Blog 5- Autism in girls Part 2

In my opinion people should drop the label ‘high functioning’ and ‘low functioning’ because I personally don’t take it as a compliment that ‘I’m high functioning’ It’s just a reminder that I’m masking and things are so hard. Let me tell you, masking is the most exhausting thing in the world. If I try my hardest not to mask, then this means I allow my autistic traits to be seen. It means I’m not pretending I’m someone who I’m not and I am just going to be myself.

High functioning is a label that professionals and others use “Oh! You’re high functioning, I can see that your autism doesn’t affect you too much”. That is simply not the case and I can assure you that everyone you think is ‘high functioning’ is greatly affected by their autism. Being autistic is hard, but masking is harder. There is no high functioning or low functioning we are all autistic. What do you think?