 Okay, we are live. Oh, I wonder how many people say that at the start of live streams. How's it going, guys? How's your weekend? Well, week been. Got any from the plan this weekend? Oh, yeah, so, not all tea time, live stream. As usual with these things, it is a free-for-all Q&A. So if you've got any questions, burning questions that you want to ask, please use either the chat over on YouTube or use the Instagram little question mark bubble in the corner. That's the best way to go about it. So it's been a bit of a crazy week for me. A lot of, a lot of very, very different to me at the moment. But I'm pulling through, pulling through. Why is the sky blue? I have no idea. I think it might be some type of refraction from the sun. Hello, Austin. How are you doing, man? Hello. Actually, you. How are you doing? Armin Kapo, Armin Kapo says, are autistic people able to develop theory of mind? I think it's a very outdated concept, I think. But in terms of being able to pick up what other people are feeling, I think it is generally something that autistic people can develop. It's a big myth, actually, around autistic people not having empathy, because it's obvious that we do. It's just that the method at which or the ability that we have to understand non-verbal communication can sometimes be a bit difficult. It's something that I used to struggle with a lot when I was younger, but as I've got older, had more social interactions, done a bit more research. It's something that I've developed over time, I think. You're just at work for a half hour. Where do you work, Austin? Hey, Joshua G. How are you doing, man? Ross Strauss says, I just graduated from college last week after several years and a few semesters off. Well done. That is amazing. That is awesome. It feels so good once you're at the end of that kind of thing. It can often be quite a very up and down roller coaster type journey with those kind of endeavors. Great. Good for you, honestly. We're back and live. We are indeed. Bit says, understanding something and doing it are two different things. That's true. I think there's often a lot of practical and, what do you say, theoretical elements to everything. But there is some crossover between the two. You just got to use the theory and put it into a practical setting. I think one of the difficulties with understanding and direct communication is that it's very subjective and a lot of neurotypicals don't even get it right, the majority of the time. You hear about a lot of neurotypicals saying autistic people can't read the room and they can't pick up on certain signals and signs. I think in a lot of cases people have their own interpretations of body language and facial expressions and tonality. You just have to go to a group meeting and talk to someone after a bad or difficult or complicated event has happened. The range of opinions of what's happened and why is just so vast. I think over time it's been more apparent to me that I'm trying to seek out some level of certainty in direct communication that really isn't there. I think in some cases if it's a very important thing in your life, then I tend to do a bit more digging on it. I think in a majority of off the cuff cases it feels very much like you take it or leave it. If it's serious then do a bit more digging. If it's not then let it pass. It's a lot easier on your mental health in the long run. Austin says I feel like I have hyper empathy since I'm crazy when I see I was suffering. I don't tend to cry a lot just because of the meds I'm on. I used to cry a lot when I was younger. I do definitely, if I see someone who's not feeling good for any reason, it doesn't matter how much I know them, what they look like. I just kind of have this drive to talk to them. Going so far that when I went out for a very rare Thomas night out, I think about a week ago and there was those two instances where people were upset and I was just consoling them in the corner instead of just getting on with the party. It's something that I take pride in I think. I think it's severely lacking a lot in a lot of circumstances. Lisa asks do you learn to control meltdowns as you get older? My six year old son is very angry, aggressive ones. I think it's less about controlling meltdowns because once you're having a meltdown there's not really much that you can do. It really depends on the person. I think the most important thing around meltdown prevention is making sure that the things that come before the meltdown are categorized and logged and understood so that next time you can have things that are more preventative in place for them. It's very hard for us to get out of the meltdown without just kind of naturally falling out of it. So I know particularly for me things around sensory supports, making sure that I check in with myself about how overwhelmed or anxious I am, taking regular breaks, stimming, things of that nature. It all helps in the long run I think. Chloe says you shine a light on mental health and it's very important. I appreciate it. I'm really glad. It's definitely something that is an issue for a lot of autistic people. I think it definitely needs to be a lot more highlighted, especially in the mainstream media. Yeah, there's stats, man. That's crazy. Hey Tom, nice to see you mate. Hi Janey. You know my headphones? They are good ones. They got some good noise cancelling on them, Joshua. He especially interests his technology well. That's cool. I'm glad you're doing well, man. I have to, I don't know, I probably have to research what's the best way to go through chats on the live stream because I don't know, I feel very much that I want to respond to everybody and it leads me to like getting quite far behind on things. So you have to be patient with me on that. If you have posted a question or a comment, I will get down to it. Just know that. You have several special interests, me too. I'm not doing too bad, Joshua. It's been a bit of a crazy week as I've said. There's been some significant changes to my life recently. Some positives, some negative, some unexpected. So it's just taking the blows as they come really. But overall I'm actually not feeling too bad despite everything. Feeling quite confident and ready to kind of go out there and do my work and do some autism things. Maybe do a bit of exploring. I'm thinking of actually getting, because I've been putting this off for ages, but one of my biggest stings is like vestibular. So like vestibular being balanced. There's just something just totally calming and relaxing and as how special about things that involve movement for me. Like whether it's like spinning on a chair or spinning in general or roller coasters. A lot of people they find them quite anxiety provoking and like an adrenaline rush. But for me it's very much the case that it chills me out so much. After all I always have like the biggest smile on my face. You might have seen it from like one of the videos that I did on a spinning on the hoop. Actually you.com too. I like that name. I do have a lot of gut feelings but don't immediately recognize why. That takes time. A lot of autistic people have what's called a like safimia. Difficulty identifying and categorizing emotions. So that sounds very much like the categorizing side of things. Because if they're noticing that something's off, they may not know exactly what emotion it is. So it's always worth like doing some work about understanding how different emotions feel in your body and in your behavior and your face. Because that can be really really, that has been really really important for me. And if you're older and you're wanting to have a bit more of an experience. Sort of managing a bit more of an experience. If you want to manage your emotions a lot better, I definitely recommend looking into like the signs and like the philosophy behind the emotions. Because I think because they're so subjective, it's very hard sometimes to get a clear picture. But with science you can kind of have a little bit of that detachment, you know. So perhaps when I know it's not the most flawless theory, but if you like depressed, you might have low serotonin. If you're struggling to get up and get motivated and to do stuff, you might have a lack of dopamine. So there's a lot of things that you can look into that I believe provide a bit more of a concrete understanding of emotions. It's a very valuable thing to do. It's changed my life, honestly, especially with mental health management. Bit underscore 0011. Have you experienced FPV flights, first person video? I've been in one of those things that they have sometimes at like shopping centers or arcades where you're sitting in them. There's like a box that you go into and there's like a big screen and it kind of tilts and shakes, but it doesn't do as much for me than the actual thing, sadly. I've been looking into things to spin on, but it's very hard to find things like that for people of my size, which tends to be a constant throughout my life in different areas. Nodox says, I've been told that I have a stimming problem. Stimming? I'm thinking you mean stimming. And Docs told me that the energy has to come out. Yeah, although the energy does have to come out, but if the stimming is not harming yourself or others, I don't see anything wrong with it. I think for some people it can be a bit of a touchy topic because although I would love for everybody just to be stimming about whenever they feel like it. In some cases, you might feel quite paranoid or socially anxious and not want to draw attention to yourself. In other cases, people can be quite rude or aggressive when they see someone who's doing something different. So it's one of those things. I definitely look into the OTNL. At OTNL there's some really cool stuff around stimming and sensory joy and she has this concept called big and little stims that we talked about on my podcast. And I think that's a really good thing to look into because there's a lot of things that you can do, a lot of things that neurotypicals even do to stim and they're not so kind of out there. And then, for example, in private or in public, if you feel comfortable and safe enough, you can do your big stims. So there's more kind of stereotypical stims that a lot of people categorize as autistic. That kind of splitting up can often really help but I would even say that if I meet an autistic person who doesn't stim, I always encourage them to do it because a lot of the time it's been learned out of them and it's an incredible tool for emotional regulation. It doesn't need to be anything big. It could be like if you have some oral motor stimulation needs you could just be doing a bit more chewing gum than usual might help you out. You could get like a band or like a spinning ring that you can use. There's loads of options for everybody. It's just a finding one that works for you and because our sensory profiles tend to be different. The stims that are going to help us are going to obviously be a lot different. Hey Kifa, how are you doing? Welcome to the stream. We are all unique, totally. Josh, should we go in with the remember to stay hydrated everyone with some water? That's a good point. I'm not going to hydrate with some water. I'm going to hydrate with my... It's going to become a meme at some point. Just me having like a bottle of Pepsi. I'm so bad sometimes. I need to fill up my water bottle but my executive functioning points are like really poor at the moment. This week I've been trying to relax a lot more and I've kind of become a little bit too relaxed. I think I need to be a bit more on it than usual. Thank you for the reminder though. It is something that we can struggle with as autistic people with interoceptive difficulties. Not being able to tell when you're hungry or thirsty. Gets me sometimes and the bottle is gone. We'll get it later. Josh just says again, I hope everyone has been stimming and staying regulated today. Totally, that's another great point. Thank you Josh. No, underscore doc says I found that we are all in some way hypersensitive because we have worn the mask and our nature is to access a potential threat. Especially when I feel like it's hurting my child who is hurting. I don't really understand what you mean. Could you rephrase that for me? It might just be my head. You asked a question in the question box. I have seen it. Rose Tra says, how do you start becoming a content creator? I'm an odd HD and other neurodivergences and also LGBT plus. And I want to talk to people about these things and advocate for communities and other marginalized communities. It depends what you want to do really. I think if you're wanting to do YouTube, it's a lot more complicated to explain a podcast perhaps. I think for a lot of people, just simple text based carousels seem to work for a lot of people. It sort of gives you an opportunity to talk and perhaps not put too much effort into designing posts that you do. I'd really recommend looking into some social media channels. I think there's channels like Vanessa Lau or something. She does some stuff. Really helpful. Hi Angela. Canva is a really great place to start. I produce pretty much everything on Canva that's an image. And then there's some free video apps that you can use like CapCut, which can be sometimes quite useful for videos if you're wanting to get into that. But I think there's been a big push for Instagram reels at the moment and shorts and things like that. And I think that was a big push I think the other year. But I think in scrams trying to scale back a little bit and put a lot more effort into posts, which is interesting. But yeah, I just researched a topic, have a little page to go at the start and then give your experiences what it is, things of that nature. And just be consistent. Set up a schedule for when you're going to do it and scheduling your stuff. You might want to go for like a month and make loads of posts and then so you have got a big save bank so that you can just get out consistently and that seems to work for me. I hope that helps. Joshua G asks how's your mental health recently? I just got under 30k steps today, yesterday, because I got doing my Duke of Edinburgh on Wednesday and Thursday. Very cool. Mental health isn't too bad, you know. Despite everything going on. Still surprisingly calm, surprisingly positive and confident at the moment. How's your coordination, Thomas? Sorry about the random question, just wondering as I've got dyspraxia and I still can't tie my laces and tie it at 17. If I'm not thinking about it, my coordination is really bad. I'll knock into stuff so easily and people and my spatial awareness isn't very good. But with stuff that I'm practicing mindfully and I'm trying to model things that I see in other people, I tend to actually be pretty good at it. Just from my experience with Taekwondo, it's kind of the gym or swimming even. I think it's because I've always done a lot of sports even when I was quite young. Something that I'm thankful to my parents for because it's quite a big thing, sometimes some people. I think one of the sensory adjustments that people make in hospitals and living spaces is to give a bit more space between objects because we do tend to knock into stuff. I've knocked into many things in my life. Oh, Chloe. Chloe Lau, thank you for buying me a badge. I really appreciate it. I'm sorry I've only just seen it. I apologize. I need to figure out how to sort out the live stream a bit better because I'm just on my phone so every time that I touch it, it's just wobbling all over the show. Have you tried any of Sony earbuds or products? I haven't actually. I used to wear these things. The JBL Live headphones, the noise cancelling on them is perfection. Amazing, but they're pretty big. I had to get some replacements for the actual red bits. These are not part of it. I had to replace it and I've got some light tape. I only really use them when I'm in my office. The Sony ones that I've got on, they're pretty good. They've got good music as well. Thank you, Chloe. I appreciate it. I really do. Thank you. Marina says hats off for your advocacy. I'm so happy. Really glad. Why not fizzy water instead of sugary fizzy drinks? Because I'm rubbish. Yeah, please do. Please create me the Pepsi meme. That'd be grand. Content creator all about health and fitness always brings a bottle of Pepsi Max onto stream. Hi, Satire World, welcome to the stream. You're welcome to ask anything about autism, anything personal about the podcast, go for it. Just XFD says your experience really resonates with what I'm going through in my life at the moment. I'm really glad. I was talking to someone recently about what it was like for me starting on why I started doing my stuff. I mean, I don't obviously reflect on it a lot, but I was in a really, really dark place like in my early 20s. And I really just couldn't find anything online or out there that really resonated with me in terms of autism and in terms of mental health, to be honest. So I kind of had a picture in my mind that I wanted to be that person for someone else. It really is. It's hard because there's some mental health stuff like on YouTube and things, but it tends not to go too in-depth for or raw or honest or open. And I don't particularly like that because it just feels kind of fake and like big media sometimes. So you're just doing it because you want to get views. But obviously those videos that I make, those clips that I do, the podcast that I do, they don't tend to do as well. They don't get monetized, but I think it's worth it. Austin says it's okay. I'm into lifting, but I also eat too much cake and pizza. I do answer questions. I am having a look. My sound is off. Oh, really? Oh, Jesus. Okay. All right. We're unplugging the mic. Can you hear me now? Oh my God. Where did I cut off? Okay, the sound is working on YouTube. Good. Oh my God. Where did I get cut off? Hi, J-New. You're back. You're back. Oh my God. Oh, five minutes ago. No way. Oh my God. I am awful. I have no idea what I could have talked about. What was I talking about five minutes ago? Let's put this microphone away. Obviously I need to charge them. It would be nice if it came up with a notification on my screen that there was no noise. I'm not going to blame anyone. It's my bad. Yes, it's the audio on YouTube and Instagram. My microphone I use. Thank you. I do answer questions. Right. I can't. Okay, we're going to have any questions that you haven't heard me ask. If you've asked me a question, please ask me again. I think that's the best way to go about it. Please don't feel bad. I just feel like a spoon when I went to grab my headphones. Okay. I think I was talking about why I make content. Someone asked about why I... No, I was talking about why I make content. Yeah, it's... I was in a pretty bad place when I was about 22. I didn't really see much autism and mental health stuff and the stuff that I did see was very like big media and big tech and mainstream. It just didn't really resonate with me and I kind of wanted to be that for other people. Because I feel like it's a very... It's not like clickable and it's not like monetizable like perhaps other things that you could talk about. I think it's so impactful to just actually voice and hear people talk about it. Amaranth.i.g says hi from Spain. I love your content and your podcast. I find them very useful because I'm ND and so is my partner. Good, I'm glad. I'm going to do some more stuff around dating relationships at some point. Because I know I mentioned that I was... I think I might have mentioned on like a previous livestream that I was in a relationship but I am not at the moment. And I feel very much like... This is like prime time to talk about the experience of dating modern life as an autistic person. So I actually have some news which is really cool. I've been working with... Well, I haven't been working with that. To be honest, this person's done a lot of work and I've just had a call with them. And that's the most of it. But there's a creator on YouTube and Instagram if you want to check him. A girl from Planet Aspie. And they run like a really popular, really, really big Discord server about neurodivergence. And they've set up some different channels for me. So at some point I'm going to share it on my story and put it in my link tree and stuff. And we're going to have a Discord server, which is pretty cool. And they've been so good with helping me out with it. They're a fan of the podcast and it's really nice to chat with them. They're very lovely, both girls from Planet Aspie and husbands. Really great people. Really lovely. JustXFD says your experience regarding rejection really resonates with what's going on in my head at the moment. Thank you for your content regarding that issue. Of course. I think it's a big part of a lot of our lives. Especially if we don't know about it when we're younger, or even if we do, about being autistic. We do tend to get a raw deal a lot in relationships and public life and with people, especially neurodipicals. And it's something that we get sensitized to, I think, in the long run. It's something that I'm trying to work on a lot at the moment. There's a stage that I went for when I was younger where I was feeling very rejected by people and was very, very closed off. And I hardly spoke to anyone, let alone make videos and do podcasts and do lies and stuff. I just hardly ever used to speak at all. I didn't use to share anything. And then it went the opposite way. And then I was sharing too much. And I got too friendly and happy with people. And then bad stuff happened. So I kind of learnt from those experiences. I didn't kind of go, oh hey, maybe I should go back and be insular and not talk to anyone and not open up to anyone. But maybe I should be a bit more selective with the people that I choose to let in on my life in certain areas. So I think over time that's something that I developed. Whereas your daddy says being autistic, dating is so hard. It's true. It's true. I think what's great about the autistic community is that we do have like a kind of... One of the great things is that we're not all in one place. We're from different areas of different corners of the globe. But that can also be quite difficult sometimes, especially when you're wanting to find physical friends to go and do activities with and sort of get out there and a lot of the ways that you find those kind of things is when you do open yourself up and you get into situations like that and make new friends. And sometimes you might have a vibe with someone and might get on with each other. And I think that used to be the way of doing it. I think it's a lot to do with apps at the moment. And we know how fun those things are, not at all indeed. JustXFD says it's also came back to what I did in the past just because I didn't even know that it was a wrong thing to do. Totally. And that's something that I repeat a lot on the podcast and not on lives. First thing to do, first thing that you should do when you find out you're autistic, you gotta look back at your life and try and process all that stuff and frame it in different ways because there can be a lot of stuff that you have to deal with in life that you put a lot of undue pressure on yourself for and blame and feel bad about it. So that's definitely something that I highly recommend to anybody. Left to Scar, yeah. It does. I think as well one thing that I'm finding, well not particularly difficult because the only time that I've done it was, went pretty well. But like approaching people to make friends with people just out and about. I think it's something that it causes me a lot of anxiety because, you know, if I was to go to like an autism event or as to do like a podcast or as like to do socializing online or messaging people, people kind of already know who I am, what I'm like to some degree and what is a good topic to talk about. And I find that that's a lot easier of a social environment for me even if it's like a public thing like it's just out there. So, but when you're in like a situation where you're talking to someone who's new and who doesn't know you and, you know, trying to navigate that, especially when you're trying to find friends or you're trying to find a partner. That can be really tough. You can get in your head about it a lot and think that you've done things wrong even though nothing's wrong. It's very weird how that happens. I fit a performer actor for hire. I can't allow you into the lives because this is not a collaboration live usually. If you want to be a part of the next one just send me a message. I'll have to organize it beforehand if that's the case. Also, people on YouTube won't be able to see it so that would be a bit relish. Yeah. How are you guys over on YouTube? How's your day been so far? What are you doing at the moment? And you on Instagram. What are you doing? Tell me what you're doing at the moment. I'm really interested. Like, it's a bit weird for me because I know that's kind of the nature of doing lives and stuff, but I'm very much just like talking at a camera and seeing like people's messages come up. So it's not like I have like a window into what you guys are doing. So I'd be interested to know. Austin asks when you're playing games on YouTube live. Hmm. Not sure. I think I'll definitely have to sort of put... I think I'll have to think about when would be a good time to do that that I can do it consistently. I'm thinking maybe like a Thursday night. Um, lunchtime. Maybe. Maybe. I have to think about it. I am. I am. As I said, there's a lot of stuff going on at the moment. So you got to, I got to, um, got to think about it. You know, I don't, I don't want to jump in something and do it half-assed or anything. Anyway, um, people on Instagram live as well. What do you think of the new lights as you can probably see my. You can't see on YouTube, but my, I've got like a ring light on and it's got like a little rainbow thingy. So is that distracting or is that nice? I don't know. Uh, whereas your daddy says, um, is sensory overload only a neurodivergent thing? If not, do neurotypical people experience it at the same level as neurodivergent people? Everyone can experience it. It's just not very, it's just a lot more common for us because of different sensory profiles. Um, so usually we tend to have some hypersensitivities, some hyposensitivities, um, which can influence how we process stimulation, stimuli from our environment. So when you, um, when you have those different sensory profiles, it's a lot easier to be overloaded in the ways that you're hypersensitive, but you know, people can get overwhelmed with stuff. You know, I've, I've, I've heard many neurotypicals who have got overwhelmed in like a very noisy bar or, um, perhaps like next, next to a train line or, you know, but I think the level at which it impacts them is not, not so much. It's not as like present, I guess. Um, but it can definitely happen. It's just, you know, if it happens to everybody to the extent that it happens to us, life, life and the environments around us would be so much different. I don't know. Um, I'm thinking, thinking more, it'd be really cool because I've, I've realized that what, just to my knowledge, it doesn't seem like there's a lot of people who do like reactions within the autistic community. And I think it'd be really cool to, you know, watch some YouTube videos about autism, give my takes on it. Um, I think what the only, the only thing that's holding me back from doing that is that I know it's such a, it's such a personal subject for a lot of people. So I'd always be kind of walking on eggshells a little bit. But I could definitely try it. Um, because then it will allow me to, it'll give me a bit more sort of to go out and watch, um, watch some more YouTube videos about autism because I do a lot, I do a lot so much anyway. So it's kind of, sometimes I like to do stuff that's not related to that. Um, but it could be, it could be really cool, especially when I'm relaxing. Uh, you're into theater and acting, but stuck on personal problems. I relate. Um, just X F D asks, how do I start advocating about autism again? As I'm also an autistic and I want people to be aware about these things. Um, there's lots of ways that you can do it. Lots of ways that you can do it. Um, I could go into loads of them, but you know, to be honest, look, um, if you, if you go around and you look at some of like the big accounts, well, not even the big accounts, like ones have got about 10, 20, 30 K followers. Check out what they're doing. See if you can do something similar and put your own spin on it. I don't, you know, that's, that's something that you could definitely do. Obviously don't like copy people straight out, but use, use sort of some themes here and there from different advocates and make your own stuff. Uh, one of the accounts that I really like at the moment is called, uh, neurodivers. It's like a play on words with neurodiverse. It's, um, it's interesting. Um, always have a magic. I, uh, I just saw like the, the, um, the top of your message and it just said, I'm curious of how high. So I was just like, so what are you trying to say, man? Do I, do I look like that? Um, here's how high functional. I don't think we use that kind of terminology, but, um, people, people like myself. Um, uh, so how, how are these individuals affected? Like there are things that affect me and to an extent, but they do affect. Or I'm related towards, I don't know what you're saying. Could you, um, could you reword it for me please? Sorry. Uh, Jake Bolin asks, uh, got diagnosed with autism too. Uh, why is autism hard to cope with? I think, I think of autism as not being something that you have to cope with. It's, um, it's more of an existence that makes coping of other people extremely hard. Or other things. You know, plonkers in a room with full control over our environment. And what we do, we tend to be pretty good. Um, it's just outside stuff tends to, tends to be difficulties sometimes. And it doesn't help that not a lot of people understand it. And even if they do understand it, it's a very sort of myopic kind of very very glossed over view of what autism is from some organizations that they've heard it from or from like mainstream media. So it's, there's a, there's a lot of aspects to it. You know, um, I used, I used to think that way about autism when I, when I was younger. You know, I was like, I want, I wish I could take it away. Wish I could get rid of it. Um, it's, it's something that I've, I've learned a bit more about in adulthood. And, you know, it's a, it's a lot more nuanced than social and sensory difficulties. You know, um, so it's, it's, I suppose, you know, overall in terms of wellbeing, you could look in a lot of different places to look at sensory stuff. You could look at different types of communication. Um, you could make adjustments to your environment. You could, um, put adjustments in at work. If that's something that you feel like, would get, like it wouldn't get you fired because I know for some, some cases people have done that and got fired. So always be wary of that. Um, and there's a lot of ways that you could, you can do. I think one of the best resources that you can have is going on to Instagram and following a bunch of hashtag actually autistic people. That tends to be the, tends to be a really good, really good thing for a lot of people. Stanley and us, how to tell if a guy is autistic? Uh, you know, I'd probably have to meet him. I've got a pretty good sense for it. You know, I've got like, um, like a thirds, like a sixth sense, sense. A sixth sense. What am I doing? A sixth sense. Why am I, why don't we put in a T H on the end of it? Man, maybe I am high. Oh my God. I'm 29. Good. Adult learning too. Yeah. Autism. Like it. I did start using the spec that which I really like. But if I think I got a message from, from someone in the community and they didn't want me to use it. So I was like, okay, fair enough. Um, it's a cool word. Uh, just X F D says, how do you think if we had a friend who was an autistic family member in the household, how do, do, would they have a glossed view of how autism really is? I think if they haven't had much import from lived experienced adults, then I think that's, that could totally be the case. You know, that's, that's definitely something that happens. Um, you know, even go so far as doctors and autism specialists, you know, tends to be very glossed over myopic kind of view of what autism is. And they also have to, they also tend to have some really strange views that just are not propagated by any sort of medical literature that you can find. They're just something that they feel, you know, so you go, there's been lots of people who have got in contact about like going for an autism diagnosis. I think they've just given the absolute, this, this diagnostician has just given the absolute like craziest reason why they didn't get diagnosed. Just nothing to do with autism at all. Or telling if someone's autistic. Absolutely madness. So it's, it's very rife at the moment, you know, I don't know if rife is the right word, but as soon as we can get autism into the mainstream media, we can get this neurodiverse neurodiversity train going in society. Perhaps things will change. That is the, the, that is the dream. That is the goal. Hopefully. Could do. Always sever magic says, okay, sorry. I'm curious of how the people, not going to use that word, but autistic people are affected. Like there are things that affect me to, and to a certain extent, but at the end of the day, they do just affects me like someone with autism. I don't know if, to be honest, I don't know if it's it's my reading ability at the moment, but I'm not making much sense of words. So I apologize for that. But yeah, I might have to, to go over that a little bit. It's okay. Don't worry about the grammar. No, no issue. I just, I think it's, it's just something that's happening today. Hello from Iceland. Hello. Welcome to the stream. The aspergers are always referred to high functionals, and I kind of don't like it because people assume that we have no issues to deal with, but we do. Yeah, I'd agree with that. You know, aspergers is a term that's not going around at the moment, but it used to be, and a lot of people are diagnosed with it. It's on their medical records. But I think just in general, high functioning and low functioning labels, definitely not okay socially. I think it's really disrespectful to call someone low or high functioning because it diminishes your lived experience. If you're high functioning and it, it's, it's just a flat out insult if you're, if you call someone low functioning. I think in some cases, having some level of understanding of, you know, people's needs is, is important. But I think it's, it's very underrated just just how many things that we can struggle with in life and just how much little social support that we get from it and social understanding that we get from it. As autistic people, if, if we have that high functioning label, because people, people just label us as like weirdos or creeps or like, you know, all sorts of crazy, horrible, negative things. Just, just because we're a little bit different in the way that we communicate. And I know it's not, not so obvious to them unless we go about wearing a sunflower line, line yard all the time, which is a very good shout if you wanting people to be a bit more aware. That could be a good shout. I'm, I'm actually, I'm going to try and get someone on from the sunflower line yard scheme to talk about why they did it and how it's gone on. I think it would be really interesting. I think the term low, low support needs is better than high functioning. Yeah. Probably lower support needs. Definitely. Because that's just true, you know. And it's not, it's not related to, I guess, your overall level of functionality because, you know, I have support needs, you know, the perhaps not as high as someone who needs care 24 seven, but I definitely do have them. I think, I think it's, it's, it's good to use it in terms of giving people supports, but I definitely do think that people underrate just how difficult things can be for autistic people. Whether, whether they have low, low support needs or not. Still can be a really, really tough time and we don't get a lot of that. I guess social, social support and understanding that, that others might which can lead, can lead to us not, not getting the support and the understanding, as I said, nobody who isn't autistic, isn't an expert on autism. It's a good shout. I think it depends what, what like, what their title is because if they, if they're an expert in, I don't know, like some certain aspect of autism, then I can kind of understand to a certain extent, you're right, they don't tend to have the lived experience, which I think is incredibly important, especially now, just because there's such a massive gap between like the level of research and understanding of autism and like the experience of, as of autistic people, there's so much, there's such a big gap between those two things, and it makes it really hard to feel safe within the systems, I think. And also, and also, you know, when you're looking for support as well, you know, sometimes people can be very, very ununderstanding, they don't understand. Something that I've experienced, especially like through therapy and lots of different areas of life, you know. Marina Panfi says, yes, we can say that he or she, or them, need less support, or more support. Very true. I just think saying like something that it grates on me when people say like, oh, but you're low functioning or you're high functioning, like they just use it flippantly as like a label for people. Right, keep it on the sheet. Just say they're autistic, like why they need for comparisons, you know, especially in a social context, it's crazy. It's something that might be useful for like education and health and social care, but social context, definitely not. Austin says, I think mental health professionals with lived experience of what they speak about or work with people are the best, yeah. I think that that's very much true. Yeah, there's like, isn't there like a meme going around about like how most like psychology students are like some somewhat, some kind of mental health difficulties. I get that. I mean, I'm really interested in psychology. I think the primary reason why I was was because I was struggling and I didn't feel like people understood me. So it's kind of, you know, that came before I was struggling and stuff. Nick, then says, yeah, hi. Welcome to the stream Nick. Nick Haydn. Just X F F D said, can you repeat your response about my last question so I could get a hang of it. Sorry to be a bit annoyed. Could you could you post it again for me please. Could you use like the little message bubble, if he is a message bubble I can just go straight to it and say hello to you here. Welcome to the stream. Marina says I don't like when they say in my daughter that she doesn't look like she's autistic. I can understand that. Like it's another one of those things isn't it because you know what what is that? It's madness. I think it's just it's become like a very much like a gay malingo to like call people the strangest of things. Like even if they have no like congruence with like what actually autism is, they just use it for like a buzz word or a meme or something. You know, and I think that that muddies the waters of what people think like autism actually is to some level. Ignoring my sport needs caused huge burnouts at 26 only just started getting my health to full stats like the terminology there. That sounds really tough. You're 29 now finally happy. Good. That's really great. I'm really glad to hear. Amaranth says both my partner and I are gifted. So we didn't get diagnosed until adulthood. That doesn't mean we don't need support quite the opposite. Yeah, and that's that's a really important point that you bring up because one of the main things that was the take away from the podcast that I did with my mom is a really good episode if you haven't seen it already. We kind of went into my my life throughout the years when I was a kid and teenager and stuff. And what yeah, one of the things that came out of that was that school basically didn't do anything for me socially or emotionally because I was doing well academically or I was doing well in certain areas and that's kind of for a lot of people that can be a story that they have because school measure how well you're doing just based on your academics and whether you get into trouble or not not about how well you're socializing with people and how well you're coping emotionally with the school environment. That's another thing. I think that comes under the issue around the high low functioning stuff because you know they just undermine the level of support and level of help that you need even during the education system. Bless my dad for allowing me that support. Yeah, family can be really important really, really important. Jacque Jacque says have you ever had any negative reactions in attempting romantic relationships? Example complaints that they felt uncomfortable when talking to them? Yeah, definitely. Of course. I don't know if it's more than most people. I think I've had pretty good interactions with people. The thing is I don't tend to interact with people. People tend to interact with me because I just struggle starting conversations with people but once I'm in the flow of it and I'm getting to know somebody I don't know much of an issue because I'm very open and I communicate a lot about the ways that I'm different and it's sometimes it puts people off sometimes it's a curiosity and it kind of leads in something else but you know I think I've very varied I think, like a lot of people I don't think being autistic has been a barrier for me because for a lot of people they just don't understand it they don't understand it and if you're in a situation where you're with someone and you say that you're autistic and they go, oh no and they run away, well then screw them but if they stick by and they ask you questions they'll quickly learn that it's not this thing that they've really understood from life and through mainstream media it's something that's actually a lot more nuanced and different than what they expected I guess you're good at making you think that I'm functioning yeah not got on positive syndrome either that's good styling says I love being autistic I'd relate I'd relate it used to feel like a barrier but now it makes sense to me right I'll get to this question in the bubble I'll answer this question because I promise that I would and then we'll try and round up if you guys are on YouTube, if you've got any questions send them I'll try and answer a couple before we end the stream but I've got to go talk to go from Planet ASP to set up that discord stuff at some point so just XFD asks how if we have a friend who's not autistic but have an autistic family member in his or her okay so they're not autistic but they have a family member who's autistic would they have a glossed over view about how awesome really is or would they have a deeper understanding or empathy towards us as autistic it's very hard to know you know I think most people don't really understand it even if they perhaps know someone who's autistic it's not always like an easily like a list of things like whether they've seen I don't know some autism show or they've seen they know an autistic person it's not always the case that they're really in the know about things they can often have some very strange beliefs or assumptions about what autism is you know it could be that they perhaps understand it a bit more and they understand how to like interact with us or I guess how we work a bit more on a social level so it could be something that you know it could be a green flag for understanding autism but I think the world has a long way to go in a lot of areas of life you know so I hope that answers your question Austin says I'm a discord admin for a fitness mental health sub so would be willing to help out with the discord things if needed very cool I will mention that when I go and chat to them but anyway I hope you have enjoyed the stream so far and it's been really nice chat to you all talk about autism, talk about life really really appreciate it thank you to you all on YouTube for dropping a like on the video that really helps me out if you have enjoyed it make sure to give me a follow if you're on Insta or give a subscribe if you're on YouTube and check out the podcast you might find out that you like it so I understand if it's a little bit too much but I do have some shorter clips on my channel that are a lot more digestible and focus towards one topic and make sure to keep an eye out for the discord group community thing so you can get signed up to that and we can get on chatting in the community group it's going to be really exciting awesome getting lots of lovely messages in the Instagram chat alrighty, I'll see you later YouTube bye guys and Instagram