Published on 12, July, 2020
Hey Everyone,
I'm curious to know what your thoughts are on functioning labels I see a lot of videos and posts on various social media pages. That are of the view that are a bad thing that segregates people within the autistic community. To be honest I'm not sure how I feel about it, I'm not sure I care enough to pass judgment on the topic. I do understand the purpose of them because there are autistic that can live independently with minimal to no help from all the way up to people that need full time round the clock care and everyone in-between.
I would never judge or treat any autistic person differently if they were for example nonverbal vs someone like myself who would be considered high functioning. I guess I just don't necessarily understand why there seems to be a of distaste towards functioning labels.
I don't particularly like the label "high-functioning", because it basically means "good enough at masking/able to hold down a job to be a valuable asset under capitalism". Also, it's all relative. I for example appear high-functioning because I am well-spoken, but I can't hold down a job. I prefer the terms "high support" and "low support".
It's got nothing to do with capitalism - it's purely about being able to look after yourself or not.
Oh ok, I didn't realise that! I thought it had something to do with having a job.
I'm sorry to hear that you've had such bad experiences :( I can relate, it's so difficult to get adequate support and the NHS is rubbish for helping. It also takes a lot of spoons to fight for being seen, which we don't always have.
I've also had to fight a lot for everything - for my diagnosis (it took me years), for my benefits also... ironically I wasn't taken seriously *because* I'm "high-functioning". At one point I was homeless, living in a hostel and getting food from the food bank. It took me 8 months of screaming and shouting to get my benefits sorted, which wiped me out.