Would you socialise with LF autistic people?

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I went to my first Autism Social Group yesterday - I didn't go into the room where they were meeting.

As I was lurking outside the room there were two people going in/out who were obviously far lower down the spectrum than me, both seemed to have problems talking, one needed assistance to get to the bathroom and the other was dressed as some sort of space person.

I have no problem with lower-functioning autistic people and I understand that some people may be better/worse than me in different ways, but as I was there hoping to socialise with other HF autistic people I decided this group was not for me. Or to be more precise; I left feeling upset and embarrassed, but vowed to go to the next public meeting to check them out before ruling the group out completely.

I posted this elsewhere and a few people seem to be questioning why I refused to interact with LF autistic people, I'm really struggling to grasp why it's so hard to understand why I'd rather socialise with others similar to myself.

Would YOU socialise with people who are significantly lower-functioning than yourself?

Being honest? I don't think I have much in common with them. So I'd say 'no'.

It does depend on how you'd define that though.

I'm not sure. I get uncomfortable around other people who don't talk much. So if they were even worse than I am with that, I might be pretty uncomfortable. On the other hand, if they were, that would mean they wouldn't expect it from me, so it might be kind of nice.

Well, I wouldn't want to attend a support-group like atmosphere with people who are significantly higher functioning than me, either. I don't think it's a HF/LF issue; rather, I think it's a "can we relate?" issue.

^+1

I am very high functioning so I am mostly socializing with people lower functioning than me, but I don't mind. I don't think I've met anyone who is LFA before though, so I don't know. As SuperTrouper said, I think it would mainly depend on how well we related to each other. I generally get along well with lower functioning aspies because underneath I'm basically the same as them, except I've just learned more complicated social skills and have a deeper understanding of social situations as a result of learning (not naturally). With sensory, thinking patterns, etc, we're really the same. I think with AS at least (not LFA) higher functioning and lower functioning is a fairly arbitrary label, because it mainly refers to how well people have managed to develop coping mechanisms. This is just my opinion though, and I'm happy to have people disagree.

Last time I checked, people with average or above-average intelligence typically don't like interacting with ret*ds. I don't see how it'd be any different within the autism spectrum. Or the "purple people eater spectrum", for that matter.

It would depend upon if I had any common interests with any of them.

Exactly. If we've got nothing in common, we'd just bore each other.

WOW - maybe you ought to photoshop some fangs on that ultra cute bunnie icon there, bluto... At least everyone would have a fair idea of what they're in for...

My kid learned that using the word 'ret*d' was considered bullying in kindergarten...

Whoops, that must be my AS acting up again where I just don't understand the connotations of the words I use. Next time, I'll be sure to use "cretinous mongoloid", so that any cretinous mongoloids won't understand the phrase and any possible negative connotations.

Last edited by swbluto on 05 May 2011, 6:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.

yup... big pointy fangs...

But I'm being nice. You make bunny cry.

I participated in a bowling night sponsored by ARC for a while.

(ARC is Advocacy Resources Community)

I'll socialize with anyone if we share an interest and can communicate.

Are you really?

I'm pretty sure that "cretin" and "mongoloid" are outside of the common parlance for any use but insults.

I think the people in your group are still likely on the higher functioning end of the spectrum.

The appropriate question would be, would low functioning autistic people socialize with me? And the answer is, probably not as they're not much for socializing with anyone.