I have "High Functioning" Autism | AUTISM IN GIRLS

hi my name is olivia and i have high functioning autism [Music] if you're new here thanks so much for stopping by like i said my name is olivia i'm 25 and i was diagnosed with autism in january 2020. in today's video we're going to talk about why i put high in quotes [Music] now whether you're new to autism or you're experienced with asd i'm sure you have heard the terms high and low functioning autism they're called functioning labels and they're used by many people usually neurotypical people to designate the type of autism somebody has if you're high functioning you have lesser support needs if you're low functioning you have very high support needs in other words if you're high functioning your struggles are invalid and if you're low functioning you're just completely incapable of doing anything i'm sure you can see that that doesn't sound quite right when you look at me i'm sure you see a high functioning autistic person i'm put together i can speak i am of average to above average iq i can do what normal people do when you think about rain man you think of somebody with low functioning autism he needs a lot of help to just get through his day and he seems like he's incapable of taking care of himself he's not very great at communicating he's kind of in his own little world he flaps and does stereotypical autism autistic things there are many things wrong with the functioning labels and the first and foremost the biggest one is it makes it seem like autism is a linear line on one side you have high functioning on the other you have low functioning but in reality autism is not a linear line it is anything but think about it as a color prism it's a circle and there are probably like billions of different colors in there that is more representational of the autism spectrum because it's a spectrum but it's not a linear spectrum it's a huge giant circular spectrum each autistic person's autism is completely unique to them no two autistic people are alike just like no two neurotypical people are alike so just because i have struggles and strengths in certain areas doesn't mean the next person will have the same struggles and strengths as me we could have opposite struggles and strengths that doesn't mean either of us or any less autistic an example of how it's not linear is that for me i can seem high functioning on some days and other days i can seem low functioning i'm high functioning in some areas of my life and low functioning in other areas of my life an example of one of my high functioning autism traits is that i can communicate very well god gave me the gift of writing and i'm very articulate which has led many people to say in the comments of my video that there is no way on earth that i am autistic an example of one of my low functioning autism traits is my sensitivity to senses sound here touch taste see yeah okay that's that's all five i can't go to parties because it's too loud and hurts my ears and can cause me to shut down i can't wear certain clothes because i can't stand the way they feel i can't eat certain foods because i can't stand the texture of them i like to think of my autism as an iceberg that typical iceberg example where on the top of the water that part of the iceberg you can see you see my ability to make conversation my ability to have my own business my ability to seem normal under the water are all the things and all my struggles that you can't see unless you are me or maybe someone extremely close to me you don't see the giant meltdowns the sudden shutdowns the really painful gut issues you don't see my struggles with showing empathy and making a simple decision you don't see how i can't make eye contact in real life you don't see the immense burnout that i go through often you don't see how poor i am in executive function skills and that is called masking which i'll link above and you can go check out that video for more details on that now if rain man had an iceberg of his autism a much bigger part of his iceberg would be visible above the water just because my iceberg is smaller above the water doesn't make my autism any less valid i still have autism just because i have the ability and talent to mask my traits doesn't mean they're not there it just means that i can hide them from you you're seeing me in these videos and this is the best version of myself unfortunately people love to judge anybody um but you know so many people have judged me on how i present well in videos which one like i said god gave me a talent for that and two i used to be a sports reporter so i'm very very comfortable in front of a camera and i've had lots of practice but just because i can do those two things people automatically go oh you're faking it oh you're not too sick oh you you're just a big fat liar oh your struggles aren't that bad so you can judge all you want but you're judging me on this big of my autism when my autism is this big now i'm very aware that my support needs are much lower than other autistic people's support needs but again that doesn't make my struggles any less valid than their struggles just because you may not be able to see my struggles or i pretend like they're not that bad doesn't mean it's still something that my brain's not good at doing and that i do need help doing what you don't see is that my boyfriend alex and my parents help me immensely on a daily basis i could not live on my own i will never be able to live on my own even though i'm sure you looking at me right now seems like oh she's a normal girl she can live on her own blah blah blah but that's not the case just because i have lower support needs doesn't make me less autistic we're all autistic we just may have different strengths and struggles but just because my struggles are possibly less than another person's doesn't mean i have less autism there's no way to have less or more autism so please try not to call people high-functioning autistics you may think that you're trying to compliment us and i totally understand that when you you know find out i'm autistic and you say oh well you must be very high functioning because you don't even seem autistic or oh well you must not struggle that much that's actually a very big backhanded compliment so even though i know your intentions are usually good when you say oh you must be high functioning please try not to say it because you're invalidating our struggles and you don't know our struggles because we purposely don't show you them okay that is it for this week's video i hope you guys enjoyed as always thank you so much for watching and liking and subscribing and commenting they mean so much to me have a blessed week and see you next time [Music] you

Channel: Olivia Hops

Views: 92,956

Keywords: female autistic traits, autism in girls, symptoms of autism in girls, autism spectrum disorder, female autistic characters, aspergers female traits, autism in teenage girls, autism sensory issues, females and autism, autistic traits in girls, females with autism, autistic meltdowns, autism awareness, girls with autism, autism spectrum, autistic female, girls with asd, autistic traits, autism girls, aspie traits, Olivia Hops, asd traits, autism, asd, high functioning autism

Id: yjbWcNxgu0I

Length: 8min 18sec (498 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 13 2021