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High Functioning

TheCatWoman

Is What does this actally mean in practice, not the dictionary definition, but for those of us so labelled? Although no ones ever told me I'm high functioning, I guess I am.

Is it a helpful term or unhelpful?

Does it express our experiences properly or reflect away from them?

Is this a term more helpful to NT's than us?

Personally I find the term a bit insulting as well as divisive and dismissive.

Parents

  • Hi Catwomen 

    Personally I don’t find the term offensive to me but I can see why some individuals would. I suppose a good all round definition would be ASC as we all are very different and have very different needs, and yes if you are classed as HFA there is so much that is not visible. 
    Unfortunately HFA to a lot of the NT community means you require little to no help which for me simply isn’t true. I still mask and know only too well how I can go unnoticed to the untrained eye (why would they think anything else in my case).

    I think I have just realised that the term HFA is unhelpful though, reason why is in my case I mask heavily therefore how can I expect a NT to understand me at all unless I start to be my authentic self. 

    I can’t wait until the day I make that decision and discover for myself who I am. 

    This is all still very new for me but it’s a very interesting thread by the way! 

Reply

  • Hi Catwomen 

    Personally I don’t find the term offensive to me but I can see why some individuals would. I suppose a good all round definition would be ASC as we all are very different and have very different needs, and yes if you are classed as HFA there is so much that is not visible. 
    Unfortunately HFA to a lot of the NT community means you require little to no help which for me simply isn’t true. I still mask and know only too well how I can go unnoticed to the untrained eye (why would they think anything else in my case).

    I think I have just realised that the term HFA is unhelpful though, reason why is in my case I mask heavily therefore how can I expect a NT to understand me at all unless I start to be my authentic self. 

    I can’t wait until the day I make that decision and discover for myself who I am. 

    This is all still very new for me but it’s a very interesting thread by the way! 

Children