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Am I Autistic How I Realised I was Autistic · Aspergers & Autism Podcast [The Aspie World] AuDHD

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  So here's how I realized I was autistic.
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  And if you relate to this, then maybe you're going through the
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  same thing too. But if you're not the buckle up,
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  this is really good story. It's very interesting.
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  And here it is to you. The unfiltered raw vision.
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  So how did I realize I was autistic?
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  The interesting thing to me was, you know, I didn't know anything
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  about autism before I was diagnosed with autism.
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  And that's kind of crazy thinking about it considering my
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  entire business, my job now and my mission in life, my life's
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  work is to help educate people on autism and help educate
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  autistic individuals to improve their condition of life and make
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  themselves the best version of themselves they can possibly be,
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  make them confident and get abde energy and more about that
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  later. But how does one go from knowing
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  nothing about autism to them being like an award winner with
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  a best selling book on autism in in three countries and you know,
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  graduating from MIT and winning autism hero awards, all about
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  this. Well, we're going to cover all
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  that right now. But before we get into it, guys,
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  my name is Dan. And if you're new around here
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  and you want to learn more about autism in general, make sure to
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  hit that subscribe button because I'm autistic and I have
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  ADHD. And if you're watching on
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  Facebook, please give this video a follow and a like on this
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  page. OK so there I was 2013, I'm 26
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  years old and I'm doing an access course to science now.
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  I left school with no qualifications because I was in
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  the special Ed kind of programme in school and it was a 90s and
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  it sucked basically. But I left school with no
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  qualifications and then I went to Technical College here in the
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  UK which is from 16 to like 21. Typically people do that and you
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  can learn different things and you don't have to have any
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  qualifications to go onto certain courses like performing
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  arts because I'm a multi musician, self-taught musician.
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  I'm in a band called Straitjacket Legends and I was
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  able to eventually do a degree in chemistry, but before doing
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  that I had to do an access course to get me up to speed.
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  Now, when I went to this access course, I met a woman whose son
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  had Asperger's Syndrome diagnosis.
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  And so I'm sitting down for dinner, you know, every day,
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  lunchtime, just eating and talking to the rest of the
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  people in the group. Wasn't about 5 or 6 of us in
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  this group. And this lady was telling me,
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  hey, you're a lot like my son. And she said to me, do you have
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  Asperger syndrome? I said, no, I don't know what
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  that is. And so she said, OK, it's
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  basically it's autism. And this is before the levelling
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  system changed. And they do have a video all
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  about that. So if you're really interested,
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  I'll leave a video about the difference between autism and
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  Asperger's syndrome, which there really isn't, but what happened
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  and all that stuff. So I'll leave it in a card here
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  or in the description down below.
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  But in terms of this lady, she highlighted to me some certain
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  things. So at one time she gave me, she
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  was drinking a coffee and having a banana, and she put the banana
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  peel in the coffee cups and she gave me the mug.
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  She said, hey, you're going to the kitchen, can you just throw
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  this in the bin for me? And said, yeah, OK.
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  So I threw the whole thing in the bin and came back with no
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  cup. And she said, whoa, why did you
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  throw the cup away? I said, because you told me to.
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  She said, well, I said throw the banana bin.
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  You know, the banana peel in the bin, put the cup in the sink is
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  kind of like the general consensus.
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  She said it's really interesting that you didn't pick that up or
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  understand that and makes no logical sense for you to throw
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  the whole thing away. Guys, if you are interested in
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  knowing how I became confident, got that BDE energy, then make
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  sure you download my free autism Building a Bulletproof Brain
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  Starter kit. You can go to
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  bulletproofbrain.org right now. Click the card here, link in the
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  description or in the bio. Or you can just go to
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  bulletproofbrain.org. Make sure you put www.beforeit
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  and download the free checklist starter kit right now.
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  I promise you, you're going to be amazed.
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  But to me, that made sense because she asked that of me,
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  right? And which is really interesting.
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  So this was my first experience with somebody understanding my
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  weirdness as something that had an explanation.
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  Right? Up until this point, I'd just
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  been a very interesting kid and gone through variant different
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  issues and challenges in my life and not had any formal diagnosis
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  because they were just clutching the straws back in the 80s and
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  90s when I was in school and high school and things like
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  that. So then she says to me, hey, you
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  should definitely check out Lasperger syndrome.
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  Read up on it because you're very similar to what you're
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  expressing right now. And then I was like, OK, so the
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  only thing I knew about autism was all about the movie Rain
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  Man, which really isn't about autism.
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  It's a kind of is about autism. It's about savantism, which is
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  like the the right end of the spectrum of autism, but where
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  the person is severely, profoundly disabled in certain
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  areas, but they're also excelling in major areas like
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  mathematics or science or something like that.
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  And so my limited knowledge allowed me to go to the Internet
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  and not find absolutely anything on autism because it sucked back
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  then and it's 2013 and the Internet was garbage for autism
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  information, let alone there was no influencers talking about
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  this stuff. I was the first one actually
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  when I started my channel back in 2013.
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  So I was in work and my job was quite interesting.
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  I'd never stayed in a job longer than a few months because I'd
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  always developmental health issues within jobs and on
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  different medication and therapies.
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  It was always bad. But the job I was in was kind of
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  cool. There was like 4 or five of us
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  in the room, very small. I could deal with the work was
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  dealing with numbers and building websites and things
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  like that and I really liked it. But the company grew rapidly and
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  expanded to like a 200 person operation.
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  It's crazy. So then they moved the office
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  whilst I was on vacation and moved my desk around.
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  So I came back from vacation, didn't know what was going on,
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  freaking out and I just had a complete meltdown, which is
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  basically an emotional outburst overload.
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  And she couldn't take anymore. And so I was sent home and then
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  they told me to book therapy, which I book therapy.
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  Then I got the therapy and whilst I was in talk therapy or
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  psych therapy, they were like, hey, maybe you should look into
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  autism. And so they, they, they referred
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  me for an assessment in autism. And this isn't the good old days
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  when you could actually get an assessment earlier in like 3
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  years. And at the same time, my
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  girlfriend at the time, her mother was a mental health nurse
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  and asked my girlfriend, hey, his down on the autism spectrum
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  because I only just started going out there.
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  And she was like, no. And then so she asked me like,
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  hey, you on the autism spectrum. I said no, I don't really know
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  much about this, but it's funny like, you know, you're not the
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  only person that's asked me this in the past couple of years.
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  And then it all came down to this.
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  I went for the assessment and then they were like, yeah, you,
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  you follow the, the specific patterns for the Asperger
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  syndrome, which it was called back then, and ADHD.
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  And I also had dyslexia and I also have OCD.
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  So then they gave me this report and I came home with this report
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  and I was like, holy smokes, what the heck does this even
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  mean? And I digested it and it was
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  really interesting. So I've gone 26 years feeling
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  like a complete freak, not being able to, you know, understand
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  myself alone, relate myself to anybody else.
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  And then that one moment that I had this report in my hand and I
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  read it and I was like, holy smokes, I need to now understand
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  what autism is so I can understand myself.
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  But when on the Internet and I couldn't find anything on autism
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  that related to me. And I'm a visual learner.
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  I needed videos. I needed contextual information
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  that somebody could relate to me.
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  Like I'm talking to you right now.
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  And so that's why I uploaded my first ever video. 2013 June It's
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  called like 10 Asperger's symptoms.
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  You can find a video, I'll link it in this video so that you can
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  in the description down below or in a comment if you're watching
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  on Facebook. And I will also put it in a card
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  so you can watch it after this one on the on screen if you're
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  watching on YouTube. It was really interesting and it
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  was, it was fascinating really because it gave me something
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  really interesting. I went online to find videos and
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  I couldn't find videos. So I made my own videos
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  thinking, hey, I've gone 26 years in the dark.
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  Maybe I've got information that would help somebody else feel
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  relative, right? So I did that and then this
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  channel grew and I'm forever thankful for that because it
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  changed the course of my life forever.
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  And now I'm blessed that I get to help people, you know, every
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  single day as my work. And so honestly, that just fills
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  me with so much happiness. It's, it's unbelievable.
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  What about your story? I want to know what is your
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  story? Drop it in a comment down below.
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  I read every single one. Or if you personally want to
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  reach out to me, just e-mail me dan@theaspyworld.com and I'd be
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  really honoured to speak to you guys.
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  I wasn't always this confident and I definitely wasn't always
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  this able. I'm able to hold down having a
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  full time self-employed job. I have children and a
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  relationship across the Atlantic.
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  How did I do this? I teach you all of this in
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  Coping Secrets, which is my entry level program that
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  everyone can get. You can get it right now for
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  $27.00. The link is in the description
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  or you can just go to learnautism.net/coping Secrets.
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  I'll make sure that it's linked everywhere in this video and the
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  link in my bio so you can your hands on it, but honestly the
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  feedback I got, people love it.