 We're directly communicating, we are in heavy states of emotional distress, but it's not apparent to them in our voice and how we look, and so they don't take us seriously. It can be quite difficult, you know, and perhaps it might even get to the point where the only time where they can like take you seriously is like, you're having a meltdown, you're just completely overstimulated and that's when they sort of step in and help. A common rhetoric in the autistic community is that you cannot spot if someone's autistic, you cannot tell from the outside. Quite often autistic people get comments like, oh, but you don't look autistic. Well, today we're going to have a look at an interesting video from the Aspie world, talking about five strange physical traits of autism. Now off the top of my head I have seen some research and things of that nature around this topic. However, whenever I have seen people in the community talking about such topics, it does very much seem that like people have a lot of things to say about it and that sometimes this can actually be not a good thing. So I'm going to approach this video with an open mind. It's not really something that I've dealt with too soon much. So I'm not necessarily going to have all the answers, but I think it would be good to to watch this video and see if it's something. So if there's anything that I can sort of draw out of it. So here are five of the strangest autism physical traits. Oh, yes, we're talking physical. Guys, welcome back to the Aspie world. My name is Dan, I have autism and ADHD, and I make weekly videos, all of this stuff. So if you want to continue this journey with me and learn more, make sure to hit the subscribe button down below to make sure that you don't miss a video. OK, guys, what is going on? Oh, God, man. OK, a lot of people think that people with autism have no physical visible of disability issues. They may think that because autism is classed as an invisible disability, that there are no physical signs or traits. This can be further from the truth. There are many physical things that will be apparent within autism. Now, I'm going to break five of the most interesting ones and probably the most strangest ones with you right now. So buckle up. Let's get into it. OK, guys, the first one is looking younger. Now, this does sound a bit odd, but one of the things that's really common in autistic individuals is that they will look younger than the actual age. Now, I'm 36 right now, and a lot of people think that I'm like in my early 30s or my mid 20s, which is really interesting, because I'm in my late 30s. But it's not just me that comes across as I come across autistic individuals all the time, like a good friend of mine, Chloe Hayden, who is in the Netflix show, Heartbreak High in Australia. You know, she comes across as someone very, very young. You know, she's in her mid to late 20s, but she comes across to somebody who could be in their teens because she looks quite young. And there are many people like this. It's not just me. Most autistic individuals I speak to, they come across as being a lot younger than they actually are because of how they look. Very strange, but very prominent. OK, number two. Interesting, like whenever I've sort of met people at the gym and they've asked me how old I am, like they think that I'm like 18, 19, 20, like obviously the beard kind of adds some level of age to like anyone's face. But definitely when I shave off my beard, I do look like a teenager, to be honest. Now, is that related to my skin care regime? Probably to like a little bit of an extent. 100%. But I think there might be some reason for this. I think someone was talking particularly about connective tissue. There is somewhat of a correlation between autism and what's called Ella's Danlos Syndrome. I don't know if you guys have heard of it. Sometimes autistic people can have hypermobility quite often. And this is kind of somewhat related to EDS and it's related to sort of the collagen, sort of the structural kind of parts of your body, like related to your your tendons and your ligaments and even the stuff that kind of binds your skin together. And some people with Ella's Danlos Syndrome or autistic people can actually have a lot softer skin, which may sort of be related to that due to the like the sort of the elasticity of the collagen in their skin. You know, you have EDS, you have hypermobility, hypermobility, chronic pain, which that would that would somewhat make sense, I suppose. I mean, I think I think something something else like with the SP World's example of Chloe Hayden, like I really love her her dress sense and her fashion sense and things like that. But she she doesn't tend to sort of follow the like the social normative kind of fashion trends. I don't think I think a lot of autistic people aren't really held to these like social norms, which are related to maturity. So when it comes to fashion, when it comes to like what we want to dress ourselves in, is not really dictated by like the people around us. Like it could just be something that that we like. And we might just have always dressed that way and we just continue to dress like like that into adulthood. That could could possibly be a reason for it, maybe. Another aspect to it, particularly in that example. When people say I look young, it's a joke because of my vampirism. I was heavily bending my teens and twenties. Yeah, EDS is so common. And now I have lupus, another connective tissue or to mean disease. I'm sorry to hear that. Well, Tommy, you do way. I don't have hypermobility, but I do have like apparently I do have extremely like soft skin from what I've been told, even though I do go to the gym constantly and like have calluses on my hands. My skin is very soft. And whenever I used to do Taekwondo, like when I used to compete, I used to train like two hours, three hours, four hours a day. And in Taekwondo, when you kick, you're like the foot that's sort of connected to the floor. You kind of go up on like the ball of your foot and sort of twizzle around. And I used to have so many issues when it came to like developing really sort of deep calluses on my feet, which were extremely painful. I think it was also related to my weight and my height and stuff as well. Like it's not particularly a sport that you see a lot of quite sort of heavy-boned people play, to be honest. Number two is tip toe walking. Now, really strange, people in the autism spectrum will walk on their tip toes. It's more it's like a sensory thing because it's more of a you don't really notice it, but people will kind of bounce also to people will bounce on their toes more than walking like heel to toe, heel to toe, heel to toe, they'll be like pointing up on their toes. And tip toe walking is super common. And now, I guess if you're apparently watching this, please give us a thumbs up if you've seen a child on the autism spectrum work tip toe walking. Yeah, I mean, I've heard about it a lot. I think I probably used to do it as well. I actually I don't walk like that. I don't think that's necessarily like how humans walk like heel to toe, like I'm pretty sure like from from looking at, you know, you have like these these sort of trends. So when it comes to footwear, we have like barefoot individuals, like people who like wearing like very flat, sort of close to the ground, very thin sort of shoes, you know. And that's basically to promote sort of your more natural sort of walking style, because actually we're not we're not necessarily like the way that we walk is not supposed to be heel to toe. But it's just because we have these big wedges under our feet at the back. It kind of allows us to be cushioned in that way. And it feels a lot more smooth. But it's usually like usually like toe to heel that you're supposed to walk, because it sort of allows you to sort of have input from the ground before you decide to pull your weight on that foot, you know. But what he's talking about, like the input, it's related to proprioceptive input, the awareness of your body in space. And perhaps something related to like some antisensory, like touch, touch related input, mechanoception, so pressure related things, possibly walking on the tiptoes. You know exactly what I mean. Oh, and if you haven't already, guys, I've got a free Autism Wife Hacks PDF book. You can download right now at autismhacks.net. OK, so the next one I'm talking about here is monodone talking. Autistic individuals who are verbally able to communicate will talk in a monotonal type of conversation, which is that physical trait? Is that a physical trait? I don't think that's a physical trait. I mean, I was I was kind of expecting the video to be like, OK, autistic people have like wider or occipital blood bones or something like that. Right. I'm not saying that as a thing. I'm just saying that that's what I expected the video to be like. So I'm sort of pleasantly surprised a little bit. But the mother's own voice, the vocal monotony, what they call it. There's a word for it. I talk about a lot. I can't remember. I don't think that's a physical trait that it's definitely a thing. You can sort of perhaps hear it in my voice as well. I do tend to announce it quite a bit and go up and down of my tone. But there is always this kind of droning kind of background kind of aspect to my voice, which I think some people find it quite relaxing. And it's why a lot like a lot of people, whenever I speak or whenever I go on lives or like do a podcast or do a live stream, they're like, you should do ASMR. And I'm like, OK, maybe not ASMR. Maybe I'll do like some affirmations, you know, flat effects. I think that's more related to flat effects, more related to indirect communication, like your facial expressions and such. I think I think it is a vocal monotony, which means that there will be no inflection up and down or excitement in their voice, typically. Now, I'm using a type of acting to create videos because I'm trained in acting, but when I'm talking to somebody, there is more of a monotone talking position going on. And the reason for this, because the brain of an autistic person is processing and simulating so much information and data, it's taking away from the ability to show excitement and inflection within the typical conversation flow. It's very monotone or flat and the conversation will deviate from this vocal line. When you're talking to somebody on the autism spectrum, that's kind of what you'll experience. OK, I think I don't think it's necessarily related to like other stimulation, like an input. I think it's more related to how we naturally speak, you know, I mean, I got made fun of for sounding monotone when I was younger on a few occasions. Yeah, Tom and CeCe, my previous comments. Now, let me have a look. Irene is looking. Oh, Irene's in hospital. Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. That's not good. I hope you guys are understanding when I when I don't necessarily read and reply reply to your message. I'm not I'm not necessarily doing it on purpose. So just it's quite hard to like react to a video and then like keep track of everybody's voice. Voice comments, messages. I love his honesty about about him acting. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, you guys have sort of I was going to say you guys have a luxury. That sounds a little bit narcissistic. You guys have the ability to see like me talking for like four hours. Like I definitely can't mask for four hours straight. Like I do have I do have inflections and sort of I suppose like emotion in my voice. But this is how I actually speak, you know, it's not it's not really like I'm not like putting anything on, you know, but I understand what you're saying. Like I think where anybody who does who is sort of online, I think that there is sort of a tendency for us to sort of put on like a little bit more of like a prevent presenter-ish kind of way style of communicating. You know, I mean, because it's not really a natural kind of setting. You know, you can't really it doesn't really translate one to one my real life, like for sure. But I don't think this is the same for neurotypicals either, to be honest. Irene says she's having an operation on her jaw. Oh, dear. Tone and quality of voice. We're supposed to sound happy or certain certain situations, but it may not come naturally to us. Yeah, and it actually brings a lot of difficulties to us. Not because of the fact that we are monosome, but it's people don't necessarily, neurotypical people don't necessarily take us as seriously if we don't express things in our voice. You know, I know I don't know about you guys, but when I'm feeling incredibly overstimulating and finding things very difficult, my voice tends to become more and more monotone as I'm struggling. Do you know what I mean? And, you know, usually when I'm sort of asking the help or exclaiming that I'm not doing very well, my voice is particularly sort of monotone. You know, yeah, some people find your voice calming, Edwin. When people say mass, the song costing price that's playing in my head. I don't know that song. It's the same with same with flat affects as well, related to facial expressions and body language. People don't people don't take us as seriously, which is a big issue, actually, because, like, you know, we're directly communicating. We are in heavy states of emotional distress, but it's not apparent to them in our voice and how we look. And so they don't take us seriously. Can be quite difficult, you know, and perhaps it might even get to the point where the only time where they can like take you seriously is like you're having a meltdown. You're just completely over stimulated. And that's when they sort of step in and help, you know, being constantly criticized for my tone for not being correct. OK, number four is sleep issues. Oh, diddly do. Now, if I had a pound for every single time or a dollar, you know, UK versus US, if I had a pound or a dollar for every single time I'd lose on sleep, literally did like I would be a bazillionaire because every time I try and sleep, I wake up with an idea and I have to like write it down or put on my phone, my iPad and type down the idea or like my brain is going so fast. I cannot just stop for a second to relax. I have a hard time relaxing. My version of relaxing is watching an educational documentary or learning something to brighten up my experience of understanding life. I can't not learn. So this is a big issue that does impact many people in the autism spectrum. So autistic people usually bad sleepers. Sorry, guys. OK, number. Yeah, again, I wouldn't necessarily that's a say that's a physical trait of them, you know. But yeah, 100 percent. I mean, autistic people do struggle with sleep. Although what he's describing, I can't really relate to. I feel like that's perhaps a little bit more. I don't know if anybody in there like perhaps is a little bit more related to ADHD, maybe. Like, I definitely have difficulties when it comes to falling asleep. That is for sure. But once I'm asleep, I'm like out like a light, you know. I don't think I've had a good night's sleep. Oh, dear. In number five, we kind of correlates to and coming from the same issue of sleep. This one is speed talking. Autistic individuals, me included, will talk very, very fast. A lot of people tell me to slow down in my videos because my brains, the autistic brain is moving so fast to try to push so much data out because the speed of the mind versus the speed of the conversation is completely off. So we're trying to catch up with the mind all the time, the jet. And it becomes a big, very fast wrap, almost, to get every single word that you want to talk about out. It's very difficult to slow that down because you're so used to your brain going so fast and you want to get that information out. What happens is if you try to slow down yourself in, it is that you just shut down because you're not able to actually express what you want to express. Those things are so apparent. Now, those are the top five strangest physical traits of autism. And I'd love to know. I think as well, this one, like this feels like more of an ADHD thing. You know, I don't mean to be to be purposefully contrarian in that sense, but it does it does somewhat seem to be like from my understanding, more related to ADHD, like the fast talking, like, if anything, I feel like most autistic people that I come across who who are just autistic, they don't have an ADHD diagnosis. They're usually quite slow, slow speaking, you know. Now you feel that too, Adrienne. Interesting, I'm trying to think of some some like actual, like physical sort of traits and signs. I suppose you could consider like stemming to be like a physical thing that people can see, maybe. Um, you know, ticks, maybe, physical ticks. Hmm. He could be odd. You know, he's old HD. He's old HD. Yeah. I think maybe like physical neurodivergent traits would be probably a better title, but, you know, when our animals help me sleep, but people prevent sleep. I can't sleep at all on a plane or a airport or a hotel. Yeah, 100%. I really struggle when it comes to sleeping on transport. I think it's I don't think it's more more like the fact that people are there. I think it's just like I get paranoid. I don't I like to feel completely safe, like and locked and like, you know, secluded off in a place of the world because sleeping is a very vulnerable thing. Like you basically voluntarily comatosing yourself for a period of time. Slow, sometimes with delayed processing. Exactly. Exactly. But I feel like most ADHD is that I come across. They tend to like respond extremely quickly. They don't necessarily have that delayed that the sort of the processing delay that perhaps that's I experienced quite, quite intensely. But they do experience that, but they sort of process as they're speaking, like as they're applying the sort of available processing, if you know what I mean. Interesting. Yeah, I suppose it's this. There's a speech problem, I think, called clustering. Sometimes I spit out a few words as if it's one word. Yeah, I do that as well, Tommy. I think I think, yeah, I haven't heard of clustering. I have a motor mouth and motor movement problems at times. I think it can be somewhat related to like speech related things, because your actual voice, how you talk, you are using muscles. So sometimes it's related to like coordination. I can imagine that would be be a thing. Do you guys have any like knowledge of like physical signs? Isn't that partly stress that interferes with talk with thinking? I think I think stress definitely does have an impact on my processing delays, 100%. Interesting. Well, that has been the SP World's five strange physical traits of autism. I'd be interested to know down in the comments, do you have any like physical things that have been talked about or researched in the literature that you can share or things about yourself that you would like to share too? Please let me know down in the comments, like a subscribe and do all that lovely stuff and I'll see you later.