What do you consider to be "high-functioning?"

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I know what you mean. I have similar issues, not exactly the same issues but similar in scope. I totally relate to what you are saying.

High functioning? Who comes up with this bullcrap? It's asinine. Ski and Elaine have to struggle just to get the basics.

it was Ackroyd's wife [actress Donna Dixon] who suggested he see a shrink to figure it out. he does have some perseverative hobbies such as drawing up/studying mechanical maps.

I consider myself moderate-functioning due to lack of social talents and general addlements that keep me from progressing far in life. having an effective and higher-order TOM would go a long ways to "fixing" me, along with an effective facial and vocal recognition module.

Very interesting

I would like to label myself moderate functioning as well.

yay, join the club we'll call ourselves "the moderates."

Being a little eccentric isn't necessarily a spectrum trait. Consider a lot of celebrities do drugs too which mess them up.

Just cuz you're a little different doesn't mean there is a diagnosis. Why not save the dx for people that are truly suffering like Elaine.....

Yes. There has to be a middle ground. I like Aunt Blabby's moderate functioning label. I think that is most appropriate. Because there are some areas in which I am and can be extremely high functioning but other areas in which I can desperately and critically struggle to the point that I am actually crippled. And I am sure that low functioning people can say the same things. I know that they have areas in which they really shine and do extremely well but those areas are ignored for them. I think that for purposes of qualifying for help, there has to be a middle ground. Low functioning people can get help pretty easily. I know that there are some exceptions where it is difficult for them to get help which I think is pretty sickening. But if you are high functioning and you are constantly being denied help no matter what you try because of people making assumptions about what they think you should be able to do, you are left hopeless after awhile. There has to be a middle ground where a high functioning person can get help with the specific things he actually needs help with.

What happens is that people say, we will only provide the help the we know that low functioning people need and if you don't qualify for that specific help, you don't get any help at all. They won't acknowledge that high functioning people might need different kinds of help but that even though it's a different kind of help it is needed just as badly as the help that a low functioning person needs. Just because our needs might be different does not mean that they are not actual needs and that we don't need them. But because of our physical appearances, people won't allow us to need what we need.

I'm in!

I understand your sentiment but we do need to be fair though. If someone has an official dx, and it was given by an actual diagnostician, then that person is just as deserving to have it as the rest of us. And unless we know someone personally, we don't know what that person's life is like. As far as celebrities, we only know what the media tells us. Even here on WP, we only know each other by what we post. We don't know what each other's struggles are unless we disclose them. Even when I spoke about Bill Gates, I was not judging whether or not he deserved a dx. I was simply saying that I would like to know more about what his struggles are. Many celebrities who are on the spectrum are open about their struggles now. It would be nice to know what Bill's struggles are. But just because I don't know, I don't have the right to say that he does not deserve a dx if he has one. That is not my place to decide. People say that about me all the time. All I was saying about him is that I would like to know more about how his Autism affects him because it is not readily visible.

I wasn't sure how else to put it, ha. in the mind, as in language and iconography we use signs to hold the place of those things to which they refer and much thought demands rather efficient organization, assembly, retrieval and referencing of these....I am VERY good at those parts...but if you ask me to change one of those signs to something else
I have SERIOUS problems and if that sign was arbitrary in the first place it's pretty much a disaster for me.

when I say arbitrary I mean *as opposed to analogous*. Some words for example are what is called "onomatopoeic" This means that they sound LIKE the thing they refer to so we can't say "that word is entirely arbitrary" because it isn't it has at least SOME connection to the thing it references. but now... if we look at another word like "Pool". the word has an etymological history...sure but the sound it's self has nothing to do with the thing "Pool" and so the sign is arbitrary.

this is Semiotics now and that is a rather demanding subject which...I am not so sure I should leap totally into because I am not sure if it's really appropriate to take it further or if I just like to talk about semiotics.

I can offer more explanation but ... be warned it's going to be like asking that kid on "atypical" about penguins or like asking Sheldon Cooper about Flags.

Thank you for trying to explain. I will see if I can learn about it further. I remember the episode of Big Bang Theory about the flags. That was too funny. But thank you so much for trying to help me understand.

Psychologists are not infallible and money can buy just about anything these days. As for Bill Gates, he's probably just another genius with computers. He's never claimed to have anything.

It's possible that clinicians have broadened the spectrum so much that almost any oddball can get on. The problem with that is those of us who are truly disabled are told, "you don't need anything, look at so and so and how they are able to piece together a life so YOU should too. It's an attention better and used as an excuse for so many things.

I wish I could get some sort of supplemental income for the months when my paychecks are really lean to nonexistent. I would like to be able to pay my portion of the bills, but I can't do that if my income is not steady and consistent. I would like to be able to have my own health insurance plan, but I can't afford it and medicaid/medicare is only available for the severely disabled, elderly, and people with kids that are dirt poor. The social security administration frowns on saving money. I need to be able to have money in my savings for when I need to replace my laptop, my mattress, or any other big ticket item of mine that stops working or when I need new clothes.

I am so understanding of your situation. It really bothers me that so many of us are in this kind of between the cracks place where we are in so much need but we can't get help. This has to change.