 Hi, I'm Thomas Henley and I'm on the autistic spectrum. I've come here to talk about some of the common topics around autism, dispel some of the stigmas and provide new outlooks maybe people haven't thought about. I'm currently a student at the University of Manchester studying biomedical sciences. I'm also a successful taekwondo athlete competing for GB at the under 21 European Championships and I've even won myself a Commonwealth gold medal. I've only been on YouTube for a short time and a lot of what I do is make videos about mental health and autism for people both on and off the autistic spectrum. I enjoy helping people and I do a lot of work within primary schools and within the university. The most important thing for me is showing people the reasons for our actions. Helping people understand it's actually not a disease but something to understand better in the future. So Thomas, you are autistic, what does that mean to you? Autism to me means difference, particularly difference between us and neurotypical people which are people not on the autistic spectrum. That can mean anything from the way that we communicate to the way that we think, the way that we socialise with people, the way that we go about our daily lives, the reasons behind doing things. It's different for each person on the autistic spectrum. It's something that I think is important for people to understand. So Thomas, do you ever get treated differently when people find out that you're autistic? A lot of the time when I tell someone that I'm autistic they'll say the regular thing, oh wow, I didn't really know you had autism, I was at effect to you, I don't really understand it that well. Usually when I do tell someone that I have autism it's because I don't understand something or maybe it's something that I want them to change in order for us to get on better. But a lot of people, they don't really change how they communicate with me and stuff which is a bit more difficult and obviously it's quite complicated and people really don't understand it as well which is a view that I have that maybe is a bit controversial. But Thomas, you don't look autistic. Well, when I hear that it kind of, you know, grates on me a little bit. There's no physical like differences between us and maybe someone not on the autistic spectrum. But I've learnt to kind of understand that people, you know, it's really hard to understand I've only really understood it recently. It's more or less that they don't really know what to look for. Me when I look at someone I can tell whether they're on the autistic spectrum or not. You know, the eye contact, the way that we talk, the way that we communicate, the things that we do like sitting in the corners and stuff when I go to social events. Those are some things that we pick up in each other which maybe people not on the autistic spectrum can't see. How does autism affect your communication with others? Quite a lot. Quite a lot. That's the simple answer, especially when we're younger and stuff. It makes us really, it's really hard to put ourselves in other people's shoes. I don't particularly like small talk. I don't understand the reason behind small talk and stuff. I find it really boring. I like meaning behind conversations and a lot of the time everything that we do has to be justified logically to ourselves. So even our own emotions or people's emotions. The thing is with social interaction and communicating with people is you can't really always justify it logically because it's not something that's completely dead set. It's going to be quite confusing. So do you struggle with forming bonds and relationships? Personally it is something that I struggle with a lot. I have been able to form relationships and bonds and friendships with people over the years but you're right. It makes it a lot more difficult to do that kind of thing. Trying to understand other people which is a big thing, especially when we're younger. The main limitation for me is their view of me and their ability to understand me. Things like long-term relationships especially. Things that you can't really suppress all the time that maybe I do that is a bit different to how other people work and how other people communicate like being direct and not avoiding all the kind of body language and facial expressions that people use and taking in situations to account when we're talking. I haven't really mustered it completely but it hasn't put any limits on my ability. So I've made quite a few friends and had quite a few relationships and I think I've been doing pretty well. Do you have any triggers, loud noises, contact, anything like that? I feel like triggers is a word that you use when kids are younger with autism, reactive things. I personally don't have set triggers. I don't hear some, hear some noise, have a loud noise and they go and flip out or something. It's more different sounds, different stuff so especially just background noise. Those kind of things they do cause anxiety but that anxiety is more of a hill, it more builds up after a while and if I don't get like a break that's when I can have like meltdowns, panic attacks and stuff like that. Have you ever had any comments made about your autism that's made you laugh and noisier, pissed you off? When people will say you're not like you know those ones who have it really badly, we're referring to people who are quite low functioning autism where daily life is very stressful for them. I find that kind of quite offensive. I know that people don't really understand it well but it upsets me because people don't understand it. In reality our minds and our mindset and the way that we think is very similar to someone who is maybe low functioning autism. You know people kind of undermine that as like a you know not a big deal which I think that's is quite hurtful because it is a big part of our lives and it does cause a lot of stress. It's just that we've learned to cover it up and learn to use different ways of you know acting like we're not autistic. What advice would you give to someone that may be struggling with their autism? Don't treat it like it's an illness or an ailment or anything like that. That's just going to put you down because it's not a disease. It is you. It is you are autistic. It's like you know I'm saying you are human. It's not a bad thing and although there are a lot of things that make it more difficult to fit in. A lot of the time when we're younger we want to change that because it makes it easier. It makes it easier for people to accept us by changing yourself. So going through psychologists, going through schools, they are going to give you ways to fit in. Again to try and suppress your stimming which you know is is quite good. It can help with anxiety. I used to just like spin in a circle when I was anxious and stuff and it really helped my anxiety and now when I'm older I would like to do that stimming but it's been so ingrained into my head that I can't do it. That I don't and I have to you know struggle with anxiety. Don't go into that stuff. Do try and understand people. Don't try and block people out. You need to be very patient trying to understand people who are not on the autistic spectrum. You need to be patient trying to understand your emotions. Spend as much time as you want trying to understand emotions trying to justify it logically. Trying to think of ways of helping people empathise with your situation, analogies, anything like that helps people understand. If you could sum up autism in just a few words what words would you use? Different, quirky, difficult. So Thomas I have a magic pill for you. Go on take it. If you take it your autism will disappear. People like everybody else. Why would I want to why do I want to take this? You could be normal you won't you won't have to suffer with autism anymore. Well yeah I guess there are a lot of negatives to having autism. I think a lot of those negatives come from the fact that society is built for people without autism. I would never think that there would be any cure to this kind of thing. I don't think there's a need to have any cure for it. The only thing that's needed is you know a bit of integration between people on and off the autistic spectrum. There are some negatives. I mean there's a higher rate of anxiety there's a lot higher rate of suicide in people with autism which is you know quite a big thing. A lot that is due to you know not understanding and stuff like that. A lot of it is you know due to different changes in our brain structure and the way that I think now what I could not imagine not thinking the way that I do now and I feel like if I didn't have autism I would not be the same person. You know that's quite scary I don't want that so no I'm not gonna not gonna take that film. Thank you. So thank you very much for that Thomas. Well hopefully people that watch this may have some follow-up questions and they can drop you a message on your channel which I will link below. Be very happy to do that. Awesome right I will see you later. All right thank you very much Carl. See you later. See you later. So Thomas have you ever had any comments about your and what was the question? Sorry sorry. So Thomas have you ever had any comments made about your autism?