 But you just want me to sit here, right? Okay Right. Um, do I just talk into it into the microphone like this? Yeah All right. Hi My name's Tom and I'm an autistic I've come to this briefing today to tell you all and that is all see you later I've tried I've tried some other skits, but that that seems to be the freshest one out there So we're going with that one See look this this is the the the ability that I have to create videos. I just leave the Bloody audacity thing running in the background. You don't want to see that you want to see the Lovely floaty screensaver that seems to be cut off That's what you want to see today. We're going to be talking about something that it's very cool But it's very different to my usual videos because I'm going to give you a quick fire Video as quick fire as I can do it. I'm not very good at these short videos So gonna be a bit difficult for the old editing process, but I'll try and make it short We're going to be talking about 10 things that you can expect from being Openly autistic coming out and telling the world that you're an autistic person that you've been living your life And everyone's thought that you were just a strange quirky person, but really you're autistic What are the things that you will expect on your journey of? Telling people that you're on the spectrum. Let's find out Now this will be a very strange list some weird things that you may come across on your journey of getting diagnosed Your journey of well, I guess being open about your autism number one You will find that you know more about yourself and autism Than any medical professionals that you come across the problem with a lot of medical professionals is that They have the knowledge the scientific knowledge. They have all those aspects of understanding the The psychological literature and the science and all of that jazz, but they really don't have the Well more often than not they don't have the experiential aspect of it they don't understand how it how an autistic person lives their life and The types of difficulties that they have and the ways that they think about things that get them to those Scientific conclusions. This is even if you're talking to an autism specialist It's a whole different ballpark when you're talking about GPs It's very varied the amount of stuff that they know about autism and the type of difficulties And how to interact with an autistic person GP is not great and They're a big barrier in terms of getting you support and more often than not You're going to have to put in all of the effort all of the research all of the the action into Convincing them to give you support or convincing them to give you a diagnosis That's just gonna happen number two People will pity you for your openness about being autistic They will see it as a cry for help a cry for support a cry for a Shoulder to cry on Yes, people think that every time that you say that you're autistic or Any for anything any any Difference that you have that you're you're going to them for sympathy you're telling them because you have a bad life And you want to tell them about your bad life? Whereas if you're being open about being autistic more often than not you're just saying I'm autistic. Hello I'm an autistic person It may come up in conversation or you may just blurt it out like I have done on some Regrettable drunk occasions when you talk about autism so much like it's like the only thing that you talk about for like three or four years and so it comes out now and again Sometimes when I'm drunk sometimes out of the blue Very weird, but I know that in many cases the only reason why I Why tell people that I'm autistic is because I know them and I want them to know because it's a big part of me and Not not for any benefit in our relation not for any Reasonable adjustments or anything, but just to let them know that you know, this is a big part of me and If they want to get to know me better It's probably a good idea to understand a little bit about the autistic experience. It doesn't come across that way I wish it did but You know, we have a long way to go in terms of autism awareness And so whenever you tell people this in any setting or context It always appears to be a cry for help, which in many cases it's not Number three, number of three people will date you just as often as they would do if you weren't autistic Now this is prefaced by a number of things Actually just being autistic isn't enough to turn people away from you in more cases than not in a lot of cases It's interesting. They want to know more. They they find it interesting You find you an interesting person because you're so different and you're going on a date with them I guess the the preface that I'm trying to talk about is that it still is dependent on Your dating experience your social skills All of perhaps the stuff that many autistic people may struggle with and at the baseline without Further improvement and you know active improvement of those dating skills But actually just being autistic and letting them know it's not a turn-off in many cases, you know I could say in my cases nobody's ever gone No, I'm not dating an autistic person. I've never had an incident where that's happened and I don't think you will either Number four, you will talk about autism at any opportunity that you get and this is not an active effort You will just on your on your openly autistic journey You will learn a lot about autism and you learn a lot of interesting facts and one thing that Myself and many of my autistic friends like to do is to share those facts. So in many occasions in Pretty much all context there comes an opportunity to mention something about autism and you will and It'll be an interesting fact and then another opportunity I've come along in the same conversation And then you'll mention it again. It all just ends up you talking about autism more than you usually would After after being openly autistic. It's not a bad thing Perhaps it may be a source of humor for anyone who has known you for a long time, you know, Tom He's great. He always talks about autism now It's just an interesting topic I think anybody who research and researches into autism even just a little bit does a tiny bit of a deep dive they get hooked and they want to talk about it because Who doesn't want to talk about someone with a vastly different brain to the general population? I think you'd probably have to be a bit weird not to number five. We're at the halfway point We're going on strong Hey You will become a Different person that's very debatable whether you think that's a good thing or a bad thing personally I think it's a good thing when you don't know the autistic and or you don't share that you're autistic You really don't have the ability to Truly express who you are being able to express those different parts of you Unconfined by those social norms and unconfined by the general set of behaviors and wave dressing and interests and ways of Communicating and hobbies all of those things will change because it's not that you have become a different person from Being openly autistic. It's that you feel more comfortable being yourself. And so some people may not like the new you And so you may lose some friends But you've lost friends that don't like you you may make some new friends. You may keep some friends Those people the people who are gonna get you more you're gonna feel more comfortable with them Socializing is gonna be easier. You're gonna feel like you can talk to them about the deep stuff a little bit more It's a very important thing and it does happen It does happen you will change and you will change in a good way It's just sometimes the manifestations of that change. They're not too great Especially when you lose people. There's always a flip side and you can craft a beautiful lovely Loving friendship group yourself. So we're gonna take a little Commercial break just for a second. I've got Okay Mm-hmm, right my manager my co-producer says that we need to talk about the t-shirts. Is that right? Yep. Okay. Yeah, sure. No worries. Oh, I just make myself laugh too much. You're probably thinking what the hell is he doing, but The t-shirts. Yes, as you can see I am sporting the new tank top t-shirt with my newly gained stretch marks It's one of the downsides of getting to the gym I have been collaborating with one of the best autism clothing brands out there born anxious They're amazing. They do Sensory clothing sensory friendly clothing the remove all the tags the material is soft and it stays soft and God I just love wearing these at the gym. I didn't like it We're wearing them to the gym the first couple of times But once you start wearing autism on your literal body Being openly autistic. There's nothing like it. You just feel great I've had a few people come up to me and sort of give comments about it And there's comments were positive. Thankfully looking at strong powerful autistic Like I think some people think that I'm like making a joke everyone talks about autism You know like that's a bit autistic and they probably think I'm making a joke But some people I think get it if you want to get something like this if you want some new gym clothing and you just want to represent the Autism massive you can get one of these t-shirts yourself over at born anxious Slash Thomas Henley you can find this t-shirt and many others in Black but also the colours of the Olympic rings. That's the break Let's get back into the video more akin to the weird things that may happen You're embracing this new part of yourself You're learning more about it and you want to advocate you want to teach people about autism but one thing that you did wrong when you made that post those posts starting off is That you use the wrong language you said that you had mild autism and that you were an Aspie or Any number of language things that people don't like and people have isolated you You know you've opened yourself up to this new world of new community of autistic people and They've bashed you for trying to do good for the cause that's something that may happen and it happens a fair bit I can share with you that one of my first videos on YouTube was a video for autism speaks. I Did not know that people don't like him. I'm not saying I don't like him for for Legal reasons, but I'm pretty sure that I shouldn't have done that video. I Called it like light it up blue for autism terrible awful. I didn't know any better I thought I was just trying to do something good. I was trying to raise awareness for autism week It's just that I didn't know and That is something that may happen in many different forms if you're trying to go out there and Do some good on the internet. So be aware of that number seven People may think that you're becoming more Autistic more autistic What does that mean? I have no idea I imagine that the thinking of those more prominent autistic features like stimming and the thing is when you are openly autistic you are Trying to to live your life the way that you need to and that may mean stimming that made me doing those repetitive actions and Feeling okay about trying to calm yourself down. It's it's a very big sort of emotionally Emotional regulator tool that you can use stimming is just one example. It may be in other aspects of your life where you Dress a bit quirky. You may start Regressing to what I would say regressing regressing implies that there's something wrong with it that you're going backwards Which is not really like that. It's progressing in my eyes. You're progressing to a more authentic You more authentic behavior more authentic way of thinking and feeling okay about expressing this this different way of behaving and thinking about things and so People may think that you're being a copycat that you're trying to copy your favorite autism youtuber or Instagrammer or social media star. It's it's not the case In many cases it's just that you're being more yourself than you ever have been and people see that as a bad thing because Normally is great autistic or no, we don't like those those autistic traits. They're not good. They they look weird They're not socially acceptable. Get out of here number eight You may pick up childhood hobbies or interests that you have got ridden in the past due to Social norms due to people not thinking that certain things are for adults and Certain things should be for children and we can't touch those because they're for children Because people said that they're for children All these things that you've thrown into the garbage bin that you just absolutely love You may find a new lease of passion for these things and you are well in your own right to do so when you become Openly autistic, you're more likely to express those passions. Maybe you might wear a Pokemon t-shirt You may have a wide variety of interests that you've got rid of and you may start adopting them My eyes, that's a good thing in other people's eyes. You may be a bit more weird and quirky, but Who cares about that? You don't want to be bland and boring. Do you? No, sir Number nine We are nearly there we're going on strong I'm here at you with a coming at you with another point Yeah, we are at the final final one, but I just want to let you know I've got a little one of those bonus bonus ones bonus points Those little see sneaky ones that are sneaking to get you to watch the end of the video So everyone clicks off even though there's some lovely content there that you'll definitely want to stay around for So stick to the end of the video to see the last point you will become an Expert you will develop a second sense or six seventh What is it tenth there's so many senses now? Don't know what to call them a seventh sense for autistic people researching and listening to autistic people and Just generally improving your your experiential knowledge and Knowledge of yourself. It's gonna make you a lot more attuned to different people. Hmm Maybe one of my parents is autistic Autism is genetic and they do seem to act in these different ways Well, they do seem to cope and they do seem to mask very well. Maybe they are autistic that can happen for Pretty much anybody People that you meet on the street who perhaps walk in a certain way People who who don't make a lot of eye contact people who are quite quiet people who wear their headphones a lot Out and about their way noise-canceling headphones They you know, you may talk to them and they may struggle with that social aspect And they may struggle in the ways that you struggle with things. It's like a new level of people watching. It's people Diagnosing of course, there may not be autistic They may just be showing those outward traits that you can see and getting to know them You may understand that they're not but in any case you will find yourself Noticing autistic traits in your world and I am really hungry my belly keeps rumbling It's all right, son. We'll get some food in you soon great round up to a video Tom. Well done I hope you've enjoyed this I'll probably put a lot of effort into editing this down because I've still talked for the probably the same amount of time If you have any things that you'd like to add maybe you get some of these Maybe maybe these things have happened to you. Maybe there are some other things that you think are quite common Please stick them down in the comments. I'm always willing to hear people out and I would be Very grateful for you to You know head over there and Clear the subscribe button do your boy a favor and that way you'll be able to see more content from me in the future I can see it in my see it in my eyeliner see in my mind's eye being able to make videos and Pay someone to edit them so I can make more videos. Anyway Thank you very much to my patreon supporters as usual Especially mr. Patrick viddy my patreon supporters are very Up and down lately. Some people stay on for a month and some people don't so by the time I go to make a video They've left so then I don't include it and Some people have come on and join patreon and then I haven't included them So it's all very difficult and rubbish. It's not anything that I can really change unless I really knuckle down on recording a video Editing it recording a video but as you can probably tell I put a lot of work into Setting up my camera space. So it takes me a bit of time And getting into that flow with talking It's it's quite important to keep that going for as long as I can so I can get more videos done I think at some point I'm going to be ditching the old patreon or not ditching it, but I'm going to be Implementing the youtube subscriber thing the join button Uh, I think it will give people more of an opportunity to to donate how much they want And it's possible that in the future, I'll be doing some more live streams The bonus point the one that you've been waiting for you will feel less alone You can find people who are autistic online You'll join the community, but you also may feel less special You mean you thought you were that golden egg in the stack of eggs You thought you were special and you thought you were different in these ways and these ways made you different to everybody else But you find out You're autistic and you're open about it and you realize Hey, I'm really not that special when it comes to autistic people It's something that I had to process a fair amount, but um, I got through it. I I powered through it I hope you enjoy the video and if you want to hear more of me As I said like subscribe And if you want to follow the old social media Instagram is the best place to be But you can find facebook twitter and instagram social medias all at aspergers growth And of course if you want to get in contact you want to work with me Perhaps you want to be on the second season of the 420 podcast You can contact me at my email aspergersgrowth at gmail.com I was once like you Molded by the darkness But I grew out of the darkness and I Launched myself into the light a ring ring shaped light Take easy stay cool Catching the next one