 Okay, we are live. Sorry YouTube. That's a bit of a slow start-up. Did you guys hear me? Okay. I hope so. I am a... got my my signature dressing gown on today. Oh my god. So, yeah. It is... it has been a, um, an interesting week as usual. You can hear me smackity. Good. Good. How are you doing? Oh, wow. A lot of people coming in. Nice to see you guys. How are you all doing? Hi. So it's been, um, it's been an interesting week. I had some some cancellations and stuff this week. So it's been kind of up and about and all over the place. Um, as per usual, nothing really changed there, I guess. But Yeah, so today, as per usual, we're going to be doing a autism Q&A live. So if you have any questions that you want to ask, anything that you, um, really want to get off your chest, ask about me personally, also about autism, then please go ahead. You're very, very welcome. And I welcome all questions. You can, if you're on Instagram, you can use the little question bubble thing if, if that would work. But hi. Hi, realaskeety. How's my elbow doing? Um, not too bad actually. For anybody who doesn't know, I actually injured it like recently. I did too many pressing movements on one day and it just kind of fumbled a little bit. But took a bit of a week off, started off pretty, pretty light this week. It's feeling good to some degree, even though it just clicked. Yeah. So not too bad. Hi, Joshua. We are back. It's very quick, very quick week. I will answer your DM if I can find it, Hawking. The best way to contact me is through my email hiatomsenly.co.uk because although I would love to reply to everyone on Instagram, it can get a little bit too, too much at some point. So that is the best place to go if you do want to get in touch. Hi, Jordan. How you doing? Joshua G. Williamson asks, how has your week been so far? How has your bank holiday Monday been? Well, the interesting thing about that is that bank holiday doesn't really apply to me because I only work like two days a week. So I work like Wednesday, Thursday. So I don't really get that bank holiday. So it's kind of just a normal day for me. But week's not being too bad. I've been mostly this week. Like I've gone through a period where I've had like a lot of rest at the moment or tried to get a lot of rest. And now it's just about kind of building my routine back up slowly. So it's, it's a work in progress. It has been so a joy that indeed. And it is, yes, of course, it is Gay Pride Month or Pride Month, rather. I'm actually, I've just had a chat with someone called Wilson, Wilson, who we were chatting all about kind of the kind of podcast that we're going to do together. We're going to talk about their experiences as a queer autistic person, which is going to be really nice because I haven't really had the opportunity to kind of talk about those aspects of autism. And I know that LGBTQIA plus stuff is very common for autistic people. So I'm sure it'd be a really cool episode to do at some point. Also just music as well. Very cool guy. So yeah, you were at me an email. Okay, I'll check it out. Hi, Livy. Livy says, first time here, I love your content. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. I'm glad you've been joining the live. It's so nice to take this off because I'm warm now. It's so nice to have everyone kind of join and ask questions. And it's, you know, I don't necessarily always get the opportunity to be as interactive as I'd like to with it, with Instagram, like answering comments and stuff. So it's good to have a place to kind of come and chat about things. Releska asks, do you have a dream job? Yeah, I mean, my dream job is just to do speaking and video stuff and podcasts and Instagram things. So I'm nearly there. I just need to make sure that I get it, like, to be my main thing. It's going to take time as with anything, definitely. Yeah. So just thinking about what I've done this week. Oh, I did a post on Alexa Fimea this week, which I have noticed even though I talk about it, an extremely large amount of times on the podcast and also in lives and things like that. I don't think I've ever done like a designated Alexa Fimea post about what it is and stuff. So I put that out recently, which, you know, I think it's good to talk about it. It's something that it's pretty much like the most transformative thing that I've ever heard about in terms of autism for my own kind of personal growth journey or to the education. So next week, I'm actually going to do a managing autistic Alexa Fimea thing. So I'm going to talk about the ways that I've navigated it and the things that have helped and the things that haven't been so helpful. So hopefully there is something, some kind of guidance or ways out there to kind of deal with that, especially in the context of like therapy and mental health and stuff, which I think is really, really important. The signature Joshua J. Williamson quote, yeah, staying hydrated with some water. Sadly, I do not have my water on hand at the moment. I've just realized I don't have live chat on my thing. Okay, that's fine. So stuff junkie 73 says, hi, Thomas, first time here. Well, welcome very welcome to this. I stalk with a view to help understand and help my nine year old son the best I can. He struggles terribly with anxiety. I had an ASD diagnosis two years ago. I'm really glad that you've found my content helpful. Yeah, signature, signature comment. Yeah. Anxiety is massive thing for a lot of autistic people. And it's kind of one of those things, I think with any kind of co-occurring thing with autism, that it's not quite exactly clear like if things are caused by just being being autistic or being a neurodivergent, or whether it's something that's social and environmental and something that we've experienced from the negative experiences that we hear about a lot with autistic people. There is some research that I've seen that kind of ties anxiety in towards them a bit more, but it's still very shaky at best. So personally, I feel like a lot of the kind of the co-occurring things like particularly anxiety and depression is something that, you know, it's going to be, I think it's going to be going to be a lot more likely for us just going off the experiences that we've had. Hi, how are you doing? I don't think I saw you on the last stream. Were you on the last stream? Oh, no worries. It's nice to have you on again, man. Hey, everyone's having a good day in Didi. Hi, Jolie. How are you doing? Yeah, you bought a flat. Damn. How was that process for you? As I said, if you've got any questions, just stick them in in the comments or stick them in the little question box if you've got anything. It is, it is definitely hot today. I mean, it would kind of be a bit more applicable to me, like in a positive sense if I actually went outside, but I use a bit of a hermit. Atoms says I had to fix some paperwork. It's very nerve wracking. Yeah. I think that's definitely, that the paperwork and like keeping on top of things is definitely like something that wracks my nerves quite a lot as well. Raila Skatey asks, how and when do you tend to tell new people you're autistic? Interesting. When I was younger, never, never used to tell anyone. Didn't really recognize it myself to be honest, and even though I was diagnosed when I was 10, but when I got a little bit older, I started to, I started to do it more, but it tended to be once I knew someone. Nowadays, I just just outright just tell people, like I'll even tell people within like a few sentences of meeting them, or I will make a reference to my work that I do, and then I'll ask me and then I'll say, I do stuff around autism and the conversation will kind of go down that line. And I think people will just be like, you know, they'll ask about they'll ask, oh, why do you want some stuff? And I'll be like, well, I'm autistic and kind of, kind of just pans out that way really. Aton says, I had to interact with people who were reading me, like emotions, what I think, the real estate agents on the seller were trying. That's, that's, that's interesting. Yeah, those kind of social components of like how people like sell you things. I found it really interesting because I've always had the, I don't know if you guys experienced the same thing, but I've always had the experience of seeing through like adverts for what they are. Like I know that they're trying to sell me stuff and they're using these like tactics of like portraying exactly the feel of the project or the motive or the meaning behind the project or the product, sorry. But I just, I just see through it. I'm like, I don't, I don't, it doesn't seem to be anything completely different. It's like a car. How can, how like movement inspiring can a car be? I don't know. Something that you drive just doesn't work for me. I don't know. It's interesting. Ikra Best says, Hi, new to your content. Very helpful. Thank you. Hi, Alyssa. Nice to see you again. Welcome to the stream. Emma Johnson asks, any advice on how to control stims? I find myself stimming a lot when I'm at work. I'd say that in an ideal situation, you wouldn't have to do that. But I do understand that some places can kind of stereotype you in a very negative way and not be so understanding about that stuff. So I don't know. You have different categories of stims and that there are things that I do in public and those things that I do in private. And that's not like, like an internalized ableism kind of thing. It's just that I, I realize and I notice and I get paranoid about drawing attention to myself. So it's more of like an internal feeling myself about how comfortable I feel stimming in a certain environment. But you have little stems and you have big stems, which the big stems are kind of these more stereotypical things like rocking or flapping your hands and things like that, which are very regulating. Nothing wrong with them at all. But people tend to stereotype them a little bit more than little stems, which are things that most people do. Most non-autistic people do as well, as a matter of fact, like bouncing your leg or playing with a pen or biting a pen lid or chewing some gum or snacking, you know, there's, there's lots of these kind of little stems that you can do. Or it could just be something like a fidget spinner, like this one, or listening to music. There's a lot of ways that you can actually satisfy your sensory needs that don't always include those big stems if you don't feel safe enough to do them. I'd really look through a lot of the work that Auti and El does. They do a lot of really good stuff around stimming and sensory drawing stuff. So I definitely try stuff out. You know, there could be very little things that you try, like I know that particularly for me, I really enjoy like acupressure rings. It's not something that I've heard talked about a lot, but that's really good sense of like proprioception and stuff, which really helps. Atsun says, talking about the buying a flat process, also opened up to my father, had to go through a long and grueling process of, of explaining that I'm not like identifiers, not, not what I identify as, but I am diagnosed now. And that I picked up his social manners to mask whilst I lived with him. How did he take that? That's, that's, that's interesting. I mean, I know that like my mom's always been very understanding kind of around my differences and stuff. My dad, not so much. He's not doing it in a like a malicious way. I just don't think that he can really understand and wrap his head around it and stuff. That's why he thinks that he doesn't think that you're autistic yet. I get that. That I think that's the experience that a lot of people can probably relate to. Definitely. Especially myself. But my dad's a great guy. No, no, no shame against him. Do you do any vocal stimming? Vocal stimming, sort of. I think most of the time I just like listening to music, so I don't necessarily like this. I don't necessarily like the sound of my own voice, which is why, you know, when I do my lives like this, I always got some headphones in listening to music because I find my voice when I talk to a volume that is audible to people or if I'm like presenting or doing podcasts and stuff like that, I kind of have to increase the volume of my voice and it hurts my ears. So I don't tend to do that verbal stimming that much. Although, you know, I like to do it like in tandem with someone. If it's kind of a fun thing, that can be nice. You do it quite often, yeah. You're welcome, Emma. My voice is lovely. Thank you. That's hard though, Aten. It's tough. Aten says, you chewed on me figuratively. You just have nothing better to do or think about, and so you made it up. Oh my God. Then it was you were consumed enough. DR UGS in your teenage years, and that is the aftermath. Yeah, that sounds sounds really hard. Yeah, people can be really harsh in characterising us. Like, I feel like everyone who, you know, because they have this kind of stereotypical idea of what autism is, and when you don't apply yourself to any of those, they kind of dismiss a lot of who you are, and then the actual identity that you have, which is can be really tough. And then you get people who are kind of like the opposite side, who kind of don't see that you have differences and that you have needs. And so like, oh, you can do everything. You're fine. You're good. And you're like, yeah, not really. I find that some people, they kind of oscillate between viewing you as, you know, someone who is neurotypical and doesn't, you know, doesn't have a spiky profile, and being just able to do everything because you're good at this like, certain area of like work or area of life that you're good at, that it's just the same all around. And then sometimes if you have a bad situation, they can think that everything that you do is bad and you need support of everything. I mean, you need babying and then finalized and you can go through you can go through people from from each side of the spectrum now, which is never fun. Am I a musician? No, I'm not. I would like to be if I had the time. What do you believe? What do people, what do you say to people who don't believe you're autistic? I don't really say anything to them. It's, if you say something to someone, if you tell them that you're autistic and they say, no, you're not, it's like, it's kind of like a conversation shut down for me. I just don't want to talk about it, you know, because it's I've had a lot and I used to kind of fight against it and try and convince people. But some people just have this, this really, like, what would you call like, there's a word for it. They have this idea of what autism is, and you have to fit into their idea. And anything that you have outside of that is just like, nope. No. Smicksy Smooth says, I love that word. Love that name rather. Do you find that rejects in sensitive dysphoria triggers social and other anxieties it does for me? Yeah, I feel like when you get, when you feel some sense of rejection, you can very much just become very, very paranoid about everything that you say and everything that they say. So I imagine that, yeah, it probably does cause social anxiety has done for me, I guess, in the past. AD as says question, my boyfriend is moving for the first time in over 10 years from his shared bedroom. Being him, I know it'll be very challenging to adapt to changes. What can you offer for me to keep an eye out? I'd say, obviously, it's always a very individual thing. But just just being aware of how it can sort of how that kind of stress and that change can impact other areas of life and just being a bit more understanding and perhaps aware that things could be a bit more difficult than usual can be good. Depending on the type of relationship and obviously how you guys are with each other, I think, you know, in some circumstances, it might be good to try and get them out of the situation for a little bit to do something that they enjoy, or just be there for them, I guess, just kind of ready to offer them comfort and safety when things are a bit overstimulated and changing as transitions can be hard. Because some more things from that, Tim. You are not challenged, son, you just have a vivid imagination. I haven't heard that one before. How does that make any sense? Oh, you have an imagination that you could think that you're challenged. Interesting. But you ended up on, okay, son, just don't open up to everyone. Some people will gladly take advantage of it. Dad, I'm 31, I can tell. Oh, Jesus Christ. Oh, my God. It sounds like an interesting interaction that you've had there with your father, Tim. Okay, Sean in Music says, I asked because my favorite interest is to analyze soundtracks based on color-coded synesthesia that connects to chords by certain emotions. Whoa. That is pretty cool. Do you have a synesthesia yourself? I don't know what the terminology around is, synesthesia? Maybe. Maybe. Sounds a bit pathologizing, though, doesn't it? Which it definitely is, and it's so cool. Speaking to you, I ever had the same issues. I already, autistic diagnosed my family, it's a tough situation. Being interested in now Instagram, Instagram is, do you have experiences with your family not being very understanding or being kind of not listening to you when telling them that you're autistic or neurodivergent even? Joshio G says, yeah, it can be quite frustrating sometimes, like if you say that you're autistic or disabled and they think you aren't because you aren't in a wheelchair. Yeah, definitely. I mean, it's not something that you can see. And I think that's something that a lot of people can't wrap their heads around. It's kind of like they just sometimes just forgets. Even when you have a friendship or a relationship with someone, at any point they can just forget that you are autistic or different. And it's a tough thing and you have to kind of keep reminding people. It's very strange. Sorry, I have to go. Thank you for your honesty. No worries at all. Stuff drinky. You have a good weekend too. Stay hydrated. You love synesthesia as well. It's so cool. Yeah, your mum refuses to believe you. Yeah, it's a tough one, you know. Girl from Planet Aspie, how are you doing? How is my mental health doing? It's actually not so bad this week. I've recently started taking Ashwagandha again, which is like this adaptogenic herb that's kind of having a resurgence. I actually stopped taking it because it was too expensive. But now that it's kind of like a popular thing, it's a lot cheaper. So I've just gone to like my protein and have ordered like six Ashwagandha tablets. And it's been quite nice. Been quite regulating, I would say. You got to be careful with that stuff though. It's not the most heavily researched thing. ADS says, thanks for your advice. Also giving you so much credit for doing this live because I remember you saying that you've had a difficult few weeks. Yes, I have indeed. It's been a rocky one. Definitely. 100%. Been some good things, been some bad things, you know. But I'm coping well with it despite. So it's not too bad. Have you been to Holland Barrett's yet? I've been there. These are some questionable things along alongside some good things. I have tried matcha tea, but it gave me a lot of stomach upset. Like I wanted to try it because I was very into Japanese culture at one point in my life. But I think the issue with me for any kind of tea or coffee or anything, it's okay. It's like, I don't particularly like hot things. So anytime that I can, I will eat something or drink something that is, you know, it's cold. I like to ice everything, basically. Good to hear. Thank you. Well, thank you for asking. It's appreciated it. Hi, Dan. Glad you like the YouTube videos. Welcome to the livestream. Hello, how's the weather out there? It's hot in here in Buenos Aires. Where is that? The weather here is actually, as you can probably tell, it's somewhat bright and sunny out there in the big, wide world that I haven't gone into as of yet. I don't think I probably will. I might try and get outside for like half an hour or something. I don't work to do. Can't be looking after mental health. Oh my God. That is sarcasm, by the way. Cat Lily says, my mum told me I was collecting diagnosis. I've heard that before. That seems to be something a lot of people say to us because I had mental health problems diagnosed earlier. Then when I confronted her, she claimed to be joking. Interesting. Well, they do say that sometimes jokes do show some shade of truth to them. It is weird though, yeah. Sorry, Steve. I've hopefully moved the mic closer. Is it clearer for you to hear now? Brie says, how did you get started advocating on social media platforms? I actually started doing YouTube videos like six years ago. It meant when I would start at the university second year. It's only recently that my Instagram and my YouTube has been like increasing in popularity because I wasn't always the most because of my mental health and because I had university in Taekwondo and stuff to manage. I wasn't very consistent and I didn't produce a lot of videos on a regular basis. So all posts really. So it's only recently that I started doing a proper social media schedule and getting stuff out there. I've been doing it for a while actually. Probably since perhaps since the beginning, maybe. Dan asks, I'm diagnosed HD and I have a lot of autistic traits, but I don't know if I'm on the spectrum or not. Do you know how I should go about trying to be diagnosed? It's tricky. I think it very much depends on the place that you are residing in on what the method is to go and get diagnosed. In the UK, you can pay for it privately, which can be expensive, but it's very quick in comparison, or you can get it through general health care, which is quite a bit slower, but it's free. You're not always guaranteed the most expert person to do the diagnosis. I'd say that just going by the fact that you are ADHD, there is a high likelihood that you might be autistic as well. So I'd pursue it. I do actually have an episode on autism and ADHD, and I do have a designated odd HD podcast coming out very soon. So I hope that that would be helpful. You can find all my podcasts and stuff in my link tree on my profile. What did you say is your favorite coffee? My favorite coffee is a ice latte with an extra shot of coffee. Ice stallion. I think it's close to Spain. That's cool. Draining hair in Oklahoma. Six for you. Although to be honest, I quite like it because I am indoors a lot today, and it can be absolutely sweltering sometimes when it's hot, not nice and hot. How do you do with surprises? I like surprises. I didn't used to like surprises. I know that's sometimes a thing that autistic people may struggle with. It is something that I struggled with when I was younger. My grandma didn't really understand about. I was talking to my mom on a recent podcast about how my grandma just didn't understand that I didn't like surprises. So she'd try and do surprises and she'd have like a meltdown and she'd get really upset and like, why isn't he like this? And you know, all other kids do and that kind of thing. But nowadays, not too bad. Not too bad. Cat Lily says about her mother. I think she was angry that I got diagnosed. She thought I should just self-diagnose and not get an official diagnosis. She doesn't like psychology. That's really weird. I feel like for a lot of people, it's kind of like the opposite way. Like people like would appreciate more if you like mainstream lay non-autistic people probably they'll be like, oh, you should get an official diagnosis, that kind of thing. That's quite strange. It's tough to deal with. My dad is the same. Some people can be very stereotypical, can't they? Abril says, don't you find doing lives on IG exhausting? Sometimes I find it difficult to do. I want to become a streamer or something like that. But well, I'm just scared of what people would think if I stim also. I wouldn't be worried about stimming on lives, like specifically on Instagram. If you have a community of actually autistic people, even if you do come across someone who's like, why are you being so weird? There'll be undoubtedly at least 10 people who are just bashing them for shaming you. But I can understand the worries around that. I think the reason why I find lives quite nice is because I'm very used to doing public speaking. I have a lot of experience doing the podcast, but that's kind of a recorded non-live thing. I think as well, like when I started doing this, I think I've done about 13 so far lives, like these lives, these all time streams. So I guess I'm getting more used to it. I think it's definitely one of those things where you've got to flex your muscles on, not flex your muscles, but practice, perfect, do all that kind of thing. I'm feeling a lot more comfortable doing it at the moment. And to be honest, it's kind of encouraged me to think about streaming as well, which is something that I've talked about a lot on here. I just need to try and schedule something in that I can manage on a weaker basis. But I love that. I think it's great. I love streaming. I think my mom is neurodivergent herself, and me getting a diagnosis means it's more likely that she has it. Yeah. Yeah, I can see that. Just doesn't want to face the reality. That's so funny. Hi, Alston. Welcome to Streamman. How are you doing? Oh, awesome. Thank you for the advice. I'll be psyched to listen to the upcoming podcast. Yeah, it's going to be really cool. It's going to be really good. Hi, what would you suggest about falling asleep easily? Good question. I'm actually working with someone to create a guide or a workbook around autism and sleep at some point. So that's going to be coming out. But it's interesting because we struggle a little bit more with production of melatonin, which is kind of like the sleepy hormone that you get. It's inhibited by blue light. So that's why you might see a lot of people who have night modes on the screen, like where it goes more orange or orange filters, or telling you to not look at electronics on a night. That's why, because it basically inhibits melatonin building up. And autistic people tend to have a little bit harder of a time with that stuff, and it's not so easily built up for us. And sleep issues are a big thing for a lot of autistic people too. I think I would try lots of different things, and I wouldn't be afraid to go for the more, I guess, non-conventional methods of how to get off to sleep. It's good to have a routine, but it's got to be manageable. And if you put all of this effort, I think, into this amazing sleep hygiene routine, it could work for you. But if you're like me, and the last thing that you want to do on a night is do this complicated winding down routine that takes up more spoons, you know, it's kind of a bit redundant for me. So the best way that I've found for me is a fan that helps me cool down, stay cool down for the night, even when it's this hot. And also, I will turn my screen brightness down to the minimum percentage, turn the lights off, put it on night mode, tilt it away from my head, or just not look at it and listen to some audio. You know, I find that, you know, I need to focus on something because my brain is just so such a focused brain that I just need to do something all the time. So like, trying to do a lot of the things like, oh, don't go on your phone an hour before bed just doesn't work, it just ends up making me more stressed. So you got to be nuanced about it, try different things, you know. Does taking melatonin pills help with sleep deprivation? It can definitely help you get off to sleep. Let's make it deep. I read that autistic people have problems with the melatonin totally. If sleep is a problem, distract your brain to keep it from wandering. Yeah, I suppose so. You know, if I can see myself in a lot of situations where I don't really have anything to focus on and I just kind of think about things and I think about stressful things and the next day and then it's kind of this whole thing. So I need to keep myself focused on something that's relaxing and doesn't have those kind of blue light components perhaps. Do I consider self diagnosis to be valid? Of course. I want to become a live streamer and Thomas is teaching me how to do it. Thank you. You're welcome. The thing is for live streaming, if you want to be successful, it's hard and I haven't tried yet, but I know from just researching it, it's very tough if you want to make it like a job. If you wanted it for fun, totally like go for it. Like it is really fun, I think. It's just that you just kind of start feeling comfortable with it and it does take a lot of time to feel comfortable, especially if you're live streaming about something that's very niche or you're just chatting or you're doing it about doing like a reaction to a video. I think if you haven't done that before, it can be very nerve-racking. So just get comfortable in front of the camera first and then get uncomfortable live. Just kind of out and about just doing lives, being recorded and just not having the time to kind of go for an edit and stuff because after a while you do get a good sense of how it feels and also it doesn't bother you as much because everyone's human and everyone doesn't put everything right all the time and they have sometimes anxieties and paranoia about what people say and it's just kind of one of those things. You just got to get used to it, which is tough. Am I sensitive to light? Totally 100%. It's tough. I have to strike a balance because I have two ring lights from each side. They're not very bright at the moment. I don't know what I've got them on, but they seem to help a little bit. But I think having, you know, being sensitive to light, I've got two options. I can either put them on really bright in light of my face properly, which could work, but then people can't see my eyes and, you know, eye contact and engagement is quite important when you do this kind of thing. And then the other side, I just have to lower it to a tolerable amount, which is okay when I'm doing recordings, but especially with lives when you can't just on the go edit the brightness of the video that you're taking. It's a bit tough. Dan Alex says, IG, it varies heavily from person to person, but do you think there's any way I can get someone on the spectrum to warm up to me? I'm really into this guy, but I think he hates me or something. Again, very individual circumstance, you know, if you are interested in an autistic person. Usually, most of them, not all of them, they will say if you ask them, we tend not to like that kind of weird, like a power dynamic kind of push pull feel to a lot of dating and relationships and stuff, because it quickly becomes very complicated and stressful for us. So I think trying to keep things, you know, just to invite them to do something, but also be clear about why you want them to come to a thing. And if they don't feel comfortable with that, then maybe you can just keep it kind of platonic for the time being until they warm up to you. You know, I would say that that's probably the way to go on things. You know, it would be great. I think in a lot of cases, if people just kind of were a lot more kind of direct and straight to the point with romance related things. Diana seeks me says, Thomas, are you a therapist or are you very knowledgeable about autism? Not a therapist. Not a licensed therapist. No. Wish I was, I would love to do that. If I had the time might be something that I pursue later in life. I really enjoy psychology. I mean, within my course, biomedical sciences, I did do a lot of stuff on the brain, which it's not necessarily related to behavior, but it is about like how the brain works. So I do have an appreciation of that stuff. And I have a lot of science media related knowledge about psychology and things like that. You know, like things like in depth kind of lessons that people put out on YouTube and stuff. I've done I've gone through a lot of those. Yeah. So we have about 15 minutes left on the stream. If you have liked it so far on YouTube, please make sure to give me a like helps a lot. And you guys on Instagram that I do have a on YouTube, I have members and on Instagram, I do have badges. If you want to support my work, always greatly appreciated with that. No, no, no pressure there. Just just there. Reliskity asks, how do you support yourself in the event of a meltdown? That's a difficult one, because inherently meltdowns are somewhat uncontrollable. I mean, it really depends on because meltdowns is a broad term. I think a lot of people have different experiences and ideas of what meltdowns look like. My meltdowns are very intense. You know, they just completely flaw me. I can't do anything. I can't speak. I can't move. You know, it's, it's tough. Then for other people, it might just be that, you know, you struggle to kind of get your point across and you kind of a bit all over the place and perhaps angry and, you know, but I think in a lot of cases, there's not really much that you can do in the circumstance apart from if you feel like it's coming on. And if you don't feel safe and you feel that anxiety rising, just getting yourself to a safe place or getting some support by someone that you, you know, someone that someone that you, you feel can adequately care for you and you feel safe around. Being old HD, it can be difficult to stop my mind wondering. Totally. Thank you very much, Austin, for the, what is that? Is that a diamond thing? I don't even know what that is. I think that's a membership maybe. Well, thank you very much, Austin. I appreciate it man. Ah, you're good to me man. Thank you. Diana seeks me, says, because all of your posts that you posted are super accurate on the symptoms and they very heavily have helped me rather than the doctors. I am very glad that I have been able to help you in some way. Makes me happy. No, well, I think it's just reflective a lot on the medical system, you know. People just don't, especially specialists even, they have a very small awareness of like new research concepts and they always have this kind of, not always, I want to preface that. A lot of them have a lot of outdated concepts of what autism is and they have a lot of very stereotypical views about what it should be, which can stop them from actually understanding individuals and giving people individualized care, which is really unfortunate. Austin says, my meltdowns involve me beating myself than having to isolate in the dark room, unfortunately. I get that. Yeah, that's something that I experienced, so I have experienced. It's interesting because my behavior when I'm having a meltdown tends to vary a lot. Nowadays, while I'm in kind of a calm, safe place in my life, they're not too bad. It just tends to be that I get a bit stimmy, get a bit, have quite a few physical ticks, can't talk, and just need to go and sit somewhere quiet for a bit. Whereas when I'm in a really bad place, it can be quite aggressive towards myself, not towards other people, but towards myself sometimes. It's tough. It's tough. Diana asks me, by any chance, do you know of any good therapists or doctors here in the USA? I do. Dr. Megan Neff from Neurodivergent Insights. They are brilliant. If I could afford it, I would... Well, I don't even know. I haven't even looked at the prices, but my ideal would be to have Megan as a therapist because she is absolutely amazing. Really, really good page as well to stay updated and talks a lot about the crossovers between diagnoses. It's very interesting. Hope you're all staying hydrated and have good mental health. Josh, you should be the moderator of the stream. I'm going to crown you the moderator of the stream. Ikras, can I ask what the badges are for? They're basically little things. It's a donation thing, but you also get a little badge next to your name until the end of this stream. It's more like a donation function with a little cool little graphic that you can have next to your name. We probably have about 10 minutes left of this stream. Kat Lillie asks, if you can't talk, does that mean that it's a shutdown? That tends to be something that happens a lot with shutdowns. Yes, but equally, shutdowns, I like to think of them as kind of like a protective mechanism for us. It's not necessarily that when we have a shutdown that it's a bad thing unless other people around us are making it really difficult for us and forcing us to communicate. The shutdown is characterized a little bit more around dissociation, around not being able to speak, perhaps not being able to process things as much and have that heavy feeling of just dissociating. It's a protective mechanism a lot to stop you from experiencing what's stressing you out, which could be the sensory or the social things or any number of different things. Whereas a meltdown, it's kind of like this expression where your brain just becomes so overloaded that you express these very, very intense emotions outwardly, and you also have a lot of difficulty controlling your behavior and processing things around you. They can be similar in certain ways and some people do go non-verbal during that down, some people don't. Shutdown is kind of like this kind of dissociative state that tends to happen before we have these meltdowns. The good thing about them is that sometimes they can give us an indicator that we're not doing well, so instead of having you shut down and being like, right, okay, this is really bad, it could be like, oh, I'm having a shutdown. Probably a good idea as much as I can to try and get somewhere that's not so provoking or implement some regulation activities. There's a lot of things that you can do, so if you have them, I see them as the thing that comes before the meltdown. It doesn't always happen like that, though, understandably. There's a website called NDFeripists, yeah, I would check that out. Good point, RolaSkeety. What helps me stay regulated? Work, focusing on things, and also flashing lights and massages. That works for me. There's a lot of other things, but I won't go into too many of them. JoshuaJWilliams says, do you think that it is an order thing that can be hard to describe certain things or topics? I feel like there's a very broad question. Could you be a bit more specific with that? SmicketySmoo says, I found that as I get all of my meltdowns are less and shutdowns are more common. Same, same. I think as well, you just get an understanding when you have those shutdowns just to be like, right, I've had these before. They're not that scary. It's also usually on speaking, which can be a bit inconvenient for other people, and sometimes for me when they pressure me to speak. But overall, it can be a good preventative thing to exit your brain when you are very overloaded. Like a safety nap, maybe. Do you have a website or something for her? I'd go with ND Therapist if you want to check that out. I think that would be really cool. Check that out. And also Neurodivergent Insights is on Instagram. If you type in Megan Neff, Megan, and then NeFF, she'll come out. Thank you very much, Joshua, for buying a batch. Much appreciated. Thank you very much. You definitely get unrecognized moderator status for your hydration reminders and your mental reminders. It's a joy to have you on the stream, Joshua, and many of us as well. No, I tend to say I've just found out that Russians cut down on YouTube. I have a lot of videos that I put up specifically shorts where I've had music on them that have been banned in Russia. So that's interesting. I tend to say, oh, I had audio hallucinations when I had intense social interaction with my ex that was trying to get back and I could not stop crying and shivering. I was afraid that I would throw a puncher. You had audio hallucinations. Is that during like a shutdown or a meltdown? How's my day doing? It's going well. Thanks, man. Appreciate it. I rarely say it says people used to call me out for spacing out all the time. Yeah. I think a lot of the time it can be like it's definitely a protective thing. Dissociation is an interesting one. It's kind of split up into two aspects. I won't go into too much, but definitely worth a look into derealization, depersonalization aspects of dissociation. Really, really interesting literature and videos and interesting things around dissociation. It's definitely something that I experienced a heavy amount of heavy portion in my teenagers. Water a man before I'm just you. Yeah. Make sure you are staying hydrated. Would you say it's an autism or ADHD thing? That is the reason why I can't describe things well. No. I think maybe if you're trying to describe things to people of a different stereotype that perhaps they don't have an understanding of and are experienced and they don't have the kind of same thought patterns, behaviors, processing, that that could be something. But I think in general, now I've heard a lot more nuanced explanation and descriptions from a lot of autistic people than I have of some neurotypicals. Not always, but I would definitely not say that it will affect you negatively in that way. You're welcome, Joshua. You have olfactory hallucinations. Very interesting. What is that like for you? Abril Gon says, how do you pronounce your surname? It is Henley. H-N-L-E-Y. Henley. Not Henley. I know that there is a shirt called Henley, which is like this buttoned one. It's interesting. Joshua says, yeah, most of the time it's to neurotypical people, which can make it flat slides frustrating. Well, there's your problem there. The communication barrier. But I would hazard a guess that if you were to try to explain the same thing to an autistic person or a divergent person that perhaps they would have a bit more of a appreciational understanding for what you're trying to explain. Because some people, they just don't have the ability to look outside the box and appreciate different ways of processing and understanding and thinking and feeling. Anyone who's different, they tend to be a bit more open-minded to that kind of stuff, I think. Same with like mental health. Like the people who are most likely to be understanding about your mental health issues or anything like that, they tend to have experienced some level of mental health or difficulties in their life. Aten says, whilst we were about the audio hallucinations, whilst we were talking she was shredding my heart to pieces. Oh, I'm so sorry. And whilst that sensation of being useless and tossing, I was getting stronger, I have heard someone laugh hysterically behind my head. I was on antidepressants, it could spank my brain a bit. Possibly. That seems very concerning. Have you gone to a doctor to talk about it? Or is that kind of off the table for whereabouts you live? Jovial John, 6906 says, I've learnt to use picture words like parables to describe things to people. I find analogies work a lot for neurazipicals. Giving them analogies about what it may be like. Sometimes people understand a little bit better. They like stories. Yeah, said that the pills made it more hearable. What? Interesting. Well, that kind of makes sense to a certain degree because a lot of the hallucinogenic compounds that we have act on the serotonin system. And the way that antidepressants work is from the serotonin system. So, could very well be. I'll have to look into that. It's quite interesting. Very interesting. As Dianne says, I want to thank you for your time coming on here and sharing your thoughts with me. You're very welcome, Dianne. It's lovely to have you on. SSRIs can impact visual hallucinations? That is such an interesting thing. I do not know why I haven't made that connection before. I'll have to look into that. Definitely. Josh, you do says, remember to go out for a walk or some exercise soon? Have you been out today and exercise and had at least 60 minutes? I'll close to it. I've exercised today. Yeah. Good suggestions. A suggestion that I have not fulfilled to this moment. I'm on a rest day. That's my excuse for not going outside and experiencing the nature and world and stuff. It's my very poor excuse for it. Got to save all my energy for the gym and lifting. That was funny. You like my stories. I'm glad. Well, it has gone past half past. This is usually where I switch off and do something else. No exercise excuses, totally. Good running off message from Joshua. Thank you very much for today. It's been very nice and entertaining. Love the weekly streams, Thomas. They are one of the favorite parts of my week. That means a lot to me. Thank you, Joshua. You need to recover. Recovery equals good. Don't know what that means, but we'll leave it there, guys. If you have liked the stream, make sure to like it. And if you want to go check out my other stuff, please, if you're on Instagram, go check out my pod. Maybe check out the coaching, consult and see that I offer other stuff all in the link tree. Go check it out. And yeah, thank you so much for coming to this stream. And I will see you next week around the same time, half past five. And yeah, take it easy, guys, on YouTube. See you later. And on Instagram.