Latest / Aspergers & Autism Podcast [The Aspie World] AuDHD / Autism Burnout
Transcript
- 0:00In this video, I'm talking about creator burnout and burnouts for
- 0:03people on the autism spectrum in general, with my friend Zach
- 0:06James coming up. Hey guys, welcome back to the
- 0:15ASP world. My name is Dan.
- 0:17I have autism, ADHD, OCD and dyslexia.
- 0:19And I'm making weekly videos on this type of content.
- 0:21So if you're new around here and you want to learn more, remember
- 0:24to the subscribe button. Oh, also, anybody who's watching
- 0:26over on Facebook, we should give this page a like in a follow to
- 0:28see daily uploads, right? So as you can see, I have
- 0:32somebody with me on the show today in this, in this episode.
- 0:35This is Zach James. He actually runs.
- 0:37You run like a few different channels, don't you?
- 0:40Do you run? Yeah.
- 0:41How many channels? I would say two that we're very
- 0:45known for, publicly known for, and Yo Mama's probably our most
- 0:49popular YouTube channel. The, the big one, the big boy, I
- 0:52think you guys are like boasting like millions on that.
- 0:54We got like 4,000,005 million. Where you go?
- 0:58Be honest, I haven't really kept track in a while.
- 1:00I'm guessing and I would say we're close to 5 million, we're
- 1:04getting there. It's so good.
- 1:06I have like 122,000 subscribers. Yellow.
- 1:09I'll get that though. We'll get a million.
- 1:10Don't worry about it. We'll do it somehow.
- 1:12We're going to, we're going to do it.
- 1:13Don't worry you, you guys. And we're all going to do it.
- 1:16But no, it's dope. I love seeing it.
- 1:18I love seeing awesome creative people and then I love seeing
- 1:20successful creatives. I just guess my Jesus one.
- 1:23So right. So I was talking to Zach.
- 1:26It's pretty crazy actually. So I I started following Zach
- 1:28and somebody said, hey, check out his stuff.
- 1:29He's funny and whatever. And like his Instagram is dope
- 1:32and his Instagram is also private, which I find quite
- 1:34interesting. So I followed you on Instagram
- 1:37and then you sent me a DM saying like, hey, somebody just talking
- 1:40about you on my channel. And I was like, what?
- 1:43How weird is that? Right?
- 1:44So we then we're just talking and, you know, shooting the
- 1:47convo about autism in general. And we both happen to be
- 1:51Youtubers and we're both on the spectrum and that's kind of,
- 1:53that's crazy cool, right? And so we decided that we would
- 1:57do this video talking about like autism burnout, but from like a
- 2:00creative aspect, I think that's going to be really cool because
- 2:02I think like there's there's so much you can take away from this
- 2:05and there's so much conversations we had, I thought
- 2:06be a really cool conversation. Isn't that right, Zach?
- 2:10Yes, that it's very much so. Zach also has a deeper voice
- 2:14than me. So I'm like the chipmunk over
- 2:15here. And zap's like the he's like the
- 2:17baritone guy from the What's that band?
- 2:19You know, what's that band called?
- 2:20The oh God, they were like a something phonic.
- 2:24Oh, I can't remember the name now.
- 2:26They're like a YouTube band. Oh, oh, oh, oh.
- 2:32Pentatonics. Pentatonics.
- 2:33Yeah, they did the Lindsey Stirling Club, right?
- 2:37Yeah, yeah, they did. They did.
- 2:38They did a bunch of stuff. Man.
- 2:39They're crazy. But you say you like a baritone
- 2:41singer from that. His name is Alvey, I think.
- 2:43Or something like that. Or Alvey.
- 2:45Anyway, this is besides the point.
- 2:46So I I prepared like a list of discussion topics slash
- 2:48questions I guess you could interpret as questions that
- 2:50means I couldn't discuss about autism burnout because I think
- 2:53like both of us being creators at work, like self-employed,
- 2:57working at home and like working on YouTube, it's so it's like
- 3:01it's like a mile away from any other job I've ever done in my
- 3:04life. And there's some really
- 3:05interesting takeaways in it. And Zach, like I don't know if
- 3:09you don't know what videos you've seen in mind, but a
- 3:11couple months ago I did a video where I was I was talking about
- 3:14one of the biggest things that like impacts me.
- 3:16This isn't my discussion list. This is just something that I
- 3:18just thought off the top of my head.
- 3:19What I'm thinking about is that how lonely this job can be.
- 3:23Like, I just feel like sometimes I'm sitting here on my own
- 3:26talking to his camera thinking I'm the only one in this room.
- 3:30Like I've been in here for 8 hours.
- 3:32I'm going a bit crazy, so I don't know if you feel that.
- 3:36You know, I would say that honestly, I've always managed.
- 3:42It's probably the way of handling autism growing up,
- 3:45because I grew up moving around the world.
- 3:47I grew up in about 26 other countries and that happened
- 3:51between the age of four to the age of 15, and that really
- 3:55forced me to get used to a lot of different environments from a
- 4:01lot of different people and just being comfortable with myself in
- 4:05general. So I guess in a lot of ways, no
- 4:09matter the environment I was in, I could be comfortable with
- 4:11myself and if I wanted to be with people, I knew how to make
- 4:16that work. So in the early days of YouTube,
- 4:1910 years ago, me and a group of us other Youtubers would just
- 4:25hang out and Skype calls for like 10-12 hours a day, just
- 4:28sitting there working on our own videos and just kind of talking
- 4:31to each other. Fast forward today, we're still
- 4:34friends. A lot of us moved up in the
- 4:36industry and hold really key interesting positions, some of
- 4:40our executives now. And so it's really cool to have
- 4:43those friendships and connections that may not have
- 4:45existed. If not would be idea of why not
- 4:48just have a Skype call that can last all day.
- 4:52So maybe that's something I would do in your position, you
- 4:54know, I I think a lot of YouTube, you know, just get a
- 4:57Discord chat going, you know, get everybody into a Discord
- 4:59chat and you don't have to have a topic discussed and just kind
- 5:02of shoot this shit, yeah. Yeah, just be there in the
- 5:05that's that's an excellent. I used to do the same thing when
- 5:07I was in university or college. If you're if you're American, I
- 5:10did the same thing. I had like an open kind of Skype
- 5:12call going all off the night with my friend who was also on
- 5:14my call. So we just like talk and we'd be
- 5:16doing some work. But like, oh, hey, did you get
- 5:17this answer right? And that was kind of cool.
- 5:19That worked really well. But I never really thought about
- 5:22it like that. And I think that's a great idea
- 5:23because then you're always kind of connected to somebody because
- 5:25it does. I do feel like I get kind of
- 5:27lonely. I just it's super like this.
- 5:30Unmotivating sometimes at the best of times.
- 5:33Especially with today's world, right?
- 5:35You know, with this whole situation that we're currently
- 5:38dealing with, and I think seeing how society as a whole has
- 5:42adapted and taken on solutions like zoom meetings, but not just
- 5:48zoom meetings for company calls, but hey, let's all get on and do
- 5:52a power hour with each other and see how many beers we can drink
- 5:56before the hour is up. And so seeing society take on
- 5:59that, like evolution of being alone but not being alone is a
- 6:03good road map for anybody who feels alone, regardless of the
- 6:08situation we're currently in this the world.
- 6:11Yeah, I know 100%. Like it's it's, it's super
- 6:13important and I guess it's important to like kind of find
- 6:16ways around like not feeling so lonely, right.
- 6:17And I guess that's, that's super interesting, right.
- 6:19So on to the actual top of the discussion.
- 6:22So this is an interesting one. We spoke briefly about this
- 6:25yesterday and I I was talking about Jimmy from Mr. Beast and I
- 6:29was saying that Jimmy to me looks like a typical guy who's
- 6:31on the spectrum. Like I relate so much to him and
- 6:34a lot of what he does and how he makes his content.
- 6:35I'm like, that guy's totally on the spectrum, but this is a
- 6:38question and for discussion. Why do you think?
- 6:41Because I know a lot of Youtubers are on the spectrum.
- 6:43Why do you think there are a bunch of people who are on the
- 6:45spectrum? Up come Youtubers or vice versa?
- 6:47Why do you think Youtubers are on the spectrum?
- 6:51I think it's the versatility to be able to apply yourself in a
- 6:55very welcoming environment that's also challenging but
- 7:00challenging in a way that seems to spark our interests.
- 7:04It's kind of like a like a a creative problem solving
- 7:09environment, right? Exactly.
- 7:11That's what that was a big thing for me.
- 7:13I saw it as like the opportunity of opportunities.
- 7:16I knew it was going to be challenging, but I was like,
- 7:19this is better than going to law school and then going to
- 7:22politics. I already see the next 20 years
- 7:25of my life down that direction. Cool.
- 7:27Yeah, I could knock it out of the park, but I rather do
- 7:30something that's a bit a bit more crazy, yeah.
- 7:33Yeah, no, I I I relate. I I think that's amazing.
- 7:36And like there's something there's something about YouTube
- 7:39that like makes it. I think it's this whole, like
- 7:40it's boundary less. It's borderless.
- 7:42It has this ability where you can be anybody and just put that
- 7:46out there. It's the only job I've ever had
- 7:48that I've stuck out for longer than a few months and it kind of
- 7:51like has this. I don't know.
- 7:54There's there's like a almost like a, I don't know, like a
- 7:59magnetic appeal to it. I don't know if you get that,
- 8:01like where like I'm feel drawn to it.
- 8:04Like there's something about it. Like when when I think about
- 8:05creating something, when I think about making something, it's
- 8:07like, oh, I can make a video on that.
- 8:09Oh, I could make this like, you know, it's the outlet from my
- 8:13brain to exercise its kind of creativeness.
- 8:17You know, in a lot of ways I would say it's like there's a
- 8:19magnetic appeal, but it almost feels like a gravitational
- 8:22slingshot. You know, like the way they can
- 8:24slingshot like the rocket before they send it off to like, you
- 8:28know, space. Yeah, exactly.
- 8:31And to me, that's that's really what it is.
- 8:32It's like, there's this entity, there's this environment that
- 8:35can pull in my creativity, but I instead of like it, stuck in it.
- 8:40It like can swing slot me back out into the world and I can
- 8:44take something away with it and just have fun with it too at the
- 8:47same time. Yeah, no, totally.
- 8:49And I think, like, it's just, it's just so good for creative
- 8:53brains. And I think that a lot of people
- 8:54on the autism spectrum are super creative, that it just kind of
- 8:58just has this married approach where it just works perfectly
- 9:01and everybody has a good time. So.
- 9:04So here's the thing, we're talking about burnout, right?
- 9:05We're going to go on to a bit more burnout stuff.
- 9:07But so do you think there's such thing as working too much right?
- 9:10Because I don't know what your working hours are.
- 9:12Mine are crazy. Like crazy.
- 9:15Oh yeah, mine's. I haven't even gone to bed.
- 9:20Yet. Oh my God.
- 9:21Actually, I woke up. What's I'm trying to remember
- 9:23when I woke up? When did I wake up?
- 9:25I woke up yesterday at 11:00 in the morning.
- 9:28So I've been up for about 21 hours now, 21 1/2 hours.
- 9:34He looked. And I mean, I had eight hours
- 9:35sleep. I use ice packs.
- 9:40They help. We can just yeah, I got a good
- 9:44skin care routine. The thing is, I just get caught
- 9:49up in work and I just can't stop.
- 9:52Sometimes I literally will fall asleep with my laptop sitting on
- 9:55my chest and then I'll then suddenly I'll try to wake up and
- 10:00then hit me in the head. I'm like, what is going on here?
- 10:03Yeah, I get that where sometimes I forget to eat as well and my
- 10:06girlfriend's like, dude, well, we're going to eat a lot.
- 10:08I'm like, oh shoot, I didn't even think about it.
- 10:10You know, like it's I'm drinking as well.
- 10:11I have to make an alarm to say, like, remember to take regular
- 10:14breaks to eat and drink because that's a huge one.
- 10:17But I think in terms of working too much where I got what point
- 10:21do you think you go, OK, enough is enough.
- 10:23I need to take some time. What do you what do you think
- 10:25that, like Pinnacle Point is before you get a burnout?
- 10:29I think it's a balance of, well, first, Let's see.
- 10:32It's important to understand why we end up working so much.
- 10:36And I don't think it's necessarily the need to feel
- 10:39like we have to work. But it's really the simple fact
- 10:42that it's hard to turn off the brain, right.
- 10:44And it's like when the brain gets going, it's like, you know,
- 10:47work is a very easy thing to entertain the brain with.
- 10:49And yet it does exhaust you in many ways, like emotionally
- 10:53because it can challenge you and you don't always get that
- 10:55reward. So I think the balance is
- 10:58recognizing, if you're not getting that reward or instant
- 11:02reward from your work, then you need to find the opportunity to
- 11:07reward yourself. You don't have a very good
- 11:09point. You don't necessarily turn off
- 11:11the brain. Like I got a bunch of like these
- 11:13McFarland Lego toys, things you know, from like Rick and Morty
- 11:17and and us South Park. Yeah, like, I'll show you like
- 11:20this. Like, I got a bunch of these
- 11:22that I haven't built yet, but if I need to, like, take a break,
- 11:26but I want to turn off my brain, I'll just.
- 11:28I want to open one of these in this building for like an hour
- 11:32and I'll feel good. I'll feel refreshed.
- 11:34I get you. I get you there because I do the
- 11:36same thing and with like research, because like research
- 11:38is like my big thing. I love research and stuff.
- 11:40So like, I'll because I always have to be learning.
- 11:42I don't know if you're the same like I always have to learn
- 11:44stuff. Like my brain is never full.
- 11:46It's like it's like thirsty all the time.
- 11:47So I I have a point where I'm like I'm freaking out because
- 11:50I'm trying to edit and the edit's not going right.
- 11:52And I'm thinking, OK, I need to take time off and just learn
- 11:54about like, you know, zero point energy or quantum vacuum energy
- 11:57or, you know, or something like like that.
- 11:58And I think, I think you're absolutely bang on the money.
- 12:00I never even realized. I just, I just did it, you know?
- 12:03But like my brain just went that way.
- 12:05But it did get I have this, like, almost like a guilt.
- 12:08Sometimes when I'm doing stuff like researching for leisure, I
- 12:11always think like, oh, I can be deemed something super
- 12:13productive right now. And then I have this, like, you
- 12:16know, this argument with myself, like should I be, you know, And
- 12:18that's when I get burnt out. Yeah, I would say that really
- 12:23gets to well. There's a couple of different
- 12:24times that gets me drunk out, right?
- 12:28Me as like that. Me as a person trying to juggle
- 12:33all the things they want to do throughout the day and being
- 12:37able to focus and not get caught up in the thrill or something
- 12:41else, yeah, I can get burnt out myself.
- 12:45And then I as like a company man who works in a very hostile
- 12:51environment. And when I say hostile
- 12:54environment, like you have to realize companies like BuzzFeed
- 12:57did not meet their their own projections and they had to,
- 13:01they had to like layoff people. So yeah, yeah, I run a company.
- 13:07Luckily my company is just too small to fail.
- 13:11I never lay off anybody. But I deal with challenges every
- 13:16day with YouTube's algorithm and challenges that I know that I
- 13:20should not have to deal with if there was transparency.
- 13:24And that's where I get burnt out Because I think a lot of times
- 13:27as an autistic person, I get burnt out when I'm not being
- 13:31communicated with and when YouTube is not communicating
- 13:35with me on how the platform works.
- 13:37It burns me out because I know I do what, I know what my click
- 13:41through rates are. I know what my watch time is.
- 13:43I know what my audience retention is.
- 13:45I I studied, I know that we upload every single day.
- 13:48I know what we're doing right and is a sucks that something
- 13:53like the word yo Mama can Ding me so hard because people get
- 13:58sent home from reviewing videos during COVID-19 that can burn me
- 14:02out. See, Circumstances I can't
- 14:04control can really burn me out. I totally hear you there, dude.
- 14:10Because that's like that. That is kind of like almost like
- 14:13you get to a point where there's no transparency or clear
- 14:15communication. You get to a point where you're
- 14:17just literally going around in circles.
- 14:19And then and it's that frustrating thing and you think,
- 14:21oh, maybe it's no, no, no, it's not that.
- 14:23It that is like probably the worst.
- 14:26And I totally understand where you're coming from there and I
- 14:28do love that whole algorithm challenge.
- 14:30I love it as a puzzle and I love all that that stuff and and I'm
- 14:33really into that so we could always have another conversation
- 14:35about that but like, but in terms of like my my next
- 14:38question is like how do you know if you're heading towards a
- 14:41burner but I guess you kind of just covered that you know your
- 14:43your you see kind of hallmarks don't you?
- 14:45You see, like I'm not getting clear.
- 14:47I'm not getting clear definition here I you start to feel
- 14:49uncomfortable, right? Yeah.
- 14:52And I think is also understanding that you as a
- 14:58human being, you have to, well, ideally you eat every day.
- 15:01We sometimes forget to eat, but ideally you eat every day and
- 15:05you, you take care of yourself every day, right?
- 15:07So I always think of what am I going to reward myself with.
- 15:11That's not like food or anything else that nature.
- 15:14Like what is my my reward? What is my project?
- 15:16What is my thing that's going to make me feel like I accomplished
- 15:20something one day? It could be laying down wooden
- 15:23floor for my balcony because I'm changing it into like a garden,
- 15:27or just making sure I clean my apartment, or just making sure I
- 15:32can get into that extra Rep when I work out.
- 15:35Little things like that that make me feel like I accomplish
- 15:37more as a person and not necessarily feel like work is
- 15:43all that makes me as a person. Sure.
- 15:45Because, yeah, because it is, it is that kind of like balance.
- 15:47And I guess I do that sometimes where I I put like working out
- 15:51like I should go like I love running.
- 15:53I love run for like maybe 2 to 4 miles like when I go out
- 15:55running. And so sometimes I I I get so
- 15:58involved in like a project and I'm, I'm working and I'm taking
- 16:00on all this stuff that I put this the running aside.
- 16:03And then when I'm not running then I start to kind of get
- 16:05really down on myself. And then I I'm thinking, and
- 16:07like you said, it's that reward of doing those things that
- 16:09you're not rewarding yourself. And so you know you're heading
- 16:12towards a slippery slope if you stop the reward, right?
- 16:15Exactly. And and I think a lot of times
- 16:19we kind of limit ourselves, too. I found that, like, I often
- 16:24limit myself when it comes to how I reward myself.
- 16:30I mean, look, you don't have to I I kind of deal with anxiety in
- 16:34a lot of ways. But I've also, I I think in a
- 16:39lot of ways, having grown up around the world, I've dealt
- 16:41with the benefits of, like, never.
- 16:45I guess for me, I don't really associate things to certain
- 16:47terminologies. Like, I know that they are real,
- 16:51they have real meaning and that they are 100% what they are.
- 16:55But for me, as the individual that I am, I look at my anxiety
- 16:59and I'm like, I that's not anxiety.
- 17:01I never called it anxiety. I just called it like, oh,
- 17:03that's a weird, stupid feeling and I hate it.
- 17:05But you know, I've done it enough, I've dealt with it
- 17:07enough. I know how to get over it.
- 17:09So you know, look, I'm going to reward myself and I'm going to
- 17:12deal with the anxiety of going to the airport, hop on a plane,
- 17:15flight 10 hours of Sweden and just have a really great time
- 17:18with a really good looking girl. Because why not?
- 17:21Why not do that? Yeah, yeah, why not, dude?
- 17:24Why not? Absolutely.
- 17:25So this is, this is kind of like leading on to my last and final
- 17:28question for this, this cool video.
- 17:30It's kind of like, you know, from recovery from having a
- 17:32burnout or experiencing burnout, What do you'd say would be good
- 17:35and safe working strategies? Like how would it be that?
- 17:38Would it be like taking that time and having like an
- 17:40excessive reward like a vacation or?
- 17:43I think, well, I think in a lot of ways you you have to also
- 17:50acknowledge that burnout is always going to be part of the
- 17:52process, right. I'm, I would say probably the
- 17:59biggest thing that I ever because I come from a very
- 18:02interesting family where my parents were two different
- 18:06generations like 16. My they were 16 years and age
- 18:10apart. So it's really cool to have like
- 18:12that perspective. They both got along really well.
- 18:15They get along really well. But my stepfather was definitely
- 18:18like you know look you you take, you got to grab life like the
- 18:21balls, right. He comes from that generation.
- 18:24That's is what that is. But my mother came from like
- 18:26kind of post hippie generation. So he's more of a gentle type
- 18:32person. And so I when I deal with
- 18:35burnout or when I deal with anything that kind of makes me
- 18:37afraid or it's going to stress me out.
- 18:39I don't get, I mean, I I do get. I will get discouraged for a
- 18:43moment, but I don't let that turn me off, right.
- 18:47And I think what a lot of creators, from my observation
- 18:50and this from people I've known, they get so emotionally invested
- 18:54in what they do that when they get burnt out, they completely
- 18:59get the scarce, they're burnt, 100% burnt, right.
- 19:03But when I look at getting burnt out, I'm like, OK, that's good
- 19:06because you know, every great forest is born from a forest
- 19:09fire. That's just what it is.
- 19:12So you got to burn that shit out.
- 19:14You got to get rid of all the stuff that doesn't.
- 19:16Yeah. If it doesn't work, get rid of
- 19:17it. Yeah.
- 19:20Embrace. It it's like a embrace what you
- 19:24can't ignore, right. So like it it's it's just a fact
- 19:28of the matter, but also the safe ways of doing it.
- 19:30And I think that you're absolutely right.
- 19:31And there's some great advice, actually.
- 19:33The I'm still amazed by the whole Skype conversation thing.
- 19:36Such a simple thing that I've even done and I didn't even
- 19:38think about doing it, you know, for work.
- 19:40Oh my goodness. Come on, Dad.
- 19:41You know Jesus anyway, right? Zach, thank you so much for
- 19:45taking this time to have this discussion with me.
- 19:46I think that's going to be super beneficial for everybody
- 19:48listening on the podcast. I'm on YouTube right now and I
- 19:50think that this is just a great episode and you're doing a video
- 19:54on your own channel, aren't you, About autism or something very
- 19:56soon. Maybe tomorrow or the day after
- 19:58or something. Yes, definitely within the next
- 20:032448 hours it's, yeah, you know, I've always been open about it,
- 20:09but I think. You know, for a lot of people,
- 20:11you know, who watch the Yo Mama Channel, they're not quite aware
- 20:14who exactly makes that type of show.
- 20:17And yeah, yeah, maybe cool too. I think the fans would really
- 20:21appreciate it. Yeah, me too, dude.
- 20:23And I think, like, you'll be surprised.
- 20:24I always feel like people like, I watch certain shows and then I
- 20:28realize that the people that make the shows are on the
- 20:30spectrum. I'm thinking, no wonder I was
- 20:31sort of trying to make the show right.
- 20:32So you're going to have a huge amount of people be like, duh,
- 20:35I'm on the spectrum. It's awesome.
- 20:36Like, I think it's awesome, but it really is awesome.
- 20:39It really is. Anyway, right.
- 20:41Suck. Thanks so much for coming on the
- 20:42show, man. You're awesome.
- 20:43I'll. Hey, thank you for having me.
- 20:44I appreciate it. Anytime, buddy.
- 20:46All right, take it easy.