Yes I might be able to work but it is incredibly hard to hold down these jobs. I managed 18 months with this one but it was a fight. And even though I can function with work I neglect house chores. I don’t do a thing there. Lazy is what I’m called. And yet some of you who don’t work outside can do this. We vary so much in terms of functioning. I wouldn’t say I’m high functioning at all.
What I’m trying to say is … you might not be able to do something I can but I know for sure there are plenty of things I can’t do that you can.
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Person A might be good at functioning at X and poor at functioning at Y.
Person B might be poor at functioning at X and good at functioning at Y.
It varies from person to person and within domains. For me social functioning is the worst.
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Its stupid I also made a thread about how I felt about comparing mi and functionality levels… Though yours is more tactfully done…lol
Yeah functioning is weird. I am considered very high functioning even though my positive symptoms are considered to be very severe. I think my other symptoms are not as severe so maybe that allows me to function better. Also my illness is episodic so symptoms only become intolerable and unmanageable when I am in an episode. Not everyone’s illness is like that, some people never have periods where they are fine.
I think the diversity in mental illness is fascinating. I think there should be a ton of research done into what allows certain people with serious mental illness to be high functioning, because if they find that out then maybe they could use it to help everyone gain better functioning. Some things that are supposed to improve prognosis are
-Optimism
-Emotional resiliency
-High IQ
-Good support system
-Access to mental health services (and uses them, people in therapy and on meds have a much better prognosis than anyone on just meds or just in therapy or in neither)
But some people have a lot of those factors and still can’t function. So it’s really a puzzle.
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Positive symptoms are the most dramatic but are the poorest indicators of how well a person will do in society in terms of occupation and socially.
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That’s what I was feeling too. My cognitive symptoms aren’t really that bad and honestly I feel that’s the real kicker when it comes to function.
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I don’t consider myself high functioning either both others do.
Definitely, I have very elaborated and vivid positives during psychoses. But a sense of what counts as acceptable to others remains, such that I keep it all to myself and they are hardly noticed by others. Quite typical for the high IQ paranoid (organized) subtype. Less cognitive impairments and less negative symptoms observed there typically. When it comes to functioning, schizophrenia seems to strike hardest for those with the hebephrenic or disorganized subtype, which is precisely characterized by severe cognitive impairments, not so much positive symptoms.
I will start from saying I am not diagnosed with schizophrenia. Having said that I am reckoned to have had delusional thoughts,experience a degree of paranoid thinking and have low drive and poor motivation. The latter for a person with schizophrenia would be called negative symptoms.
The paranoia is probably mild in that it is not highly delusional. The delusions when there are not extremely bizarre but neither are they non bizarre.
Cognitively I have some issues namely executive functioning deficits,(visuo)spatial deficits, and slow processing speed. Of those the executive functioning deficits probably have the most impact on daily functioning. Verbal memory is also something of an issue.
I would say the cognitive and negative symptoms mild as they may be compared to the average person with sz/sz-a are what limit my functioning the most.
I would think majority of low functioning wouldn’t even be on the forum
I dont know what my level are… Depressing… Ah well I guess It could be worse…
I agree with you Ish. I’m probably considered high functioning because I’m able to work. But I am terrible at social aspects and general cleanliness. The house is a mess and on my days off it’s a real struggle to shower and brush my teeth.
I seem to reserve all of my energy for work.
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My nurses consider me high functioning even though I haven’t worked in over 24 years, and I don’t socialize and I live in an assisted living facility. So, go figure.
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Low functioning or high functioning is somewhat on a continuum; a continuum that over laps. Functioning or recovering is not a black & white thing, and the level of functioning can fluctuate. as the years progress. We have weird minds and coping skills so we can do certain things well and not other things. In a way, some of us are like idiot -savants almost. Doing impossibly hard activities well, while we are totally lost in certain other easy areas. Every schizophrenic is a mixed bag of tricks with their strengths and weaknesses.
High-functioning can be relative. The first year I got sick I was leaving my weekly support group and when I told the woman who runs it that I was catching a bus home, she exclaimed, “Oh, you’re very high-functioning”.
Even though I was fairly new to the mental health system at the time, I was very surprised to hear that and it surprised me because I thought catching a bus was quite routine,
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I don’t know if I would put a ton of weight on the labels of high and low functioning. I have very few, if any, negative symptoms. I come across as totally normal and carry on as though I am not sick all at school. I also function just fine socially and in society. Having said that, I have a chronic delusion that is very distracting and while I never talk about it, it is always there. Because of my thoughts, I ‘feel’ lower functioning even though I probably come across as high functioning. I am also tired all the time. Today was really bad. I wanted to fall asleep at 6 o’clock this evening. I had to make myself stay awake so I could sleep tonight. I definitely ‘feel’ MI, regardless of functioning label.
A lot also depends on who we are comparing ourselves to, ie others with mental illness,others with same mental illness or those without mental illnesses. Which should we use to make the comparison?