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,