Are you very high-functioning?

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Leading people is extremely difficult, you need to watch your back, support, defend, pretend to be average, show that you are not average, gossip, bully, threaten, empathise, be harsh and lenient. And when you've mastered every one - you get stabbed in the back out of the blue!

I'm very happy in life. Especially when alone, my aim is to be financially independent enough to avoid interractions with people (and especially social support services).
I can easily have smalltalk with people. I do not suffer from any anxiety at all.
Though I do make body language mistakes and being someone that others want to be friends with is a whole other issue. Not including the facts that I do not drink, enjoy parties, sports or agree with the groups majority opinions (often opinions that the media spouts).
I wouldn't mind a friend or two and even a girlfriend would be nice.
However people are of very low intelligence, deceptive, and let their emotions determine decision making.
I used to have great expectations of people - sadly those have all been dashed.
In the past I felt a little lonely, but now that I know the truth I'm happy alone.
Before I knew I had Aspergers, I had these fantasies about being the only survivor in an empty world.
I do not know my IQ, however the tests are too narrow as there are many forms eg. EQ, streetsmarts, Linguistics, Mathematics, Creative intelligence, even body language/perception of minor things/listening to ones imstincts (including horse whisperer types & deceptive psychic types - who play people).
I am able to read into what people are implying sometimes, when I need to assess their true motivations & true personality.

I would consider myself to be quite high functioning. I have a degree and I'm also doing postgraduate study. I'm quite well-organised and I'm quite good at saving money every month. I am capable of holding down a job and I have also been volunteering in a capacity related to my postgrad study for several years. I can usually manage small talk with people for short periods and I'm able to socialise with work colleagues for at least short periods of time. I am able to navigate large crowds without too much difficulty and have no problems doing things like going to concerts, art galleries or theatre shows. In terms of AS, I am anxious quite often and I also have problems with OCD. I sometimes experience depression particularly when I've been out of work for more than a few months. I also tend to spend a lot of time on my own and don't really have many friends. That said, considering what I was like when I was 11 or 12, I've not done too badly in life so far.

I'm very high functioning in that my traits are mild and I don't have a lot of the issues that others on the spectrum face. However, it would seem I still have enough going on to warrant a diagnosis.

I was probably a lot more 'obvious' when I was younger.

For various reasons though, I still struggle to function 'in the real world'.

I definitely relate to those who say it can be difficult to understand both those with AS and NT, as well as the not disabled enough/ not able enough paradigm.

I too am a high functioning aspie. I have retired from one career and started another career. Life has been very difficult for me. I was diagnosed about 18 months ago. I am on my second marriage. With the 1st marriage of 17 years my wife always asked me why I was so sad all the time. I why I did not like to make friends with the neighbors and hangout. I rather be alone with the curtains drawn to the light is dim. I was always nervous at everything I did. I plan and double plan everything. I think the worse in all my possible out comes to everything I do. I did not like affection and all that cuddling and personal contact. I discovered that I got married because I thought I was supposed to. And the same for having children was because I thought I was supposed to. My current wife knew I was different and had something going on. After the diagnosis she said I knew it.

Yes. The diagnosis I was given as a kid was caveated with that I was on the cuff. I was socially impaired enough to qualify, and i had restricted interests, but I was not significantly impaired, relatively speaking.

Nowadays, I am doing pretty well. I live alone, I graduated from a well-regarded college with straight As and work at a respected company doing work I enjoy. If you looked for them, I'm sure you could see the vestiges of what prompted the diagnosis in middle school. People might note I'm somewhat pedantic, can veer into being overly blunt, inadvertently offend people, and have a scary laser focus on the things important to me, at the exclusion of all else. However, none of those things scream a label in any way, although they may peg me as a little odd.

Also, as much anguish as some of those not significant but still disabling social impairments have caused me over the years, I would say some of the flip-sides of the neurology, like obsessive focus, logical thinking, verbal skills, and earnesty, have served me really well. I like to think of my neurology as a difference and not a disability, since nowadays I don't feel so disabled by it. Context matters a lot, though; even with life experience gained along the way, I'd still feel very socially deficient if I had to do high school again. (Navigating the social complexities of an all-girls school when you're not socially impaired enough to get mother hen'd, but socially impaired enough that the complexities just totally whiz by you, sucks.)

I seemed a lot more high-functioning than I actually am when I was younger, and now, that's becoming more apparent. I graduated from college a year and a half ago, and have only been able to get a low-paying part-time job with no opportunity for advancement. Because of this, I don't have the money to support myself if I were to live on my own. I can't drive, and I have never been in any sort of romantic relationship with anyone. No kids, of course, since being in a romantic relationship of some sort is usually necessary for that. I haven't had a close friend since I was in elementary school, and am very socially isolated now. Haven't really enjoyed life very much since I was a kid. Little pleasures like indulging in my obsessions keep me going, but I've been struggling with depression on and off for over a decade.

As far as social stuff is concerned, my problem is that my functioning level varies from day to day, or even hour to hour, depending on factors like how much sleep I've gotten, how much advanced notice I had, and how much sensory stimulation I've had that day. People see me at my best, and then assume I'm always capable of that, and if I don't do as well, it's because I'm not trying hard enough or don't care. For example, no one I've tried to tell in person has ever believed me when I tell them that when I'm very stressed or experiencing a strong emotion of any sort, I literally can't speak no matter how hard I try. It's very frustrating to keep trying my best and keep being told it isn't good enough (and my father is one of the worst offenders in that regard...).

Yes very, I don't really like the term to be honest, but I don't have a learning disability. I am a qualified teacher and just completed a post grad. I have an above average IQ. I have been married for for 27 years and have fathered 3 children. I don't have any real friends, just people I know from work, to be honest I don't want any either. I see quite enough of the rest of the planet when I leave the house, my wife has always been enough for be. I hate anyone coming to the house and will hide away in another room if at all possible, thankfully its rare when they do. My idea of the perfect job is one where I work on my own in a small cold room with low level natural light....bliss. I have had far too many jobs over the past two years and my career has taken a knock, a mixture of my autism (not coping with change, too many demands and overloads and me just plain not been able to cope with not being able to do things my way. I have been made redundant twice in the last 8 months and after running myself into the ground with this job for fear of it happening again I have shot myself in the foot, worked 60 hours a week, overloaded and had to take a month out with anxiety..not good. Anxiety is my main issue. I have learned how to behave in a professional manner at work, not to interrupt people all the time and bang on and on and on about something I am interested in, most of the time, but its hard work and the urge to do so is just under the surface and ready to burst out of me if I am not vigilant. I am not as blunt as I used to be. One of my bosses once said to be that I needed to consider the impact my words had on others, this was something of a revelation and not something which I had never considered. I thought honesty was the best policy and if someone was wrong it was my duty to tell them.

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never got married before. never even gone on a date. everyone that romantically expressed a desire to be with, had something extreme going on with them, such that it had to be a dealbreaker.

only worked at minimum wage jobs. got fired.

that, despite a BA in cognitive science and AA in Accounting.

volunteered at a couple jobs. numerous times, ret*ds had the nerve to tell me off.

no precious lil "friends". they dumped me.

with the exception of livejournal, no e-friends either.



and this is "As Good As it Gets."

numerous things could make my "life" worse. sooner or later $$ will run out. financial poverty.

rape, physical assault

disease/disability

social rejection

those things are bound to happen sooner or later

and besides i am 34. mentally getting slower and slower. more clinically depressed. physically weaker. emotionally more fragile.

in every way i am gradually getting worse.

unless something really wierd happens my "life" cannot and will not get better.

sometimes i just wanna lie on the ground all day long.

almost every time i try to do something i fail

and the punishment for failure is sometimes beyond imagination.

while successes. rewards. small rewards. or no rewards.

risk not worth the reward

self preservation

cost benefit analysis

feel so exhausted

like anemic or something

usually don't wanna talk to nobody for days on end

It's hard to say how high-functioning I am. I can't get inside another Aspie's head and accurately judge their abilities and thought processes. I only know myself.

Generally, a lot of people seem to sense something "off" about me whether I'm trying to hide it or not. When I'm not trying to mask my social difficulties, people get nervous or ask me what's wrong. When I am trying to compensate (fake smiles, forced small talk, etc.) it isn't much better.

I think I've been lucky. I have family members who don't understand but have been willing to help me out. I've been able to get jobs here and there, although none of them has turned out particularly well. I've never been married; I don't desire marriage, romantic companionship, or children. I've had only one sexual partner, and she had issues of her own. Twice I've tried to live independently and failed.

I'm 32 and I feel about forty years older. Worn out, discouraged, afraid of people and the future. A better question is, do I function at all? And I'd have to say, "barely." It's become noticeably worse in the last five years or so.

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Axis 5: Global Area Functioning. psychologists use it as a scale of 0 to 100 (100 the highest), to rate how well someone is functioning. yes, it is vague and subjective. but at least it is some sort of scale. however inaccurate.

when i was 21, the psychologist that diagnosed me gave me 65. not too low. but since then, my GAF has drastically declined.

quite frankly i do not even know how to "compensate", the way that you do.

relationships are completely out of the question. can barely do social interactions. if i could do them, i would.

yeah i feel discouraged and worn out too. and afraid of precious lil "people". in that way i feel older than my 34 years. and i feel like i have exhausted all the options. lost cause. beyond repair. too far gone "a day late, a dollar short"

in some ways i feel younger than 34. strangers sometimes tell me i am a teen. and i have never dated anyone. never worked a job that was not minimum wage. never married or had children. do not know how to cook, parallel park, or fix the car. do not know how to do household repair. do not know emotional regulation. do not know how to maintain friendships. do not know how to invest in the stock market.

I also now try to do this. It's amazing how the NT's follow their tribe mentality to gang up on another whilst the concept of right and wrong is an insignificant matter! '1984' seems to also explore this, however the NT's seem to be using it as an instruction manual.

I know what to do socially, but constantly second guess myself. I suffer from social anxiety and it sucks. I have gotten pretty comfortable around two friends of mine though.

yes im very high functioning

The key is to stop worrying what others think or how they will react.

Because they will always make wrong/false assuptions.
You will always make some mistakes, and piss people off, even when you try not to.
No matter what you do.

I'm not saying to not try, but, just do your best and learn from misktakes as best you can without unbalancing the scale with worry.

With this answer, bear in mind that I'm probably not autistic. I have dyspraxia with a lot of autistic traits (obsessions, social problems, repetitive/stimming behaviour, and mild sensory issues).

I'm high-functioning enough that I can hold down a job and a relationship for years on end. My condition means that I still can't drive, though - or even do anything that requires certain motor skills (like climb ladders). I often feel burned out from trying to be normal all day. I get lost easily, and I struggle with time management. I can be too open and childlike at times. I also have a lot of social anxiety because of my way of saying the wrong thing and alienating people. My dyspraxia gives me this problem of having too much empathy, and I sometimes feel physically sick from worrying about people.

That said, my level of independence is something a lot people (even those like me who have autistic spectrum conditions but not autism proper) don't have.

This seems to be one common theme of our lives. Is the concept of autistic burnout known much at all to therapists? It seems what they call skill learning, we call masking, which leads to burnout. Too, too common, from what I've read here.