Latest / Aspergers & Autism Podcast [The Aspie World] AuDHD / 10 Hidden Signs of Autism in Adults (NEED TO SEE)
Transcript
- 0:00You have arrived. Welcome to the Aspy world.
- 0:04Here's where we talk about anything and everything ASD in
- 0:07an upbeat and informative way. And now here's your man on the
- 0:11spectrum, your autism ambassador, Daniel Morgan Jones.
- 0:19So in this video, I'm discussing A10 different hidden traits of
- 0:22autism in adults that you can now identify.
- 0:25OK, so 10 hidden traits of autism.
- 0:27OK, so the first one is difficulty in recognizing
- 0:30internal states or it's sometimes called alexithymia.
- 0:34Now internal states like how you regulate your emotion of how
- 0:39you're feeling at that moment in time.
- 0:41So somebody on the autism spectrum, especially an adult,
- 0:45may not be able to say, oh, I'm feeling kind of anxious right
- 0:48now, or I'm feeling worried or I'm I should cry at this moment
- 0:52in time. Maybe that'll come at a later
- 0:54point in the day. They may feel really happy, but
- 0:58they may not show it until later on when they're in their home
- 1:01and in a safe setting. This is called Alexithynia.
- 1:03So it's kind of almost like a delay in recognizing internal
- 1:06states, right? That that's kind of one way to
- 1:08do it. Oh, and FYI guys, if you're new
- 1:11around here and you want to learn more about autism, my name
- 1:13is Dan and I have autism in ADHDOCD and dyslexia and I make
- 1:17weekly videos all about this stuff.
- 1:18So if you want to learn more and come along this journey with me,
- 1:21make sure to hit the subscribe button down below.
- 1:23Or if you're watching on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and
- 1:25Twitter, then follow to see daily videos from me because I
- 1:28also upload daily videos on these platforms.
- 1:30So select the thyme here is something that I actually deal
- 1:33with too. Now, not everybody in the
- 1:35ultimate spectrum is going to have all of these, but most
- 1:39people in the autism spectrum will have at least 50% of these.
- 1:42So it's very interesting to to learn.
- 1:44OK, so #2 is overly rigid morality.
- 1:47And this is kind of like sometimes called black and white
- 1:50thinking. So a person on the autism
- 1:51spectrum will be like thinking only this or that.
- 1:55There'll be no grey area in the middle.
- 1:57So something that would be true or false, which is difficult to
- 2:00understand jokes sometimes with people who are autistic, kind of
- 2:04like may not understand a joke because a joke isn't black or
- 2:06white. You know, sometimes there's
- 2:07ambiguity there. And this thinking of black and
- 2:10white is very interesting. And I had an example of this
- 2:13when I was on a driving awareness course because I, I
- 2:17was driving the wrong speed and the wrong kind of limit.
- 2:19They were talking about gun calibration and how they check
- 2:23speed guns, right? Speed guns tell you a certain
- 2:25speed you're going, blah, blah, blah.
- 2:26So I told them about something called the Heisenberg insurgency
- 2:29principle because I'm a chemist. And I said, well, if an object,
- 2:32if you know how fast an object is going, you can't predict
- 2:34where it is in space. So you can't say that I was
- 2:37going fast in a non fast area of space because there's you can't
- 2:42have both variables if the gun is to be 100% accurate.
- 2:46So to me that's very black and white.
- 2:47But they told me that they have to kind of estimate and have an
- 2:51an average that you probably were going this speed in this
- 2:53place. None of it is kind of very
- 2:55exact. And I was like, this is
- 2:57difficult for me to grasp because in my mind I'm like, it
- 3:00has to either be yes or no. And Heisenberg's uncertainty
- 3:02principles and law of physics. So with autistic individuals, my
- 3:06advice for this, if you're coming across one and this is
- 3:09highlighted to them that they've got back of my thinking, then
- 3:11just say, hey, it's kind of like this and give them another
- 3:13example of like a real life situation.
- 3:15OK, so #3 is a delayed response for timing within conversations
- 3:19similar to how Alexa Thamia works?
- 3:21A person on the autism spectrum may be in a conversation with
- 3:25somebody and that conversation will be going on between maybe
- 3:29you and another person. And then the other person on the
- 3:31autism spectrum will be there. And the person on the autism
- 3:34spectrum will think of an answer and they're thinking about that
- 3:37answer. But they may not respond
- 3:38instantly, which means that when they get home, they may text the
- 3:42answer to somebody or they'll be like, hey, you're not thinking.
- 3:44We were talking about last week. I now have an answer for it.
- 3:46And it comes from 2 reasons. 1 is that the processing of the
- 3:49answer. They want to make sure that they
- 3:51are processing the information correctly and they want to check
- 3:53this and double check it kind of like a almost like an obsessive
- 3:56kind of thing to, to rethink what you've what you've asked or
- 3:58said. And then the other thing is that
- 4:00they want to make sure that the answer that they are creating is
- 4:02going to be correct. They don't just really nearly
- 4:04put out an answer, you know, and, and be like, Oh, that's it.
- 4:07They want to be able to make sure they get that's right.
- 4:09So a delayed in response. And this could happen sometimes
- 4:11with jokes. I get this all the time.
- 4:12Somebody tell me a joke and I'll be like, I'm thinking about it
- 4:14for ages and maybe like a week or sometimes a month later, I'll
- 4:16be like, you know, I'm washing the dishes.
- 4:18I'm like I get it now I get the joke because that's the delayed
- 4:22response. I just want to interject in this
- 4:23video here to let you know that confidence is one of the main
- 4:26issues that holds autistic individuals back from their full
- 4:28potential. This is why I write a course
- 4:30which is the Chaos to confidence in 90 Days of Blueprint, which
- 4:34means I can take an autistic person from complete chaos to
- 4:37being very confident and acing their life.
- 4:39So if you're an artistic adult and you want access to this
- 4:41program, you can check it out. The link is in description and
- 4:44down below. Or you can go to the
- 4:46aspyworld.com/C 2C right now, the number 2 and get access to
- 4:52this program. OK, so #4 is deep attachment to
- 4:56routines, even if they're a bit unproductive Because autistic
- 4:59people love routines because there's obsessive compulsive
- 5:02disorder that comes with autism. I have that.
- 5:04But also there's like just an obsession to want to be
- 5:07routinely based. So maybe the autistic person or
- 5:11the person that you expect that could be autistic will love
- 5:13routines that could be showering at the same time every day and
- 5:17they have to get it done. Even if you say, Oh well, the
- 5:19boiler's broken. We got no hot water, they'd
- 5:21still shower with the cold water.
- 5:23Even if it's unproductive, they'll still do it because it's
- 5:25a routine that they're comfortable with.
- 5:26Why? Because we are comfortable as
- 5:28authentic individuals with predictability of routine.
- 5:30We love, we love to think that OK, this is going to happen and
- 5:33this is going to happen next and yadda yadda yadda.
- 5:35And we know that it's comfortable.
- 5:37The unpredictability of life is enough struggle and stress for
- 5:40us. We like to have things that we
- 5:41can feel comfortable to regulate ourselves and feel uncomfortable
- 5:44in. And that is typically what that
- 5:46is. OK, so #5 is really interesting.
- 5:48This is all to do with social conventions.
- 5:50Now an autistic person may stand too close to another person in
- 5:54the conversation, like the unaware of personal space, one
- 5:58may say. And by doing this, they don't
- 6:01know how far away it is down to. So sometimes, like you could be
- 6:03having a conversation with an assisted person and they could
- 6:05walk away. They could be in another room.
- 6:07But and I used to get in trouble with this all the time.
- 6:09Like my ex-girlfriend used to really kind of always bring it
- 6:13up. You're like, you're walking away
- 6:14and I'm talking to you and I'm like, yeah, I'm I'm still
- 6:16listening, but I didn't know what the convention was.
- 6:18Where should I be? Jerry sat next to them.
- 6:20Jerry sat in front of them. It's a it's a big deal, right?
- 6:23So if you know somebody speculate is autistic and
- 6:26they're doing this, this is a good indication that they may
- 6:28have an autism special condition.
- 6:29And just by the way, guys, like I'm not diagnosing people here.
- 6:32I'm just giving you the insight from my perspective of what I
- 6:35know to help you. OK.
- 6:36So number six is unusual speaking patterns.
- 6:39This is fascinating. Autism in its kind of core is a
- 6:43communication disorder, right? And so the brain processes
- 6:46information that is communicating to then
- 6:49reciprocate communication outwards with difficulties.
- 6:52So some autistic individuals cannot speak or they are mute
- 6:57and some selective mute. But sometimes autistic
- 7:00individuals will have issues with the way in which they
- 7:03pronounce words or even communicate a word or a speech
- 7:06pattern. And this comes from the fact
- 7:08that they're trying to process what they're saying at the same
- 7:11time as they're saying it. And their brain is also
- 7:14processing 1001 things at the same time.
- 7:16So it, it leaves for sometimes stuttering, stammering, saying
- 7:20words wrong, and also how the autistic person learned the word
- 7:24to add into the lexicon of that library of words that they use
- 7:27all the time. Sometimes if they've heard the
- 7:28word wrong, they'll always remember it as the word wrong
- 7:31and they will produce that every time they speak.
- 7:33So a lot of people don't know this, but I'm not American, I'm
- 7:36actually UK, I'm British, right? So but I learnt to speak mainly
- 7:42all the words of my lexicon by watching American TV and
- 7:44American speakers. So I have a transatlantic
- 7:46accent, which means I'm kind of sound American.
- 7:49But if you're, if you're American, you're watching this,
- 7:50you're going to be like, wait, that's such a British accent.
- 7:52But a lot of people here in the UK think I'm American.
- 7:55So there you go. OK #7 is exhaustion after social
- 8:00events Now autistic individuals when they're in social settings,
- 8:03it could be a party or like a football game or some kind of
- 8:07event where there's more than maybe a handful of people there.
- 8:10This is a social gathering could even be going out to the store,
- 8:13right? This is still a social
- 8:14gathering. Now autistic individuals will
- 8:17have so many internal things going on like the sounds, the
- 8:20smells, the the lights, the the temperature, people's
- 8:23conversations, other people's conversations, the sound of
- 8:25other people talking 2 rooms away.
- 8:27All of this is getting processed at this moment in time.
- 8:30And to be in that situation, it takes a lot for the autistic
- 8:32person to kind of come and regulate and be there and do the
- 8:35supposed to do right. So when they get home, they're
- 8:38going to feel exhausted. They're going to have almost
- 8:40like a social hangover. They're going to feel hungover
- 8:43from the social event. And it could actually come in
- 8:47many phones. Like they could also have a lot
- 8:50of items to do, like phoning a lot of different people, or it
- 8:54could be doing a lot of different tasks in the house.
- 8:56Not, you know, not physically exhausting, but they will feel
- 9:00exhausted within that. Now, what's interesting about
- 9:03autistic individuals is that sometimes they don't even
- 9:06recognize this in themselves and they need to try and limit that.
- 9:08So if you know an autistic person, or if this sounds like
- 9:10the person you know that they get exhausted after social
- 9:12interaction, then try to get them to limit the amount of
- 9:15social interaction that they putting themselves out into
- 9:18because you want to make sure that they're safe and healthy
- 9:19and well. OK, so #8 also is a social one.
- 9:22This is using imitation as a way to talk or to be socially
- 9:27accepted or a social tool. So they could pick up words from
- 9:33another person or or see if a person doing a joke or a phrase
- 9:36and then copy that and imitate it in a social convention.
- 9:40Or if you're talking to somebody who has a an Australian accent,
- 9:44the autistic person may take on the Australian person's accent
- 9:48to imitate them because they feel like that's the social tool
- 9:50to use. It's a very interesting concept
- 9:52that happens quite a lot, and sometimes a lot of people think
- 9:55it's echolalia, which is kind of like repeating something you've
- 9:57heard. But actually in this specific
- 9:59instance, this is repeating a line from somebody else because
- 10:02you think that that's what other people want to hear.
- 10:05This is fascinating and it just shows you the insight to how
- 10:08difficult it is for autistic individuals like myself to be in
- 10:11social situations when we haven't prepared for it.
- 10:13OK, so #9 is something really interesting.
- 10:15Now this is a comorbidity, meaning it's something that Co
- 10:18occurs with autism, which is sensory processing disorder.
- 10:21But more importantly, this is more of like a hidden one,
- 10:23right? And this is extreme sensitivity
- 10:26to maybe fabrics, tags on clothing or temperatures.
- 10:30Now I am extremely sensitive to temperatures and it usually I
- 10:33feel too hot all the time. I'm always too hot.
- 10:35Even in the winter I'll have a fan going in my bedroom to cool
- 10:38me down. I never sleep in pajamas and I
- 10:41just find things I'm just too hot all the time, especially
- 10:46when I'm doing something of say if I'm going to do DIY project
- 10:48or I have to help the kids doing something like I, I just start
- 10:51sweating straight away. So there's a funny thing like
- 10:54whenever I'm like hanging shelves up, I have to do it in
- 10:56my underpants because like I get too hot, right?
- 10:58Like the, the, the whole thing gets it gets temperature lift.
- 11:01But also having like, you know, those tags on the back of your
- 11:04shirts, Like, I don't have it in this one, but autistic
- 11:07individuals will be like, oh, you know, trying to take their
- 11:08shirt off, but to to stop the tag touching them.
- 11:12And especially non verbal autistic individuals because
- 11:14they'll be like, ah, you know, the tags that we started taking.
- 11:16How do you communicate that? So autistic individuals will
- 11:18probably cut the tags off all of their clothes.
- 11:20And you'll see this as like a hidden kind of trait of autism.
- 11:24So that is super interesting and also a good indicator that the
- 11:28person has a sensory processing issues, which is comorbid with
- 11:31autism. OK, so #10 is literal thinking
- 11:33and taking things like sarcasm literally at face value.
- 11:37Like an autistic person will take everything you say
- 11:40literally. And even down to, and this is
- 11:43what's really interesting, even down to this used to happen to
- 11:45me all the time, Someone telling me a story about an interaction
- 11:48that they had in the store or the school or something.
- 11:51And they'd be like, so, so down. I'm like, yeah.
- 11:54And they're like, hey, so I went to the store and I was talking
- 11:55to my friend and all of a sudden I was like, whoa, somebody
- 11:59pushed into me with a shopping cart.
- 12:01When they say the word whoa, I'm like, whoa, what is it?
- 12:03What is it like? I feel like then right then and
- 12:05there, they're saying whoa to me like they have an issue right
- 12:08then and there. I can't understand that.
- 12:10It's in the concept of the story.
- 12:11No matter how much I prepare myself, I can't overcome this.
- 12:16And I've tried many ways, but everything that somebody tells
- 12:19me I take at face value, even the emotions in a story that
- 12:22they are telling me. And this is fascinating.
- 12:23Autistic individuals are very literal in the thinking process
- 12:27and the way that they understand verbal communication and
- 12:30commands that you've sent them. Forget about texting somebody a
- 12:32joke. If they're on the autism special
- 12:34means texting them a sarcastic joke.
- 12:36They ain't never going to get it right, but sometimes I suppose
- 12:40maybe if they learn that joke or learn that concept, it's a
- 12:43potential. Now if you have anything to add,
- 12:45pop in a comment down below. I'd love to hear from you and
- 12:47I'll see you in the next one. Guys, peace.
- 12:49Hey guys, thank you so much for checking out this podcast.
- 12:51Make sure you are subscribed because there are people
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- 12:58OK guys, see you in the next one.
- 13:00Peace.