Being high??

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We have an undiagnosed HFA in the office and we were all convinced he was on crystal meth and then eventually confronted him and figured out after some interrogation that he had hidden the fact that he was an epileptic when he applied for the job, in the fear that he would be turned down. It was a big relief to find out that what we'd seen was probably just a petit mal attack. He and his mother were totally stunned when we said, "Why didn't you tell us this before?! We would have been able to be a lot more helpful and we wouldn't have thought badly of you!"

sorry i do not often read previous posts in threads before i answer but anyway....

no one has ever said to me that they thought i may be "high"

they think i am inherently "damaged" rather than on drugs. i do not act like people that are "high" on drugs.

i can never be "high" because i am afraid of heights. if i am in a high up place, i want to get back to "terra firma" as quickly as possible. i do not trust my motor coordination skills or my "sanity of movement decisions" enough to be calm whilst perched up on a height that i know i would die if i fell from.

People say that to me all the time it does get annoying at times but i just say no

Being 'high' is simply a slang expression. It does not relate to heights in any way. It is usually used to refer to a state in which one feels euphoric (ecstatic, happy) and in which one is not perceiving reality properly. Some drugs produce that feeling but they also make people do very irresponsible things, because people who are 'high' on drugs are not in a position to make good decisions.

I think that the expression 'high' evolved from the opposite expression. When someone is feeling very depressed, we often say he is feeling 'down' or he is 'in low spirits'. There is an old-fashioned expression, 'in high spirits', which means someone is feeling happy, enthusiastic and optimistic. Many people who are unhappy walk in a slouching manner and are sedentary (literally lower down), whereas happy people tend to walk more upright and are more active (literally with their heads held higher).

The modern slang expression, to be 'high' or 'high on drugs' means that a person is extremely happy, enthusiastic and optimistic -- to an abnormal degree, and with strange behaviour.

ì AM high

and nobody asks

I'm never obviously high, the few times I have been were rare, one time I was mildly high because I had to clean some steps with rather nasty solvents, yuk!

these days the nastiest smelling stuff that could get me high that I have to deal with is petrol (gasoline)

well it should.
"high" to me means firstly "having height".
scaffoldings on 60 storey buildings are "high". if i am walking on one then i am "high" up.

so if a statement is said "if i am high on a scaffold, then i must be extra cautious", then i would take the word "high" to mean elevated so that a fall would be injurious or fatal.
but maybe it could mean "if i am on drugs while walking on a scaffold i may fall off so i must be extra cautious"

who knows.

if all words are lost to slang, then i am dumbfound. like "sick" means "good" and "mad" means "exciting" etc these days.

i did cover in my earlier post a sentiment that indicates that i am aware that "high" can also mean "drugged".

when you say "high" can be a natural state as opposed to "low", i do not understand.

people who are feeling "low" feel "bad", and people who are feeling "high" feel "good" as i understand from what people say.

but why is "high" a better place than "low"?
i am scared of heights and i feel precarious up there, and i prefer to be on the ground (which is "low")

it is a bit too confusing for me to ride the rails of common norms on notional tracks.



i am surprised that the word "high" is now usually used to describe euphoria.
how "euphoric" is mount everest? 28,000 feet? maybe it has a foot fetish and that is why it is so high?


i did not know that "high" is an expression. i thought it was a word.
how does everyone know these secret meanings where what i think is a single word is actually an expression?




that is an interesting thing you say.

maybe "high" is where heaven is and "low" is where hell is.
heaven is "up" and "hell" is down.
i do not understand why those 2 directions carry any connotations.

why is "up" good. why is "down" bad?

why not say "left" is bad and "right" is good? the reason is because if you turn around 180 degrees then your previous "left" is now your "right".

but if you are turned "upside down", then heaven is "below", and hell is "above".

what is "upside down" and what is the frame of reference? is it the direction of gravity?

it is all totally illogical to me.

i use a lot of quotes because i only use the words that i have learned but place little faith in.

Hey, I was only speculating on the reasons behind the use of these terms. I have been trying to explain the things neurotypical people say all my life, in order to understand them myself! The etymology is just my theory.

Oh, and you're right. It's a word, not an expression. Correction noted.

I've heard it a few times. Only a few. I haved those stoned eyes. When I daydream they think I'm zoned out as if my mind were blank.

Even Aspies don't take me for an aspie usually, partly because my facial expressions and my eyes seem so neurotypical... most of the time. It's only when I get tired that I stare. And I do have quite big eyes. My younger brother found it frightening when we were children, he said I looked like a zombie. So I used to deliberately stare at him with huge eyes and follow him with a zombie-like stagger to scare him!