Oliver Tudor

I agree, but I'm not sure what should be used instead. How do you describe someone who is nonverbal and even appears to be catatonic most days vs someone who functions more or less like a neurotypical person?

Maybe describe their individual needs of necessary. When I was called ‘a person with mild autism’ I was non verbal and having multiple meltdowns a day. If absolutely necessary explain someone’s individual needs. Functioning labels tell you nothing about an individual

That is true. I guess people just like to be as concise as possible and have a quick way to sum things up, but that's not always practical.

Also it’s not correct or accurate. Just saying someone is autistic is accurate if they are. If they also have epilepsy say that. But functioning labels don’t actually help and are not accurate.

Epilepsy was just an example of something else one may mention. There are very many things that may be appropriate to also mention. Like it’s accurate to mention I’m also: a Touretter, mentally ill, and a wheelchair user. As well as being autistic.

Sincere question: I know that there isn’t a linear spectrum, but aren’t there various degrees of severity that could affect functionality? Please forgive me if that’s a stupid question. I’m genuinely trying to understand.

At various points people’s function can be better or worse. Like one day I may remember to eat and the next I not. One day I may be ok with some noises and the next they send me into meltdown. So people’s function can vary.

But no one can be severely autistic or mildly autistic or low or high functioning as people’s abilities and function are always changing and to label someone high or low functioning doesn’t reflect properly who they are.

To label someone high functioning they often don’t get the supports they need and this can lead to mental illnesses. To label someone low functioning means they are often told they can’t do anything and often rights are taken away from them.

I can see how this might come from our view of medical conditions in general. Certain disorders have certain symptoms, which affect functionality in largely predictable ways. Maybe people extend that to psych/mental conditions assuming they’re fairly uniform?

i had the same question. thanks for asking and for the explanation.

I think they didn't work for you but they may possibly work for others. Labels can be the crucial difference between getting tightly rationed suppprt and not - guess everyone's different x

Those labelled high functioning don’t get support they desperately need because they are disregarded as not needing any and this often leads to mental illness, self harm, suicide etc It’s better to describe an individual when accessing support rather than give functioning labels

But surely someone like me, who passes for neuro-typical, is different to someone who is non-verbal? We both have autism but clearly there is a difference in general ability to function. This is a sincere question, I want to understand what better terminology might be?

It’s not all about verbal/non verbal. If you take away your coping mechanisms and support can you function well? If no then you are not as high functioning as you look... if that makes sense? My dd can pass as NT to someone who is not really looking and is verbal but 1/2

Basically, different people with autism struggle in different ways to differing amounts. So I think we need to be able to distinguish as simply calling it all autism with no caveats is unhelpful. If function labels aren’t good we should find better ones.

The DSM now divides autism into 3 support levels. So it’s not functioning labels but how much support one may need. Not everyone diagnosed is given a support level as some professionals don’t. Or some people may change to another support level.