WP members are collectively low functioning HFA/AS ?

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Last edited by LoveNotHate on 08 Dec 2013, 1:59 am, edited 3 times in total.

I think that you are definitely an aspie to ask such a likely-to-be-insulting question.

My thoughts:

People like Bill Gates are more successful than almost everybody -- autistic and not-autistic. Using their accomplishments as a benchmark for everyday people doesn't make a lot of sense to me. (Also who actually knows how much help/support any public icon receives on a day to day basis -- or how much help/support they received before they became a public icon?)

Ordinary-person-type success may be achieved by people who have a lot of problems....depends on the person, their abilities, their supports, their opportunities, etc -- and their definition of success. There's a lot of variety in autistic people, personal circumstances, and definitions, so even though particular achievements tell you something about a person's abilities, they don't come close to telling you everything.

Oh Sorry

Several recent topics brought up concerns between high and low functioning, and I was pointing out that WE might be the low functioning ones out of the HFA/AS group, and we should not look down on the "LFA" people.

Several members said , "HFA is better".

However, what if there is someone even more-functioning than them that says, "Higher HFA is better", and made them feel bad.

I deleted it.

A quick google would have given you the answer.

Most figures quote around 80%-85% of Aspies/HFA as being without full time employment - we do not fare any better as adults in many ways than 'lower functioning' Autistics. That's a pretty sobering figure but it actually makes me feel a lot better knowing that I'm not the only one who struggles and that there are valid reasons for it.

The Bill Gates' of this world are the lucky few who have found a niche and the right supports so that they can succeed. It does not meant that they do not struggle at all. There is no way to judge that from outside of their closest circle.

I haven't really seen any of the HF vs LF battles in action that people talk about, but that's probably because I usually tend to avoid threads that look like they will devolve quickly into a bitter binary discussion. I'm still not sure why I clicked on this one. We're on a spectrum, there is no binary and trying to fit us into one is counter-productive at best and quite frankly rather divisive.

BTW - There is often something worse than posting a thread which is bound to offend someone... Deleting the question rather than just editing it to add an apology, explanation and rephrase it nicely. Deleting is frustrating for people who click on it only to find that they've not been allowed to see what others already did and have been denied the opportunity of contributing to a constructive discussion which people can learn from. Even badly phrased questions are really worth reading as we can then often see the problem and become more aware so we don't repeat it ourselves. Leaving it there with a correction would have been a fantastic learning tool for our little community here. Sigh. You might want to consider editing your deleted post to put an amended version of the question back in. Just a suggestion.

I don't think this question is offensive. I don't know the answer to this question.

I did not see the original post in this thread before it was modified, the problem I see is that if you quote a stat such as 80 % of all aspies are XYZ then you have a problem. How do you define the AS population, the problem is that a sizeable fraction of the HF end of the autistic community are lost in normal society. They are living productive lives, maybe they have problems with relationships (some of them might not fit in well with NT society) and they might never have heard of AS or autism.

The lower functioning people with autism are more easy to spot, they can not "act normal" with ease. So the "autistic community" which are easy to observe may be artifically weighted in favour of the lower functioning people.

Consider for a moment a university prof with AS, he might be regarded as a quirky character and generally left to his own devices. While a person who is less smart might not be able to hide behind the mask of "quirky intellectual" which the prof can.

Also consider for a moment the fact that many higher functioning people do not want to be the subject of public curiosity, they want to live out their lives in peace. They may well take steps to hide their autism from the majority of NTs and society. Some of the smarter people here on the wrong planet value their privacy and have taken steps to avoid being outted. My view is that the smart aspie does not have a duty to out themselves, I am an example of a crypto-aspie who is keen to avoid being outted. I say that as long as the crypto-aspie does not do things to harm the interests of people with autism then they should be left in peace and not outted by other people.