 Hi guys, Thomas Henley here from Asperger's Grove and today we're going to be talking about what autism feels like and maybe what it feels like to be autistic Which is probably the same thing Hello everybody anxious Aspie here Coming here to talk to you about my feelings today. Just kidding. We're going to be talking today about What does it feel like to be autistic now? It's quite a big question that probably a lot of people have there on YouTube Probably a lot of videos about it So this video is going to be a lot more focused on the the way that autism affects interactions with the world and their feelings and emotions and internal thoughts and rather than specific examples of Different types of autism and symptoms and traits. You can look at all that stuff on the internet. It's widely available So I'm going to explain autism in ways that Probably easier to understand than a lot of information that is out there. So that's why I'm doing this video today Also, if you do want to look at specific examples and reasons for certain symptoms or different traits of Aspies and not traits of Aspies and stuff like that You can check out some of my other videos as well So if you're looking to look look at that stuff and it's there for you to Peruse through also very very important to note that a lot of autistic people Don't actually think that they are mentally disabled Maybe we're disabled in in some of some ways or forms But we have advantages in other forms as well, even though there are a lot of negatives that I've highlighted during and Explaining to you what it's like to be Autistic and what what what the experiences are like and it's it's worth to know that will be a lot more negative But that's not because of the condition or whether it's not a condition or not It's because of the the way that the the world is made and the world is not made for autistic people And that's why there was a lot of negatives to be an autistic Life changes a lot for everybody as we grow up learn new experiences and alter our way of thinking about the world So I'll try my best to explain What it's like to have these experiences as an autistic person and through different stages of life Going through like maybe four to eight and nine ten and teenage years I won't be able to do the one where I'm older because I haven't I haven't got there yet and hopefully I will be Maybe just look out for the video or be in the next three pretty funny years. You can see it So the first few years of our life are filled with a lot of complications But these complications aren't particularly for us. They usually happen to people around us Such as our carers parents Teachers friends, they're the ones they're the ones that have may have the problems because we don't generally Notice them as problems when we're younger and a lot of the stuff that is a problem We don't we don't really care that much because and even if it did affect us But we have we're so absorbed in our interests and and ideas and stuff at that age that we Seriously, just don't pick up on what's going on around us We're on a little little bubble in a little there little world because children don't really have the in-built Ability to empathize and put themselves in someone others some other person's shoes in order to feel how they feel we don't really grasp the concept of and People think differently to me until we reach a earlier on stage in our development And it's not just for autistic people. It's it's for people in general like children in general when they figure out They expect everybody else is in the same situation as them and in most cases a lot of the behaviors and ways of thinking are very similar to the rest of society, but when it comes to autistic kids and people on the spectrum those differences are quite vast and especially when we're younger and Which is not very very well aware of it and we don't tend to Accept that anybody else thinks any differently at age and this to a some makes it very difficult It's very hard to control and explain things to a child who has a completely different way of thinking and brain structure To the teacher or the parent a lot of the issues that arise at this age would only really come from Misunderstandings or complications with social interaction, but even if complications do occur between friends About certain social rules and concepts that maybe they don't get or some lack of logical thinking that Maybe a neurotypical child doesn't have at that age kids forgive and forget Generally a lot easier than adults. So these these things are a lot more superficial and don't really mean much at this age. We can also get very angry Annoyed or emotional about certain situations that occur generally because we don't understand them very well Typically these scenarios at that age seem very reasonable and usually have a lot of logical backing But they fail to include a lot of the behaviors and a lot of the emotions that other people have in the in the conversation and in in the situation and therefore they would assume that because everybody thinks like that and they believe that other people think like them as well and have the same sort of importances as them and Making a small criticism about their favorite thing may seem like a really big deal for them Which in in reality for most children it wouldn't be that much of a big deal the lack of eye contact The social differences and the social introvert Typically show themselves at the latest stages of this age going on about six seven eight You name it it depends on the person really also at this age We tend to focus a lot on our special interests And it really doesn't matter what else is going along in our life at the moment As long as we're absorbed in our special interest in some way or another we tend to be happy and But we also tend to focus a lot less on everything else and it can be quite frustrating for everybody To communicate with us it takes a lot longer for us to respond to our own name Even though we may be listening to somebody when they explain something and we haven't developed the social skills to show that we are So it can be quite frustrating. I've had many special interests and in my past I mean normally for most children you would call it a talent or just an interest But because it's awesome people call it special interests and my special interest was a lot of the time Pokemon and Which tend to hop and from interest to interest depending on whether I got bored a bit quicker or something else Popped up. There was all flashy and cool that I liked. We also tend to gravitate towards things that are very easy to understand and that are actually about people and characters Interacting with each other. It can be very easy to get upset about the differences between cartoon fictional reality social conversations and real Conversations because we do have a good grasp on the reasons and Ways and the the large Emotional facial expressions and body language that we can pick up on in those fictional realities that we don't particularly get When we're interacting in real life with the special interest. We also tend to branch out on a lot of our skills and knowledge about the subject For example, and I was very interested in the TV show Yu-Gi-Oh at one point which is about a card game and I wanted to get into the card game I wanted to play the card game they were bringing out new cards and I was like, oh, I want these So I got a few I collected a few and I wanted to play with them as well so at that time I was falling behind in my Maths and I wasn't able to keep up the class. I wasn't able to do mental maths as well as the other kids and But through Yu-Gi-Oh and I actually taught myself to I taught myself maths in order to play the the game and Do all the attack points and hit points and defense points and stuff and I Also learned how to read as well because you had to read all the effects and the descriptions on the cards So it was if it was Yu-Gi-Oh was a very and useful thing for me when I was younger Life can be very stressful for on an autistic person Because of the the sensory differences as well as the social differences so there can be a lot of stress from many areas of life there's Stemial eye and sensory things all around us all the time and there's people around all around us all the time and particularly our parents are always trying to and Communicate with us on a very you know regular basis, which we may not Be comfortable with and that can be a big stressor for us Especially when we're growing up these special interests are a great escape for those kind of type of things It may seem like we are very much Absorbed and involved in a certain task But it does provide quite an efficient way to deal with the and strong emotions that we get from Everyday situations that might not bother the average person because of our such diligent involvement in a certain interest or subjects and teachers can find it very difficult to teach us and specifically about things that we're not interested in and We do tend to gravitate towards stuff that we like which most kids do But probably to a lesser extent we do Therefore a lot of modern-day approaches to teaching people with autism is using their special interests to teach them about things about the world and Teaching things about school and knowledge and things that they need to learn which is great because of the lack of Social skills and understanding of situations There can be a lot of Troublemaking at this age a common misconception about people of autism is that we aren't interested in communicating and getting being involved with other other people and because of the lack of Social understanding that we have about things it can be very easy for us to fall into a state of being a class clown or an introvert or any of those kind of Different types of people which are less common in the the group of people that are in classrooms. This is because we base our life on Logical understanding of things and for somebody and they may integrate a lot of different behaviors and Understand a lot of the hormones and neurotransmitters going on in their brain to do other feelings and emotions and In built instincts and stuff a lot easier than than we can but we need to understand it based on Facts and we need to get our head around and spend a lot of time trying to understand things so in a classroom situation We may find it the best way to Make ourselves happy and make other people happy around us. It's to misbehave and make everybody laugh and Giggle and just generally to make a mockery of the class for the expense of people's laughter and it does make sense and Logically because why wouldn't it if you could do something that's very miniscule in order to get a positive response From most most the humans around you. Why wouldn't you do it? especially when you're your kid and you don't have as much mental capabilities you do when you're older generally and The time I was growing up There was there's a big story. There is still a big stigma around stimming which is the festive Maybe abnormal movements that Autistics use in order to calm yourself down and these kind of stimming movements become a lot more prominent as we start to go to school and As we start to get overloaded by a lot of the social and sensory Information that we're getting people and especially in my situation are taught to suppress their Stings in public which can be very harmful to us because you know how else are we going to deal with it but rather than acting out and Causing a mockery which is silly because stemming is such a useful tool that can use when you were younger and I Honestly wish that I had the ability to do it now in public because it's such a useful tool to have it's improved our quality of life a lot Lot more but because of the social implications the stigma the associations that people have with you know being retarded or being less intelligent or being stupid with Doing those kind of actions people teachers family Parents they tend to want us to suppress it a lot more. It is completely logical and it makes sense But it's a lot more of it. It's not a problem with the parents and the teachers It's a problem with the way that the world works at this stage abstract concepts like sarcasm become very difficult to grab grab hold on grab hold of you can know that is also a saying that doesn't really make sense sarcasm metaphors similes can be a lot more confusing for us than the average child Obviously children have a lot of time in order to get used to these things But these can persist for a lot longer until maybe about 1213 and These these types of behaviors and ways of speaking can be very confusing for us things like get a grip or That flew over your head might just literally go over someone's head, but not really literally because Literally doesn't mean literally literally It's a musky tone come here Doesn't look happy getting that one Don't forget to like the video Subscribe and if you want to find out more about my videos and know when they're coming out because YouTube's done a stupid thing and there are even your notifications Make sure to click that little bell in the corner of the subscribe button so you know when the juicy content is coming back out Because just smart not gonna let the bad Google people Google YouTube is