Latest / Aspergers & Autism Podcast [The Aspie World] AuDHD / How I Got My Autism Diagnosis

Transcript

How I Got My Autism Diagnosis · Aspergers & Autism Podcast [The Aspie World] AuDHD

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  OK, so now how I got my autism diagnosis.
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  Hey guys, what's going on? Welcome back to the Aspy world.
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  My name is Dan and I have autism and ADHDOCD and dyslexia.
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  I'm making weekly videos all about this stuff.
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  So if you want it learn more. Remember to hit the subscribe
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  button. What's going on, dude?
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  Welcome back to another video. It feels like it's been forever.
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  It's yeah, it's been that. So I just launched a new
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  product, which is just absolutely crazy.
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  So anyway, I'm still pumped to this video.
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  I got a lot of people asking me, Dan, how did you get your autumn
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  diagnosis? How does the process work?
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  Where did you go? What did you do?
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  So if I would take some time just to talk about some of the
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  common traits of autism and, and kind of like how you can
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  characterize it, how people spotted it in me and how I see
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  it myself. And then how I got my autism
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  diagnosis. Because I really believe that
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  understanding how you got an autism diagnosis can help you
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  achieve your autism diagnosis if you're looking for that.
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  So let's let's get right into it.
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  So first of all guys, autism being a neurological
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  developmental condition means that there are characteristics
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  that are neurologically ingrained in a person who's only
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  also the spectrum. Now if you're interested, I do
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  have a little freebie like life hacks book for autism that you
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  can download for free. The link is in the description
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  down below where you can just go to the link in my bio and where
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  it says free book. Just click that and you get it
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  for free. Some of the characteristics that
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  are completely obvious with an autism is things like, you know,
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  obsessive behaviour. An autistic person may be really
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  obsessed with a specific topic of interest.
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  You know, mine is all things kind of chemistry related
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  because I did a degree in chemistry marketing business.
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  I love all that kind of stuff. But then you could have somebody
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  who's really into photography that could be excellent
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  photography, that they want to spend all the time doing
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  photography and that's their thing, right?
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  That's where their talent lies or sort of obsession lies.
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  That you could have another autistic individual who is
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  obsessed with Marilyn Monroe, that kind of thing.
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  And one being by being obsessed is that they constantly spend
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  all their time learning about it.
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  They constantly spend all their time that researching it.
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  They would fly out to kind of Marilyn Monroe's house where she
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  used to live, like try and stalk her friends online or whatever,
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  and then just note everything about that subject.
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  And this is another trait, wanting to talk consistently,
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  obsessively for hours about that one thing.
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  You may think autistic individuals will have issues
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  with social communication, which is correct.
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  This is another trait. But also autistic individuals
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  will, if they get going about the topic of interest that
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  they're interested in, you know, OK, so people who know yoga
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  people on the spectrum could be Minecraft and they'll just talk
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  to you for hours about Minecraft or Roblox, right?
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  That's because they have learnt all of those things and they
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  want to dictate that stuff. They've led verbatim.
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  And that's a really interesting characteristic where you can
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  have a very shy, quiet person who's on the autonomous
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  spectrum, but if you ask them a question about their their
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  specific topic of interest, they'd be very, very vocal about
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  it. And I think that's very
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  fascinating. So with me, one of my traits is
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  that I talk a lot. I know, I'm sorry, but I talk
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  excessively. I talk a lot about a lot of
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  things and I, I, I memorize a certain fact and I love talking
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  about those facts, right? And that's really common within
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  autistic individuals. Now, another trait is having
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  difficulty with eye contact. A lot of autistic individuals
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  won't necessarily be able to make specifically good long
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  sustaining eye contact when they're talking because when an
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  autistic person is, is making communication effort to look in
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  someone's eyes is kind of like looking into their soul and like
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  grabbing them by the scruff of the neck.
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  It's very awkward. Very uncomfortable and they
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  can't really do it. So this is something that you
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  can see quite apparently. Another thing is difficulties
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  with a change in the routine. Autistic individuals love
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  routine. They love knowing the outcome of
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  a specific set of events. Like we're going to go to the
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  zoo today that we have to drive for an hour in the car.
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  We've packed sandwiches. When we get there, we're going
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  to have our sandwiches and everything's going to be cool.
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  But if something happens, like you get a flat tire in the car
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  and then you have to eat sandwiches in the car and then
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  you delay going to the zoo. So you have to get like a hotel
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  next to the zoo and then go to the zoo that after a big no, no,
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  that the disruption of the routine, the the, the, the, the
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  surprise that just came out of nowhere.
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  This like unpredicted event that was completely out of out of the
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  plan of action can really throw you.
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  So that's another reason why autistic individuals can can
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  display this whole like issues with routine.
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  But on the same line, autistic individuals thrive from having a
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  specific routine. So they could get up in the
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  morning, you know, wear the same clothes every single day, not
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  the same actual clothes, but the same type of clothes.
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  Like I wear black clothes all the time, like black T-shirts,
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  black blonde sleeve T-shirts, black pants, black socks and
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  black underpants. Like that's, that's just me all
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  over. But autistic individuals will
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  have to get dressed the same thing every single day.
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  They will get up at the same time every day.
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  They will eat the same thing for breakfast every day, then maybe
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  watch the same shows, might watch something or repeat all
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  the time. These things are very
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  interesting and they're very characterized in in autistic
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  individuals, emotional deregulation is huge.
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  Not being able to express themselves emotionally,
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  especially communicating with other individuals when you're
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  talking about emotions. And this is because autistic
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  individuals have a disconnect between the understanding in the
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  brain of energy that converts into motion, which gives you
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  energy, emotion, which is emotion.
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  And so this is something that's quite have not had to grasp 1/2
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  of their brain to kind of like do intimately on that level,
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  like, okay, I'm going to do it right now.
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  I'm going to see what, you know, going to see my emotions right
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  now at that moment in time. I think that's quite
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  interesting. And it's very, very apparent
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  autistic individuals will typically have issues making
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  friends because making friends is something that's quite hard.
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  You need to know social conventions.
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  You need to know unwritten social cues, which is a big
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  issue for people on the open special.
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  You know, how far do I stand to a person?
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  How close to a stand to a person?
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  How do I say hello? How do I inject myself into a
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  conversation? How do I say goodbye and how do
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  I leave a conversation? All these things are they're
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  quite mystical for assisting individuals and they may not
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  fully be able to understand that.
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  So that in, in a nutshell, the last thing I'll say is taking
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  things literally, just think individuals will take things at
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  face value. If you say something is
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  something, they'll believe that's what it is.
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  And this is part of the reason of how I got my diagnosis.
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  So back in 2013, this is just before the DSM changed the
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  nomenclature from Asperger's syndrome to the autism spectrum
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  disorder. My girlfriend, his mother was a
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  mental health nurse and my girlfriend was actually studying
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  autism in university because she was taking a degree in childhood
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  studies. So she's seen kind of
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  characteristics in me that was very common in, in the studies
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  of these children that she was kind of studying.
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  And it was like, Oh my goodness. And I remember she tweeted out
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  something once say, like, why is it that the people on The Big
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  Bang Theory remind me of my boyfriend?
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  Because Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory displays
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  typically autistic traits, right?
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  Or what you would have called Asperger syndrome, which is now
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  like, well, support needs autism because there's a big whole
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  thing with normal picture. A lot of people don't like to
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  use functional labels. Other people don't like to use,
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  you know, I don't know, there's a bunch of things we're not
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  going to get into that in this video, but if you are
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  interested, I did a whole video talking about why Asperges isn't
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  used and why some people still use it and I'll link it down
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  below. So that being said, her mother
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  did question and asked if I was on the autumn spectrum.
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  Now, at this time I knew nothing about autism and I met a friend
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  who found that some things that I did was really interesting.
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  Like she said to me, she was eating a banana out of coffee
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  and she put the banana peel inside the coffee pot.
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  She said, can you go to the kitchen, put this in the bin?
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  So I just threw the cup and the the banana in the bin.
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  But she was like deep, don't throw the cup away, only the
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  banana peel. But I'd taken what she'd said
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  very literal. And so that kind of start
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  getting conversation going with like, Hey, do you always do
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  things literally? Yes.
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  Do you, how do you think with this?
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  Blah, blah, blah. So it all came to a grinding
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  halt when I was in my place of work, which was I was working
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  for a company, a multimedia company, and I was sitting
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  behind the desk, right? And my desk was the same for
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  like 3 years. Like I've been in, I've asked
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  three years. It was a very small company,
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  maybe like 20 of us in one room, very small.
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  And I was there for the whole time, right.
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  So yeah, we were a very small company.
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  I had the same desk that I had for years.
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  And then the other thing that happened then was I went on
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  vacation with my, my partner for like a week and I came back to
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  the office and they'd moved not only the office, they'd moved my
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  desk. And everything was complete
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  chaos. And I just had this like huge
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  like meltdown in, in the office and I'd never had anything this
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  big before. And it was just like, you know,
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  in, in work. And I was like, oh, you know,
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  they Take Me Out and I look all these smokes, dude, like you OK.
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  Then they took me to, you know, see, I work from home for a
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  little bit and they said we'd see a counsellor.
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  I'm not going to the council. And the council was also like,
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  yeah, you know, maybe we should get tested for autism spectrum
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  disorder. So I did that.
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  I went through those processes. I got referred from my doctor to
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  a autism specialist, went to see an autism specialist twice, did
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  two types of like interview based kind of some little bit
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  practical stuff. And then they kind of assessed
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  that and said, yeah, you know, you're on the autism spare trip.
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  And I'm like, holy smokes. And at the time, I knew nothing
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  about autism, which was really interesting.
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  And I went online then to find some information.
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  And because I'm bad at like reading, I wanted to kind of
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  learn through like video. I went to usually type in autism
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  or Asperger syndrome, which is what I was diagnosed with.
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  And there was just nothing there.
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  So I, I started this child because I was like, well, I can
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  add those things to, to this, you know, I can add this to, to
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  the, to the mix and, and maybe I can help some people.
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  So that was my story. What's your story?
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  I want to know down below. If you're not already diagnosed,
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  then let me know if you're looking to get diagnosis.
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  But if you are, let me know your story down below.
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  Speak to you next time guys. Peace.