 Okay, we are live for another all-tea time chat thing live stream place How are you guys doing? Let me know how your week has been. I've got some good news to report I am feeling a little bit bad this week actually and my effective function seems to be somewhat returning to some degree. Hola amigo. How are you doing? Hi the autism way. Welcome back to the stream. Just letting you know guys I usually with this I both stream on YouTube and Instagram so if you if you can't see some of the messages that people are sending that's why you're just relaxing good that's what you need for the end of the week. Yeah I mean it's it's been pretty chill for me at the moment which I'm I'm quite happy about I've actually like managed to get some some posts written some things and some new stuff that I'm going to release next week so it's going to be exciting new stuff. Hello wandering frame I'm feeling all right we're not all right but I'm better than I was last couple of weeks which is always always good. Yeah it's not being too bad so with these streams just for anybody who is new it is an opportunity to ask anything autism personal mental health self-improvement related that you want to ask me you may have noticed that my my beard has been shaven slightly for anybody who is keeping up to date with the live streams so yeah you can either use the chat function or you can use the just the the comment section below if you want to ask any questions over on YouTube you know what to do is there a statue of me at the wax museum no not yet I'm working on it now I'm gonna get up to that point I think they you're thinking about the madden two swords thing it's actually quite cool actually I did an event with the people who do these t-shirts my t-shirts they're called born anxious and they invited me to this like model modeling runway catwalk kind of event where I got to kind of walk the catwalk and got to meet Harvey Price and we did some stuff together I chatted to him a little bit which was really good and afterwards they gave us madden two swords gave us some free invitations which for me not necessarily free because I had to travel to London but it was it was a good experience. Armin Kapo says tell me about the story that you've posted recent doing some kind of seminar or something uh seminar oh um oh you mean the story that I did now that was just one of the pictures that I took at madden two swords a while ago I didn't want to take a selfie because I did I sometimes I'm not in the mood to to do them you know I'm Valeria Mortensen asks did you have a speech delay when you were a child sorry if you had this question for if it's too personal no no worries personal questions are all good here um I did not have a speech delay I actually was to some degree quite hyperlexic when I was younger um I know that both of them can occur in in conjunction but for me definitely was the case with that I'm just wondering guys over on youtube can you hear my audio because it doesn't seem to be propping up very much on my screen yes okay good thank you john um osanway says hope you get a wax figure yourself one day hopefully I have to get to a to get to quite a high standard I think before that kind of thing happens which is my favorite city in england city wise I'd probably say York it's quite close to me you know I live in off Yorkshire it's a really cool place it used to be like a Viking fortress place so it's got still got like the the outskirts of the the walls from from the viking era up so you can you can like walk across them it's quite cool quite cool good thank you smickety smoo how are you guys doing over on youtube how's your week being yeah york's great they have a viking museum there as well it's pretty cool pretty cool um so what I'm thinking I'll give you a little bit of a sneak preview on what is going to be occurring next week in terms of content I'm very excited about it I'm going to be talking about I'm going to be producing a full guide on going to the gym as an autistic person I'm going to be talking a little bit about selective me selective mutism and I'm also going to be looking at this idea of perservation which is a very new concept that I came across recently as well as kind of sensory seeking this sensory avoidant behaviors so we're going to kind of dive into some of the terminology around it some of the misconceptions around it things like that there's a few like other kind of of my normal posts you know when I just have one slide with lots of different pictures on it got a few of those um that I'm going to do and uh yeah I don't know I mean I'm kind of feeling at the moment like making making my memes is probably not like the most um fun thing for me at the moment I'm finding quite like a task to like force myself to think of something funny so um I might be kind of reverting maybe having a look at some of the memes that other people created and credit them on those days instead of creating my own for a while just until I get my spark back for doing them so yeah yeah awesome way asks what's your favorite sweets or cake oh I mean there's a lot there's a lot and they tend to vary so I have a really bad habit of finding something that is really tasty and I really love it and then consuming way too much of it in a very short bit short space of time and just not liking it anymore um so I tend to have things like that one thing that's being consistent is these like these jelly top milkshakes that you can get from places near me it's pretty cool really really tasty you can also get them in skittles as well I mean that they're just packed full of sugar but they are the most delicious things um in terms of healthy things I do actually have a drink if our hydration manager is in the building today which is not from a two litre bottle of Pepsi so um I've got some got some of this clear whey protein I don't know if you've tried it before it's not a sponsor it's just it's like it's it's the same as normal whey protein it's just it's not milky it's kind of nice and juicy can make it into lollies and stuff or popsicles if you're from the U.S. Armand Kapoor says uh suggest some books for cognitive empathy I'm extremely low in this area um I don't know any suggestions in terms of books I do have some posts if you want to go check them out and also some stuff over on my youtube channel that you can check out if you want to um if you just go on my channel and or search my name and cognitive empathy I probably there'll probably be something on that there's also a podcast episode that I did with um uh Simon Byron Cohen around the whole spectrum 10k thing but we also talked about adaptive and cognitive empathy so this stuff on that as well um I wouldn't be able to suggest any particular books um around it I'm not much of a reader actually I'm more of a um what's it I like audiobooks those are cool those are cool uh luke point tons of autistic battle brothers to join my discord um maybe I think you might have spotted autistic wrong there or else you know if you that that reminds me as well if you want to go check out my discord page the community it is in my link tree if you want to join talk to other people meet some people um it's already a bustling community over there already it's mostly german uh but they know a lot of them know english as well so it's a very good community over and it's it's called plada aspy let me go check it out what's that for software do I use for editing means and videos uh final cut for for videos canva for pretty much everything else um some of the reels that I do I use cap cut but yeah do you get a specific cake for your birthday yeah usually um victoria sponge because I find cake very sickly which is weird because I love sugar I just ended up eating too much of it have I been to Germany um I have been once for a um taekwondo competition I didn't like go for tourism or anything it was this basically like with taekwondo you have like ranking points and depending on how high up the competition is depends like how many ranking points that you get and this was like a my first it was like g1 that's the lowest one that you can get and get ranking points g2 is like up there and then I think g3 and then there's like the worlds and and things like that so it's my first time doing that I sadly didn't get any ranking points from that I think I came like fourth so I didn't I slightly missed out on it um I didn't get to see much of Germany we never did whenever we went away to to travel and compete bernard sammi asks are you a gamer if so what are your favorite games to play um I am a gamer at heart in my soul when I have time when I'm not doing other things um I tend to play very idle games on my mobile but um one game that that has been consistent for me has been at the moment is pokemon go that I'm playing a lot of but I used to play a lot of um old-school runescape which um can be a bit of a hit and miss for me because I can get a little bit too um addicted on it sometimes so I've got to be careful um but even with that I just used to do like very mindless stuff just because it gives me something to focus on like in the evening that doesn't require too much brainpower this helps me kind of regulate and relax I think when it kind of bleeds into other areas of my life it's it's it's a bit of an issue um I'm actually going to do a podcast with uh Patrick Cassell from all things private practice we're going to talk about autism and and addiction and uh gaming is going to be part of that so it's going to be uh it's going to be a good episode because there's a lot of crossover between autism and addiction whether it's gaming gambling uh any kind of illicit substance um there seems to be a quite a big crossover that um neurodivergence in general particularly like ADHD and autism I would say do you have animal crossing I do have animal crossing um I actually I was talking to um I'm going to London Pride this weekend so I'm going to go tomorrow I think for a little bit time I'm gonna get I have to get up very early in the morning to go but I'm going with a fellow creator who is mostly on TikTok but um she also uh started like an Instagram account and is trying to grow it she's called um Adelaide say well um so we're gonna it's gonna be good um it's gonna be my first proper like travel out and travel a long way and do something kind of thing so it's a bit nerve wracking but I think overall I feel I feel like it's it's it would be good for me to get out and and do something after a couple of weeks and not being able to do much yeah uh Adelaide says hey Tom hope you're feeling okay this week uh um I I'm nearly back to normal I wouldn't say if normal is okay but I'm a very depressing person I Jesus very negative uh yes not too bad feeling better so for anyone who is following on my youtube uh you may have noticed that I have done an actual full livestream like I like I promised um so I sat down for about three and a half hours and we went through content over on youtube uh whether it's from use we watched a lot of stuff around autism of course um I kind of reviewed and gave my thoughts on on a few videos as well as a few topics went really well there's a couple of clips over on youtube that are already up and I'm gonna put some more from that um out next week um I'm gonna try and get get and do some streaming um possibly next saturday like a proper proper stream um so if you're interested in that you know my youtube's always in the link tree and stuff um you guys on youtube you'd be fun are you going to wear any rainbows to pride um I don't actually own any rainbow clothing I've got a very uh monotone wardrobe mostly black not gonna lie but um I will be adorning my my face with all sorts of glitter and and items which is gonna be very fun um I've been to a pride before I went to uh one in Leeds I went to one in Manchester so I'm gonna go one um soon uh I have I have quite a few um well I have some family members who who are at LGBTQIA plus and um yeah I think it's they're they're very close to me and I think it's definitely a um something that I want to to go to and and show my support and such so it's gonna be good it's gonna be good gonna be fun um yeah hopefully the noise won't be too bad I'm gonna try and uh make sure that I take all of my sensory support items with me whether it's um my nose cancelling earphones make sure that they're all charged up um try and make sure that I get an early night of course because I'm gonna be up early to uh travel to the other side of the country um but yeah it's it's gonna be cool your god god says uh yes I prefer black too but any bland color is fine as long as color isn't bright well you could you could maybe think of it but my current t-shirt it's black it could also be the darkest shade of every color of the rainbow in one uh Parfraj says uh hi I'm from India my son has uh five percentage um he has his idea is a high IQ cool have you got any questions around that I think there was a comment from the autism way which I missed I'm gonna check that out in my comment on your last live I meant uh which type of autism do you have um it's not it's not really um there isn't really types anymore I'm gonna check my window because it's a bit some some people walking by um I'm a class well I am diagnosed it's on my medical records as aspergers but it would be ASD1 now with the the new um diagnostic statistical manual Luke Pointon says uh why are you a traitor to autistic people from points enraging dating normies not supporting my group not supporting autistic people I I don't know what you mean Luke Pointon I I don't have you know I don't see the world as a battle ground in that way I think in some on some fronts definitely it's something worth um conversing and talking about but you know I have people in my life who are autistic ADHD people in my life who are neurotypical I mean my mom's neurotypical and you know I think that it really depends the success of the relationship really depends on the people who are in it and whether they're compatible whether they communicate um and also whether they're aware of the differences that they may have between each other and and actively try and work on it so I don't necessarily think that we should be like selectively meeting with each other I don't think that would be a betrayal at all um I think that's it's a bit yeah it's a bit narrow-minded I think in that case um my close area of a black or rainbow yeah so we're gonna ignore um Luke because we don't like this kind of chat um Parfra says he's not paying attention in school I'm worried about his future he's four years old and that that's that's actually quite an interesting thing because when I was around that age I was very hyperlexic and I was very good at pretty much like all of the areas that I would go to school to learn things but as soon as I went into school like my abilities in all of those areas just dropped and it was because of this ocean environment and the sensory environment so I'd really say like make sure that you know um that they have their sensory supports make sure that they try and encourage them to to find some stimming methods that might help um talk with the school make sure that they're allowed to wear um sensory adjust adjustments um if not you need to you know try and get that that'll be things like noise canceing headphones um um what do you call them uh indif it defenders earbuds things like that I think that would definitely help me it might it might help um and also you know I would try to find some groups that they can go to perhaps outside of school where they can sort of um being being invested in in an interest that they have and find other other kids that they'll be able to get on with um I'm I'm not I don't tend to specialize in sort of children and sort of tend to be about um the um autistic adult kind of side of things but I I hope that helps my uh my mother is much much better at that kind of thing the whole to says I can't believe how soothing is to hear you talk about this and be real but relaxed uh you mean about the um the dating thing you're doing a great job don't worry about like no it's all good it's fine I get it I get it it's no no hate from my side uh autism way says do you not you're a visionist yes I do I do not follow it though I don't sense I have a really controversial opinion about live music that I have I've had like a full conversation with my my dad and his wife about um I think um my dad's very much is about like the experience of going to live music and like hearing people play it and and sort of experiencing it I'm very I'm kind of a little bit the opposite I actually prefer to listen to music on my own I don't tend to go to a lot of festivals or you know like events uh if it's a sit-down thing and it's just like one artist that I can just listen to then it's it tends to be good like I wouldn't see evanescence or like listening to some really like powerful like strong vocalists I think that could be really cool um but uh no I like the highly produced versions of songs which is a very unpopular opinion I understand about life in general sure well I think it's it's good to be open and talk about stuff you know it's um I don't you know it's it's not something that I shy away from I guess it's uh I think I think that there can be a lot of topics that um can be sometimes quite nervy to talk about for myself or require me to kind of take a step back and think about it before I say it but most of the time now it's um I have a lot of chats on my podcast different people about different opinions and experiences and I think it's more or less helped me kind of solidify how I how I think about things I guess and feel a bit more confident about it Jatlad said the wonderful thing about raising awareness acceptance in education is showing your typical people not to fear autism so gen so relationships are not being exclusively autistic are wonderful things yeah and I'd say that I think there are a lot of struggles um generalized struggles from both sides and of course not everything is down to having a different neurotype than your partner and um I think um it's it's it's interesting that this has also come up as well because the next podcast is going to be out on Monday as mine with Mona Kay who has a very very long-standing podcast all about autism and relationships or neurodiversity and relationships she's kind of speaking with her friends about the different experiences that they've had from like the neurotypical angle but they are absolutely amazing with like understanding or like wanting to understand and communicate better and have relationships with autistic people so it's it's really good and it is I actually got quite a lot of insights from from her so it's I mean it's a lot you know um there are also going to be difficulties I mean if if you're different someone is always going to be some some and some people it might be intriguing it might be different in a good way some people might not be um and some people might just not want to believe that other people have a different point of view or different like perception and way of being than them yeah so there definitely used to be a lot more about all awareness acceptance education um to make sure that these relationships can can flourish and they'll get bogged down by the communication oh I'm sorry Alston your your message was covered by my my camera wire how are you doing man how cute do you think pandas are what is the cutest animal in your opinion pandas are cute I've seen a panda before it was um in a zoo in Thailand I wasn't I wasn't very happy about like the conditions I had to be honest but um I have seen one it was pretty cool it just kept like flipping bamboo over and over again it was funny rolling about and all that uh cute this animal um I like rats I know I would like to have a rat as a pet um I really like them um Olgae Britain says autistic people are the best ones they are the future brilliant minds they are a part of the future I would say definitely um if if our systems fully support us and include us and all that lovely stuff sure um I think but I think there's a lot of people with a lot of ump untapped potential who have a lot of strengths a lot of skills that they are not being able to realize in a way in the working world um um definitely needs to be more more of that it's it's kind of weird because a lot of organizations that I've come across they kind of treat employing autistic people like a charity effort like they're doing them a favor by employing them but if they were to actually integrate them put the adjustments in place um get get them to to to contribute to discussions about the business and about projects and products and things like that then I think that would be absolutely amazing like seeing patterns and things and being able to um provide a different lens to um a business it's obviously going to be like a great asset to the organization I don't know Sam Rider who who is that uh Eagle Gods uh O3O3 says uh while on top of the music my tastes are much more selective I'm more of a classical person Beethoven and Mozart I do a like a little bit of classical I think usually my go-to relaxation music tend to be like lo-fi if I just want something on in the background but yeah Bree says that are you feeling any better Tom? Eh not too bad better I would say better yes let's be positive ah I had rats the name was Albus and Norman I like the name Albus a singer who represented the UK last year oh is that at the Eurovision thing that you were saying about cool cool I'm assuming that that little heart was you I don't know it doesn't tell me like who sends the hearts it just it's just like an enormous heart that props up um yeah uh you guys on YouTube uh if you've got any questions for me that you want to ask you're very welcome to ask don't hesitate I won't call you out if you don't if you don't want me to um yeah as you can see possibly on the um the outside of this I did I did not choose the the best bottle to put this whey protein in it's kind of a bit um dusty dusty powdery Bree says any step forward is positive totally and it's it's difficult isn't it we're meant off because you know inherently kind of gravitate towards the negative so but being able to see the positives could be a positive sign in a way uh jealous are you playing any new video games to chill out to um I've just got some really boring mobile games that I play um that don't require much skill that I that I play to chill out I've also um used um I've also started playing RuneScape again but I've I've been doing like the mindless tasks on it which has been really good for me especially when editing my podcast because I can kind of let it go let it fly and do its thing while I'm uh away editing and listening to something um it's it's quite hard when you have to like you know because it's not like I just have to record it I have to like go through and edit it and check it and make loads of notes about where things are so that I can go and make the shorts and stuff like that so um it's it's quite a long process and uh although I used to cringe at my listening to my own voice it's not too bad anymore it's I've kind of got used to it some degree but yeah yeah so um RuneScape I think at the moment I think they brought out like a new event I think that you could do where you cut down trees so I've been doing that been cool been cool um I'm also gonna do a bit next week I'm gonna do a bit of um my my commentary posts where I provide like a stat and I talk about them one of them is um autistic people passing away 16 years earlier on average um to neurotypicals which is obviously horrific why why is that happening um obviously there are reasons to it mostly around negative life experiences and lack of support and also about um social isolation which I think is definitely a big issue um at the moment your voice is like beautiful music thank you very much Rela's Katie you always follow compliments much appreciated boosting the old self-esteem uh editing is the most rubbish part of being of having a podcast for sure I agree yeah it's it can be very irritating um that's gonna probably if I get to a point where I'm earning enough money from doing podcasts and YouTube stuff then I am definitely going to um uh going to try some what me I just saw a message from smith katee smith what was I saying yeah um that I think the first thing that I would do if I was earning enough money from it is I would buy someone to buy someone I would hire someone to edit for me um because I find it really it's a lot smith katee smith says um are you going to pride in London tomorrow I am actually going to pride in London tomorrow you are right and I'm getting with Adelaide Saywell who's a tiktoker neurodivergent tiktoker recently diagnosed about month ago it's cool with autism um how do you deal with social anxiety that is if you have social anxiety I know not all all of us feel it um I don't necessarily get social anxiety sometimes I do if I if I'm a bit out of practice like I haven't really talked to people a lot um and I've been quite isolated it tends to you know I tend to be a bit rusty with the old social skills but um no I find it quite um I'm quite an extra extroverted person weirdly I just have a very low social battery so it's um I really want it I really want that social interaction but I can't always manage it and and sort of process it and such so but yeah um I think the most the thing that I would most find difficult is like the sensory experience of going there obviously there's going to be a lot of music and a lot of colors and a lot of um things going on and also there's going to be a lot of crowds and people and when you're when you when you're six free and you have my build it tends to be that like everyone just pushes by you all the time um it's um which is probably the least and the least comfortable part of it I would say. Were you diagnosed at your young age or later in life? Diagnosed at um 10 was told was told when I was 10 as well um I only really thought of that as social and um perhaps anxiety perhaps sensory issues up until the point where as 21 I actually researched into it myself learned about the experiential angles of things yeah do you have any favorite podcasts um I doubt I if you mean my podcast episodes or other podcasts because I think in terms of other podcasts I I just listened to a very chilled laid-back podcast called the Triforce podcast which is like fingers an offshoot of the guy who runs uh the Yog the Yogscast thing it's called Louis Louis Brinley and he him and a couple of others of his gaming streamer friends do this podcast it's funny it's really good I like it I don't know if it's to everyone's taste but it's it's very very good for me to have it on in the background um The Holder MX asks uh how do you deal with burnout when life keeps throwing things up at you um hmm uh asserting boundaries is important um and it's hard and it's something that I've been trying to learn how to do a bit more so I've I've you know being just you know just generally having a bit more of like a caring attitude towards yourself like like you someone that you you are supporting in a in a way so um the burnout tends to be that I try and take a step back from most things that I can take a step back from perhaps do some stuff that regulates me a bit more things like that um I think the issue with burnout for me is less about being in it and knowing what to do and more about noticing that I am going for a burnout because it can kind of prop up on you especially if you're lx phymic um over a long period of time it can just kind of build up and it can get to a point and you're like oh you know I suddenly lost all of my executive function and I feel very stressed you don't have the isolation mode I just study and train studying and trains good what do you train do you do um bodybuilding do you do martial arts cardio June says uh how did you get out of social isolation mode after being overwhelmed um I think it's it's about um not exposure for it it's like great graded exposure to things like perhaps the thing that I shouldn't do is go out with a group of friends to an event um after being isolated perhaps I should start video calling with people or start with texting and then audio and then video and then meeting somebody one to one talking to them and then perhaps going and doing something like that um I think when you have been isolated for a while or you're meant half being bad or you've had a burnout I think it's it's good to be a bit more wary about your your mental health um and making sure that you are adequately resting beforehand and have some rest time afterwards to um to regulate afterwards and also planning in some kind of I think breaks from from the actual socializing is important um thankfully I've got friends who are quite understanding so I can kind of get power of things as needed uh social geeks as are most people you help our men mostly um mostly mostly women um to be honest uh that's the majority I think that's mostly because of the the skew of um Instagram users on YouTube it's mostly mostly men I believe martial arts that's cool why do you get canceled when you say ADHD is not real neuro do you mean like neurodiversity um because it definitely is June says uh thank you for answering my questions sharing your experience you're very welcome well you're very welcome to ask in many questions as you like uh we've got probably about 20 minutes left so if you're burning questions ready you know you've got itchy fingers you're thinking about sending a question you're not sure whether I'd be happy about it or not just go for it go for it did you mention that you're going to be assessed for ADHD yep um I'm on the list which is probably going to be a very long list um either going to go for it's going to be like uh I'm not sure if it's ADD or ADHD because of the meds that I'm on are quite sedative um so I don't know if I have the hyperactivity component because I've had been on these meds for so long you know so it kind of makes me a bit kind of sedated and sleepy most of the time um the reason why I'm on them is actually because it's it this is really interesting actually as well because um I was talking to doctor I professor temple grandin about um meds autism and meds like for for mental health and uh she's noticed something that I've noticed as well which is about SSRIs that they do like for some reason drive our anxiety up a lot more than it would for most people um so we can't tolerate as higher dose of SSRIs which can be um quite difficult um so for me I need to be on a high dose of it so there's not really much that I can do other than you know uh what what my doctors prescribe which is have the SSRIs which is quite high dose and also have the um metazapine which is like the anti anxiety sedative one it's best out with depression as well but I don't feel like it does not for me um mark dragnis says love seeing you on a friday thanks nice to have you here mark very um yep feel free to ask any questions go for it brisa's uh do you think there are countries that treat ASD a mental illness better than others or slash better places to live with it um I'd say I'd say that the more uh progressive kind of stage four countries probably probably tend tend to be a bit more that way but it's not always the case because places like napal and places like israel um can actually be very very supportive of autistic people which is is interesting I had a podcast with kind of like a celebrity over in in israel called uh dr mord mordahai ben hamu um and he's saying that they're like short them short logistic people through like the intelligence departments of the the military uh just because of how good they are at the jobs so it's really it's really interesting but um I'd say that say that uk is pretty good although you know it can it can sometimes take a long time with general health care um I'd say that if you if you're not in any of those kind of stage four countries it'd definitely be good to talk to someone who is perhaps book book an appointment with someone so that you can get um a bit more of a holistic idea of it I don't like the the idea of like I don't think autism should be treated but I understand what you mean about yeah perhaps mental health you treat mental health yeah um autism I think you know a lot of it needs to be adjustments it needs to be things done around the person some education of course and and differing in parenting methods and such but I think yeah in general it's it's a lot to do the systems that we have you know are they being employed are they being socialized correctly are they having an okay time at school those are the important things having a positive experience with education is massive massive do you like taking naps nope I hate it I've probably taken a nap once when I was traveling um but now I don't do well with naps actually and also when I'm on transport I just can't sleep I remember I was taking this first um travel traveling thing from Thailand where where I was staying to um to the Philippines one of the uh the islands in the Philippines and I think it was like overall like a couple of days and I stayed up for like two days not a good not a good thing but um yeah taking naps is a risk sometimes you wake up feeling horrible totally I think you do have to like setting it there's like a specific amount of time to nap that can be good um I would like to get into the habit of it maybe when I can set up like a sensor room or something and set up like a hammock and get like the air conditioning for it and make sure it's nice and cool maybe I might start doing that but I think at the moment now it's um I kind of like my days being split into ones rather than multiples Glastonbury is a mega hub for ASD and neurodiversity I wonder if there are other towns where autistic people have covered in shared recognition Glastonbury really is there like any any groups for anything because I'd be I'd be interested in looking into that that is pretty cool um I don't know if there are any other places in the UK neither if there's any studies about like the population density of neurodivergence whether we gravitate towards some cities or the others mm-hmm Beholder says that I almost had a reflex to fall asleep on any vehicles specifically planes I always fall asleep before the plane takes off that's interesting maybe you have like an association there they have like a big festival in Glastonbury don't know good sleep is awesome for mental health totally 100% 100% need to have a good sleep and I think I've seen some stuff I mean obviously we as autistic people we tend to have a lot harder of a time with sleep but I think I don't quote me on this but I think we might need more sleep than average than most people obviously definitely like during stages of burnout we probably need a little bit more but yeah it's something I might be might be worth looking at um uh Rania Margaret says hello hello Rania welcome to the stream we've got about 13 minutes left if you got any burning questions that you want to ask about anything personal autism mental health self-improvement the gym whatever go for it reset that is interesting to hear I agree that SD inclusion over treatment is the way to go but so many places still treat autism as a taboo issue and even in places that think it's a possession of of sorts yes that is true like it's some kind of demonic possession I think some some cultures might might might have that kind of affiliation um yeah it's not it's not nice to think about but I know there's you know we've got a lot work to do thank you Austin for a uh another gifted membership to say thanks to Austin to it to anyone who got it oh bit 011 you got the mess you got the uh the membership didn't you get it last time as the membership run out and then austis like renewed it for you again oh my god if you are finding um everyone instagram or on youtube buy buying ships or badges on instagram if you want to support um me and me giving my time obviously no no requirements or obviously I can't require things but uh how do I how do I word this if you want to support me um you can use badges or memberships I'm just gonna leave it that I always get really nervous around like businessy stuff I don't like it I have someone someone who um who communicates with me and like potential businesses um in terms of pricing because I just can't like I hate it I'm around said uh I just enrolled in a course on autism mental health from Curtin University in Australia made by autistic specialists for autistic people it's really interesting it's on the uh TEDx platform is it edX or do you mean TEDx that's cool that's some very stupid interesting to be here yeah I feel so normal how does SSRIs make you feel um SSRIs uh some people call them happy pills but they're not happy pills they uh they actually flatten your mood up so um they make the negatives a little bit easy to handle also blunt your your positive experiences as well so um yeah it's it's not it's not always the best thing like if I if I in an ideal world I would not need to take them but um I've tried many times to come off them and it has always ended pretty well uh pretty badly um very badly in some cases so um it's it's going to be something that's a constant for me for for a while at least until I feel like I'm in a place where I can um possibly reduce my doses and things like that um it can make some people especially if you are autistic and you have alexa famia it can make it even more difficult to notice your feelings and emotions which is um an issue because it's important and uh tying events to emotions important for processing or thoughts to emotions um so it's not all it's not always the best I'm around said I hope we can create some content in the future related to the things I'm learning there it will definitely help me and my family personally I have a whole module on autism burnout very cool are there are those um people that are teaching you are they autistic people or is it like informed by the autistic experience Brice has a run on very little sleep horrible insomnia sorry to hear about that uh but that may be due to the ADHD side uh so many contradictory symptoms when having birth yeah it's also very individualized it's not always as easy as saying autism or ADHD you know a couple of other stuff um everyone's their own unique person there are some generalities that we can draw but you know how can I help myself through my current burnout while managing my job and my responsibilities um obviously it would depend on the responsibilities and the job but I would try as much as you can to try and limit the amount of energy that you're putting out into things whether that's by help from other people um whether it's by taking sick leave whether it's if that's something that you feel like would be okay in your workplace um or taking some annual leave and and giving you some time to recover um there's also other stuff that you can do you can explore your sensory world a bit more try and find some stims try and find some regulating activities for me that's the gym it's not always to everyone's taste but getting a bit of exercise really does help with the anxiety that can sometimes come with with burnout hi harry how you doing how do you manage romantic relationships um good question uh also very complex question um I think well I think I managed it well I would say that I'm not currently um in a relationship I'm very happy to kind of be single and be doing my own thing it's not really something that I'm wanting to focus on personally at the moment I can one support a friend who has ADHD autism uh very much ask them what would be helpful that's the first protocol um another protocol is to possibly research into it and find some ways that could help and ask them if that would be helpful to them to do that um it's always good to when you when you are supporting someone especially if they're an adult and and and search it's good to make sure that your support is something that they want because it's not always something that they want and um although that can be quite frustrating sometimes it's you know you definitely need to listen to the the person and what what what they would want um Lizblas says I wonder if you've ever experienced trouble with eating I know I should be eating a lot more consider I'm lifting but it's so difficult to eat um I did used to struggle with eating and that's kind of to do with the interception stuff um nowadays because of them that medication that I'm on that sedative med it's also an appetite stimulant so um it kind of swung the opposite way used to be that I really struggled with putting on weight and now it's difficulty with losing weight and maintaining a healthy weight um I I'd say try and make it as easy as you sat easy for yourself as possible to get as to get the protein and for me that's buying ready-made pancakes from my local supermarket or like protein puddings protein shakes just trying to supplement things that that perhaps you know I also I also find if you are really struggling to if I'm struggling to get like some calories and then like actually actually eat my dinner um eating a little bit quicker for me helps but I don't I don't want to suggest that because you know that's indigestion and you know it's I'm not a diet specialist so I don't know but um you definitely need to get your protein and if you're wanting to progress with the lifting it's also really important for recovery and for maintaining what you have I have very intense emotions they are part of every sense of myself yeah edX universities in the world use it for courses and even master's grade oh so it's just like a proper like a platform is it like a um online university kind of thing could it please it's it's around summertime now so my a fever is in full blown annoyance mode of course is um conducted by autistic academics health care professionals and some people from different backgrounds tell the experiences or reflecting on the top it's interesting please blast says uh I don't feel hungry exactly yeah yeah um so sorry right now I just I'll get to your uh your question in a sec if that's that's okay with you um I don't feel hungry when I eat I overeat yeah I relate to that let's keep the first thing in the morning super protein okay remember routine works for you yeah um also try trying to go for as as much bland protein powder as possible helps me because usually I'm like ooh salty caramel flavor that sounds like good and I have it and the first week I'm like having every day and at the end of the week I'm like I don't want this anymore so now I just stick with vanilla because it goes around everything so hard as someone with such a restrictive diet I also seem to troll with feeling hungry yeah yeah there's a forum of all students that they can connect with us that's really cool you're welcome Liz I hope that was helpful Rani says um I'm in love with someone and I think he is autistic too but I'm shy and I have no idea how to approach what to say etc I find it very difficult to approach anyone have you got any advice I find flirty etc the most difficult thing ever and it's so frustrating and the reason I always said I will never fall in love but it happens and I never fall to that um I relate on the flirting front of things I just tend not to do it now it tends to just be um you know just instead of saying oh do you want to go for a drink you could say do you want to go for a date uh the bar or do you want to go for a walking day or a coffee day just like using the actual word could could I guess give you an indication um you've got to be explicit you know like how would you want them to approach it with you like would you like them to kind of hint at things and like dance around the subject or would you like them to like ask you you know do you want to go on a romantic date or something like that you know although that that sounds that could you know obviously it would be related to your circumstance and it'll be very different from person to person but um I think it's good to be direct um especially if you're both autistic you know so um I'm gonna round up the stream now I hope that was helpful Rania um I know that these things are not always so easily um helped uh by very generalized advice about things it's like he's so confusing that's right yeah it's um I I've I've I've had had my fair fair share of dates and uh romantic relationships so it's um it's still not something that I had down to a T and I kind of just accept that nowadays I'm just like you know I'm just gonna be direct about things and hopefully people get the impression letting blows your mind oh my god very true very true well um I hope you all are doing well and I hope you have a lovely weekends and I will see you next week um for another session um yeah thank you thank you as well again um Austin for the membership because that's uh it really does help me um supports me and the work that I do and um yeah awesome it hit me like hit me like a brick wall at first sight it will be I will be direct I think it's better because if he's not interested I will now have a great day yeah and and also give them time and don't don't if they say no don't take it too hard and just you know take it easy take it easy and let them think about it all right see you later guys dead is YouTube