The Student Room Group

"high functioning"? No I'm bloody well not!

My psychiatrist told me that I'm "high functioning". At the time I was like "erm....ok" but now I've had time to think, I hate this.

I am not "high functioning", I am just like a normal guy; my job sucks, my cats are untrained, I'm not good at driving, I have no friends, I got a 2:2 at uni etc.

I know he meant high functioning when you take my mental health into account but tbh I don't want to be *that guy* who is under performing in most areas of life but it's "oh you're doing great, mr. schizo" because I'm not in hospital. I don't want to be pitied, i want to be put on the same level as everyone else.


Does anyone else feel like this?
Dunno, HFA is both a mild positive and a mild negative. It complicates life, a lot! but sometimes you can find that you have mild superpowers - in my case I can see patterns that really help my research job, amongst other things. I'm not certain that that is enough compensation for the other complicated stuff, and I didn't know I was HFA until more than fifty years had passed. I married (internet dating), had kids, do have the cats too. Cats quite like HFA. At least you can avoid the thirty years of mild confusion that I had - find your superpower.(*)..sorry, it is a silly objective - but I have seen HFAs incredible at art, digital art, photography, maths+drinking, physics+maths+drinking, and 3D-visualisations etc

(*) I think in absolute psychologically measured ways, the difference from neurotypicals, both in the lowered functions (comms, face recog) and in the enhanced functions (whatever - but surely something) is of the order of twenty percent (I have now one recent report) and it is measurable, it is real.
twenty percent better than average at something, measurably, is actually a superpower - can be monetised.

BTW. I earn more than the UK prime minister, however....(strictly in terms of outright declared salary, I guess he has a bit more put-away than I do)
I've been told I'm a high functioning schizophrenic. Which at first annoyed me too, but when I was in hospital surrounded by other people with sz who couldn't wash themselves, sat in soiled clothes and attacked staff, it made me realise that actually, you know what? I am high functioning. Yes I got a 2.2. Yes I had to repeat a year. Yes I'm in and out of hospital for all my adult life - but it could be so much worse!
I thought this was about being on the autistic spectrum at first but I suppose compared to people who are affected more severely you are high functioning
Reply 4
Original post by Noodlzzz
I've been told I'm a high functioning schizophrenic. Which at first annoyed me too, but when I was in hospital surrounded by other people with sz who couldn't wash themselves, sat in soiled clothes and attacked staff, it made me realise that actually, you know what? I am high functioning. Yes I got a 2.2. Yes I had to repeat a year. Yes I'm in and out of hospital for all my adult life - but it could be so much worse!

I was told I have schizophrenia too. I realise a lot of people are a lot worse off but I just feel like I don't want to be compared to other people with mental illnesses, I want to be compared to just regular people - I just feel crappy that I'm being perceived differently. I'm not a high functional person, I am only a high functioning mentally ill person. I don't mean to insult you or anyone else, I'm just finding it hard to put thoughts to screen so probably not making much sense. Sorry.
Original post by Anonymous
I was told I have schizophrenia too. I realise a lot of people are a lot worse off but I just feel like I don't want to be compared to other people with mental illnesses, I want to be compared to just regular people - I just feel crappy that I'm being perceived differently. I'm not a high functional person, I am only a high functioning mentally ill person. I don't mean to insult you or anyone else, I'm just finding it hard to put thoughts to screen so probably not making much sense. Sorry.

No offence taken. We all see and compare ourselves differently, human to human :smile:
:hugs: i feel you, i got told i was high functioning for bpd and it feels quite dismissive of how much you struggle but i guess they dont mean it like that :s-smilie: (we have to hope anyway)

:hugs:
Reply 7
Original post by CoolCavy
:hugs: i feel you, i got told i was high functioning for bpd and it feels quite dismissive of how much you struggle but i guess they dont mean it like that :s-smilie: (we have to hope anyway)

:hugs:

It's not that I find myself thinking I'm low functioning in terms of my mental health. I know that is not true (I have a job and all kinds of adulty stuff). It's more that I think I'm medium-low ffunctioning for people who do not have a mental illness. I want to be judged against "normal" people (for lack of a better word) not "oh look at you Mr. Anon #1 you had a shower today aren't you doing well!". I find it very patronising.

I realise there are people with mental illnesses for whom having a shower is a big deal (I had this problem in the past) and I'm not trying to downplay their level of functioning.

Reading this back makes me think I sound like an elitist *******. I'm not very good at explaining stuff like this. Basically I want people to be all "hey man get out of bed and do something other than watch tv all weekend" but people don't do that to me.
Original post by Anonymous
Basically I want people to be all "hey man get out of bed and do something other than watch tv all weekend" but people don't do that to me.


You can tell people to do this, you know.

You are doing well from what you are saying. I have friends without mental health issues who either didn't go to uni or didn't do very well, despite going to private schools and coming from very privileged backgrounds. So for what it's worth, I think you are dong pretty well even when compared to "normal" people.
(edited 4 years ago)
Original post by Anonymous
My psychiatrist told me that I'm "high functioning". At the time I was like "erm....ok" but now I've had time to think, I hate this.

I am not "high functioning", I am just like a normal guy; my job sucks, my cats are untrained, I'm not good at driving, I have no friends, I got a 2:2 at uni etc.

I know he meant high functioning when you take my mental health into account but tbh I don't want to be *that guy* who is under performing in most areas of life but it's "oh you're doing great, mr. schizo" because I'm not in hospital. I don't want to be pitied, i want to be put on the same level as everyone else.


Does anyone else feel like this?

From working in MH services - functioning is not always related to distress or how you feel. Some people I see are very distressed but in terms of functioning they do manage to get by - sometimes even better than the "normal" population. E.g. university - passing uni to me is a massive achievement. I know loads of people without mental illnesses who don't make it to uni or can't complete it.

Functioning is kind of relative to the population as you have stated. The area I work in is around social care so I do a lot of assessments on people, who due to their MH needs cannot look after themselves so we have to care workers to go in and support them, or for them to go to support accommodation or care homes. Sometimes we would look at if they have capacity to manage their finances or make day to day decisions. These are the people who are generally "low" functioning. But even with that population we would look at strengths and what that person can do for themselves, and how we can promote that.

So basically - I don't feel that functioning is always related to how someone feels, and I don't think it's a pity thing. Not for me anyway - I don't think that mental illness should limit anyone - if you have the capability to do something I would want to support that person to do it - simply being out of hospital is not a trigger for me to feel that my job is done. However it is up to the person what they want to achieve.

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