are high functioning because they see the people who have the labels of high functioning and Aspergers getting preferential treatment as mentioned a few sentences earlier.

There is no universal consensus of what should be considered high functioning as of today: as people like Temple Grandin (who was labeled as severe during childhood) have achieved more than some people who were labeled as mild during childhood yet never had any motivation to go to a university or trade school.

A few years ago I saw a video of Edward Snowden saying something along the lines of high functioning should be used to describe people like the "MIT whiz kids" as opposed to everyone that's not intellectually challenged, those who can hold a steady job, and those who can hold a conversation--thus showing that there is such a spectrum when it comes to people showing their strengths and masking their flaws.

#Autism #Aspergers #Ableism #Masking #highfunctioning

Why? Why do I feel like this? I am so aware of my physical self it’s crazy but the emotions overpower me. Even with all the control I have. This is why depression is real for me. Today the pain of ending it all debilitated me.

I’m going to be 50 years old in September. Up until about ten years ago, I was what was considered “high functioning”. I owned and operated an administrative support and organization management company with small to midsized business clients from all over the world. I was even awarded the 2010 Emerging SBA award. I also had a wonderful man who loved me and asked me to marry him. But I wanted a different life. I didn’t want to be tied down. I broke up with him, shut down the company (even broke contracts), and decided to look for work as a bartender. Up until then, I was always rising up through the ranks at a comet’s pace. I had been ever since I was 19. I was tired. I lived through decades of trauma, then in my early 20s, shoved it all down and focused on work and my daughter, in that order. Episodes popped up here and there... Flashbacks, uncontrollable sobbing, night terrors... but I just kept shoving it back down. Last year, I admitted myself to a psyche hospital. I did inpatient/outpatient for four and a half months. Just about everything has now risen up to the surface. Every day feels like a struggle. Every day I am reaching into my healing toolbox to find something to keep me going until tomorrow comes. With all that’s going on in our country right now, all that I want to say is buried so far beneath my trauma, I literally feel dumb... like lacking any intelligence. Instead, I feel a tremendous amount of frustration, without a single way of releasing it in sight. I used to be the person organizing others, rallying others, leading others... Now I’m the person driving and living out of a semi truck, feeling utterly useless.

Is there anyone else out there who can identify? What is the opposite of a unicorn because that would be me. #PTSD #BorderlinePersonalityDisorder #Depression #highfunctioning #frustrated

Any ideas about breaking the habit

So, work today we lost two clients. One client caused yrauma and hearimg about it triggered me. Lucky me... I forgot my meds so I went home early. But I was able to fake it half of the shift like everything was fine. Sometimes I feel like a fraud for being able to put a mask on. #highfunctioning #Anxiety #CPTSD

I’m high functioning, which means you would probably never notice all my issues. I lead a very normal life, I’m about to finish my master’s degree, and I have my own family. None of this would have been possible if my mom and dad hadn’t seen that I was struggling and gotten me help at a young age. I would not be #highfunctioning if I hadn’t received treatment. In fact, I doubt I would be alive. So, thank you mom and dad, for helping me when I couldn’t help myself. I know you won’t ever see this, but just know that I am grateful.

Do you go through times when everything feels fine? When you actually feel stable? and doubt your diagnoses? And read up on the symptoms and feel it doesnt fit you to a T. Or read others stories about self harm, suicidal thoughts, mood fluctuations and think - “nope, that’s not me”. And then you feel lonely and misunderstood and lika a freak because you actually DON’T fit all the criteria right now. And after a day, week,
month you have a relapse and all the shit comes back and you suddanly hate your spouse, is constantly anxious and empty and... yeap...emotionally unstable so to speak. #BorderlinePersonalityDisorder #highfunctioning #quietborderline #quietbpd