Latest / Aspergers & Autism Podcast [The Aspie World] AuDHD / AUTISM And Vulnerability This Is Why WE Are VULNERABLE
Transcript
- 0:00In this video, I'm talking about autism and vulnerability and
- 0:03what that means for you as an autistic person.
- 0:05All that coming up. Hey guys, welcome back to the
- 0:14aspy world. My name is Dan, I have autism,
- 0:16ADHD, OCD and dyslexia and I make weekly videos on this type
- 0:21of stuff. So if you've stumbled across
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- 0:33OK guys, welcome back. It's been awesome.
- 0:35I thought I would do this video talking about vulnerability and
- 0:39autistic people because I'm not really seeing anyone really talk
- 0:41about it in in depth and length and kind of like from their
- 0:44perspective, especially being an artistic person myself and
- 0:47knowing vulnerabilities exist and where those vulnerabilities
- 0:50are, I thought I'd do this video talking about those
- 0:52specifically. So here it goes.
- 0:53Hey guys, if you have anything to add and want to ask me a
- 0:55question, please pop it in the comments section down below,
- 0:58because I read and respond to every single question and I
- 1:01would love to have that conversation and open a
- 1:03conversation with you. All right, let's go on with it.
- 1:05So why are autistic people vulnerable now?
- 1:08Typically, autistic people are more vulnerable than
- 1:11neurotypical people, people basically who are not on the
- 1:13autism spectrum. And the reason for this is
- 1:16because autistic people have issues with social interaction
- 1:19and communication which could lead to areas of vulnerability.
- 1:23And let me explain. So imagine you have an autistic
- 1:26person who I don't know has a lot of savings saved up, and you
- 1:31have somebody who is not a nice person who wants to get access
- 1:34to their savings. The person who is not nice could
- 1:36trick the authentic person into believing that that's what
- 1:39friends do because it's a social situation and all friends do in
- 1:42social situations give each other money.
- 1:44So people with autism actually have issues with understanding
- 1:48the concept of social interaction and the concept of
- 1:50social like conventions and and and social etiquette because
- 1:55it's it's quite difficult to grasp those.
- 1:57So if you've not really been familiarized with those things
- 2:00and you're told by somebody this is how it is and that's what we
- 2:02do, you kind of just go along with it and be like, OK, well
- 2:05that's what I do. There's actually a really big
- 2:07issue where there's actually people like that who who do
- 2:10fraud for a living, who who fraud people who are on the
- 2:12spectrum. And it's a big issue and the
- 2:13police are actually doing something about this now as in
- 2:16they have like a program specifically set up for this.
- 2:19And they they, they, they set up like a a system where you
- 2:23register your name and e-mail address with the police and if
- 2:25there's any issues or any funny business like that, the police
- 2:27can get on the case ASAP. Now another situation could be
- 2:31the fact that autistic people take things at face value as
- 2:35literal. So they're kind of literal
- 2:37thinkers. So I am a literal thinker,
- 2:39obviously, because I'm on the spectrum.
- 2:40For example, once my friend asked me to put she was eating a
- 2:43banana and drinking coffee, and she put the banana peel in a
- 2:45coffee cup. She goes, oh, can you put that
- 2:46in the bin for me? And so I threw the coffee cup
- 2:48and a banana in a bin. And she was like, well, no, I
- 2:52wanted to put the coffee cup on the side, just a banana peel in
- 2:54the bin. And I obviously took what she
- 2:56said quite literal. So it's not a case of just kind
- 3:00of trying to read between the lines.
- 3:01That doesn't work for autistic people.
- 3:03So this could be, again, the same scenario.
- 3:05A nasty person could be like, hey, I really need that money
- 3:08because I'm sick and I need to go and buy medicine or whatever,
- 3:11and they could be lying completely.
- 3:12But the person on the Austin Spectrum can take you just as
- 3:14complete, literal sense and be like, okay cool, here's my
- 3:17money. So there's a very difficulty,
- 3:20very big difficulty that with financial kind of vulnerability
- 3:23and keeping yourself safe. Now other than that because
- 3:27autistic people have issues with understanding authority.
- 3:31So when you're around authoritarian people like
- 3:34supervisors and work police people, medical staff, it could
- 3:38be anybody of an authority. They're normally not as open and
- 3:43easy to understand. So for instance, say you're
- 3:45going through TSA, you're flying out and you go through TSA and
- 3:51they want to check all your security and stuff like that.
- 3:52Now they're quite blunt and abrupt, and so if you don't
- 3:56understand what they're saying, maybe quite difficult.
- 3:58And then 'cause that could spiral into you not
- 4:00understanding what they say. And then there could be a
- 4:02conflict of interest and be some animosity.
- 4:04And that could spiral into like a, an issue where you might be
- 4:06detained or you might get like a ticket or something could happen
- 4:11because it comes from a lack of understanding.
- 4:13Like those people in those positions don't have any
- 4:15training or prior training in knowledge in autism.
- 4:18And so that's not your fault. It's their fault.
- 4:20But it does open you up to vulnerability because you, you
- 4:23are more vulnerable in those situations.
- 4:26Knowing social and commutative aspects of things like where you
- 4:30should be, people could take advantage of people in the
- 4:32autism spectrum. Like where, where, where do you
- 4:35put yourself in society? So say you're queuing for a bus
- 4:38and you're queuing for a while and then somebody's like, you
- 4:40know, get out of the way, I want to push on.
- 4:42Then you'd be like, OK, well, I don't want, yeah, I don't want
- 4:44to have that confrontation with them.
- 4:46And I don't want to kind of bring up that negative animosity
- 4:50with a person who's been quite rude.
- 4:52So you kind of just let them get on with it.
- 4:53But then you put yourself in in a a negative situation then, so
- 4:57you can't get on the bus. This person's taking your seat
- 4:59or whatever. And another thing is like, it
- 5:01makes you more vulnerable and you're open to being, like,
- 5:05attacked because you are so quiet and meek in your way.
- 5:10This kind of makes you more of a target because you know some
- 5:14autistic people like myself having so you might be quite
- 5:17loud and unknowingly not really trying to be loud, but you might
- 5:21make yourself a target for people who would just kind of up
- 5:23to no good, you know they want to just make fun of you or bully
- 5:26you or whatever. And then another version of this
- 5:28is because autistic people have difficulties with filtering out
- 5:32conversations like what it's a good thing to say, What is a non
- 5:35rude thing to say? When is a good time to talk?
- 5:37When do I not talk over people? So this could actually make them
- 5:40think that you are being rude when you're not being rude, just
- 5:43literally talking. But they could get the
- 5:45impression you're being rude or trying to start a fight or an
- 5:48argument or something. Then they could retaliate.
- 5:50And there you go. You're now in a vulnerable
- 5:52situation from no fault other than the fact that you literally
- 5:55just have autism. And that's not anybodies fault,
- 5:58just a fact of the matter. And that does actually happen.
- 6:01So my advice for this would be to there's a few different
- 6:04things, right? There's a few different things.
- 6:05These are my tips and takeaways for actually dealing with this.
- 6:08So number one would be always tell somebody where you're going
- 6:11so they know where to expect you to be.
- 6:13So like, always have somebody looking out for you in that
- 6:15respect. Basically, you know where you're
- 6:18going from. Where you're going to be is
- 6:20definitely something that people need to know.
- 6:21Like my girlfriend always needs to know where I am because you
- 6:24know what? If you know I get into trouble
- 6:25with something, she'd like to know where I am and that
- 6:27definitely helps. The second thing is always carry
- 6:30a communication device like a like a cell phone, smartphone or
- 6:33a tablet like smart device, because you want to be able to
- 6:36communicate to the people who look after you and keep well
- 6:40with you. If you're in a situation where
- 6:42you need to communicate with them and having a text device or
- 6:45like an iPad or an iPhone or whatever, you could then like,
- 6:48message them and then they could sort out whatever you need
- 6:50because that's literally like a lifesaver having communicative
- 6:54devices with you. Super super life saving.
- 6:57OK, so #3 is asking for identification for people of
- 7:00authority. So when people come at you and
- 7:01they say like, oh, I'm a personal authority, you listen
- 7:04to me. You say, well, can I see some
- 7:05identification that proves that you are who you are?
- 7:08Because without clarifying, they are who they are and they don't
- 7:11have official certification identification on them, then you
- 7:15shouldn't really have to follow anything they say because how do
- 7:17you know they're not just scamming you, right?
- 7:19That's the idea of identification.
- 7:20That's why police carry badges and ID cards and stuff for that
- 7:23exact reason. OK, so #4 is never give anybody
- 7:26any money. As a general rule of thumb, just
- 7:28don't give anybody any money. Always run it by like your your
- 7:30parents or your partner or your best friend or somebody who is,
- 7:34you know, now you're looking out for your best interest because
- 7:37like I said in the beginning of the video, people like to
- 7:39exploit people for money if they can see a vulnerability in their
- 7:42lifestyle. And this is super important
- 7:43because you don't want to be doing that.
- 7:45I mean, you know, I just feel for everybody who will relate to
- 7:49this right now. And if you do relate to this
- 7:51right now, pop a comment, let me know just because I want you to
- 7:54feel like it's not that I've had people steal money from me as
- 7:56well. So don't worry, you're not
- 7:57alone. I'm going to give you a virtual
- 7:59hug. So because we can't hug actually
- 8:00over the Internet, but just do a thumbs up on this video, it's
- 8:02like me giving you guys a visual hug.
- 8:04So there you go. Done.
- 8:05Okay. Some #5 is a really interesting
- 8:08one actually. It's carrying around hidden
- 8:10disability identification. Now this could be in the form of
- 8:13the Sunflower lanyard or the Autism alert cards, which I
- 8:16actually sell on my website. And if you actually send my
- 8:19mailing list, you get 10% off my site, which means you get 10%
- 8:22off your autism alert card. The link will be in a card above
- 8:25here and in the description below if you want to get one of
- 8:27those, But having something like that, an identification thing to
- 8:31show someone that you are of a disability, then in airports
- 8:33like TSA, they can identify you and say, oh OK, it's a hidden
- 8:38disability and they're trained to recognize hidden
- 8:41disabilities. It's not like you're walking
- 8:42around with a big sign saying I am vulnerable.
- 8:44It's that you carry a sunflower lanyard or you have an autism
- 8:47alert card and you use them as and when you need to in front of
- 8:49the people who will know exactly why you have those.
- 8:52So they were my tips. I hope you guys had some
- 8:55takeaways from this that's going to help you in the long run.
- 8:58And it's just there to design to help you become less vulnerable
- 9:02in society and understanding why you're vulnerable as well.
- 9:05Because when we understand things like that, then we have
- 9:07the ability to overcome them potentially.
- 9:10All right. So I will see you guys in the
- 9:12next video. Thanks for watching.
- 9:13Bye Peace.