high-functioning
Performing despite challenges
High-functioning describes someone who manages daily life competently despite a condition that might suggest otherwise.
The term appears most often with autism, depression, anxiety, or addiction: a high-functioning alcoholic, high-functioning autism.
It can minimize struggles by implying someone doesn't need support, or suggest that visible success masks invisible difficulty.
Generating useful output
- efficientProductive without waste
- capableHaving required skills
- competentSufficiently able, qualified
- proficientHaving practiced ability
effective · organized · thriving · resilient · adaptable · coping · managing · maintaining
Autism without speech delay
- spectrumContinuous range of values
- neurodiversityInnate cognitive differences concept
- maskingConcealing by covering
- stimmingRepetitive self-regulatory behavior
neurotypical · camouflaging · passing · burnout · accommodation · diagnosis · self-advocacy · twice-exceptional
Persistent apprehensive distress
- depressionProlonged low state
- addictionCompulsive substance reliance
- alcoholismAddiction to drinking
- PTSDChronic reaction to horrific events
bipolar · disorder · diagnosis · therapy · treatment · recovery · outpatient · undiagnosed
Level of quality accepted
- benchmarkStandard for comparison
- pressureForce upon contact
- assumptionUnverified belief accepted as true
- perceptionMental interpretation of stimuli
label · stereotype · invalidation · comparison · overachiever · perfectionism · demands · burden
productive
Generating useful output
proficient · effective · organized · thriving · resilient · adaptable · coping · managing · maintaining · sustaining
Asperger's
Autism without speech delay
- spectrumContinuous range of values
- neurodiversityInnate cognitive differences concept
- maskingConcealing by covering
stimming · neurotypical · camouflaging · passing · burnout · accommodation · diagnosis · self-advocacy · twice-exceptional · hyperfocus
anxiety
Persistent apprehensive distress
- depressionProlonged low state
- addictionCompulsive substance reliance
- alcoholismAddiction to drinking
PTSD · bipolar · disorder · diagnosis · therapy · treatment · recovery · outpatient · undiagnosed · presenting
standard
Level of quality accepted
- benchmarkStandard for comparison
- pressureForce upon contact
- assumptionUnverified belief accepted as true
perception · label · stereotype · invalidation · comparison · overachiever · perfectionism · demands · burden · presumption
- mental statesknowledge, conscious, mood, anxious, memory
- Sherlock HolmesSherlock Holmes, Watson, Baker Street, Moriarty, Mrs. Hudson
- Disabilitiesblind, paralysis, vision loss, developmental disability, hearing impairment
high-functioningdebilitated
Made weak or infirm
incapacitated · dysfunctional · impaired · dependent · struggling
high-functioningdysfunctional
Not operating properly
malfunctioning · broken · failing · ineffective · chaotic
high, higher, highest, highly, highness, function, functions, functioning, functional