Do you switch between high and low functioning?

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I find that I can have weeks or months of being very high functioning...almost NT! I make friends, I'm social, I go out and enjoy being around people. Then...I just lose it! Eye contact gets harder, having a conversation gets harder, and I stop socializing. It's like sliding up and down the spectrum - sometimes almost to the point of becoming actual autistic! Does that happen to anyone else??

Maybe you have one of the personality disorders as that's kind of what it sounds like.

Yes. I can very very social and flexible and then other times I am not doing eye contact and I want to be alone and keep to myself.

After 13 my AS got worse, before then my AS was no different than being an NT of the same age, or at least I felt like everyone else bfore then. It was 13 when I actually noticed it. Stimming developed over the next few years from then, at least according ot my parents.

I remember stimming as a little kid. I can even see me doing it in photos. My parents and teachers used to always yell at me for it.

I do have times where I become really anti-social and other times when I like being around people.

I just learned about Asperger's Syndrome last November and haven't had any sort of professional evaluation.

Sometimes it feels like I meet the criteria perfectly and that my life is debilitated by it, and on other days I feel completely normal and I am able to socialize with friends, and I feel as though I'm just a hypochondriac and imagining autism symptoms as an excuse for shyness.

~SOS

I don't think my IQ changes much.

However, I don't think you mean it in the traditional sense of high-functioning and low-functioning (the pre-AS days). No, I've been the same my whole life in regards to what I can and can't do, except for my early history where I was more delayed in my verbal ability.

Some days I want to be very social. Other days I want everyone to just go away.

I get WAY overstimulated when I am around other people much.. including my BF. Still, I can appear social and perfectly normal at times and it is hard to tell I'm autistic... except when I'm under a lot of stress.. and then I'm rocking and looking away from everyone and isolating and just acting really weird.

I've read some of Tony Attwood's book "Asperger's Syndrome: A Guide for Parents and Professionals" and it said how aspies have a "learning tide" that goes in and goes out. It means that people with Asperger's tend to have better and worse days that affect their learning in school. Some days they're social and attentive and learn very well in class; other days it's the complete opposite. He was describing aspies when they were younger and in primary school. Liane Holliday Willey also goes on to explain that her traits aren't nearly as present anymore as when she was a little kid, but they tend to "bubble in" once in awhile. I say that we aspies tend to have good days and bad days on the spectrum, just like everyone has good days and bad days, high functioning or low functioning days. It's just our matter of experience with dealing with these issues, with how much we learn about the social world, and how much becomes "automatic" over time. It never fully goes away I don't think, but the way we deal with this changes as we get older and learn social life hard way. I have these down days too, where I'm having trouble being around people, or I get highly suspicious or anxious of others not liking or accepting me. Maybe we get tired of socializing a lot, and sometimes it's just a way of our brains telling us we need a break? Almost like a runner has good up days and down days; days when they're tired and pooped out and other days when they're energized and going fast. They need easy days to get through the hard days. I've also heard Tony Attwood say at one of his conferences that aspies tend to use the thinking or intellectual side of our brain when we socialize, and the reason why we came home tired and (sometimes) angry after school when we were little kids was because we were almost literally socially tired or pooped out. Maybe it's the same later in our lives, that sometimes we just need a bit of alone time; time to stretch out and relax and be ourselves without the worry of messing up socially. After all, citing from Tony Attwood again, we technically wouldn't have a social disorder if we weren't around other people; we'd technically be "cured". Not saying that we need to be "cured", but just adding to the point that sometimes, without even our own noticing, we naturally need more alone time to just sit down and take a break. Socializing makes us tired.

For me, it depends on the amount of sensory input. If there's a lot of noise and smells, I'm incredibly low functioning.

Language is of a wavering quality for me. Sometimes I can't say a sentence and at other times I talk absolutely well.

Yes I find I am very high functioning some times then others I feel different and less socialable, happy, ect...

I always thought it was normal for aspergers people.

i wouldn't actually call it "low and high functioning." i think what you are referring to is the tendecny for traits to fluctuate over time.

My sensory issues fluctuate enormously. there are days when i can also cope with people and days when i need to minimise contact with others.


there are days when i stim a great deal and days when i do not.

there are days when i can comprehend what someone is saying to me better than other days. comprehension in social exchanges is terribly difficult for me sometimes.

My traits also fluctuate depending upon how much soothing time i get with special interests. good wuality pereserverative time with one of my special interests tends to calm me down a great deal...... if i do not, or am unable to give a lot of time to my special interest or current project i can really get difficult and start flapping and having meltdowns.

so, yes....traits fluctuate.

i can also attest to this in my autistis nephew whose traits fluctuate enormously form one day to the next depending on overload, diet, sleep patterns, routines or lack thereof....etc....etc..