Does Society Favor Lower Functioning Autistic People?

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Does anyone else believe that the higher functioning an autistic person is, the more society is likely to look down on their disability and expect them to not "act disabled" or even refuse to believe they have autism in the first place? Also does anyone else believe that too much attention is given to lower functioning autistic people and not enough to higher functioning autistic people?

It depends on how you look at things from your perspective. One could argue that the low-functioning is receiving negative attention, or that they are insignificant therefore "talked-down"
So the question could be(depending on the mood) Would said person rather be talked-down and pitied or have acquaintances in denial of that person's condition?

Most of the so-called "experts" believed I didn't have autism because I communicated too well verbally & seemed too intelligent & they were surprised I had a high-school diploma even thou I received accommodations cuz of learning disabilities. My mom asked my GP if I was autistic when I was a toddler & he said "Nick's just being Nick". I wasn't able to qualify for any services related to autism because of that.

My whole family is in denial that I could possibly have ASD. They expect me to act 'normally', and cannot see why I would not be able to. I think this qualifies.

I say yes on both counts. No one ever questions my diagnosis and since I'm registered special needs, I get all kinds of special attention. Including handicap parking any time I'm in the car and being in the special express line at amusement parks and the like. Get handed lots of balloons and lollipops lol.

Yes, my Asperger's is very mild so when people get to know me they don't give me much leeway when it comes to missing social queues. People generally have highly unrealistic expectations of me overall. I'm not given much of a chance to prove that I can be a kind/loyal person etc.

The higher functioning or more accurately milder your Autism is or the more likely society and people will deny you are autistic or think you are a failure if you can not overcome it, or think you are faking/overdramatizing it.

The lower functioning or more severe you are the more likely society and people will believe you have no abilities at all.

Society looks down on disability generally and nonphysical disability especially.

This should not be a contest to see which level of autism is disliked more, we all get s**t on one way or another.

Be that as it may, and aside from all the attention "low-functioning" folks receive, I believe I am fortunate that I am a relatively "high-functioning" individual.

This may be stupid but are lower fuctioning people as aware of how the condition affexts their lives?

The school system definitely does. While there is tons of help from private schools to help in public for low functioning kids with autism they don't seem to care about us high functioning kids with autism and just say it's bad behavior. My family has looked everywhere for a school that would be good for a high functioning teen with autism and there is nothing affordable. All the schools supported by the county are for kids with severe low functioning autism.

I think people are kinder to those of us who are lower functioning. They let them have their comfort objects and fun objects because they want to make life easy for them. People expect those of us who are higher functioning to be able to do without those things, because we seem to be able to pass as normal more easily. The lower functioning get what they want, while the higher functioning are told by their same sex parent that it's time they grow up.

I think that people are generally very protective over low functioning autistic people and treat them in the same way that they may treat someone who is paralyzed in a wheel chair with a mental handicap.

Where as if you are having problems with communicating or stress because of being high functioning then people often just think your behaviour is aggressive or anti-social and your just a jerk (instead of someone with a neurological disability).

Where i live, people who are high functioning appear to either be treated as a pain in the bum type normal people, or be treated the same as people with low functioning autism.

For example.
I am presently unemployed but very high functioning. I have a BA Degree in sound engineering, know how to compose and produce music (which i taught myself apart from the engineering side), I have a number of honed skills in other areas and am capable of learning other complex skills, arguably to a higher level than a large cross section of the population.

However, due to the problems i have communicating with people, coping with stress and "fitting in" with neurotypicals, i am treated as a problem case with regards to employment.

I find it hard to find and sustain employment in the areas where there is employment (which is primarily in the finance industry in the area that i live).

So, i am given "therapeutic" work doing menial labor on projects for people with disabilities and low IQ's.
However, my disability isn't the level of my IQ but the amount of stress I can deal with and communicating with sadistic neurotypicals.

If i was given a technical job that i could do without having to communicate with sadists which i could do at my own pace (sometimes fast, sometimes rest) then I would be perfectly happy.

Better still, if the employment services involved got me a job in an area that i actually have major experience in that i enjoy, then I may even be happy and likely generate more profit for the people concerned.

But i guess that is all too logical. Instead the state pile large amounts of capital into funding baby sitting therapeutic work programs that underemploy and demean any one with an IQ higher than 70.
I mean, goodness, one of the therapeutic jobs was putting pieces of wood into a machine that splits the pieces of wood into smaller pieces of wood. and what's even more ironic, the person that leads the employment scheme is someone with a lower IQ, with less talent and skill, who has extremely questionable morals and attitudes, and in general is an abusive condescending a hole. BUT, he is an expert liar, slanderer, manipulator and bull shitter AND is better at coping with stress.

So the good honest people with high IQ's get talked down to by someone who probably spent his youth stealing money out his mums purse to buy hard drugs with. Great! now that's not good in my opinion.

>>>
going back to the differences in how low and high autistic people are treated.
I was recently hanging out with a friend who has low functioning autism, her boy friend and another friend at a local bar.

During this night after several beers, my friend, the low functioning autistic girl called her boyfriend a mean name as a joke.

This caused her boy friend to get offended who responded by having a go at me.

Now this stressed me out and i retaliated by telling him to back off.

My action was then met with practically everyone in our group and the landlady of the bar having a go at me because i said something mean to someone who has an autistic girl friend.

So i walked out the bar and told the landlady to keep her lousy bar and attitude and not to jump on people before she has her facts straight.

Funny thing is, what ever i say or do to someone with Autism will always be viewed as wrong if the person with low functioning autism decides so (whether that person is right or not).

And what ever anyone with low functioning autism says or does to me (regardless whether that person is right or wrong) will also be viewed as right. because the low functioning autism is clearly disabled.

Funny thing is, after such incidents that low functioning autistic person just shrugs the incident off after getting lots of attention and sympathy but i go off with my head extremely stressed which i take with me to the next day because my mind is working at a higher speed than some of the low functioning autistic people. And the anxiety is amplified.

Don't get me wrong, in no way am I jealous of the low functioning people and in now way do i think that people should treat them bad or as normal people. however, i do not like getting the crap end of the stick every time i hang out with such people.

my present solution is to not to hang out.
Bit like most high functioning stressed out aspo's solutions to problems with hanging out with neurotypicals.
If they cause your head to hurt. Stay away. At least in isolation, i can predict the outcome and i know in general will be lower stress than most circumstances.