Being "too high functioning"

Post Reply New Topic

Have you ever had a problem with being discriminated against because of being high functioning?

More then outright discrimination based on a HFA label negative judgements based on looking/acting close to NT but not being able to pull it off, or pulling it off for awhile and suddenly having an autistic moment. Lifelong.

Constantly reading that HFA/Aspergers is not real autism or that it is real but most people claiming the label are using it an an excuse, most diagnosed are not really autistic just lazy social ret*ds, or claiming the label to just to get benefits.

While not outright discrimination it has the same effect, it does leave me fearful of disclosing who I really am

The US must be a horrible place to live, you guys got so much discrimination going on. At least here in Germany, people know that "high functioning" refers to having average to above average intelligence while it doesn't change the fact that one may be severely socially inadept or even unable to live independently. Until now, people haven't asked further if I told them I was autistic and while most don't treat me different, at least the aholes have gotten nicer.

Sadly, Canada's not much different from the US. I hadn't heard about Germany before, but everything I've heard about autism services in the UK makes me think they're way ahead of North America.

I can relate to much of what ASParrtOfMe wrote. Unfortunately, I imagine that many of us here can to some degree or another.

I had a professor tell me that he did not believe in disabilities. He said some things about how if I was in his class then I could just go ahead and do my work like everyone else because that is how life goes. I was not seeking a get out of work free card or anything. I just wanted to give the man a heads up that I am not always able to verbally communicate so if he called on me and I could not answer him verbally that was why. I was not the only person he pulled that kind of nonsense with. He no longer works for that college.

Yer, I'm classed as ''too high-functioning''. In the UK the government seems to think that just because a person can walk, talk and make decisions for themselves, they shouldn't claim any disability benefits or other adult support.

I fall in that category. I am able-bodied, and I can communicate, and I can make decisions for myself. But I seem to have a severe social anxiety that holds me back, and I have a few learning difficulties too, like with math and other logic thinking. It may not sound like much, and it may sound like something I can just get over, but it is not. It holds me back, and although it doesn't make me incapable, it still makes some things daunting for me.

I suppose only people who are very intellectually and/or physically disabled get the right help. People like me, who are only affected by emotions and mild learning difficulties, don't get the help. My social worker has even signed me off the list without notifying me in any way.

BUT, I have a supportive family around me and a loving partner, so I suppose they are good for me to talk to and ask for help. They are always there for me, and I would always do favours in return if they ask.

Surprisingly I never had a problem with getting help so does that mean I am not that high functioning?

I got on SSI the first time, got on SSDI pretty fast after being rejected once, I had no problems with human services that help people with disabilities but they ran out of money so I wasn't able to get a job that one summer like I was supposed to. I also have a part time job from a company that employs people with disabilities.

I have been surprised how one can be too normal to get help but not normal enough to be normal.


But if we are talking about ignorance, then yeah I have put up with that. Kids were not nice to me in school and they went from underestimating me to over estimating me and when I was in elementary school, I was judged and lonely while the other kids who were obviously different were "normal" and I wasn't because I was too normal to be normal. I have also dealt with an office clerk at my old job and he would make me feel bad like I wasn't listening or that I didn't have common sense just because I was smart and he expected me to read between the lines and figure out what he is saying and figure stuff out on my own because asking questions would upset him. Then it would drive me crazy when he would tell me if I don't understand just ask. Yeah if I asked, he would then say I wasn't listening. Also in my elementary school, kids who got help were obviously different and because I looked normal, they didn't care and didn't follow my IEP so my parents always had to fight fight fight to get them to understand me and follow my IEP. Then they tried to say I had a behavior issue and try and shuffle me into a class with kids for behavior disorders. But yet it was okay for all the other kids to misbehave and act up and be disrespectful in class and I had to be little miss perfect and make no mistake and have no incident. Even my therapist was shocked what she saw on the video and told them she has never seen such a class like that and a student teacher who is unsupervised and doesn't know how to set limits and control her class and doesn't know how to keep her audience when she teaches my aide who does nothing about the other kids and I am not the problem, it's them with it and how they handle things and how the classroom is. My parents paid her to watch it and she took notes. It was six hour long and it was the last ten minutes when I shoved a girl because she wouldn't stop touching me and then she stuck her tongue out at me and I was provoked when did it and yeah I got scolded for it while the other girl didn't. I think that is the BS lot of us have to deal with. Too high functioning to be protected but if you are low functioning, you have better protection. I also remember being in middle school and I had to be treated like the bad guy whenever other kids would upset me but yet if I was more severe, I bet teachers would be telling the other kids to knock it off even if they were just playing and trying to get my attention. Instead I ended up with an aide which is fine by me. Back in Washington, I wouldn't have had one for junior high because they said I didn't need one.

I've been told I'm too high functions for OPWDD Which is the office for people with developmental disabilities and certain programs in New York but I was easily excepted into the office of mental health. So I don't know wether they consiter me high or low functioning, plus I do go to a camp and program for kids with developmental disabilities.

I myself have run more into the claims that its not real autism, or people with HFA have no reason to be considered disabled and more ignorance....than direct discrimination. Or like when my sister told me she thought i may be on the spectrum she also felt the need to include....its not an excuse, though I don't think she thought I'd use it as one per say I think its more something she blurted out that she'd heard elsewhere her main focus seemed to be trying to help me better understand myself.

Autism services in the UK aren't perfect, but they've improved a great deal, and where the Government doesn't provide enough or any support, there are many voluntary organisations and charities (such as the one I work for) who do. Like the rest of the world we have an increasingly ageing population, many of whom have dementia, and this has woken society up to the reality of mental health issues in general.

The USA does seem blighted by deep-rooted discrimination; I noticed this when I lived there. I also used to visit a gay social network that was mostly frequented by Americans and Canadians, and the stories I heard of widespread bigotry were appalling. We're fortunate in Europe that discrimination of all kinds is now illegal - which is not to say that it doesn't exist, but it has become sufficiently socially unacceptable for bigots to be publicly shamed. In a recent case, several people who made defamatory remarks on Twitter were put in jail.

Not by anyone knowingly... but I can't count how many times I've heard a frustrated "C'mon, you're a smart guy.." followed up by some angry statement about something I've said or done or not done etc that people have an automatic assumption that I should have known/done etc because I'm intelligent. When I hear these things now I realize it's a mistake I've made due to ASD traits and just correct whatever it is I need to do and move on vs. disclose my diagnosis in order to explain or excuse myself.

I've run into a lot of "you seem too normal to be autistic" from the very same people who have told me for decades that I'm a weirdo, who have repeatedly commented on my lack of social skills and even outright asked me "what are you, autistic?" because of my constant stimming.

They have watched me get fired over and over again because I could not function within the dynamic of the workplace, while they were casually sucking up and brown-nosing to fit in, and now that I'm diagnosed and officially listed as disabled, they can't accept that there's anything wrong with me. Yeah, I was good at what I did, but after 30 years I've got nothing to show for it, while my contemporaries have homes, property and retirement funds. And I have no idea how they did it, because those things have always been a mystery to me. It's grownup stuff I simply don't comprehend.

Yeah, on a purely intellectual level, I'm better (self) educated than most of them and have a far superior vocabulary and verbal communication. Problem is, you can't pay your rent with a head full of trivia, and you can't even win a game show with it, when you can't process quickly under pressure. And we haven't even begun to discuss crippling anxiety and inability to focus (but then these are the same types of people who don't believe in ADHD, either).

But the worst is, I've also encountered literal workplace discrimination, in a situation where the employer knew full well that I was disabled, knew what the disability was and had heard it explained on multiple occasions, and yet, continaully told me I was "just shy" and ultimately screamed in my face, because my social abilities were not up to his demands: "Why can't you just be like everybody else!?" - and I spent the next four years arguing with government bureaucrats, whose job it was to deal with disabled people and prevent discrimination, every one of whom agreed that I had been discriminated against, and every one of them passed the buck to another department, rather than do anything to help.

If you're not in a wheelchair, or physically disfigured, some people will never believe you have a real disability.

About the prejudice from parents of AS children who are dismissive of high functioning adults as "not real autistics"..

http://strangeringodzone.blogspot.co.nz ... oning.html

That's such a great article, B1!

Your link led me to a defunct page where I am (might be regional?) but I found this opened it for me:
http://strangeringodzone.blogspot.co.uk/

I wouldn't be so sure about that. There is nothing for me as I wouldn't qualify for the equivalent of disability (which some of our US members have) because I would be deemed too high functioning to need the welfare help. Even though I'm actually at a crisis point mentally. The UK welfare system is EXTREMELY harsh. It throws out recipients who are even severely physically disabled, or in end-stage terminal cancer. If it does that to them, someone like me has no chance in hell of getting any help. The UK is a very harsh place now for anyone who may need any type of government assistance legitimately. The system has been abused too much and now the gates are closing.

The issue is that people do not realize that your mind is different. They say things like "I don't notice anything different."

I have also heard things like: "If you were really that smart, then you would not have made this or that mistake."

I have, mostly, learned not to tell people all of what I was thinking about while troubleshooting the possibilities of a problem. People will think that you are paranoid if you list remote possibilities off. Or they will think that you thinking about a remote possibility equals that you think that possibility is likely. Most of the time people tell me not to think about it.

If we run into people who rely on reading body language to navigate social situations may read us as lying with a higher frequency than other observers.

If we run into people who rely on extreme emotional based thinking to navigate life, then our thought process may be perceived as alien do to being so very different. This could cause issues.