 Good afternoon, espi legion! Welcome back to another video! With me, Mr. Tom Sandley, from the Asperger's Grave channel, today we are going to be talking about autism, of course, but specifically getting a diagnosis. There are a lot of stigmas surrounding autism, and whether people like to admit it or not, a lot of people have some stigma around being autistic, meaning that for some people it can be quite a blow to your ego, especially if you're getting diagnosed later in your life, or god forbid in teenagehood. But don't be discouraged, this isn't a video preaching about how autism is all good and it's all grey and that you should embrace it, it's more of a video about actual benefits to getting a diagnosis. So if you're interested in knowing why a diagnosis can be key and beneficial for you, stay tuned. So as I've said, autism, depending on where you grow up, your parents, the people that surround you, your country, your state, whatever, there is some degree of stigma around being autistic, and the truth is, is that autism is a developmental condition, meaning that there are some considerable negatives to being autistic. Difficulty in socialising, lots of aspects in socialising, difficulty with senses, hypersensitivity, hyposensitivities, but also difficulties in everyday life, difficulties with executive functioning, which means small daily tasks that you need to take on. And lastly, mental health. Now we can get into a whole massive discussion about why autistics have bad mental health, you know, one in three autistics have a severe mental health condition, 40% have anxiety, it's hard not to see that there are some negatives to being autistic. Although there are many positives, you know, increased IQ, which is always helpful, ability to focus on things that we're keenly interested in. And I could go on and on and on about all the benefits that autism brings to a person. But I know you don't really want to hear this, the people that I am making this video for, you don't want to hear about them. You don't want me to try and convince you that autism is great and that if you do it, then you're gonna be great and you're gonna be better. It's not about that. I'm gonna lay out why I think getting a diagnosis is really beneficial for you. Number one, whether you get a diagnosis or not, you know, even if you have an inkling that you may be autistic, it's not gonna change anything. There's no possibility that it can change anything. The only thing that really holds people back from learning the truth about themselves is that they don't want to take that blow to their ego. No, I'm sorry if that sounds bad and that you're like, oh, I'll screw you, get out of the way. So I'm gonna switch over to other videos now, but the thing is, is that who cares? There are a lot of things that make us uncomfortable in life and admitting something true to yourself, true about yourself, is one of those things that's uncomfortable, especially when you or other people have a negative view of autism. Number two, getting a diagnosis does not mean that you're trying to get sympathy. It does not mean that you are a victim. I know there's a lot of things out there that would, you know, all of this social justice craze and stuff would be thinking, oh, why are we labelling people? It's bad for them, like why do we have to put people into boxes? It's not about that. It's not about trying to make people adjust to you. It's quite the opposite. Although it can bring a lot of benefits for your life, you know, there's people around you that could better adjust to how your brain works. That's great, but it doesn't mean that that's the only reason why. The reason why is that once you know that you are autistic, you open this massive door, this gateway, that allows you to understand yourself a lot better than if you didn't know about it. There is a big thing in the world that we live in about self-improvement, self-care, self-help, whatever. This diagnosis is not about saying, take care of me. I'm ill or I have a developmental disability. I'm disabled. Take care of me. It's not about that because you don't need to tell anyone if you don't want to. It's all confidential. Nobody needs to know. It doesn't go on your job application form. It doesn't go on anything. You don't have to tell your friends, you don't have to tell your parents. It's all about you and the person doing the diagnosis. That's it. You know, maybe doctors may know, but that's the extent of it, at least if you don't want to tell other people. Because the autistic brain is so different to everybody else's, it's clear that it is. I mean, you only have to look in a few videos on YouTube or you only have to research for a little bit about autism to know that our brains are different. By getting a diagnosis, you can completely, concretely say that you are autistic. And once you know that you are, you will know the disadvantages. You will know the advantages. It means that you can analyse yourself, find out what your flaws are, correct them, self-improvement. But it also means that being autistic, you will have a lot of disadvantages. And there will be a lot of things out there, a lot of ways of conducting your life that will be more in tune to you, and it will work more for you. It's about noticing what you're good at, what you're bad at. There's no harm in doing that. The reason why people don't get a diagnosis is because they're scared. Because they're scared that it's going to change them. They're scared that they're going to be put into a box, that they're going to be called disabled, that they're going to be outcasted because they are autistic. This can't be further from the truth. The benefits of knowing that you're autistic don't just manifest in the present and in the future. Being able to read about other autistic people, empathise with them and their experiences, you will realise that looking back on your past, looking back on the traumas or upsets or things that have gone wrong in your life, you will be able to identify what the problem was and the reasons for all the issues that you've had maybe at school or in later life. A lot, like so many autistic people get bullied, they get isolated, even the ones that do really well, the ones who are very sociable, often feel like they're just putting on a mask every day. They're just trying to copy other people, they're trying to fit in so desperately because we like it, we need to be a part of as a human being, not just as an autistic person and because of that, it's hard for us. Every aspect of communication with other people, every relationship, every friendship, every relationship with our parents is difficult, it's more difficult, it's more confusing. Even our emotions, we struggle a lot with emotions and often we struggle with different sort of ingrained things inside us that are not apparent to us unless we understand what being autistic is. One of these examples is mind blindness, if you don't know about it I'll put a link to the video up there if you want to check it out. But all of these things, these differences that make us different to other people, yes they can be negative, but they can also be positive. And once you know that you are autistic, you can work on yourself so much better than if you just never knew for your entire life, it'll help you understand your relations, it's better, the problems that you had in the past, it'll help you improve yourself, it'll help you mould your life to benefit your brain and what you are about rather than someone else's brain. And that is a really important thing. It's not about victimisation, it's not about being called disabled and getting benefits which I'm sure you can, especially at school, time and help of anxiety, but that's not it, it's not the only thing. And whether you feel positively or negatively about this situation, it doesn't matter because in time you will understand what it's about, you'll understand yourself better, you'll understand your life better and you will make improvements to yourself that you would have never dreamed of, never ever dreamed of. And although not everybody who is watching this is autistic, knowing that you are, or that you're not, no harm in it, so why not give it a go. Hopefully people watching this video, you guys over there, see ya, through that screen, you think I can't hear you? What are you saying about me? Don't say that, that's bad, god damn it, that's mean. So for any of you watching out there who are currently tossing and turning about the idea of going to get a diagnosis, I do actively encourage you to do it, if you have some problems in your life, and even if you don't have any problems in your life, I'd still recommend doing a bit more research, listening to other autistic people talk about the experience, and if you think it matches with some of the experiences that you have in your life, consider getting a diagnosis. Please, if you liked the video please make sure to like it because Tommy boy over here, he needs some love, he needs some likes, he needs some little numbers next to a little thumbs up thingy to appreciate, not appreciate, to affirm me as a person, to make me feel special. If you think that some people out there need this video, please make sure to share it wherever you want, Facebook, Twitter, whatever, get it out there, push it out there, and if you want to see some more videos about autism, about mental health, about self-improvement, make sure to hit that subscribe button, it's over here isn't it, I always do that, over there, click on it, actually it's down there isn't it, and if you want to check up on what I'm doing in my daily life, be it go to schools and doing talks and public speaking and stuff, make sure to check out my social media accounts, add us BurgessGrowth, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, there's a lot of juicy stuff on there that you will be missing out on if you just stay on YouTube, so go for all of them. Now, for any of you who didn't know, which you probably do now because there is video on it, I have a new podcast up and I think it went really well, it's the first time I've done a podcast so if you want to check that out, go see one of my previous videos, I'll probably put it in the end screen so you can click on it, but I also have it on platforms like Spotify and Anka, so it's going to come out every weekends, so if you want to get up to date with some autism related content with myself as a presenter, I know, I know, it's revolutionary and it will revolutionise your life. Anyways, I hope you guys are having a great day or a great night, maybe you're up and watching this at 1pm in the morning, just remember diagnosis does not equal death, keep that in mind and I'll see you guys in the next video, see you later.