Is there a way to tell when someone's autistic or not? Let's talk about that. So, as someone that spent the past many years of my life working with autistic folk of all different age, all different backgrounds, gender, support needs, levels, all of that kind of stuff.
I feel like I've been able to hone in on a lot of objective characteristics that to me indicate when someone is autistic or not. And it's gotten to a point where it's so precise and succinct that even when I'm out interacting with strangers or people, I could very quickly tell when someone's autistic or not. And when I say that, I am not that type of a person that will go around just diagnosing everyone and calling them autistic just because they're a little bit socially anxious, maybe have sensory sensitivities, maybe have specific rigid behavior patterns.
I don't use autism as an adjective the way that a lot of folks are doing nowadays. I just want to make that clear that when I notice someone is autistic, it is actually through detailed observation of that person and being able to identify not just one of these traits that I will talk about today, but actually the existence of many of these traits, if not all of them, at the same time with this person. And these traits existing all at once is indication to me that this person's autistic.
And that's something I really want to highlight before I get into these traits is that when I tell someone I think you're autistic, or I tell someone else, I think that person's autistic, it's something that I have spent a lot of time, energy, effort into observing in this person. And it's not a conclusion I arrive at lightly. And I want to be so clear with that because nowadays I feel like people have gotten really comfortable using autism as an adjective almost like if they're a little bit different socially, they have social anxiety, they'll say things like, "I have a little bit of that tism, you know.
" And I'm not going to say that's good or bad in at least in this video. If that's something you're interested in, maybe I'll make another video talking about that topic and and how I feel about it. But to me, because I've spent so many years working with autistic folks of all different support needs, including high support needs, I do think it's a serious thing when you see someone's autistic, when you claim someone's autistic.
And I don't do that lightly. Trust me, you guys, I don't do that lightly. I really don't.
But I do think it's important to be objective when you observe enough autistic traits in a person to be able to point it out. And that's the thing is on the surface I think a lot of people can see me when I point an autistic person out. They think, "Oh, Irene thinks everyone's autistic.
" When in reality, I don't. You're either autistic or not. Not everyone's autistic.
But there are autistic people out there that haven't been diagnosed and people wouldn't think they're autistic. And I think it's important for me to point out when someone is objectively autistic. and I could write a whole essay about why they're autistic and all of their autistic traits if someone asked me to because that's what it took for me to arrive to that conclusion.
And so on today's video, I just wrote down some of these characteristics and traits that I notice in people that help indicate to me whether or not this person I'm interacting with is autistic. And I think it it'll be really interesting for some of you to, you know, learn about because oftentimes the DSM5 is just a very general list of five or six different autistic traits like having a social deficit, having rigidity, black and white thinking, sensory sensitivities, and it's like, okay, but what does that mean? How does this actually look like in normal people?
What are the different ways that this can present? And so hopefully today's video and these characteristics I'm going to go through will help you better understand in what specific ways do those autistic traits present and how it might look like in you or someone you know when these different attributes exist at the same time within an individual. >> It's not that hard.
I'm going to show you how to do it. It's easy. But with that being said, y'all, let's just get into it.
One of the main things that I look out for when I notice someone is autistic is their conversational style. So, I've come to notice that autistic folk tend to have one-sided conversations. And this could play out in two different ways.
So, someone can have a more selfish one-sided conversation and a more selfless one-sided conversation. The reason why I find autistic folks tend to have one-sided conversation is because we struggle with social context. And this is part of the social deficit, right?
We oftentimes don't know how to flow appropriately in conversation. And so it will come across as very unbalanced. like we're either talking about ourselves too much and referencing our own life and our own experiences too much and we don't know how to ask other people about their life or we're overcompensating for the autistic traits and the social deficits and we want to make the conversation all about the other person so that they don't think we're selfish.
But either way, it becomes lopsided. It's either all about you or all about the other person and we don't know how to flow in a more even way of like back and forth. Does that make sense?
And so usually the selfless conversers are high masking and the selfish conversors are not masking. And so let me explain what this looks like in these two different type of conversationalists. I hope that's a word.
Oftentimes, when someone is more selfish in their one-sided conversation, that could look like someone who relates everything another person is saying to themselves and their own experience. Let's say someone goes up to an autistic person and they're like, "Oh my god, I just had the worst day ever. the kid at work threw up everywhere and I had to clean it up and then my coworker didn't show up so I had to, you know, do her workload and my workload and everything was just going wrong and I'm just exhausted.
And then the autistic person might respond with, "Oh yeah, that reminds me of that one time where I showed up to work and the oven broke and then we had to bake a bunch of different bread, but the oven wasn't working and so we had to bring out this other old oven and then it just wasn't cooking the bread right and then everything was just going wrong and I was I was so overwhelmed and oh god it's so hard. " And then the person who brought up the initial topic would be like, "Yo, so you you're just going to completely ignore what I just shared and that I'm having a hard day and you made it about yourself. You're selfish.
Like why is everything always going back to you and you make everything about you? " You see how that plays out when in reality that autistic person brought up that story in order to relate to the person. It's basically their way of saying, "I know what it feels like to have a hard day, and we could share that lived experience together and not feel so alone.
" The second autist, right, the high masking one, is aware that people perceive this first autist as selfish. >> Wow, dude. Bravo.
You blew it. This is an absolute disgrace. All you had to do was never up ever.
Is that so much to ask? We got to limit our exposure on this. You're no longer safe.
We have to leave town, establish a new identity. God, your loved ones must be so disappointed. Hold on, it's your parents.
They're downing [music] you. Deservedly so. Consider the pooch screwed.
>> And so, when you're a high masking autist, you try to overcompensate for coming across as selfish by making every interaction and conversation about the other person all the time. >> The flogging has only just begun. You know, the chokei from Matilda, you're going in there.
We got to ruminate on this like forever. These are healthy and realistic expectations. with my help, we'll make you perfect.
Then no one can hurt us ever again. >> So what that looks like is constantly asking people questions about how they're doing, how they feel, like everything is about them. And so whenever you're talking to someone, it's like, "Oh, how was your day?
" And then they share. And you're like, "Oh, that must be hard. What do you think you're going to do about that?
" And then they share. And then before you know it, hours pass and you're like exhausted because you didn't talk about yourself. The other person knows nothing about you.
It's just it's all about them. And the thing is is like this sort of autist creates an uneven dynamic even if the other person would actually not mind talking about you too. But because you are always asking questions, you don't give another person opportunity to ask about you or be curious about you.
You know what I'm saying? And so it could feel very uneven like you're constantly the one giving and giving and giving. Another way that this can look like and come across is being the person that always digests other people's information and you're constantly understanding them and why they're doing what they're doing and how they feel.
>> That's so fair. Honestly, that's so fair. That's so fair.
Yeah. Oh, you slept in today. Yeah.
Well, that's fair. Yeah. I mean, that that's fair.
I >> but the other person has no idea what you're going through or how you feel or anything about you. So this sort of autist will say a lot of things like, "Oh, that makes sense. Oh, that's interesting.
Oh, I see. I see. " Or, "Okay, that's fair.
That's fair. " But not have anything to say back about like yourself or how you may relate or what you think. And so the uneven conversation happens with you're constantly receiving everything from the other person and digesting it, but you're not giving them anything to digest from you.
Does that make sense? And so it looks like either you're doing all the work for the other person or you're the only one digesting information for them, but they're never ever digesting what you have to give to them or supporting you because you remove yourself completely from that equation just so you could come across as not selfish. Basically, when I see someone only able to have one-sided conversations, whether that's selfishly or selflessly, that's usually a good indication to me that this person's autistic.
They don't really have a good idea of how to have even conversation and a reciprocal relationship with other people because part of the social deficit is not knowing what's right or wrong. And so it's easier to just either be unmasked and do whatever you need to do, be mispersceived as selfish, whatever, or overcompensate by trying to come across as nice cuz you want to be nice, but you sacrifice yourself and your needs in that process because you don't know how else to show up without being accused of being selfish. >> I'm feeling normal and good right now.
Not crazy and not horrible. So, another way I could tell someone's autistic is observing how they respond to my tangents or my random information dumps. I feel like a lot of neurotypical or appropriate conversations is small talk and there's a specific flow in which small talk usually plays out.
And so for me as an unmasked autistic, there's certain moments where I will abruptly shift from a certain small talk into something completely unrelated. So I could start off talking about, "Oh, how was your week? How are you feeling?
" And then we might get into it a little bit and all of a sudden I shift gears into, "Did you know that cows could be really, really good swimmers? " Or I could shift into, "Have you ever thought about what it would be like to open a doggy daycare, but only for senior dogs? " >> Sources confirm your vibe was weird [music] and yes, everyone felt it.
If the person I'm talking to is able to shift gears with me without feeling thrown off or they aren't judging me, if anything, I could see a glimmer in their eyes. So, they're responding to me almost with relief, like, "Oh my god, they're excited about this topic, right? " That's usually an indication to me that they're ne divergent or autistic because even if this person is masked, right?
I feel like there's always some sort of relief when I bring up some sort of random topic that is actually interesting for us to chew on and talk about and not have to go through the trouble of transitioning from how your week was to a senior doggy daycare concept. It's just let's just shift gears. Let's jump into this thing and start talking about it.
If I start to see that we could flow from all different topics without judgment and it's just energizing and we could keep going and going and going and it's so fun and entertaining and we could technically not know anything about each other cuz we didn't talk about our jobs, our age, or anything about us, but we just explored all these random topics that don't matter, but it's still that interesting and that stimulating for us. That's usually an indication to me that this person's autistic. If they're able to do it, autistic.
If they take pleasure in it, they're autistic. If they match me in that and they start bringing up things that don't make sense or don't relate, autistic. And usually if this person is a mass autistic, what that looks like to me is when I shift gears, there's a sort of rustiness to it where they're like, "Oh, oh, now we're talking about this.
Okay. Oh, oh, now we switch to this. " I could see that.
But the difference is a non-aututistic person would judge me for shifting into these random topics. They would be like, "Oh, okay. I guess a senior doggy daycare would be cool.
" There's like a judgment there that I could feel a sense of like, "I don't want to shift gears. I don't know why you're shifting gears, right? " Like this unwillingness to talk about what you shifted into.
Whereas a mass autistic is like, "I'm not used to this, but now that we're here, let's just keep going with it. " And usually what that feels like is I'm not practiced. But as we keep going and I'm matching your pace, it starts to feel good and they could take on that flow quicker because that sort of conversational style matches their actual neurology.
So even though they don't practice that sort of conversational style, you could tell that it suits them and they prefer it. Does that make sense? And another way I could tell someone is autistic through conversing with them is, it's so interesting for me to talk about this out loud, is the way that they're processing what I'm saying.
I noticed that when I'm talking to a non-aututistic person, there's always a layer of detachment to it where I'm talking and talking and they're not really paying attention to what I'm saying. >> My house almost got robbed yesterday. My whole family could have died.
[laughter] >> Did you hear me? Yeah. >> Oh, I don't know.
I'm good. >> Did you hear me? >> Because they they just need the general idea of what I'm saying.
All they really need is the context. Like Irene does this for work. Irene is this age.
Irene is at this point in her life. And all these other details don't really matter to them. I don't know about you guys, but when I'm talking to non-aututistic people, I will go through all of these different details about myself and I could just tell that they're not fully paying attention cuz I could be mid-sentence and before I even say anything, they're already like, "Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, mhm.
" And you could tell that they're not even really responding to what you're saying. They're just like listening to you talk but not processing it, if that makes sense. Whereas, when I'm talking to an autistic person, I could tell they're paying attention to every single detail about what I'm sharing and they're observing everything about me.
Their eyes are constantly shifting and processing. And I could tell in the way they respond to me because as soon as I finish saying what I'm saying, they respond exactly to what I just shared. So, I could tell they actually paid attention.
And I could tell that there's also a part of their brain that's trying to calculate what sort of response they have to give me given the information I just shared. So they're actively trying to calculate if Irene shared all of these things, does that mean I should respond in this way? It's a sense of like information overload is what it is.
When I'm talking to non-aututistic people, they seem very disconnected and that's why the the conversation is very low stakes for them. They know generally like how to respond to keep the conversation going. In reality, they're not really invested.
They don't really care. They're only digesting maybe a fourth of the information, but because they're non-aututistic, they only need a fourth of the information to survive socially. Whereas, when I talk to autistic people, they're processing a 100% of the conversation and all these other environmental and sensory details in order to figure out how to be socially appropriate in their responses.
>> What's up, guys? >> What's up, man? How was the trip?
>> I uh Oh, what's he doing? What's he doing? What's he doing?
>> Nice. Snailed it. What shoulder?
What the >> Sorry, freak >> Did you see him, Ben? >> Sven, what's up, my man? How you doing?
>> Okay. What's he doing? What is he doing?
The is this? A fist bump or a dab? Sven, what the >> Oh, damn it.
Oh, what are we doing? Fist bump? >> No.
All right. >> Doing a fist bump or a dab? >> That's all right.
That's all right. >> Nah. >> Welcome back, man.
>> Maddie. >> Hey. See your handshake?
>> Oh, uh, yeah. Right. Uh this go.
Um missed you, man. Miss you, too. That's a pass.
>> Oh, yeah. Thanks, guys. It's an acceptable grade.
>> I'll take it. Whatever. Could have done better, but it's fine.
>> And so, I feel like when I'm talking to an autistic person, they're very attuned to me is what I noticed. like everything I'm saying and doing, they're noticing and they're responding to the best of their ability to how I'm presenting myself and sharing. I think a lot of it has to do with that's our natural way of processing.
And I think also another aspect of it is that's a survival mechanism. That's how autistic people have had to learn to socialize in order to blend in and camouflage as much as possible is to be almost like too aware and too hyper attuned. because if we're not, we we tend to miss things.
Okay, I need to drink some water. I'm so thirsty. Okay, so another way I could tell someone's autistic is whether they feel triggered by my observations of them or they feel touched by my observations of them.
So, as someone who is very observational of other people, Got to comfort level while I'm drilling while I'm drilling. them, girl. Me and you.
[music] >> I'm constantly observing. I'm constantly mapping out what behavior patterns does a person have and what does this say about them? When I reflect to another person what I see in them and I reflect to them how they are as a person and why they do what they do and what are their coping mechanisms.
What are the ways that they show up in love? What are the ways that they try to, you know, show others they love? What are their ways to receive love?
What are they incapable of doing? What are their trauma responses? When I reflect that to another person, what I've come to notice is non-aututistic people will feel extremely triggered by my observations because they feel called out to them.
If you see all of those things that they're trying to hide because they're hiding those things in order to be more digestible and socially acceptable, me calling out those hidden traits will actually make them feel like they're failing. and I'm actually calling those traits out to make them feel bad about themselves. You know what I'm saying?
Whereas, when I reflect that to an autistic person, regardless of if they're high masking or not, I noticed that autistic people will feel extremely extremely touched because they crave deeply to be seen and to be understood. It is so lonely when you're autistic, existing in a society where no one actually sees you. People are constantly misinterpreting you, projecting on to you what they want to know, what they want to see in you, and you feel so lonely in that experience, right?
And so when you get someone actually see you for who you are, and they're able to say, "These are all the ways that you show love and you're not met there. these are all the ways that I've seen that you're hurt and this is how it plays out. When an autistic person is observed in that way, we have a tendency to be like, "Oh my god, you actually see me.
Thank you. Oh my god, I'm not alone. You actually see me.
" And so as an unmasked autistic, what I've come to realize is that autistic folks actually really value and appreciate when I could accurately reflect who they are back to them and simply show them, I see you. I see why you are the way you are. I see how you've gotten to this point.
I understand you. That's it. Because it's affirming and validating to them and their experience.
And it's less lonely because of that, right? Whereas for a non-aututistic person, it feels like a very scary experience to be like, "You're not supposed to see that. What are you doing?
Look away. What? I'm fine.
I don't know what you're saying. I'm fine. I'm perfect.
I don't know what you're saying. " But for an autistic person, it's like, "Oh, you see everything about me, the good and the bad. " Does that make sense?
I hope I'm explaining that right. Because from my perspective, there's so many moments where as I'm interacting with other autistic folks and I'm giving them my observations, I'm almost bracing for a negative response. Like, they're going to feel called out.
They're going to take this the wrong way. They're going to think I'm criticizing them or I'm trying to make them feel bad about themselves or inadequate because I I'm talking about very sensitive topics of like their trauma responses, coping mechanisms, and things that shapes who they are and their behavior patterns. And that's not easy information to digest, right?
And so in these moments where I'm bracing for a negative response because that's usually what I get from non-aututistic people and the autistic person responds very positively to me and if anything it's like a very heartfelt exchange where they're like thank you for taking the time to actually see who I am and understanding that and I feel less alone in my experience now when I see that sort of melting and and that sort of like h we see each That's when I know, man, you are autistic, dude. You're autistic, dude. I see you.
Game knows game. I'm autistic, too. I I see you.
And I see you. I understand you. There's kinship here, you know?
Okay. So, another thing I look out for when determining if someone's autistic or not is how much contradiction does this person have in their identity and existence? And what this can look like is someone who looks a certain way, but when you actually get to know them, they're completely different.
So what you see is not what you get. But once you actually interact with them, what you see is exactly what you will get. Like they're an open book.
Are you following me? Let me let me try to explain this mechanically. Okay.
A non-aututistic person is what you see is what you get on the surface. If they look very nice, put together, and preppy, you get to know them and you see they're nice, put together, and preppy. But as you actually get to know them more, you realize that underneath the surface, they are often times not what you think they are.
Whereas for an autistic person, what you see on the surface is often times not what you get. And when you actually get to know them, you see, oh, they're completely different. But what you get to know is exactly what you will always get through the entirety of you knowing them.
Does that make sense? I hope I explained that right. So another example, if you were to see a very scarylooking person, they look very intimidating.
They have a resting face. And you're like, "Oh, they look very unfriendly. " But let's say you go up to them and you talk to them and you realize, "Oh, they're actually really nice.
They bring you cupcakes because you said you like cupcakes and they offer to watch your dog because you need a dog sitter. And so you're like, "Oh, I didn't expect you to be so nice based off of what you look like. I thought you would be really mean and scary.
" What you'll notice is that throughout the entirety of you knowing them, they're a consistent person. They will always be a kind person. They don't switch up on you.
What you see is exactly what you get. Whereas a non-aututistic person might seem very nice. They fit in on the surface.
You go up to them and you talk to them and what you see is exactly what you get. They seem nice and kind on the surface. But as you get to know them more and more, other stuff starts to come out and you feel like there's a mismatch of like, "Oh, I didn't know that you're the type of person that talks crap about other people behind their backs.
I don't know. You're the type of person that will judge me any single time I do something different from you. And if I don't do everything the same as you, you're going to be upset with me and think that I'm a bad friend.
And then you start to realize like what you saw on the surface when you first met them isn't actually who they are. Like there's a lot of social contracts there, you know? Whereas with the autist that has a lot of contradictions, because there's no social contracts, their sense of self is stable throughout the entirety of you knowing them.
Nothing is going to change how they carry themselves and who they are. Whereas the non-aututistic person will change depending on how much of the social contract you are upholding as you're with them. When I'm out and I'm interacting with people and I don't really know them yet, I see who they are.
I'm studying how do they dress, how do they present themselves, how do they talk, I get to know who they actually are outside of the surface level. And as soon as I start mapping out that these actual internal traits contradicts the external presentation, autism, autism, because your interest and how you present yourself when you're autistic often times is completely different than who you actually are as a soul and as a consciousness, you know, and the ability to unapologetically show up as your authentic self outside of whether or not that matches your external shell is a social deficit in and of itself. And often times I find that the outside world does not react to these sorts of autist because people hate when they think they're going to get something from you and they don't.
Think of your outside shell, what you look like and how you present, how you dress as a storefront, right? If someone sees a storefront is filled with a bunch of pretty dresses, but they go in and it's a guitar store, they're going to be like, "What the hell? I came in for dresses, not guitars.
" And that's what it's like when you're autistic and you are filled with contradiction. Is like people will have such negative adverse reactions when they actually get to know you thinking it's going to play out a certain way and they're going to get certain social contract needs met. and you're not playing that game with them and you're not offering what they thought you would offer.
But the inverse to that is other autistics will actually take pleasure in the fact that you're contradictory. They will be attracted to you because the storefront looks a certain way. When we walk in, we see, oh my god, there's all these other things you're selling.
Like, I thought you were just going to have dresses, but you have guitars, you have ropes, you have chains, you have jewelry. Like, oh my god, this is so fun. I didn't expect you to have all these other things about you.
Autistics will see the contradiction and be like, "Yes, this makes you more fun. This makes you more nuanced as a consciousness, and that makes it more stimulating for me to get to know you. " That's something to think about.
How someone else reacts to your contradictions is also a way to see whether or not another person's autistic as well. So often times when you're autistic and another person's autistic, you guys will take pleasure in each other's contradictions, you'll want to dig deeper and learn more. And usually non-aututistic people will respond negatively to your contradictions.
You see what I'm saying here? Okay. So this next trait is somewhat similar to the one that I just shared, and it's how unlikable is this person to the general public?
Imagine hating on me when I'm just in my room also hating on me. You're spending all this energy and time hating on me when I'm doing it better than you anyways. And honestly, for lower effort, I'm not putting in nearly as much energy as you and I'm still hating on myself.
Like, my brain is already hating on me. It's not on my team. Like, my own brain is not on my side.
Make that make sense. Stop wasting your time hating on me. I do it enough.
I'm good. Usually when I see there's one person that's very easily alienated and disliked by other people, that's an indication to me that they're autistic because often times we're not even trying to be disliked, but we end up being disliked cuz the way that we socialize is different and it's easily taken the wrong way. >> The magic of endorphins.
I'm in a state of total euphoria. Clearly, if you're just a person that doesn't tend to smile or emote very warmly, people could think that you're an unfriendly cold person and it's easy to isolate a cold unfriendly person. Right?
That's one thing I look out for. How [snorts] easy is it for this person to be black sheep? And likewise, when I actually get to know that black sheep, are they able to understand why people dislike them?
The other day I was talking to someone that's autistic. They don't know they're autistic. They're not diagnosed.
And they were going into detailed explanations of I was talking to this person the other day and I felt like something switched. I don't know what happened, but it seemed like one day this person was okay with me. The next day they were upset with me.
They couldn't even look at me. They scowlled at me. They were avoiding me.
Maybe it's because I said this thing to them the other day and they took offense to it. Or is it because the way that I look at people rubbed them the wrong way because I have shifty eyes? It's not just them that was upset with me.
Their friends stopped talking to me and no one would talk to me. I don't know what I did. They went into so much detail about all these observations.
And then at the end of it, they're like, I don't know what I did wrong. Is it this or that? And why would they be offended by that?
You know what I'm saying? And and they were like, I don't even know what to do at this point cuz I don't know what I did wrong. And I remember at the end of them processing out loud to me, I was like, "Dude, you're autistic.
You're autistic. " And they're like, "Why? Why do you think I'm autistic?
" And I'm like, "Because nothing went missed by you. You noticed everything. >> Get ready.
So get set. So hang on. So buckle up.
So sit tight. [music] So strap yourself in. So brace yourself.
So keep your eyes open. So fasten your seat belt. So stick around.
So hang on. So get ready. You just have to be ready.
" You noticed more detail than a non-aututistic person, but you still are confused as to what happened and how to react. That is autism. That is autism.
[clears throat] You noticed every little gesture they did, every little minute little change, and yet you're still confused as to why this person is upset with you, if they're upset, why they're upset, and what you should do about it. Because the thing is is non-aututistic people will know exactly why people are upset with them and what to do about it, but with half the information. You see what I'm saying here?
Non-aututistic people don't need to know much to know exactly how to respond. But autistic folks see everything and still may not know how to respond or what happened. Think about that, y'all.
Think about it. Okay. So, this next trait that I look out for is how much does this person light up when they're talking about their special interest?
And how much are they lighting up despite it being socially acceptable? The difference to me between a person talking about a special interest as a non-aututistic person versus an autistic person is the difference between their passion talking about their special interest versus their normal baseline. So, what I've come to notice is that for non-aututistic people, there's not a big difference between them talking about something they're passionate about versus something they're generally interested in.
But with autistic people, what I've come to notice is that what they're passionate about is so different from their general baseline that the passion in their special interests veers into the realm of it being socially unacceptable. They'll just keep going on and on and it doesn't matter if someone else is interested in the conversation or not. They'll just keep going and going.
>> You're going to have to contribute something to the conversation, Fred. >> Did you know that nets have been used in hunting for over 30,000 years? >> No one wants to hear your net facts, Fred.
>> I know, but but it's just it's just I love nets so much. You don't have any idea that what they're made of or what they can mean to somebody. >> How dare they?
>> Or they'll be so passionate about it that they're so excited even if no one else is excited. Or if someone is also excited, their excitedness goes up even more where it's almost like you're manic talking about it, right? Or you're so excited about something that you don't even want to just talk about it.
You want to bring someone else into the experience and experience it as well and get them to be passionate about it. But either way, the passion in our special interests is so excessive that it it's almost like a different person gets activated. I call this like sleeper agent gets activated.
You know, an autistic person will activate like a sleeper agent when we're talking about our special interests. And it at that point when you're activated in that way, it doesn't matter if you're matching our freak or you're matching our excitement, it's like we're going to be excited regardless. Cuz again, we don't need a social contract to just enjoy this aspect of our special interest.
We don't need you to also enjoy it. We don't need you to encourage it. It's just I will be interested and excited about talking about this regardless of if I'm talking to you about it or a wall because that's how passionate I am.
Whereas a non-aututistic person's special interest is always somewhat tied to some sort of social contract. They gain some sort of social benefit out of it. Like a person might talk about how much they love running marathons because they like the way that other people think they're a high achieving person because of the way they're able to accomplish something most people can't accomplish.
Whereas an autistic person is excited about birds or animals regardless of whether or not other people care. It it doesn't matter. It's just I will like this even if no one else will ever understand it.
I will talk about it. I will love it. It's just it's a genuine passion of mine.
All righty, [clears throat] you guys. That is the end of today's video. I hope this has been very enlightening for you guys or even just validating to see some of these attributes you may have be talked about, explained.
If you found yourself relating to any of these traits or anyone you love and know having these traits, please let us know in the comments section down below. Like always, make sure you guys take some time today to drink some water, eat some food, take yourself on a lovely walk, stay regulated, and I will see you guys on the next one. Take care.
