Autism AcceptanceMonth: Day 28
TL/DR: One often hears the terms High Functioning and Low Functioning with Autism, but at what level we function has a lot of different factors.
I was diagnosed in 2008 with Asperger’s Syndrome. This was, at the time, one of five different “disorders” under a larger umbrella disorder known as Pervasive Developmental Disorder or PDD. Two of these, Autistic Disorder and Asperger’s Disorder (I absolutely HATE the word disorder, as if being autistic is some kind of major problem that needs to be fixed…) were very similar, the only difference being in the development of language skills. Autistic disorder had a delay in language development and Asperger’s Disorder had no delay in language development. Two of the others were Childhood Disintegrative Disorder and Rett Syndrome. The fifth category was PDD-NOS (Not Otherwise Specified). However, in 2013 with the release of the DSM-5, Rett Syndrome was removed from the DSM since, according to the American Psychological Association, they had discovered that Rett Syndrome was caused by a mutation in a specific gene, and the DSM shouldn’t be concerned with disorders where the cause was known. Additionally, Asperger’s Disorder was removed since the criteria was very similar to Autistic Disorder, but language development was not delayed. There were all sorts of issues with the APA’s development of the DSM-5, and many people who had been diagnosed under version IV suddenly would not have been diagnosable under the new criteria. But I digress…
One of the other things that the APA did under Autism Spectrum Disorder in the DSM-5 was to create three levels of Autism, creatively called: Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3. Each of these levels supposedly identified how much support was required to function in society, with Level 1 requiring the least support. So, I am officially diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Level 1. So, I don’t require many supports to function in society based on this category.
However, this is like many other things with Autism, a very misleading categorization. My functioning on any day might be pretty high, requiring few to no supports to function at a normal level. But, my functioning is not consistently at this level requiring minimal supports. There are a lot of factors that play a part in how much support I need. Here’s an example:
When I was teaching at a boarding school for students on the Autism Spectrum, I was liked by many of the students and a number of the faculty. As one of the original teachers at the school, I was able to help with the scheduling, and in my second year was given the job of Network Coordinator. I functioned at a pretty high level and rarely needed supports to get through day to day. That is where someone with Level 1 Autism functions.
However, as the school attracted more and more students, I started having problems with the headmaster. All of a sudden, I wasn’t allowed to have my lunch in my classroom but only in the dining hall. Then, when I sat with students, I was told to sit at the faculty table. By the end of the school year, I was functioning as a person with Autism Level 2. The amount of stress I was under trying to deal with a toxic work environment and headmaster that seemed out to get me, degraded my ability to function independently. After I was told that they were not renewing my contract and the headmaster put me on paid leave, my stress load decreased since I was not dealing with him on a daily basis, and I became a Level 1 again seemingly overnight.
Just like an average person who has good and bad days/weeks/months/years, those of us on the spectrum also have different functioning levels, and where we are on any given day is the result of a lot of different things. There have been days where I needed tons of supports just to make it to lunchtime, and there have been days where I required almost nothing. Put us under stress, and we collapse without that support. Take the stress away from us and there’s nothing we can’t do.
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I hope for you to be happy, be kind, and know how much I appreciate you. - Dave