February 2013
2 posts
specificity
Okay I thought of something. The person I work with has a very rare condition, but her parents know of many other people with her condition through conferences and the Internet. When talking about her specific condition, her parents have sometimes referred to her as “high/higher functioning” because she can do things that many people with her condition can’t do.
But when she...
Sherlock
It’s been a year since anyone has posted anything. I thought I might be the person to start it back up again?
I started watching Sherlock, and he called himself a “high-functioning sociopath”. This led me on a 2 hour journey on what exactly sociopaths are and what exactly high-functioning means. Which led me here. And I love it. So start posting again! :)
that’s a noble...
February 2012
2 posts
Here’s a positive one that was completely unexpected but so wonderful:
“But if she suffers all of these consequences for pushing herself to do all of these things, to the point where she can’t eat, can’t get out of bed, can’t take care of herself, how is that high-functioning?”
-My father, attending an autism awareness session with my psychologist. Amazing,...
“She has autism, but she’s very high-functioning.” Not just high-functioning, but very high-functioning! I’m really moving up in the world! This was shortly after she had read something I had written about having been hospitalized repeatedly throughout my adolescence and young adulthood, sent to an institution because it was clear that I could not live on my own (later...
January 2012
1 post
My sister’s explanation: ”I forget you have it! You’re not weird. I don’t FORGET other people have it.”
December 2011
5 posts
Several times, I’ve seen and heard statements that “low-functioning” people wear diapers. However, most presumed “low-functioning” people whom I’ve known did not wear diapers. I am incontinent.
[you’re awesome, thank you for submitting so much—ed.]
Visibility
http://nostereotypeshere.blogspot.com/2011/12/functioning-labels-and-meaning.html
Signal boosting this! It’s spot-on!
Claiming Disability
“You are probably the most high-funct- “
“NO.”
This from people who once said I would always be mentally retarded and could never function. Why say the opposite? Because I was saying I qualify for disability benefits.
I'll tell you what your functioning level is
New facebook friend-request: Hi! It’s always nice to meet other aspies! Me: I’m not an aspie.
Her: Oh, well there’s nothing wrong with that [seriously? SERIOUSLY?] Can I ask what your functioning level is?
Me: Um, cycling between high-functioning and low-functioning, I guess? Because I can’t sustain “high-functioning”?
Her: What you’re describing is...
Can buy coffee
I met someone for coffee and he said “You’re the highest-functioning out of all the high-functioning autistics I’ve met.”
All he had seen me do at that point was buy coffee.
November 2011
4 posts
It feels weird to type this into the submit box, but you don’t have an ask on here, so here goes.
I love this blog. I just happened to find it one day when some series of Wikipedia articles led me to the word “high-functioning”, and I looked up what exactly that means, because I had never really been sure.
You make a very good point through your posts.
That’s basically...
Having An Unpopular Opinion
If you say anything going against what the majority says about developmental disabilities, then you are seen as “too high-functioning” for your words to be valid.
Not "Appearing" Mentally Disabled
When I was a child, people said I wasn’t disabled “enough” because I had an imagination and did not have Down syndrome.
Appeal
If you are considered a physically attractive and verbal adult woman, then you automatically having passing privilege (and will be seen as a liar when you say you cannot do things), and you automatically will be considered high-functioning.
October 2011
1 post
An IQ above 80
An IQ above 80 is one definition of high-functioning, never mind that IQ tests are inaccurate especially if one is disabled.
August 2011
2 posts
5 tags
fragmentsofstuff:
“[on “what is high functioning?”] I think if I answered this question the bitterness level would rise to such dangerous amounts as to cause a black hole of bitterness and destroy the planet. […] For bonus points, merge the second or fourth and the last two definitions - any autistic who is capable of typing messages on the internet in order to disagree with you clearly doesn’t...
According to a psychologist/university professor who runs a prominent “social skills” class locally, graduating from college makes one “super-high-functioning.” While I don’t deny that a college degree confers certain privileges, my B.A. does not mean that I don’t experience significant disabilities.
June 2011
3 posts
Intelligent?
My counselor asked me if I’ve always been high functioning.
I did not understand and asked what he meant.
He rephrased the question to “Have you always done well in school?”
I told him I had always been placed in GATE classes, and he was then satisfied with my answer.
Intelligent?
My counselor asked me if I’ve always been high functioning.
I did not understand and asked what he meant.
He rephrased the question to “Have you always done well in school?”
I told him I had always been placed in GATE classes, and he was then satisfied with my answer.
Doesn't stim in public
Two friends argued over whether i’m an aspie or a “High-functioning autistic”. the conclusion apparently was that I’m HFA because i don’t stim in public.
I have a diagnosis of Aspergers’ Syndrome but I identify as autistic, not otherwise specified.
April 2011
1 post
You graduated from college
I work part time teaching classes, and a group of my co-workers were going out to a club that night. They invited me along, and I had to explain why I wouldn’t be joining them, and explained that I had autism and that being in that sort of environment was sensory and social overload, and I just couldn’t do that. One of them exclaimed “You can’t have Autism! You graduated...
January 2011
3 posts
Would want to play with puzzles instead of toys
In a promotional DVD for an autism play therapy program: “If the child you’re working with has high-functioning autism, or Asperger’s syndrome, you may want to set out games and puzzles instead of stuffed animals and toys.”
Doesn't Talk About Barbies
Sitting in a meeting about new autism legislation. Brought up that it might be a good idea to include some roles for self-advocates in implementing new and existing programs. One of the parents in the room complains, “Well, self-advocacy is only for the most high-functioning and they shouldn’t speak for real people with autism. For example, if my daughter was in this room all she would...
Can Attend Meetings
Me: I’m trying to start a group for autistic people to meet up. Academic coach: Oh, so it’s for people with Asperger’s Syndrome and high-functioning autism?
December 2010
2 posts
argh I’m so sorry I keep posting stuff from my regular tumblr here.
HOWEVER…it is really sad that the last time I accidentally posted something here was the last time anyone posted something here. have you really not heard the word high-functioning at all in the last month? if that’s so, I’m jealous of you.
[sorry I apparently don’t understand the difference between posting stuff on my regular tumblr and posting here. you should be submitting stuff though, you guys!]
November 2010
10 posts
The ability to participate in systems capitalist...
I feel like the majority of the time that I hear the phrase “high functioning,” the speaker is referring to a person who has a steady job despite the fact that this person is visibly disabled. The phrase is almost always prefaced by the word “but.” Such as “Susie has [whatever] BUT she is high functioning. Just look at her work!” This is the kind of person we...
Have a trait valued by staff
I was in a long series of segregated “placements” as a teen. I found that as I was sent from one place to the next, staff would often change my (completely unofficial) label from low functioning to high functioning and back again. Overnight. And if they thought of me as one of these things, they would refuse to believe stories from the last place that they associated more with the...
Obedience
In one of the classes at my special ed high school, there were a number of students who were roughly the same in various abilities that mattered to the teachers. But the teachers always talked about one of them as if he was significantly “higher functioning” than the others. I didn’t know what to make of it until I realized he was the only one who obeyed everything they said.
Questioning Authority
I am willing to question or even break rules that I feel are unjust or unnecessary, so acquaintances not only remark that I must be particularly “high-functioning,” but they will sometimes question the fact that I’m autistic at all.
Because surely all autists must be obsessed with following rules according to the letter of the law.
(Note: I am not advocating illegal or...
Having an imagination
When I’ve had the phrase “high functioning” applied to me, it’s usually in the context of the fact that I read and appreciate fiction and poetry, and have attempted to write my own. I’m told that it’s a remarkable gift to have imagination like that, and a “mark of a high functioning brain” to be able to read and enjoy fiction like I do.
knows how to ask what it means to exchange a look
(in the same class, a student is talking about having read the book Little Women to some teenagers/young adults with autism in a special ed school)
student: The book has illustrations and one of the captions was, “The two aunts exchange a look,” and Warner, who is the most verbal and was the only one really playing attention, said, “What does it mean to exchange a look?”
...
shouldn't be in a sheltered workshop
[people in a psych class talking about experiences volunteering at a sheltered workshop]
girl 1: I kind of had a mentor at the workshop, who was one of the clients [clients means disabled people]…he kind of gave me the lowdown on everyone else
girl 2: oh, Mike! He’s so high-functioning. He shouldn’t be there.
I would prefer that people submit stuff that actually contains a use of the term “high-functioning” instead of just general complaints re: stereotypical ideas about disability. Obviously that stuff is annoying and worth talking about, but I think taking this concept literally can speak for itself.
Also, it’s possible to submit posts without having a tumblr. (This post contains a...
But you can talk!
is verbal.
Everyone knows that real autistics cannot talk. And that people who cannot talk cannot communicate. And that there is only one way of really communicating.
is better at passing.
The context in which the word “high-functioning” has been thrown around in discussions within my family? The better you can pretend to be neurotypical, the higher-functioning you are. Passing for normal.
October 2010
13 posts
Is Flexible
Flexibility is possibly the Holy Grail. For gymnasts and divers in particular, especially in the more physical sense.
Mental and emotional flexibility is greatly valued too.
Sometimes it can be debased to “somebody who doesn’t have a routine”.
It has seemed, over time, that the higher-functioning somebody might be, the more flexible they might be.
Is an enjoyable person
I think according many people in my life, at least in describing me, “high functioning” seems to mean that I’m someone they enjoy being around or who they find charming or charismatic.
It apparently is also synonymous with “not really autistic.”
Bangs Her Head
I am a so called “high functioning Asperger’s autistic” with permanent brain damage from headbanging.
is present in your college dining hall
Me: Can you explain your T-shirt to me? Other student: The puzzle symbol is for autism. I have two siblings with autism. Me: That’s cool! I’m autistic too. Other student: Are you high-functioning? You seem very high-functioning.
is good at killing cows
I read an article in which Temple Grandin was referred to as “possibly the world’s highest functioning autistic”
looks normal? talks normal?
my mom likes to go to life skills workshops for people with ASD. Then she brings home the materials and mails them to me and tells me to read them and apply them to my life, etc.
because of my anxiety and general life skills problems, I have never been able to read any of the life skills materials.
my mom tells some stories about the funny/awkward things people say at the workshops. (these...
independent? talkative?
working at camp this summer I became really upset because I had received the files of my next two campers, and it said they “needed prompts” when getting dressed. because my own brain problems are along these lines, I had previously had emotionally exhausting experiences working with people who were not much more severely impaired in these areas than I am. it’s extremely hard to...
smart? I think?
girl I know: one of the kids I worked with this summer, I could tell he was incredibly incredibly incredibly incredibly high functioning autistic
me: (some clarifying question, as I was confused about how “incredibly incredibly incredibly incredibly high-functioning” an ASD person could be until they were just a non-disabled person)
girl: his family didn’t believe he had autism...
I genuinely have no idea what this means
this is a youtube message I received:
[for your edification, I am a twentysomething white Autistic person, who is verbal and has non-Autistic-Disorder ASD diagnoses, who makes videos of myself talking about disability rights, the pop culture framing of autism, and my disability experience, as well as playing music]
I was just skimming through your website and read your writing on the subject of...
is independent
at my job this summer I got annoyed by the constant use of the word “high-functioning” to refer to passing campers who were pulling rank on non-passing campers, and tried to introduce some kind of dopey philosophical argument: “but D. is such a neat person, I’d rather work with him than A. or S. How are A. and S. really more ‘high-functioning’ than him when...
knows how to get a peanut butter and banana...
at the camp where I worked (for adults with intellectual disabilities) campers could ask for a peanut butter and/or jelly sandwich if they didn’t like the other food at meals, and we would go make it for them. sometimes there was also fruit.
one guy would ask for peanut butter, bread, and a banana so he could make himself a peanut butter and banana sandwich.
the other counselor at my table...
is a fluent speaker
at my job this summer (working at a summer camp for teenagers and adults with disabilities, mostly intellectual disabilities) I was having a really hard time with a camper a few years older than me who had an intellectual disability and a really terrible history of abuse, being institutionalized, and other things. She really pulled rank on other campers because she didn’t look disabled and...
doesn't have meltdowns/get super upset
my dad was talking about someone he talked to who has an adult son with an intellectual disability.
“It’s always sad to hear about him, because he’s…not high-functioning, and he gets upset about things and he comes and knocks at her door and wants to talk about how he’s upset and sometimes she can’t do it and hides in the house.”
“So he lives on...
