My first experience of "high functioning" as a characteristic of illness occurred during my adolescence. However, the term itself seems to have taken years of recovery and extensive academic research for me to fully understand. It has powerfully impacted my life through severe mental illness. This function-based terminology exists within the world of disability and mental health, often serving as a relatively reliable indicator tracked by clinicians.
In the context of the social model of disability, the rights to membership in the community of people with disabilities are often directly related to a person's "functional" abilities in daily life. These differences reflect and improve the cultural perceptions of how disability and mental illness are "seen" in various roles adjacent to people with disabilities: clinicians, family members, loved ones, educators, and employers.
I have been using my own internal model as a mental health patient, struggling to cope with the illness for twenty years. It has driven me to excel in recovery and rebuild my life. The resulting exceptionalism has negatively impacted my self-awareness...