I hope the proposed changes to the diagnostic labels of autism in the DSM V are clarifying. I am getting tired of explaining repeatedly on and on into infinity that high-functioning autism is not low-functioning asperger's or any other such term which implies that HFAs have lower levels of function than aspies. Seriously. It gets pretty annoying to constantly have to convince people that my level of function is not inferior to theirs when I am consistently one of the highest functioning members of any autistic community I join (including those communities dominated by aspies.) Not always the highest, and I certainly have some major issues, but there is really pretty much nothing I can't do! Had I never been diagnosed I would have lived my life as an NT,gone to school, got a career, got married, had kids, yadda yadda yadda, and no one would have been the wiser, it just would have been more difficult. You cannot resolutely write me off as lower-functioning than people with asperger's just because my diagnosis is "autism" instead of "asperger's." That's not what those words mean and I am tired of having to explain it.