the high functioning low functioning thing is dependent on societal standards on what makes you useful. You still have needs regardless of how high functioning you are

It took me taking a neurodevelopmental class in college before I understood what actually autism does to the brain structures. So, you were born with all the neurons you're gonna get, but how these neurons talk is through synapses. From birth until you're like adolescence, your body goes through something called pruning where it deletes and gets rid of all of the synapses that you do not use. Research has shown that this does not occur in people with autism, so we just have too many synapses in places that they're not supposed to be at. This is why autistic people tend to get overstimulated because they have connections in the brain that would have been otherwise deleted in non-autistic people. Research also shows that our brain underreacts in areas that deal with emotional processing, language processing, and in the frontal lobe region, which deals with time perception and balance. Research also shows that we have larger amygdalas, which deals with fear and anxiety and processing those emotions. A lot of people are asking, well, I have ADHD. How do I know if I have autism? Well, the thing is autism also involves the frontal lobe, which is mostly impacted with ADHD, so they will show similar symptoms. A lot of people ask the same with like BPD or OCD or anxiety. Those same regions are impacted with autism. So, if you have those disorders that I just listed, you're more likely to have autism as well. This is also why I hate the idea of high function and low function. It's like, no, it's just the way your symptoms manifest.