 OK, so we have one here from autism from the inside. Paul McCullough, you're not autistic. 65 reasons you can't be autistic. This is going to be a quickfire one. This is like six, six minutes and 42 seconds. Paul McCullough here from autism from the inside. I make weekly videos sharing the human side of autism. So make sure you hit subscribe to get the latest content. Also interviewed Paul on the podcast. If you want to go check out our video, very interesting podcast that we did together. So I recently asked our online community to finish this sentence. You can't be autistic because wrong answers only, of course. As you might expect, we've got a ton of extremely relatable answers and some absolutely hilarious ones, too. The most disturbing are the true stories and I've saved my absolute favourites till last. So while today's video is mostly fun and games, there's a serious message here, too. Maybe you can already guess what it is, but stick around until the end and I'll make it explicit. Sixty five reasons you can't be autistic. You can't be autistic. You're so intelligent. You can't be OK. OK. So this is like people's perceptions of like, you know, what, what, like what they would say, what the reasons for why you can't be autistic. I get that. OK. So it's it's from like an outsider's kind of perspective and what what people might tell us. Can't understand sarcasm. I do understand sarcasm. I just sometimes it takes me a little bit time to process it, especially if it's like someone that I don't know very well. Autistic, you understand sarcasm. You can't be autistic. You're not like Rain Man. 246 totally change. You can't be autistic. You're so affectionate. You can't be. Yeah, that's that's one I think in general we might. I don't know. I'm not as affectionate with strangers, but with people that I care about I am. Autistic, you're a girl. You can't be autistic. You have a job. You can't be autistic. You don't have an official diagnosis or maybe you just didn't have a spare several thousand dollars lying around to get one. The the thing about having a job like is less likely for us to have a job, but it's definitely not like a reason why we can't be autistic. You don't have. Diagnosis, yet accessibility. I've done a whole video on that very recently. I remember what I called it. It's a big sort of presentation video that I did recently about self diagnosis and sort of self diagnosis within like TikTok and Reddit and things like that and how people are kind of, I guess, unfairly sort of ridiculing that rather than like seeing the reasons to why it's such a thing. You can't be autistic. You have a good vocabulary. You can't be autistic because you don't look autistic. That's just wrong. The vocabulary runs just wrong. Like we tend to have like better vocabulary from my experience. Or does them obviously doesn't have a look? You can't be autistic because you talk too much, which is apparently a true story. So I don't know what they were thinking. You can't be. Can't be autistic. You talk too much. I think for most of the time, I don't really speak very much. But like if I'm on a roll, if I'm like monologuing 100 percent. Don't like live me. I don't think you like live music. You can't be autistic. You're so good at your job, which happens to involve your special interest. You can't be autistic because you mask too well. You can't be autistic because you eat broccoli. You can't be autistic because you have a sense of humor. You can't be autistic because we just need to get your medication right and you'll be all better. You can't be autistic. You're so smart. You can't be autistic. You can. That's that's silly, isn't it? That's smartness thing. I think the majority of like ASD one individuals tend to have an average or above average IQ. Talk, you can't be autistic. You're not white male or middle class. What were you thinking? You can't be autistic because I know someone who's autistic and you're not like them. You can't be autistic. That is such a big one. Such a big one, especially, especially like it tends to be people saying, oh, I've got a cousin who has an autistic kid. You're not like them. And it happens so much. You stick because you look normal. You can't be autistic because you communicate too well. You can't be autistic because you already have another diagnosis like BPD or bipolar or OCD. You can't be autistic because you work full time. You can't be autistic because you understand basic emotions. Yeah. I mean, we tend to struggle with emotions a little bit more just just for like, like, suffine me about, especially in adulthood. Like, of course we do. It's just sometimes it is a little bit harder for us to identify and categorize the emotions that we're feeling, especially in the moment. You can't be autistic because you're really clever. You can't be autistic. You have childhood trauma. You can't be autistic. You don't throw a garden. Can't be your childhood trauma. I feel like that's that's pretty like co-morbid with the autistic experience, you know? Just see. Oh, my God, these these are great. You don't throw furniture into a pool. Furniture into the pool, which is oddly specific. You can't be autistic. You're too articulate. You can't be autistic. You have empathy. You can't be autistic. You're social. You can't be autistic. You have anxiety and depression, which clearly don't coexist. Yeah, totally not. Because they totally do. 100%. You can't be autistic. You're a nice person. You can't be autistic. You have a university degree. You can't be autistic. You can hold a conversation. You can't be autistic. You're married with kids. You can't be autistic. You're bad at math. You can't be autistic. You're too pretty. You can't be autistic. You're LGBT plus. And if you've spent any amount of time around the autistic community, you'll realize why this one is particularly hilarious. Yes, it's this. There's a lot of LGBT individuals within the LGBT plus individuals within the autistic community. You can't be autistic. You show emotions. You can't be autistic. You don't want to be alone all the time. You can't be autistic. You're too polite. You can't be autistic because autism does not exist. And unfortunately, yes, some people do say that. Yeah. The weird thing about this is, is like a lot of these things are very like very much autistic things. I think that's that's that's the key thing here. You can't be autistic. You use Facebook. You can't be autistic. You're an adult. And as we know, most health care systems agree that autism disappears as soon as you turn 18. You can't be autistic because you've managed so well in life so far. You can't be autistic. You don't have savant skills. Like shouldn't you be able to manipulate things with your mind or something? No, I think you might be thinking of X-Men and I don't think that was based on a true story. You can't be autistic. You're fan fairy is by Gnito Autistic. You're funny. Funny. You can't be autistic. You're not weird enough. You can't be autistic. You don't struggle enough. You can't be autistic. You have ADA. That that's that's one you can't struggle enough that that hits that hits home. And also sometimes over autistic people can have like this this view of it as well. One of the issues about that statement is that a lot of people who say that like I get it a lot. And it's mostly because people see like my presentation, they talk to me, you know, and I can I can hold a conversation and socialize. You don't always see support needs. That's the issue. Like you can't you can't see all the things that I need support for the things that I'm bad for. Bad app rather. Struggle enough. You can't be autistic. You have ADHD. And we all know that you can't have autism and ADHD. You can't be autistic. You don't like dinosaurs. You can't be autistic. You can smile. You can't be autistic. You're too sexy. Hey, I mean, thanks. I mean, hey, you can't be autistic. You don't look disabled. You can't be autistic. You give hugs and kisses. You can't be autistic. You understand social conventions. You can't be autistic. You want friends. You can't be autistic. You can drive. You can't be autistic. You learn so quickly. This is a really interesting part like of like wanting to be alone and not wanting friends because the whole idea behind the actual term autism is to be by oneself. And a lot of people interpret our social differences as not wanting that. Whereas the rates of loneliness and isolation among autistic people, it's very high. And a lot of autistic people do need that. It's like a very human thing to want connection rules. It's just weird that that's how the term has been characterized. You're not autistic. You're just an asshole. Stop trying to blame autism. And lastly, some of my personal favorites. You can't be autistic because there's nothing wrong with you. My grandmother used to say that one out of the goodness of her heart. You can't be autistic. My dad says that as well sometimes. Not in like a horrible way. Like it's not meant in a bad way. It's actually meant in a good way. Like they're actually saying like, you know, they're saying there's nothing wrong with you. You can do all of these things. But it kind of comes across into the territory of like unintentional gaslighting to some degree. You're just like me and I'm not autistic. That one's always hilarious. But my personal favorite. Yeah. That's a funny thing, like with my dad as well. I think that that's one of the issues that I think a lot of parents of autistic people have because there is a high likelihood that one of the parents is autistic, sometimes even both. And because they've lived their life, they think that a normal autistic, they see all of the behaviors, the autistic behaviors that you have as normal. That's just a normal part of life. And so they don't identify as something different. Really, really, really kind of interesting thing about it. Favorite from the community. Finish this sentence. You can't be autistic because you are in fact a cat. And we all know that cats do not have Aspergers. Lastly, number 65. This one's a little bit ironic, but you can't be autistic because everyone is on the spectrum. Oh, no. Not this one. For you're not, for some reason. Everyone's on the spectrum. So that was a bit of fun, but what's the serious message here? A lot of those reasons sound kind of ridiculous, but unfortunately, the most ridiculous ones are the true stories. Right between the lines here. What does it mean when someone says you can't be autistic, you're a nice person. It's not just the general public that sometimes have these misconceptions. Unfortunately, it's sometimes also qualified professionals. And those professionals are often the gatekeepers to getting an official diagnosis. You hear firsthand true stories like this all the time. Like a friend of mine, the first time she tried to get a diagnosis. They literally closed the book. She can't be autistic. She wants friends. Yes. I wish I was joking. All too often, many people are denied a diagnosis and then denied support and then denied validation of their own experience. So how about we flip that and give people first validation and then support and then if they still need it, access to diagnosis. In a lot of cases, the validation and support are enough. I was originally going to call this video. And this is, yeah, I suppose it's like it kind of bleeds into this idea of like why self-diagnosis is quite an important thing. Video is 65 reasons to be denied an autism diagnosis, but I thought that sounded a bit too negative. So hopefully you enjoyed what we ended up with today. It's been a bit of a fun video, but with a serious message behind it as well. So please share it and we can all help to break the stigma. Liking and commenting on this video also helps a lot. So I'd love to hear your thoughts about what resonated for you. And if there were any that I missed in this list that I should have included. Otherwise, thanks for watching and I'll see you again next week. Bye. Yeah, the eye contact one is strong. Like you can't be autistic. You make too much eye contact. Thanks. So that's, you're not autistic. 65 reasons you can't be autistic from autism from the inside. Mr. Paul McAlliff, definitely encourage you if you haven't already to go check out the video. The podcast that I did with Paul, I think we were talking, we were talking about, I think we're talking about a lexifying me maybe. But anyway, go and give Paul a subscribe for you. It's a big channel. Like he probably doesn't need anymore, anymore sources of subscriptions, but go over and like the video and perhaps drop in subscribe if you wanna see some stuff, more stuff from him. Interesting video. I thought it was gonna be a lot more to do with like actual like signs that you can't be autistic, but I was pleasantly surprised. Very much so.