To 'Low-functioning' Autistics:

Post Reply New Topic

I have a couple of questions for you:

+ Do stereotypes commonly associated with moderate-severe autism or intellectual disability affect your mood and/or stress levels, or are you able to completely overlook and/or be apathetic toward such things due to the nature of your being?

+ How do you consider those with whom you interact with the most?

+ What are your favourite things to do in life?

+ Do you ever feel socially embarrassed (e.g. when you spill something on yourself)?

None of these questions are intended to be malicious, and should only be interpreted as they are written.

Thanks.

Last edited by Norny on 18 Aug 2014, 2:20 am, edited 3 times in total.

Sorry don't mean to intrude, but I am also extremely curious whether people with severe autism have any interest in romantic and/or sexual relationships.

First thing you should do is not refer to people as "low functioning autistics"...it's kinda offensive.
It's more appropriate to say WP members who have been diagnosed with LFA.

We are people first and the label comes a distant second.

Despite the caveat I'm also curious to hear what folks think of these questions...

I only half agree here. I think it is a mater of prefrence but instead of using the term low functioning I would use something more like

Severely autistic individuals

Or

Idavidual with severe autism

I personally don't like person first language for many reasons

I recall AdamAutistic posting about wanting a boyfriend, and I believe his signature says he has an LFA diagnosis.

I don't think you can generalize about such a huge population of people.

I thought about this before posting, and ending up deciding that using quotation marks around low-functioning was the most appropriate way. I'll briefly explain how I came to this conclusion:

1. WP members diagnosed with relatively severe autism have referred to themselves as being low-functioning (LFA isn't an actual diagnosis)
2. The majority of WP posters self-identify as Aspies, or autistic individuals
3. Without label-first language, posts appear clogged (imagine referring to NTs as 'people with a relatively typical neurology in some areas' and then having to expand upon it)

I strongly adhere to the people-first philosophy, but to type in such a way could almost be discrimination (refer to point 3). I understand that your concern is primarily with the connotations behind the term, but I can assure you that my usage of the term is for scientific/medical purpose only. That said, I will always attempt to modify how I speak of others if requested, though at times it causes me great frustration (cognitive dissonance), as everybody has a different preference.

I'm open to any suggestions (e.g. severe autism), but as I said it's very difficult to change how I type because it will appear that I'm creating very fine distinction between what I think is OK and what is not. If I start referring to various WP members as 'people diagnosed with LFA' then I'll do the same for those with HFA/AS.

It is the reason why I stated that the questions were not intended to be malicious, as so far I have failed to find any good way I can go about it. I used quotations as the term is not my own.

norny,

no,am aware of the stereotypes but dont get hurt as theres no way of changing bigoted or ignorant minds who dont want to listen.
however they do affect mood long term because was treated as if was non functioning and subhuman up until adulthood and it took a lot of effort to get over it.
am regulary trying to change peoples perceptions of our autism and ID experience though because there is a lot of ignorance towards it from both the autistic and non autistic communities,for example we are often believed to be unable to use computers,to answer questions/topics on forums etc.
am a user of social sites like this to get things out of head because am unable to communicate it in any other form and it just sits there going over and over until have expressed it in one form or another.


no,have never had friends,have visualy and mentaly always seen humans as the same object and worth,have got a very limited one way routine that interact with family/support staff for the purpose of getting something so to self the concept of friend doesnt mean anything.
besides lacking the interest am unable to have online friendships either as it requires back forth interaction and communication,not impossible but its extremely difficult to do so.


sports;renting a private pool out for an hour as well as swimming in the special olympics,going for coffee, ten pin bowling, going to the cinema once a week [last saw guardians of the galaxy],going to knowsley safari park [have got an annual membership card],aquariums, sensory rooms and adult soft play,using the internet.


do not have an 'embarassed' or 'shame' setting installed have got total lack of social awareness and social rules so dont feel any pressure or care,am regulary told off and dragged to bedroom for walking around in just a nappy and sports bra for example;because do not understand why its a problem.
am also quite toothless on top of mouth from extractions and do have partial dentures but dont wear them and dont see a need,have had people say they woud hate to go out without teeth because of how they look,well that isnt recognised by self,am completely disconnected to the existance of other people.


speaking for self only,am the most extreme form of asexual, have never had any level of sexuality.


am not offended by using the disability as a self word, its just a descriptive word and doesnt strip us of our humanness in own view,saying 'a person with LFA' is disconnecting us from our LFA which is a core part of us and how we think and operate.


medicaly speaking LFA means a type of autism presentation that has been impacted by intelectual disability, however people can still be severely autistic and have the highest possible inteligence,the severity of autism is not directly connected to functioning as high functioning individuals can be severe while low functioning individuals can be mild.

As an Aspie I can only imagine apart from the level of Autism we all have to deal with we are all just people.

I can not form relationships or friendships nor have I managed to launch an independent life.

If an NT person asked me what it felt like I don't think I could really give a good answer.

For that same reason I feel it a bit insensitive to be asking people what is like to be low functioning.

I have failed to become independent and while I don't have as many challenges as some people on the spectrum I would not hold up myself as a picture of high functioning.

I can pass for normal in short bursts and I can go shopping for example without anybody knowing that I am different.
I feel an Aspie like me has less excuses but yet I have failed to launch an independent life.

We all have more in common with each other than we do with the NT world.

Lastly I know the OP did not mean to be insensitive with this thread but it does come across a bit insensitive.

Kingdomofrats, I know that you don't form friendship bonds with other people but I know that you are very close and bonded to your animals. Do you consider them as your friends and family? I wonder if you bond with them as other people might bond with each other.

I also know that you have mentioned that you don't feel physical pain but you feel emotional pain when people abuse or neglect you. For me, sometimes emotional pain will manifest in physical sensations and actually cause me physical pain. Do you also feel physical sensations from emotional pain? Do you actually also feel when people touch you or is it just not actual pain that you are able to feel. You have a gorgeous picture of you hugging one of your chickens that you used to use as an avatar. I imagine that you can feel the warmth and softness of his or her feathers against your skin. But I am wondering how you feel physical sensations. I have always been curious about that with people who cannot feel physical pain.

Thank you for helping us understand how you feel and perceive things.

Question - are you a 'low functioning' sociopath? Do you feel the need to start malicious and hypocritical threads just for some twisted sense of superiority or just to try to hurt others?

I honestly do not think there was any bad intent in starting that thread. There are doctors who use "low-functioning" as though it meant something without having to define your own version of it every time you used it. Autistics often have trouble with picking the right words and sounding offensive without meaning to. I believe this was one of those times when there was no intent to be mean at all, just honest curiosity about what it is like to be very autistic. That's okay; in fact, it's commendable. We should ask each other what it's like to be who we are. It helps us understand autism, which is so varied that no one person's experience can ever represent it. There is no sociopathy in that.

Regarding the original post, I can't really speak for people with severe autism; mine is more moderate, just enough to allow me to live in my own apartment, but not to support myself. I'm somewhere in the middle, socially oblivious the way KingdomOfRats mentions. I developed a sense of shame sometime around age ten or eleven, and made my first friends in my early twenties. I'm also asexual, but not as extremely. Stereotypes don't affect my mood either--I am pretty much oblivious to them, except when I see them hurting other people, because that triggers my "fairness instinct" and makes me want to fix the problem.

I am somewhere between mild and moderate in terms of severity of impairment, though I vary from mild to severe from day to day.

I am interested in how much mild auties have in common with people whose autism is considered more severe or obvious, and in how much severe autistics have in common with those whose autism is considered mild. I don't really identify that much with the socially anxious, awkward, "Aspie"-stereotypical autistic, but when I read about the experiences of people who are supposed to be "LFA", they often make me think, "Yeah! Exactly. I get that."

I conclude that we are not really qualitatively different at all, that we have many of the same experiences, and much more potential to understand each other than we might think.

I wish we had more LFA/ID labeled people on here. We need their perspectives. I think we're missing out.

For the most part, I'm going to overlook this comment, only because I can so quickly dismiss it as being immature.

I would not visit this forum if I was not interested in the perspectives (across the board) of autistic individuals. I also would not have joined if I had no issues myself, primarily communicative/social issues. While my post may appear insensitive (and I readily apologize if it does), it in no way deserves such a reply.

I do not see how my post is hypocritical, nor is it malicious (as that refers to intent). In real life social scenarios, the majority of WP members would receive your kind of backlash - so think about the outreaching affects of your post. It's a reason why so many autistics burnout when trying to imitate NT; there's only so much crap one can take before giving up.



Thank you for understanding.



This is exactly what I think too. LFA/ID tends to be underrepresented on WP, hence why I made this thread.


I appreciate the majority of replies so far (particulary KingdomOfRats). Thanks.

I agree with Callista. And I know that Norny had no malintent whatsoever. In fact, he made that quite clear in his OP. I think it's great that we can talk about how we are different and how we are alike. We have so much to learn from each other about each other and this kind of communication is such a fantastic way to do that. How will NT's learn about who we are if we can't even learn about each other? And the more we can learn from each other the more we can treat each other with compassion, dignity and respect. And even if we can't word our questions or even our responses perfectly to meet the sensitivities of every single person, we can all show a little grace if we can see that people are not intending to be malicious. How much grace has been shown to each of us when we have done or said something that may not have come across perfectly?

Norny, I am glad you asked this question because I think it can open up dialogue where we can really learn a lot about what it is like for those on both ends of the Spectrum.

I think it's ok to ask questions. As long as you present them in a diplomatic way that's sensitive to different folks with different strokes...

I think it is the first time in this forums (but I have not read everything in this forums) that I read that another member is perceiving humans as objects, I used to do it until my teenage years and I did write about it too:

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postp5894197.html&highlight=#5894197
KoR, Callista wrote

and I agree with that.

I have asked the same questions concerning HFA on this forum before, and never received responses of the kind in this thread. I can therefore safely assume that the problem is how the term 'low-functioning' is perceived, and as I will describe again, I have yet to find a solution to this.

In this thread alone, there are already supporters behind both sides of the classic 'person-first VS identity-first' debate.

There are too many arguments for each perspective for me to ever be able to craft a perfect post. As I previously alluded to, I have considered referring to those diagnosed with LFA using other terms, but then why should I use the term 'high-functioning'? I can't use one and neglect the other, but if I don't use either then how do I question those who have the specific presentations of autism?

As an alternative, the use of 'severely autistic' has been suggested, though as KingdomOfRats posted, LFA refers to a specific presentation of autism without severing the personal connection, while 'severely autistic' fails in that regard.

Some may suggest 'softening' a post by presenting questions less directly, though I believe that has the opposite effect of what they intend. Why should I post differently when writing about some individuals? Unless I am absolutely required to change how I post for certain individuals (e.g. English may not be a first language), it all goes back to my argument about discrimination. A person is a person, and I refuse to, without good reason, meticulously alter my semantics (in this context) on the basis that somebody could potentially be offended.

I can only apologize for any insensitivity in these situations, as I am truly convinced that there is never one correct way.