Latest / Aspergers & Autism Podcast [The Aspie World] AuDHD / Autistic People: (What do YOU know about AUTISM?)
Transcript
- 0:03Hey guys in this week's episode. I'm talking about like what it's
- 0:07like to be on the autism spectrum.
- 0:08Like, how do I how does it feel to be autistic how from my point
- 0:11of view specifically because I feel like a lot of people don't
- 0:14understand this and they kind of you know, a lot of people see
- 0:16autistic people as just being Like Rain Man or just being
- 0:19like, you know, their friends kid or whatever.
- 0:20And so this kind of bothers me is why I wanted to do this
- 0:23podcast it's taken I've taken some of the audio edited from
- 0:27videos and stuff. I put up to make this.
- 0:29So in case you feel like it's a bit jumpy is because it's taken
- 0:33from different. Types of conversations I've had
- 0:34on videos. So I hope you enjoy this podcast
- 0:37and I'd really love to hear from you guys.
- 0:40So if you're listening to this podcast right now and you'd love
- 0:45to reach out to me, I'd love to have you reached out to me so
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- 0:51aspie world, or you can send me an email Dan at the SP
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- 1:01makes my day because this is something totally We knew that
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- 1:15ask me world. Thank you so much for listening
- 1:16guys. Enjoy this episode.
- 1:20So autistic people. I mean like how much do the
- 1:23general public know about autistic people.
- 1:25There's this common misconception of autistic
- 1:27people. Everybody is like rain man,
- 1:29right and I did a talk for the national autistic Society talk.
- 1:33About this exact thing where everyone thought, you know,
- 1:36everybody who's got autism is Rain Man.
- 1:39So what is Rain Man one may ask? Well Rain Man was a movie that
- 1:43featured Dustin Hoffman as an autistic Savant individual with
- 1:48Tom Cruise and there's a bunch of stuff that goes with it.
- 1:51But the interesting thing about it is rain man is a savannah
- 1:54which is kind of it's on the autism spectrum, but it isn't
- 1:58basically what you see as a day-to-day autistic individual
- 2:01see most people see he autistic individuals as all the same.
- 2:06They always think that oh this person has an Autism Spectrum
- 2:09condition. So they're going to be really
- 2:12good at maths and not going to speak to anybody.
- 2:14They want look anybody in the eye is ever and you won't be
- 2:16able to have a conversation with them.
- 2:17Well, this isn't in fact true, you know, most of the people who
- 2:21I know on the autism spectrum have great ability to verbally
- 2:26Express themselves through a vast vocabulary some of the
- 2:29most, you know, amazing people I've met with autism Actually
- 2:34don't have that good in math skills, you know, they don't
- 2:37have this technical math brain, which is fine because we are all
- 2:41individual. This is something that everybody
- 2:43always forgets and I always get compared to oh, you're not like
- 2:46that person's kid or oh, you know, my friends autistic and
- 2:50you're not like them and I was like, well, that's interesting
- 2:51because we shouldn't be the same because we're not the same we
- 2:54are individuals we add different people but people always forget
- 2:58that now I wanted to try and explain autism and kind of some
- 3:02of the things that I UND in my life right now and people always
- 3:05ask that question know. What's it like being autistic.
- 3:08Well, here's some stuff that I would just want to share with
- 3:11you guys. So being autistic is kind of
- 3:14like being all by yourself in a crowded room on what I mean by
- 3:17that is that there's so much going on in my brain that it's
- 3:21hard to comprehend what what and the only way I can explain it is
- 3:25like their circles. Okay, the circle spinning so you
- 3:28have this circle spinning over here and this is like bi-fuel
- 3:31users. Like I'm going to get up right
- 3:32now. I have to get up some of my body
- 3:35clock is saying get up. It's time to wake up.
- 3:37Okay, cool. And then we have another spin
- 3:38over here. And this pin is saying like
- 3:39Okay, you gotta remember to eat you have to remember to eat but
- 3:42your brain is thinking and getting up and I wanted you to
- 3:44the cool things. I want to get up and I want to
- 3:45start making videos. I want to go up and I want to
- 3:47start learning my specific subject with specific interest
- 3:50need and then you have this set plan in your head of how the day
- 3:54is going to go. So you get your spinning this
- 3:56plate here and then you spin this one here and then you have
- 3:59another one over here, which is like I'm going to go downstairs.
- 4:02I'm going to get you know, get get change get my stuff out of
- 4:04the closet the Wardrobe whatever and then she's got these three
- 4:06things spinning and all these things are spinning, right and
- 4:09they're all your things and you can kind of manage all those
- 4:11things. You can look at them and say
- 4:13okay this was bending over here this one over here, but there's
- 4:15somebody comes in and says, okay, we're changing the plans
- 4:18and then they hit one of those those circles it like it flies
- 4:21off like a disk and it hits all the others butts and by doing
- 4:25that it just completely turned your day on its head and the
- 4:28only way I can explain it is like imagine setting up loads of
- 4:31dominoes in a row and then some Fucking one of them and then set
- 4:35them all off and you're like, okay, it's all going but then
- 4:37somebody taking one of the middle ones away and then it
- 4:40only goes halfway through on the rest of the still standing
- 4:41there. So all the stuff that you
- 4:42planned has now gone to heck and you're never going to accomplish
- 4:46those things. So that's kind of like the
- 4:48dailies that's kind of like my, you know, I have to like have my
- 4:52routines my patterns and things that I'm going to do in my day.
- 4:55I love those things and I feel like it can become very chaotic.
- 4:59Now. The other thing is that I am
- 5:01quite content in. In my own head.
- 5:04I like the things I think about I like my specific interests.
- 5:07I love talking about SEO zandile talking about YouTube and aliens
- 5:11and stuff from cool stuff like that.
- 5:13Right, but when you're confronted with real life where
- 5:17People want to talk to you about other things.
- 5:19I want to talk about the weather or shopping or you have to
- 5:22comprehend something that's you know, the logistical
- 5:25comprehension of how to articulate a shopping trip,
- 5:28which is completely difficult because your track your brain is
- 5:32is very comfortable with the things that it knows but then
- 5:34these people have it in foreign interest and that foreign
- 5:38interest becomes chaotic and it becomes I guess there's only so
- 5:40much space inside my head and my mind is trying to keep up like a
- 5:44thousand miles an hour and I hope some of this is making
- 5:46sense because It's hard to describe it any other way.
- 5:50I feel like I'm constantly on a Tipping Point where I'm trying
- 5:54my best to make sure everything is is kept up.
- 5:57Like these plates is spinning when day is going.
- 5:59Well. I'm remembering to do all those
- 6:00things and I'm at constant Tipping Point which means that
- 6:02at any moment this could all tip like tipping.
- 6:07I mean like it could literally just, you know a change in
- 6:11routine could cause my data go completely off the charts and
- 6:15then like if it goes off the charts then I'm going to be like
- 6:19And you know going oh and off the chart is basically when
- 6:22meltdowns happens and shutdowns happen and things like that and
- 6:25some days I find life so exhausting that I can't even get
- 6:28up out of my bed because I just feel so overwhelmed with it.
- 6:32It's like there's white noise everywhere other than in my
- 6:35head. So when I'm in my head, I'm
- 6:37thinking about the things I'm thinking about.
- 6:38That's awesome. When I have to like interact
- 6:40with the world. It's kind of like white noise.
- 6:42It's like a like a hot white like like I can't I don't know
- 6:47the best way to explain Like when you open your doors and
- 6:50he's like so many things noises people smells like it's just
- 6:53it's crazy. It's like literally it's like
- 6:56imagine being really peaceful in bed and the next minute somebody
- 7:00throws you out in the bed and you're on the middle of the
- 7:02street. You're naked you're cold and
- 7:04there's like a bunch of people walking past really fast and
- 7:06just like agreeing with you and like shouting at you and stuff
- 7:08and it's like buses in the way that maybe all that kind of
- 7:11stuff. That's what it feels like every
- 7:13single time. I want to go out of the house.
- 7:15It's crazy. So how do I deal with that?
- 7:17I actually put Headphones in my ears and I wear sunglasses.
- 7:20I have a coat or a hoodie that zips up to about here and it
- 7:22doesn't work that well in the summer but having a hat there's
- 7:25actually help keep me quite secure and make me feel like I'm
- 7:27still in my own head but above most things like a both most
- 7:30things that all in relation to the autism spectrum.
- 7:34I feel like the most difficult thing is interacting with
- 7:38people. I don't know traveling and the
- 7:42unexpected like so I try my best to plan everything out.
- 7:46I try to be like as efficient. As on it, as you know organized
- 7:52as I possibly can but the fear of the unknown cripples me so
- 7:56much soul that when I sometimes organized to go somewhere.
- 8:00I organized as much as I can but the fear of the unknown will
- 8:03stop me going there 100% And this obviously is an anxiety
- 8:06issue. This comes come morbidly with an
- 8:08Autism Spectrum condition and that absolutely sucks now
- 8:13dealing with people on a day-to-day basis is super
- 8:16difficult and what I mean by this is I know what I'm talking
- 8:20about. And I know all the things that I
- 8:22have planned out in my head to do and to talk about during the
- 8:24day but when I go out and I have to speak to somebody people will
- 8:27be like, oh, you know, there's etiquette about what waiting in
- 8:31line and a certain fashion off certain things that you say to
- 8:34certain people and things that you can't say to certain people
- 8:36and things that may offend this person or offend that person all
- 8:39these are Unwritten Untold things that you just supposed to
- 8:43just know and for people on the autism spectrum with an autistic
- 8:46Spectrum condition. This is difficult.
- 8:48I don't know these things. I don't know those boundaries
- 8:51like it's so difficult to try and think of my head and go.
- 8:54Okay, right that is that is not that it's not appropriate to say
- 9:00here. That's appropriate to say that
- 9:02this stuff is challenging. This is what I just tend to just
- 9:05not talk to people in public. Now a lot of the time I get
- 9:09quite overwhelmed and big social situation.
- 9:11So if I'm like somewhere with like Naomi's family, so when I'm
- 9:14with my girlfriend's family, I kind of get overwhelmed because
- 9:17when there's a lot of people and A lot of people want to say a
- 9:19lot of things you gotta imagine. I'm spinning all these plate
- 9:22right now and then they come in with all their plates and we're
- 9:24also and Spinner when you're trying to it just not gonna
- 9:27happen. And so this is one of the
- 9:30reasons why socializing is super super difficult, but it doesn't
- 9:32mean that I don't want to like I want to go and see friends.
- 9:35I want to see people I want to talk to people but I feel like
- 9:38it's you have to surround yourself with people that can
- 9:40understand you and it can support that because specific
- 9:42need. Oh, yeah while we're talking
- 9:44about it, I guess eye contact is obviously one of those big
- 9:46issues. I don't actually like eye
- 9:48contact. Find that kind of really
- 9:49difficult and I also find that super uncomfortable to make eye
- 9:52contact people especially will I don't even know so like people
- 9:56on the autism spectrum can have issues and difficulties with
- 9:59things like food and textures and smells and sights and sounds
- 10:02and all these things are century overloading and they all these
- 10:05are sensory input issues that are caused by something called
- 10:09sensory processing disorder, you know, that persons not being
- 10:12miserable and not being grumpy. They're not being spoiled or not
- 10:15the causing a tantrum and they're also not fussy with
- 10:18their eating. Ding what they actually are it's
- 10:21either overly overly sensitive to certain sensory stimuli.
- 10:25Now this is designed to tell you guys about how people with
- 10:29Autism, you know, how they interact with the world how they
- 10:32communicate with each other how they communicate with the rest
- 10:34of the world around them. And this is me being honest and
- 10:36telling you guys how to do it. It's scary.
- 10:38The world is a scary place when I was a little kid.
- 10:40I was absolutely frightened of everything.
- 10:42I had my parents have to walk me everywhere.
- 10:44It can go anywhere my own the the everything was so confusing.
- 10:48I Understand why we go from this position to that position.
- 10:52I didn't understand why events took place in certain orders.
- 10:55They just seem to be completely random like, you know, oh we're
- 10:59going to school and I'm at home and I'm going to the beach but
- 11:00then we're going home. I haven't done it all this would
- 11:02just completely unlinked event and it's made no sense to me the
- 11:05older I got I still don't understand these things and I
- 11:07still fear for it. You know, I'm 33 years old this
- 11:11year and I still can't understand how people can walk
- 11:14into a middle of a city on their own just be like, okay.
- 11:16I'm going to order a coffee or a tea and just like be be happy to
- 11:19sit in here old and tea and coffee that scares The Living
- 11:22Daylights out of me like a I can't do that.
- 11:24I can't do on the train alone can get a bus on my own account.
- 11:27I can I can drive places on my own but when I get to the place,
- 11:29I can't get out and beyond that. It's just like it's the craziest
- 11:32experience like ever because I see people doing and I was a
- 11:35kid. I used to think I wanted folder.
- 11:37I'm going to be cool because I'll be able to understand those
- 11:40things. I'll be able to go and do those
- 11:41things other people doing I bills are going, you know, sit
- 11:43in the middle like a coffee shop in Manchester or London or
- 11:46something and you know, just be like a normal.
- 11:48Listen, I'm just like, you know, I can't I can't do those things
- 11:52and that really that's like the biggest issue.
- 11:54Like I just want to be I want to be is you know, I don't know.
- 12:00I don't know. I just want to fit in as much as
- 12:01possible in my eyes and if it was a constant battle to try and
- 12:05you know get into that. But anyway, that that's just rub
- 12:07it I just hope that you have learned something from this my
- 12:10ramblings have really like open your eyes and explain some stuff
- 12:14that maybe you haven't already thought about before I didn't
- 12:17even know about people. For being you know on the
- 12:20Spectrum.