The Global Assessment of Functioning Scale

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ADD_Teen
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07 Feb 2011, 1:56 pm

wavefreak58 wrote:
ADD_Teen wrote:

The painful part is, that I'm not sure if I'm autistic or just naturally have no social skills.


Isn't autism by definition, a natural (in other words what you are by nature, not nurture) lack of social skill?

I have no idea if I fit the DSM criteria. I know I used to when I was a kid. I learned to talk a little later than normal, had no idea about social cues even existing (I still have no idea about the ones no one literally told me about), and never paid attention to nonverbal communication.
The criteria part is that I always obsess over some specipic topic, but change it often when others tell me it's wrong and that I'm boring and insane, and I had special rituals related to the obsession when I was a kid, and I had to do them in a specific hour. I also only answered short questions or talked about my obsessions when I was younger.


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FireBird
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08 Feb 2011, 1:00 am

Right now I think I am around a 48 but a month ago I was nearing hospital time for my mental problems. So a month ago I was in the low 30's. Mine is due to according to outsiders a lack of reality testing, sleeping all day, and at times suicidal ideation, and disorganized speech patterns (a month ago not now). I am scared about next week because my dad needs surgery and he screams in pain. Usually with severe stress, my symptoms increase.



chssmstrjk
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05 Mar 2011, 9:53 pm

Right now, I would have a GAF score of 81-90. The GAF scale seems fair.



League_Girl
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05 Mar 2011, 9:59 pm

I have no idea. I can't decide if I am in the 80's or 70's or 60's or even the 50's. I seem to be all over. I would rather pick the highest.



Verdandi
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05 Mar 2011, 10:00 pm

League_Girl wrote:
I have no idea. I can't decide if I am in the 80's or 70's or 60's or even the 50's. I seem to be all over. I would rather pick the highest.


The way it works is you read the highest, if you qualify it, read the next one down. If you qualify that, read the next one down. You keep it up until you no longer qualify. The lowest one you qualify for is the one you fit into.



ocdgirl123
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05 Mar 2011, 11:13 pm

I'm probably about 61-70 and 51-60 in some places.


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Sefirato
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06 Mar 2011, 5:11 pm

When I was evaluated for Asperger's, my GAF at the time was 41-50 (45). I was going through a difficult time then.

I would say I range around 41-50 whenever I am down, to 51-60 all other times. It's entirely possible that I have gone as high as 61-70 but I doubt it myself, though. I'm still vague on the meaningful interpersonal relationship bit - I was married for about 4.5 years so I suppose I did qualify for 61-70 easily for a while? :?



Verdandi
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06 Mar 2011, 9:20 pm

ocdgirl123 wrote:
I'm probably about 61-70 and 51-60 in some places.


That means you're 51-60.



Callista
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06 Mar 2011, 11:42 pm

I kinda like the GAF scale because it does give a rough estimate of how much help someone is likely to need, and it's acknowledged that it will change from time to time--maybe even from day to day. That's an actually useful tool.

There's one disadvantage, though; some people will see the GAF as meaning something about the person's abilities generally rather than just how well they are coping right now in their current environment and their current state of mind (emotionally and cognitively). That, however, is not how it was intended to be used; and most professionals seem to understand this to some extent. We have enough labels to talk about how prominent your symptoms are; what is actually useful is a scale that can be used as a, "Well, this person is likely to need this much help..." So in the very low numbers, below 30, you are likely to need help every day; below 20, probably all day. Above that, you might need it weekly or for certain things you can't do yourself. And above 70, you are mostly managing on your own and generally will only need help during times when you are particularly stressed and your GAF dips below 70...

The GAF scale is roughly grouped by traits that represent a certain level of current impairment--i.e., impairment right now, measured mostly by how much support you are likely to need. While it has its drawbacks, at least the GAF scale does not presume that people with the same label are in any way the same.


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