 Hello and welcome back to another Autie Time livestream. Who you heard is Miss Thomas Henley, of course. Well, it's usually the intro that I would use on the 40-odd podcast, that would make sense. But my actual name online is Thomas Henley. So kind of a bit like redundant. How are you guys doing? Let me just close the window. Oh, God, I am looking scruffy today. But I have an actual drink this time, rather than like a two litre bottle of pop. So as with all Autie Time lives, this is a chance for you to ask any burning questions about autism, about mental health, personal things, things to do with fitness, self-improvement, everything like that, please go for it, yeah. Joshua G says, hey, we're back. Hope we're staying hydrated with some water. I do have some hydration. It's not water. I've recently just got myself some creatine after like not taking it for about a month or so. So I'm looking forward to making a few more gains at the gym at some point. Always subdue the lighting. What are you talking about? Kind of, hello, anyway. Isabel Kass says, hey, I forgot about the stream, but it's very, very welcome distraction during cooking chores. What kind of chores are you doing today? Sounds like a productive Friday. I also forgot about it until about an hour ago. I popped up on my calendar and I was like, oh, I've got to do a stream. Cause I did a stream yesterday over on YouTube, my like three hour long reaction stream that I usually do. So I was like, oh, I'm going to do another stream today. It's like interesting. No, it wasn't yesterday. Was it? I think it was the day before. My Sam Peepee says, I've worked having to deal with my autistic husband's mood swings and all in all, very tired. I'm sorry to hear about that. Mood swings are a funny one. Like I have, I think I had a chat recently, someone about like mood swings, about whether I would be preferred just to be like sad all day rather than have ups and downs in my mood. I'm not sure. I think it can sometimes be quite dysregulating sometimes. Hello, Mr. Austin. How are you doing? It's like, move this up a little bit. Hi, hi, Mr. DJ Wilson Shaw. How are you doing? Isla Belka says, I'm so unmotivated to do anything, but prancing around and needs clean laundering, get some work done. Guess I'll do that at night. Fair enough. Executive function is definitely the bane of my existence most of the time. So major props to you to trying to tackle it. I hope you've been having a great day so far, Thomas. You know, it's not been too bad. I had quite a chill day. I have done a bit of writing at the moment for some posts that I'm gonna put it out once I go full-on mode, Instagram mode, but back again, posting daily. So I'm getting some stuff together for once I do decide to kick things off again and start posting a bit more regularly. So it's going well. I mean, the last livestream that we did over on YouTube was quite an interesting one. We looked at a lot of relationship-based autism content, which was pretty cool. And I think about a video on autistic autism in women, which was really interesting actually. So, yeah, I mean, the streaming's going well and I really enjoyed doing it. So it's all good. Autistic thought says, what is your favorite type of tea? Definitely bubble tea, although I don't know if that you could consider that a tea because I very much like the popping bubbles. Those are like on point. But in terms of like normal tea, I did used to drink a lot of Oolong tea and green tea when I was in Thailand. It was pretty much my go-to hydration drink. It's good stuff. It's very good for you. I would say green tea. Well, do I like Yorkshire tea? I don't actually drink black tea usually. So not really for Yorkshiremen. I suppose that sounds quite strange. Thomas Poccheus says, hi. Hello, welcome to the stream. Just for anybody who has just joined, please feel free to ask questions. This is the opportunity to fire off some questions. Anything that you have that you want answered. Of course, the nature of questions. Do you like Espresso's? Yeah, coffee is like, I love coffee. Although most of the time, I do have my energy drink powder in a very non-descript sports direct bottle. So if you've got any questions about autism, about mental health, anything like that, please fire them at me. Oh, that's surprising that you don't like Yorkshire tea that much. I'm from Northern Ireland, by the way. Oh, very cool. I haven't been to Ireland before. It's a place that I definitely should go to since it's so close to me. It'd definitely be a good place to go on holiday. I can. Yeah, energy drink is leaving us in. I think it's mostly because there's a light over there, but it's... Yeah, it looks very like yellow on the camera, but it's not. It's pretty clear. So basically because I put a bunch of creatine in it because I haven't had it for a long time. Got our first question in from Holly Firm. Thank you so much. What are your special interests? Or what's your special interest? I'd say that they're pretty variable, but they tend to fulfill certain categories. I love anything to do with sports, like combat sports or the gym. So anything fitness related tends to be something that's part of my life a lot in terms of my routine. Actual interests, I think like games wise at the moment, definitely Pokemon Go and RuneScaper, like my top ones. Although I have been playing quite a bit of Apex Legends on the Xbox with my friend Jordan, which has been quite nice. Other special interests? Science, definitely. Psychology, I'm very into philosophy. Trying to think of some like... I like a lot of goffy kind of alternative type stuff. That's usually a good shout. If it's anything like that, then I tend to have a lot of interest in it. So yeah, I'd say Pokemon Go is probably up there at the moment. Do you know the game AIM XR? I might do. What does the acronym stand for? Have you ever tried Quitting Energy Drinks? It's not really something that I'm wanting to do, to be honest. It's not an energy drink per se. It's literally, it's a powder. So it's caffeinated and I know what goes into it. There's quite a lot of like electrolytes in it. Mental focused supplements. Some anti-anxiety supplements in there as well, which... So not really. I mean, the reason why I drink a lot of caffeine is because of my medication that I'm on, the one that's quite sedative. So if I was to go off that medication, I would probably just like stop drinking energy drinks all together. How do you like spend your weekends? It's very variable, to be honest. Like I very much enjoy socializing at the moment, but I mostly tend to just kind of be spending time with my family, maybe playing a few games, possibly going to see a movie, stuff like that. Spending time with my family is a big one. Autistic thought says, lol, I got level 99 woodcutting and re-inscated ages ago before I stopped playing. Wowie. You must have cut down a lot of trees contributing to the depolarization of re-inscated. No, I actually don't have any 99s at the moment. When I started it, I think I started it when I was like quite young, probably like in my early teens. And my idea on it was that I was gonna become a wizard. So my username on Rinscape is RubyWizard. So I'm trying to fulfill my childhood dream by getting my first 99 in magic. So that's gonna be pretty cool. Second one was hunting. I really enjoyed the hunter. Skill. And just says, hello everybody. Welcome to the stream. Welcome to the stream, Angela. What do you think about medicinal mushrooms? Which kind of, I suppose it depends on which kind of mushroom, I guess. I know I've seen some stuff about shiitake and cordyceps and things of that nature, but it hasn't really been something that I've looked into too much in terms of understanding the efficacy of everything. Although I have seen like a lot of adverts around that. I have to say. Ganoderma. Oh, Reishi. Yeah, I think it's the same, basically. I haven't really done much of a deep dive into the mushroom side of life. I should really, because I'm usually quite into the whole supplement kind of thing. So I'll definitely, definitely check it out when I've got some speed thread there when I've got some free time. Josh Uji says, well, you did have an energy drink one or two weeks ago on stream now. Indeed. Well, I've been on my sedative meds since I was like, probably about 2019, not 2019 as in like 19 or 20 years old. So, you know, it's definitely been something, like if I don't have any caffeine, I'm pretty much just experienced daytime sleepiness all day. So I need some level of it to stay somewhat productive, which is a bit annoying or focused. Definitely don't recommend it though, if you're not trying to counteract some medication that you're on or you have anxiety or you just don't want to be addicted to a substance like caffeine, then I would not recommend it, but it's pretty much keeps me awake, able to do things in life. So, you know, as long as I'm taking under, like, as long as I'm not taking over the recommended daily amount of it, I'm happy. So you have two energy drinks a day. Yeah, this is the same I mean. Yeah, so it's as long as the take under the recommended amount, I'm quite happy because even if I did take a little bit over the recommended amount, most of the studies, the recommendations are made for the typical individual and I'm quite a large person. And I'm very insensitive to most things as well. Jackie says, is this now sleeping and as rainy day here, you're having a sleeping in rainy day kind of situation. Interesting. Zachary Ansel says, hello. My speech, Ipraxia is just, you know, massively like in full swing today, struggling to get my words out. I noticed is that the scar on your brow, no, it's completely cosmetic. Although I do actually have an actual scar, which is here. You might be able to see it. Kind of hidden because I've got quite thick eyebrows, but no, this is the one that you can see is cosmetic. Joshua D says, can't believe we're already out September and can't believe that next year is a leap year. Yeah. Yeah, it's first of September today. Pinch, punch, first day of the month and all that. My favorite kind of days after being on fire most of August, yeah. I'm very much an autumn person. So I'm looking forward to like, I like the fashion that people have during the time and it's also quite a good, it's cold, but it's not freezing, you know, like it is in winter. That is lovely. I hope you get it soon. Holly Firm says, do you have an uncomfortable anxiety where it basically makes everything hard to do? Totally. Totally. It's interesting that you say that because my anxiety has been taking a bit of a back seat at the moment, which is kind of nice. Usually I'm pretty uncomfortable most of the time in every situation, just because of the background anxiety that I experience, but the anxiety seems to have that uncomfortable feeling that I get in my body when I'm anxious seems to have subsided to some degree. So I'm just kind of left a little bit left with the depression at the moment. So it's, I'm chill below mood. So it's a little bit bad than usual. But yeah, it makes even the smallest things hard to do. You just want to like vegetate in your bed and also have ADHD and epilepsy. So really, really shouldn't be taking energy drinks, but thankfully my seizures are very, very rare. Yeah, I definitely, you know, I'm definitely not encouraging people to take energy drinks. You should definitely consult your doctor if you have any of those conditions before trying that stuff. Autism fashion is for sure peak fashion 100%. I love it. Also, I can wear my leather jacket whereas in the summer I can't because I get very hot anyway. People have told me to do something like that with my eyebrows. You should have a go. I mean, if you don't like it, you can just wait until it grows back in. That was my faults with it. And I kind of like it. I was thinking of getting a eyebrow piercing, but I know that you pretty much left with like somewhat of a permanent scar when you get an eyebrow piercing. And that's not really something that I want to commit to. So I decided to go with an eyebrow slate instead. So recently I've become obsessed with the Bee Gees, turns out today's Barry Gibbs birthday and wedding anniversary. Interesting. I can't say that I've, I know of the Bee Gees, like my dad makes a lot of references to them, but I don't think I've ever like connected what song, what songs they play. Whether that makes sense. Isabel says, what do you do for work? Brackets or study? Are you self-employed? Currently I work for a charity who, it basically works and things like inclusion. So recently I've been editing a film as part of my job about young people with additional needs experiences in the workplace, which has been really cool. It's been really nice. But I am kind of somewhat pivoting to becoming more self-employed. I'm just recently had to like an interview for someone who might be interested in being my PA. So I've helped him with organization, communications, reaching out to potential speaking events, things like that, which will definitely make a large difference in terms of like how viable me being self-employed will be. Because I just can't do that stuff. It just doesn't work for me long-term. I've got a lot of angst about going back to work since I haven't had a job in almost a year now. Yeah, I mean, it's natural to, when there's a big change to feel like that. So with anything to be honest, I mean, just applying the similar feeling to me at the moment, it's like trying to transition from not really doing much and socializing a lot and spending all of my energy on socializing during this kind of burnout period. It's very hard for me to get back into work mode, whereas on the opposite side of the burnout, it took me almost a month or so to be like, okay, right, I do actually need to stop. I actually take a break. So any change, no matter how positive it is, can be sometimes very difficult. I find spirulina tablets, sorry, in the test, spirulina instead of any drinks or caffeine drinks, interesting. Do you find that that stimulating enough? It depends what you're going for, I suppose. So if you're just looking for focus, there's definitely a lot of stuff that you can have instead of caffeine. You have basic ear-pacing, I just have the one. Just have the one in my lobe, and that hurts a lot. Everyone said it wasn't gonna hurt too much, and it was the easiest piercing to get. Literally felt like I was shot in the ear. It was awful. I couldn't tolerate it. But I was kind of expecting it to be harder for me to tolerate than most people, just because of how hypersensitive I am in my needle phobia and all of that. But even then, it kind of blew me out of the water a little bit, not gonna lie. Thank you, Mr. Josh Ujji, for a double badge. Thank you so much. Supporting the stream very much helps. If you do enjoy the streams that I do, you can support over on YouTube with a membership for 99p, or you can use the badges on Instagram. Zachary says, recently I saw a pic of a pro-autism police car with all the puzzle pieces and designs, and it offended not because it was over stimulating, but it was just really ugly looking. I think I've seen a picture of the car that you're talking about. Yeah, it did, yeah, it looked, wasn't the best. I can't remember when I saw it. It's an interesting car. That is so cool. Thank you very much, Isabelle. Behold that MX says, yesterday I had a video record job interview and it was exhausting. It took me all day to prepare for it, and I could do nothing after. I know the feeling. It's when there's a big event coming up that you haven't done in a long time, there's lots of prep behind it. I definitely need to have some time beforehand and some time after to regulate. It's always important to go easy on yourself, especially around something that is quite difficult. Kerry Stresens Mott says, morning all from Australia, Australia. Welcome. It's nice to see you back here, Kerry. What's the film called? I can't tell you at the moment because it's still in editing process. Yeah, it was, it's really good. I'm a link to it. If it, if it, my organization wants it to go public. I'm definitely felt like you was shot in the air. Definitely. Mia, hello, Mia. How are you doing? Is are the most painful to pass in my experience really? Well, like the loby part. So it makes sense to me because I feel like lobes are quite a sensitive part on human body. But then I suppose there's the element of it being like cartilage and stuff. Do you do a lot of piercings for people? Or is it just like from your own personal experience? Jackie says, I started talking to them as my first job off farm. I was two to three jobs. So eating constantly started to suffer. One of those jobs was a health food vitamin shop. After 30 plus years, I continued to return to spirulina. Spirulina is a very interesting one because I think one of the first like creatures that came about in terms like, if you think of like the primordial soup of the earth was these things called blue group green algaes. And I think spirulina is a blue green algae. Very, very high in protein, but also very expensive if you were to use it as a protein source. Josh Ridu says, hope you're staying hydrated with some water. That is our hydration reminder advocate stream administrator. This is Josh Ridu. Thank you for the constant reminders to hydrate my body. Isabella says, do you know the cause or reason behind the burnout and depression? I've had these episodes since my teens and experienced them at least once or twice a year. I'm kind of fed up with this cycle. It's exactly the same with me. It's like once or twice a year tends to be the case with that. It's definitely something that I'm like still kind of thinking about myself in terms of like how I conduct myself in life. Cause I am very driven quite most of the time very like conscientious. Like I like to work pretty much as much as I can and output as much as I can, which is not always the best, but it's definitely my personality. So I guess it's a lot about making sure, trying to find a balance because I'm actually going to be producing a post on what I call the burnout roller coaster, which I think is a very good analogy for autistic burnout from my experience in terms of my experiences with life. We have definite dips and then you slowly get better. You start incorporating things more into your routine. You get to a point where you're like, hey, like I'm feeling really motivated. I'm doing all these things. You keep adding and adding and adding and adding. You maintain it for such a long period of time and you don't realize how much kind of energy debt you're building up in your brain. And you get to a point, something small happens, it kind of tips you over the edge and you go back into a burnout. So it's, I definitely relate to that. You've explained pretty much what my experiences are of burnout. It's a lot about self-management, trying to get that work-life balance. I think some people might struggle with doing more work and some people might struggle with doing more rest. I'm definitely one of those doing more rest is difficult for me. I've had almost 30, honestly, is the worst. You have 30 piercings while that is really cool. Yeah, I could not do that. There are some piercings that just, you know, it kind of boggles me out why or how people can like stand to get those piercings. It's crazy. Absolutely madness. I screamed when my first day of lip is, I had my first day of lip piercing when I was eight. They had to calm me down before the second one. Yeah, there was no way I would go for another one. I was like, one is enough for me, you know? I'm very much, I like symmetry, but in terms of fashion, I really appreciate some like asymmetry with stuff. So, hence the eyebrow slit. I like that because it's like a little bit of an asymmetry. Same with the piercing as well. So I've got one there and my piercings here. To do, Smikedy Smooth says, hello, Thomas and all. Best wishes from the Netherlands. Welcome, Smikedy Smooth. Zachary says, also extremely toxic when you're talking about the spirulina. I wrote a whole screenplay about a real estate scam with contaminated water because of the blue, green algae. Yeah, it definitely depends on the type because it is like a whole category of microorganisms, you know, not all of the same. Worth the price of the mission and we are worth it, right? Most spirulina equals less snack cravings. Well, did slash does for me. Interesting. Might have to do some more research into that as well, Drekky. Thomas says, beta-glucans. Yeah, beta-glucans are an interesting one. I think they're quite in high density and like porridge. They're quite the, I think they're one of the only sources of soluble fiber. I think beta-glucans. They're quite good at like regulating sugar absorption and you got like stabilizing your blood sugar. I think so. Might be beta-glucans. Sorry, I might be thinking of something else. Kenneth says, sorry my subdued lighting comment was about you turning your blinds at the start. As I keep my office not too bright, I went to answer right away but I got called for my autism diagnostic intake. Wow. Congratulations. Actually making some progress was something that takes such a long time. I wouldn't mind getting bigger piercings in my ears. What do you mean like the gauges or like different ones? Like I was really thinking about getting like an industrial piercing. You know, the one that goes through both sides of the air but I don't think I'd be able to manage that. Just being honest, I could do if I really wanted to but it's just not something that I'd want to do. I don't think and if I don't like it, I don't want to have to worry about like having holes in my ears. Joshua G says, is there anyone here that is interested in smartphones or technology? Demon Knight also spruing on it. Yes, blue-green algae tastes like garbage but with apple juice. Point taken. Goldilocks, too much or too little stuff, 100%. That's about the routine, the burnout roller coaster. Bigger gauges, minus small. My pain tolerance is quite high, luckily. My pain tolerance for blunt pain is very, very high. Sharp pain is a different thing for me. Yes, I have the same. I'm usually very active involved in my work or hobbies. Do you think giftedness and intelligence also plays a part in this? Always thinking ahead, next step, improvement, et cetera. Well, I'd say that if you're a very cerebral person as in, you know, for me growing up being a lexify, I mean, I had to pretty much like logically dissect and understand everything that was going on around me and not just kind of going with my gut on things. And one of the downsides of that, it can be a good upside sometimes because, you know, obviously thinking about stuff isn't important, but yeah, like, what was I saying? Yeah, it still, it takes more energy, definitely. Like to do that on a more regular basis. So it's kind of like the best way that I describe my brain is it's kind of like a super car with just bog standard stuff, like tires, like every lap that I have to do, I have to get a pit stop, change the oil, change the tires constantly to stop it from burning out. That's pretty much what my brain's like. Yeah, just staying hydrated, Thomas, thank you. Mia says I was 15, please don't judge me. No judgment given, it's more of an admiration, actually, because I definitely couldn't get 30 pair of things. I fainted when I had my ear pierced, then it got infected, no more for me. I can't blame you. Paul Helmarm says, any advice to a mom? How can I support my 15 year old kid within the spectrum? I'm very happy to answer a question on that. But if you can phrase it into a more specific question about supports than it, it might be a bit easier for me because I could rattle on for ages about things that you could do. So it's good to have something specific, I suppose. Hello Darkmoon Doll, they say, nice to be able to join your live stream and subscribed a few months ago. Well, welcome, it's nice to have you. We do have about 20 minutes left on the live stream. If you have liked it so far, make sure to like or if you're on Insta, give me a follow. Send me a question in if you've got any burning questions that you want to ask, because I am not always the best in terms of replying to comments. So this is kind of like my comment section area. So if you've got any questions, please go for it. Autistic thoughts, as I will look it up later, but I think there might be more kinds of soluble fiber. Now, I'm curious, been a while since I've read about that. Yes, you are probably right. I think there's probably gonna be more than just beta-glucan, but I can't remember any of the ones. I think it's just, it's not really something that I've looked into like in terms of fiber. It's more like protein and micronutrients that I've looked into quite a lot. My brain is a murder of crows or a chaos of potatoes. I like that expression. Hello, Ikra, how are you doing? Jackie says, organica, my tablet choice, though I've made due to the capsules when I had to, also from the Health Food Store, Vitamin Store brands. It's about your spirulina. It's interesting. Dottiedojojo says, I was diagnosed with significant traits but denied full diagnosis of autism in 2016. My mom has helped me reconnect with the service for a reassessment. I know I'm autistic, it hurts not to be. Interesting, why do you think that was the case? If you had quite a few traits, was it? I know that sometimes it can be very dependent on the place that you're in, also the doctors that do it. Jackie says, fiber is tricky, can cause many stomach upsets, so only do it when you know, slash trust it. Yeah, it's interesting. I think I was looking into some research about the carnivore diet, but how that stuff goes about. And they were talking about fiber and how your gut does get used to the amount of fiber that you receive. Like if you don't have a lot of fiber, sometimes your gut just gets used to it. It's very much like a buzzword, I think that is used a lot to sell cereals and stuff. The un-poet says, I just got diagnosed a month ago, congratulations. It's been an absolute minefield, trying to figure out where to find resources supports slash anything about how to go from here and just adjust from a neurotypical perspective, 100%. I am at the moment trying to work on a guide for people who have just been newly diagnosed, like a workbook kind of thing as part of my business. So hopefully when that comes out, it might be quite helpful for you, but there is a lot of resources on my Instagram page and also on YouTube on my podcast, if you wanna go have a look, if you want to look at specific pieces of information about autism, if you scroll across on my profile, you'd be able to find like a kind of a newspaper magazine type icon. And those are basically titles of different aspects of autism that you can look through. It'll show like a bunch of posts related to that topic. Dark Moon says, I'm 50 years old and just found out through my therapist at ASD, wow. Still working on getting a diagnosis, I told my doctor and she said, you're not autistic, you just have depression. There is quite a high likelihood, there's a high likelihood of being depressed if you're autistic as well. Thomas says, G lucidum is believed to have neuroprotective effects and the notion is supported by work carried out by scientists, specifically wearing a mixture of Tretopinoid compounds in G lucidum promote. Interesting. The thing that I find that the hard thing about navigating supplements is that there is a lot of stuff that does actually removing perhaps the more less scientifically backed supplements, even then taking all of these supplements that are gonna be good for you, like, it's like, which ones do you prioritize basically? It gets to that point. Which ones are you actually gonna pay for and take? You know, because everyone's gonna have their own like limit on how many capsules they can take a day before getting like stomach upset or at least I do. Dutty says, I believe I'm very good at masking. Also, I've been diagnosed slash, or brackets misdiagnosed with many mental health problems. Autism makes so much more sense to me. It's helped me understand and forgive myself. I'm very, very glad about that. It's definitely quite often, I don't like to use the analogy of like the missing piece, but for a lot of people, it can feel like the missing piece of their life, the way that the understanding of something that they didn't know how to characterize stuff. It's how it felt for me, even getting diagnosed at 10 years old, not really understanding it properly until my early 20s. It was kind of, even then it was quite revolutionary, like life changing. Dark Mean says, I'm going through the burnout. I'm sorry to hear that. It's definitely not a fun aspect of being autistic sometimes. Austin says, if you want somebody to proofread the guide for you, I proofread hypertrophy and resistance training guides. Very much appreciated Austin. Yeah, that would be awesome. Thank you to check them out. No worries, the un-pro-ettes. My therapist told me this week that seeking a diagnosis is avoidance, that it's a fruitless path as it won't change anything in so hard. I've heard some people talking about, like there's quite a big, I guess four that a lot of people have where it's like, you shouldn't be labelling yourself. And I think to a certain extent, that mindset can be helpful. But I think it's helpful only when those labels are restricting you in some way. But with autism, if you're diagnosed autistic, what comes after being diagnosed autistic is just almost always going to be incredibly transformative for you. So it's like having the label actually opens yourself up to more things than you would have had initially. It was very interesting podcast that I did with LiveLabel3 about eating disorders. And that was definitely something that came up. You know, LiveLabel3, kind of all about ditching the labels that were assigned to her, like eating disorder behavior, that was something that she heard quite a lot and trying to reframe it as something else was quite helpful for her. But in terms of autism, it's like the same thing. It's like it opened up doors in terms of understanding herself and progressing through life and making changes, you know. Joshua G says that with the hydration reminder, I hope everyone's staying hydrated with some water. Thank you, Mr. Joshua G. Powell says my son has autism and suffered with depression for years. It is really, really tough. It's definitely something about being autistic that is not good. And I'm not completely, well, actually I feel the opposite to the fact that it's not just something that we just develop because we're autistic. I think it's a lot to do with the environment that we're in, to why the statistics around mental health are so bad, right? More specifically, hashtag Thomas the legend, thank you. Powell says my son's doctor told him recently that he should not identify with his autism diagnosis, that he should test situations he should normally avoid. What is your opinion, Thomas? Thank you. But the thing about being autistic is that it's not like, I think the tendency for some people is to kind of box autism off into like categories or signs or symptoms that they have. They're like, oh, that is the autism. Whereas autism is a neurodevelopmental thing. So it's to do with your brain and trying to pick apart different parts of yourself as being autistic is very difficult and it's also often not very good because your brain is an autistic brain. It's the things that you like about yourself can also be autistic things, but you don't really see that as autism in your head because you're always focusing on the things that you can't do or the things that are tough. I always say that when it comes to self development, specifically for autistic people, stepping out of your comfort zone is an important thing, I think for everybody. Although that is something that is talked about a lot, I feel like it's more important for us to have some like backup things to do, things that are gonna help us regulate, things that if we're gonna try something difficult, making sure that we have as many of the possible negative variables controlled as much as possible. It's about having time before and after to regulate. It's about all of these things. There's nothing wrong with trying something that's hard with supports, if that makes sense. And I think that that's definitely something that my mom was quite good when I was growing up, like she encouraged me to do a lot of things. She'd take me to different sporting classes, different groups. I would join in with the group and participate, but at any point I could go to my mom and say, can we go home? And the next time that we're gonna do something, I'm like, oh, it sounds anxiety, like, oh, I'm a bit scared, it's a new situation. She'd just be like, well, let's give it a go, let's try it. And if it doesn't work, then we can go home. And just feeling safe in order to know that if things are too much that I can take a step back is important, but also it's not a failure to try something and it'll not go well, if that makes sense. And just take a step back and all that. Thomas says, I think that the most autistic filmmaker is David Lynch, I haven't heard of them. I'm not very good with people, like knowing the names of celebrities and stuff. Dark Moon says, I am finding it hard to be social because I've always been quite introverted. My friends that I had for over 10 years stopped wanting to be around with me because I like metal a lot. Yeah, that's a very strange reason to ditch a 10 years long friendship. That's very strange. I was very introverted, very to myself when I was younger. As I've got older, I kind of moved a little bit towards the extroverted side of life. So I'm pretty much in the middle, I'm quite like an ambivert in terms of that. I very much enjoy and crave social connection, but at the same time, my social battery is not always the best because of being autistic. So it's one of those things, you know. Being social is a hard one because you can be the best socially that you can be, but you can only give your 50. You can only do your half of a conversation. If the other person is not wanting to have new friends or not in a good mood and not really wanting to socialize, even if you did everything perfectly, like it could just not lead something. And even so far as that, you could make a friend with someone, but then when it comes to actually like doing something with that friend flakiness, they're not reaching out to you to organize stuff, you're not reaching out to them. There's a lot of barriers to friendships and it depends really what. I think there was a tendency for me to try and make up more than that 50% and quite often that came across as a little bit overbearing, you know. So it's about going out there, giving you a half of a relationship and seeing if people reciprocate. And if they do, and it goes well and it's kind of natural, then great. You just don't want to idolize a particular person as being like, oh, this person is gonna be my friend, like initially. Like you just being like, oh, this person is perfect. You know, they have all my hobbies, they're semi-dating really, relationships. It doesn't really matter if they're not willing to give their 50th, give their half. So it's a very difficult thing with, and especially if you do get to that point and we're like, oh, this person's gonna be my best friends and it goes badly, it can have quite a negative impact on you. So it's a lot about putting yourself out there, but also not becoming too reliant on the outcomes, if that makes sense. It's a very, very difficult thing to do, especially if you don't particularly enjoy socializing, but you're looking to make friends. It's like, well, the goal is to make friends. So it's hard not to be attached to the outcome of it, but you know, it is definitely like, I'd say that those are the top tips in terms of that. Thank you, Thomas. I want to ditch the other labels I have too. I'm autistic. I've been diagnosed with ACD, OCPD, depression, anorexia, social anxiety and anxiety. I've never been able to work. And that's a hard thing. Working is quite, I think working has been correlated with like a longer lifespan. And for a lot of autistic people, we do struggle to even get part-time employment. I think the stats sit at about 23% for any kind of employment at the moment, which is very glum. It's a lot to do with the systems that we have in place. The employer's not being well-adjusted enough to incorporate autistic people into the workforce, not really understanding about them, not being able to incorporate them within the social world. It's tough. Imagine how many people have been listening to Wake Me Up when September ends today. Block Jeff says, is it an interview of viewers' questions? It is viewers' questions. So, I will be reading out some comments as well as answering things if people wanna ask stuff, but we do have about three minutes left and then I'm gonna have to get ready to go to the gym, have a shower, all that kind of thing. I'm seeing a friend tomorrow on Saturday. My best friend. So it's gonna be good. I'm gonna go get some good food. I'm not gonna disclose a location, but yeah. Dark Mean says, I suspect that my dad was autistic. He's no longer alive and is suspected by big brothers as well as he's passed away last year. Yeah, it's definitely like genetic. It definitely runs in the family. So if you are autistic, though there is a high likelihood that someone else in your family is too. Jackie says, Face it, Thomas, all two rules in the autistic scientific relationship, authenticity. We are conditioned to look for downsides such negativity sold as survival. 100%. You know, we are definitely looking for negativity all the time because we wanna survive. You put it very well. It's a very annoying thing. And our anxiety, our survival mechanisms are not really equipped for the complex world that we live in nowadays. You know, perhaps, perhaps in the past, anxiety disorders might have been a good thing because you're a lot more likely to be alert and keep yourself alive. Whereas nowadays it's, you know, it can be all like disabling. Definitely like, because you've got to use your brain so much nowadays to do things. It's a very complex world and a lot of the tasks that we do are very complex. Or perhaps even the social relationships that we have are a lot more complex. So we need that, that higher cognition, but the nature of anxiety is it kind of puts us in survival mode, and you know, it makes those kind of things very difficult and very negative sometimes. Get big. Indeed. Dartmouth says, thank you for your supportive words. You're very, very welcome. I'm glad that I can be supportive. Just escaped to 23, 23 a year marriage with an abusive person, your channel is a lifesaver. I'm sorry that you've been dealing with that for such a long time. I'm glad that my stuff is being helpful for you. I truly am. Well, Dotty says, sorry if my comments were so downbeat. I hope you all have a lovely September. It is my birthday month. Well, happy birthday in foresight of your birthday. And don't worry about the downbeatness. We're a very emotionally open space on the interweb. You know, positive, negative emotions, very welcome here. No need to apologize at all. Dotty says, oh yeah, I've already read that. Right, it's been absolutely lovely, everybody. Thank you always, Evan Magic. Hi, I hope you're well. You're an amazing representation for our community. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. This comes to the end of our AutieTime Live. This is the 26th one in a row. My God, looking forward to hitting the big three O soon. See how long we can keep it going for. And yeah, look forward to, if you have enjoyed this, make sure to subscribe, like, send a badge, send a membership if you want to support the work that I'm doing. And if you are looking for content, I have a lot of stuff over on my YouTube channel. Some stuff for on my podcast, some really, really cool guests that I have on, as well as live streams, reactions to mainstream media that's about autism, which I think is, has been really, really fun for me. You can always find that in my link tree in my profile. Let's head down to the 40-year-old podcast over on YouTube. Celebrate that birthday month, mind just finishing. I hope you've had a good birthday. And Mr. Austin Henshaw has been a member for five months. Wow, thank you so much, dude. Thank you so much. That was awesome. I'm listening to your oldest stuff, nothing is wasted. Thanks Jackie. All righty, it has been a pleasure and I will be going live next week again at 5.30 p.m. British Standard Time every Friday. You can listen over on YouTube or you can listen on Instagram. And yeah, if you subscribe to my YouTube and click the little notification bells, you will be able to see when I next go live. Might be a bit easier that way. But else, thank you for listening to me in my very broken speech today. The speech shape practice here is strong. I will give a word to go into the gym and having a chill tonight. So I hope you guys take a bit of a break this Friday after you've done your work-y things. Awesome, see you later Instagram and see you later YouTube. I much appreciate all the talk, all the comments, everything like that and I'll see you later.