What 'HF' folks aren't supposed to be

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Was hit by inspiration just now.

People often deny that if you are able to do some things that you can't have a real PDD. That's often discussed. It doesn't seem to reach people much though, they continuously deny this.

But, there something else I hear often: if you have some 'hf' PDD and if people accept, you're not supposed to do some things either. That's the whole thing just turned around, yeah.

I read that a lot on German and English forums in which people discuss autistic people. It happens some in the autistic community too, but I found it's easier to talk about it than it is to talk about it to people without any kind of disability.
I experienced even good ASD professionals to be confused about it!



Some things;

* dressing. You're supposed to be able to dress alone perfectly. But if you need a bit help to look presentable (and not just dressed) it supposedly speaks against being 'hf' these days.

* explosive meltdowns, attacking other people mildly to badly. Nothing said, for whatever reason that's supposedly 'not fitting hf'.

* running onto the street, not getting some dangers. Also self explanatory. Somehow getting yourself in a bit of danger speaks against fitting into the variety of what is 'hf'.

* self-injury like head-banging. It's supposedly a 'lf' trait those who're 'hf' can't do.


It can probably be other things too. I try to come up with some from reading here and elsewhere about others of the autistic community:

* does anybody carry around favourite things? Some suggest that doesn't fit 'hf'.

* enuresis. No comment that even non-autistic older children with AD(H)D often have this, people with motor disabilities, whatever else, but some consider it an 'lf' trait.


I think that it is bizarre that at the same time, abilities and disabilities of those with PDDs are denied. That happens to people with others disabilities too. To think both occurs me as totally bizarre because I don't understand it.

So have you experienced such situations too?

Have something to add to the list? People telling you you're too 'hf autistic' to be or do what kind of things?

Keep in mind that "high funtioning" and "low functioning" are not really diagnostic labels but just broad genralizations used to describe someone's overall abilities. I happen to be of the persuasion that there is no clear line between "high funtioning" (including Asperger's syndrome) and "low functioning" autism. There is simply autism, the presentation of which can vary wildly among individuals. This seems to be the direction the psychiatric establishement is headed in these days, though there have been many people in the disability rights and neurodiversity movements that have been saying this for a while. The diagnosis of autism is itself just an abstract, scientific generalization that describes a real phenomenon among the human population. But you are not your diagnosis. We are all full and complete human beings.

I know and that is why I put them into quotations. But fact is, the terms are held on world widely. Despite that many traits that, for whatever reason, are assigned to a certain functioning label, just are not like that in reality.

Most people claim that various traits absolutely cannot appear in those with AS and HFA (and similar diagnoses), though in reality they do due to autism being a multidimensional spectrum. And thus these traits are far from 'lf' traits.

It's funny, isn't it?

Individuals with Asperger's syndrome aren't supposed to have the stereotypical movements of Autism (hand flapping, rocking, swaying, finger flapping, head banging; complex movements that are copied from something, and etcetera), and those with HFA are only supposed to do them when stressed. Yet, you'll see many people post here saying that they do these things, and these people do in fact have AS [or HFA]. Yet again, if you read Hans Asperger's account, you'll find that his "high-functioning" children did all of these things, and many of them were in their own world, cut-off from outside influence (which is something those with AS aren't supposed to do).

I'm betting it's because most clinicians only see individuals with ASDs in a sterile and structured environment, whereas those in hospitals and institutes see the behaviour of the individuals all the time.

Another one: only low-functioning people can be in government housing or institutes. This is wrong.

To the best of my knowledge, I have no problem here, but presentable has to do with desire and perception. I sometimes go around looking like a "ragamuffin" simply because I don't care to, or have time to, do better. Today, I didn't bother shaving. I may shave tomorrow NIGHT for work, but that is it. BTW Many NTs are BEYOND belief in their lack of ability here!



Meltdowns don't happen all the time. AGAIN, some NTs are VERY bad here! I never attacked people.



Everyone does stupid things. NTs INCLUDED!



YIKES! Is Sir Richard Branson LF? I mean HE has done some dangerous things!



I don't, but have known NTs that did!



I never had the problem, but some NTs DO!

What is enuresis?

beyond not-knoeing what that is, I agree with your post!

It's the more neutral sounding word for bed- and/or pants-wetting.

I had to adopt it in my vocabulary a few months ago because this happens to a kid at work and people went crazy after I said the kid 'peed the pants'.

For the record, I googled it. I guess I SHOULD have guessed....

en-urises

I carry my little Sid with me. :O)

enurises? I did enough of that when I was pregnant, in my late months

Somebody claimed I couldn't have AS because I randomly messaged him once. I guess you can't engage people in conversation when you have AS. Interesting.

Yeah, pretty much all of these (well, I pretty much make it to the bathroom on time, but I get very little warning and such).

*Also, with auditory processing issues where I don't udnerstand a lot of what people say, and meaner people will call me a ret*d and nicer people might say "what's your problem?"

*Also I have a lot of trouble with navigation and getting around, using the bus and such. It really has to be RIGHT on the bus route, and I have to have gone on the bus with someone else several times before to be familiar with the route. So I have an application for a bus service that will be more flexible, but since there was a delay and they didn't turn it in, I am probably not going to be able to volunteer.

*However, my first day of high school I met some good friends and widened my circle in the weeks and months and years following. Both close and acquaintances, I had a very good social life despite speech difficulties, yet now in college while I was quite gregarious my first week now I interact very little and have pretty much no friends, and also know almost no names or faces.

(When I was in high school and still had some very good close friends with a wider circle of acquaintances, it was marked on an official speech/language assessment that I was "not well accepted by peers" and had "made few friends" - though I had listed seven names off the top of my head that day, which was an absolute record, namely because I had made a list and prepared a nonchalant way to say them ahead of time.) Mainly I am more focused on my school studies, and getting stressed by the chaos and desperation of my life, but I am pretty extensively involved in two clubs and planning to establish another one.

*washing hair. I can get myself into the shower, even if it takes three hours and then I stand there for twenty minutes before I realize I've left behind all the soap and shampoo, then go back and get it after ten minutes, then I go back, then half an hour passes and I realize I left the towel - and I can't seem to figure out how to get a freaking lather going, and it takes a really long time to get going.

Over it's short history, everything Psychology has said has tuned out to be false.

We have humans, Introvert to Extravert is about as far as results are consistant, but people change, and all borders turn very fuzzy, before grading into another area.

Some live on one side, some the other, and some in the fuzzy. Events do cause change.

Judged from a few, or hundreds, or thousands of human traits, the pattern seems consistant, but it does change.

Taking one factor, and trying to assign it to one neurological box shows the impossibility of such classification.

The Autistic are good at math. Reports here run from I hate it, I am hopeless at it, through a normal middle range, math is fun, to math is wrong, and hence, so is the view of Physics based on it.

I do have a problem with the blind acceptance of the speed of light, it is not a constant!

So many "traits" have a cultural basis.

Bob put on his three piece suit, from his highly polished hand made shoes to his perfectly manicured nails, to his stylish haircut, he was the perfection of fashion as he hurried out the door to be on time for driving the truck on the town garbage route. Bob wanted the people to know that their rubbish was given the most professional treatment, and they could have total faith in the system. He knew that his was the most important of all jobs, and only by doing it right could the town be protected from rats, sickness, and the smells of decay.

In a followup of Asperger's original subjects, most remembered him from their childhood, but did not want to make any statment about that wacko, or have any thing to do with follow up studies. What could be gathered was they were living normal lives, and some had done quite well.

While his view of Psychology, like all others, has been refuted, he is remembered in Science for his in depth questioning of little boys about masterbation, which in fact came before Masters and Johnson published. Since they limited their study to sex, we cannot compare their work directly with Asperger's. No one has since published a study of the Psychology and Neurology of little boys masterbating. Dr. Asperger was a pioneer of Science.

His connection to Dr. Sigmond Freud is obvious. Females cannot have his Syndrome, for they lack a penis to masterbate with.

Later English studies claim Penis envy can lead to Asperger's in girls, who through Hysterical femaleness can convince themselves they can masterbate. This study was done by a female, so to compensate for her gender she would have questioned little girls in depth about masterbation, trying to show an equality of Neurology.

On these foundations, all of modern Psychology is built.

Sora,
about the enuresis thingy,one of the support staff am have has a daughter with it,she has always had it,and is in her twenties,she has tried all sorts of tablets-nothing worked.
she is NT,refuses to wear nappies or pads,and does what would think would be no where suitable-she's a club dancer,one of those she works for when in ibiza is space.
am know that sensory problems with understanding feel for toilet [leading to accidents] are said to be more common in auties [also a problem am have,rather than actual enuresis],but people should not assume just because some do something-everyone with the same form of aut does it-all or nothing kind of thing.
am know quite a few p/auties who have wee/poo accidents and they get nappies from boots,but they are officially described as lazy by doctors-just cant be bothered going to the toilet,its no different to how it may be to some NTs,so it shouldnt be used as automatic symptom to split lf and hf,who's to say they wouldnt have it if they were nt.

Richard Branson is a well-known ADHD person. He Wrote a book about it.

Richard Branson is a well-known ADHD person. He wrote a book about it.