3 Ways to Understand Autism Better 

I'm autistic and actually have a sense of humor. But people think I'm being serious and mean.

I am autistic. This video is helpful as it gives me some ideas on how to explain to people what it feels like to have autism. I consider myself hyper-empathetic to other people, as I have become very skilled at using pattern recognizing and analyzing people's behavior in order to understand what they may be thinking and feeling. In my personal case, the stereotype that someone with autistim has no empathy does not apply. And ironically, typically I find that many neurotypical people make no effort to empathize with me or understand what I am thinking/feeling. They observe that my behavior is different and then treat me differently, typically infantilizing me or shunning me. Maybe if I explain some of the examples you talked about in the video I will be able to connect better with some of the neurotypical people around me.

Stimming to me is like a burst of energy in my brain and makes my body move it can be when I’m happy or overwhelmed

I'm an Asperger's adult with two degrees and hot shot jobs under my belt - female. I can't thank you enough for the videos, especially of Ian's meltdowns. I go through the exact same horrors except for some reason I can control myself to only do it alone. Last night was horrible. I do not look any different than your son. And it isn't until I watch the videos that I'm reminded of my condition and that I'm not broken or horrible - I just have autism. When you described it as "too much input, can't regulate" a light bulb went off and now I have more insight into my meltdown trajectories. Thank you for sharing your family with us and bringing awareness.❤

Thanks for making these videos and providing good advice to the community

I am someone on the autism spectrum who does overanalyze. The things which I have the tendency to overanalyze on are ancient aliens from the history channel, new age philosophy, and conspiracy theories. And I use to overanalyze about those three different things so much so that it kept me from doing things that are more important, such as taking care of my mental and physical health and other responsibilities, but I've trainef myself to not continue to overanalyze about those three different things too much so I can still do things that are more important in order to live a successful life. Overanalyzing can be a strength, but it can also be a weakness if it's not controlled.

I have both anxiety and autism, and I find that anxiety attacks and meltdowns feel very similar to me. There’s an overwhelming urge to run away and hide, not be seen by anyone. The difference is, with a meltdown I’ll be more concerned with getting into a calm (usually dark) environment, even if it’s just under a blanket. With anxiety attacks I’ll be more concerned with my emotions and the judgement of others

When it comes to sensory overload I get a really bad heartburn feeling and complete exhaustion. I got so overstimulated after my team won in college I spent the time after the game everyone was celebrating I was in the lobby laying on the couch. My friend tried to take me home I was in so much pain I couldn't walk to the car or even out of the building. I have also felt burnout where I just need to rest after the social occasion. Meltdowns for me is like a car stuck in the mud without help getting out I am going to will it it but instead my engine keeps getting hotter until it explodes.

My sense of humor is complicated. I love to laugh and make other people laugh. My special interest is a sketch comedy show (Studio C) and I have written my own comedy sketches. In fact, I'm going to go to Studio C's live show next week! But when it comes to deadpan humor or jokes that involve me, it's like my brain goes on overload as I try to process it and I have a really hard time knowing if it's a joke or not. Sometimes, it feels like my brain is thinking a hundred things at once just to process one thing.

A very straight forward summary of my Autism: 1. There is never a final answer. My response is always "WHY?" If I am not constantly gaining new knowledge, I am failing myself and my potentials. 2. My brain literally processes my hearing and sense of touch differently than other people. I am NOT to be touched! 3. "Emotions should never be part of the equation." Any reaction, action, or "solution" that contains emotion is immediately suspect as being biased. 4. Social interaction only complicates my logical life. 5. Social isolation and total solitude are my mental sanctuary. 6. Windows are covered in my house so there is total darkness 24 hours a day. I remove as much sound input as possible and replace it with soft quiet music anytime in public. 7. Humanity is "Chaos." My brain cannot process CHAOS.

I've loved this video and explanation, even though I'm autistic! It's amazing, keep up the phenomenal work 💖💖

As someone whose Autistic and have ADHD, this video is a great way to explain autism to someone. When someone finds out that I’m autistic, they usually ask how it’s like to be autistic and I always struggle to answer. This video made me feel understood by some neurotypical people like you. I find myself relating to a mixture of Ian, Connor and a bit of Alistair. I relate to Ian and his honesty and being literal and straightforward. I relate a bit to his finger stims as well. I miss a lot of “could be” jokes because I just don’t really get it and I am too literal to. For Connor, I relate to his thirst for knowledge and I am also “high” on the spectrum like he is. For Alistair, I relate to him a little less than the other two but I relate a lot to his stims and outgoing personality. I love your three boys. They’re great people. I really love how you and your wife try your best to help and understand them. I wish my family was like that. I relate to the point you said about how we over-analyse information and the example you gave about what colour an elephant is. I also tend to hyper-empathise which is the complete opposite of the stereotype. Thank you.

I'm an English teacher in Europe and I'm using this video for one of my lessons. I like exposing my young students to different topics and I think autism deserves more awareness on this side of the pond!

Another excellent video. I often tell people that it feels like I am from another planet. I don't speak the common social language. When I was your kids age I used to ask my mom all the time if I indeed was from another planet😆. The elephant analogy is excellent. It often takes me a while to process questions for that very reason. There never seems to be a simple answer. Stimming brings me in focus, calms me down and also feels amazing when I am happy! Thanks again for posting these videos.

I love this explanation. My son (8) has autism spectrum disorder and its very difficult for him to communicate his own feelings. I've never been diagnosed myself, but when you talked about the loading wheel and the scattering of the brain as it receives a simple question really made me realize that I do this a lot. That's why I'm deathly afraid of interviews because I know I won't be able to answer in the way people expect them to. I'll overthink the question and have all these thoughts attached to it and in the end give an answer (if an answer at all) that puts a question mark in people's faces. I hope to watch more videos to educate myself and for my son. Thank you for all that you do!

Rob, I think this is one of your best videos! I learned so much and it was very helpful. I also loved the video footage of your kids at the museum. It looks like a fabulous place to visit.

Thank you for sharing your family information. You have such a wonderful family,💗💗💗💗💗

So informative! Thank you!!!

Great analogies. It can be very tough explaining autism to those who are neurotypical .

Thankyou for this video. I’m always learning more and more about my son with him being on the spectrum and these videos have really helped me quite a lot

Nice shirt Rob. “Cabella’s” is an awesome camping and sports store and thank you for speaking on our behalf. This hits home 🏠. Great vid!!!

Thank you so much for all the information. My son has just been given his diagnosis and my wife and I are in complete research mode trying to learn as much as possible. Your videos are so helpful in our journey.

Hi family! Thanks for the nice video! Very nice what you had visited whit the boys. Nice area. When it's to much for me I get a meltdown. And it's terrible to get it in public! But the video is great. A big hug from the Netherlands. 🇳🇱😃❤️🇺🇲

Wow! I’m gonna save this and have a watch party with my family! This is so informative.

Very insightful and informative. Thank you.

Thank you so much for sharing this love you all to pieces ❤ God bless you

You have tree fantastic sons. i love your cannel you are an great father for these three boy's on the spectrum.

Thanks for this video!

I really find your videos helpful. My son has level 3 autism. Non verbal, doesn’t communicate and stims constantly etc. these videos are explaining so much. Thanks. Roxie from the uk

Masz wspaniałą rodzinę. Ogladam Cię z podziwem i szacunkiem. Mam siostrę i syna ze spektrum autyzmu. Pozdrawiam z Polski 🇵🇱

Squishy and happy omg. Your guys are so adorable! My little boy has just been diagnosed with autism & so I find your videos invaluable Thank you so much 🌞

One of the most unintelligible things on autism for people who does not live it (my son is austitic) is how, even years after diagnosis and therapy, the caregiver (me) needs to constantly learn things like you showed in the video. Thanks a lot from Chile (the country).

I have been flapping my hands as a stim and I sometimes get this squeezing feeling where I need to squeeze something. That happens when I am happy or upset. But when I have meltdowns I feel super angry

Sooo helpful.. I can relate so much better when you use the examples . I’m normally very patient and mellow … but ask me to do something technical on the computer or solve a math equation and I go from zero to 100, aggravated , wanting to throw something , nervous and overwhelmed…and yes getting so angry I want to bite the laptop ! 🤔. Wow what an eye opener . Thank you !!

hi from Indonesia. Thank you so much for your content.

Thank you.

Luv your channel!!

my brain does really feel like it's a big mechanism performing a bunch of things at once all the time !!!! and i do like to imagine it visually !!!!! i hope people can imagine the gears turning the same way i do. i was always a very analytical person and i think it's silly to visualize how it looks like

@AutismFamilyChannel That's what I was as a child with autism. I was born with it; however, I don't do the stimming anymore, I must have outgrown it. I have a video on my channel that tells my short story of being in "Special Education classes in elementary school to being in Med School. I titled it: Special Ed to Med School. Thank you for sharing your experiences and knowledge on the subject of Autism through the eyes of your children, and much more. I always appreciate your videos. Take care. Best Regards, Garrick Pattenden, MD. Windsor Ontario Canada.

Great metaphors with the pool and pregnancy

Thanks again for taking about being autistic ❤

Stimming makes you happy. ♥♥♥

I’m just like your wife I love swimming and being in a pool lol. My son loves that really soft acrylic lol don’t know why either lol

New to your channel. My husband and our son both have Autism.

For me, playing with my poultry always boosts my mood. My turkey, Rosanna, I taught her to sit in my lap and snuggle 🩷🦃

I'm a goth who has autism I'm my own care facility called westcare with six adults I in it now I love it

A fair bit of my sense of humor is "Interpreting this literally gives absurd results and is therefore funny. Respond literally, drop it in deadpan, see if anybody picks up on it."

I have Septo Optic Dysplasia, which caused me to be born totally blind and on the autism spectrum. I have a sense of humor, but I can also be straight forward. I may come off as mean, but I’m not trying to, my words get a bit mixed up, but my brain is thinking way different than what’s coming out of my mouth. I think blindness can also cause it to be hard to understand a joke, because you can’t see the person’s facial expressions. Having SOD doesn’t define me as a person, I even embrace it, and I don’t want a cure for my SOD. Yes I may ne totally blind, yes I may be autistic. But I’m still here and living.

Love you all too 💕

I always feel like I'm very different to others, but after I got diagnosed as high functioning autism, I can finnaly knew why(well, kinda), I don't really like movies like everyone else, I love EDM music more than any popular music genre, I love psytrance and happy hardcore so much, my dream is to become a EDM/DJ producer someday

Smells are a huge deal for Simon. 😊

I am not autistic but it feels disgusting when I see matchboxes, matchsticks, cigarettes etc. when they are around while I am eating I may throw up. My family never understood me in my 35 years of life. They are still saying I am faking it. I feel how autistic behavior will be seen by neurotypical people without learning what autism is. I was telling everyone that I haven’t seen anyone with autism when my daughter was diagnosed. When I know what autism is I realized 3 of my cousins and neighbor kid are autistic not retarded (sorry to say this but that’s what neurotypical people might think without knowing.

I know for myself for my son is I understand him now but at first it was like bonkos lol. And when I started learning about autism it’s very complex, every child is different and I don’t think there is any set way . To me it’s a journey it can go forwards and then backwards.

I feel like the best explanation for my autism is often “my brain is just wired differently”. You can see it really well in the Temple Grandin picture especially, but our brains have an unnatural amount of neuron connections in very atypical ways. Stimming is a good example of that. What Ian is kind of getting at is that unconscious connection where when we experience a strong emotion, it triggers an unconscious physical feeling that compels us to stim. It’s kind of like how when people get really happy, they can’t help but smile, usually without even realizing it. It basically feels like that, but with a greater physical action, and for every major emotion because of the extra wiring going on. I also think thats likely why your sons struggle to really describe it, not just because autistic people often struggle to communicate in a conventional comversational way. It’s mostly just neuron firings going off in the background. I think also that this different wiring causes our brains to really get good at certain atypical tasks naturally and voraciously, while also just completly disregarding things like social rules. It just feels like our brains can’t always quite understand the value of working against its natural wiring to learn those kinds of things, completly independently of whether the autistic person may really want to know how to do them. Its like our brains are a highly optimized super computer, and well, its not like NASA uses their super computers to play Roblox all day. Sorry this has been a huge special interest of mine this past year, and also I really love you guys’ channel! Ive got boat loads of interesting modern autism research/theories/information and I’m always looking for someone to bestow this niche info upon.

I stim when I'm happy, when I'm sad, when I'm excited, when I'm bored, when I'm trying to think, when I'm thinking too much. Right now, I'm putting off going grocery shopping. I pick grocery stores by whether they mind if I'm barefoot.

I can't stand fireworks or fire cackers one year it got so bad that curled up in ball and started balling ,I don't like balloons being blowing up they seem to burst I have both AD HD and Autism. I tend harp on things so I can't focus .

I’m autistic too and I’ve struggled with emotional regulation (I know I should know better), any tips/items to use or bring with me in public?

1:02 It feels like a computer freezing and crashing lol

Hay utah friend. Where was the museum located?

How is Ian and Connor doing in high school

Hi new subscriber! I'm just curious since asd is highly genetic and three of your sons are on the spectrum: are you or your wife on the spectrum as well (or neurodivergent)?

5:27 WHOA colorful

How were they when they were around 3 year old? My son is three now very intelligent informational wise if that makes sense, but does not conversate. He knows alot of words and learns well. But cannot follow instructions or sit still for too long and doesn't speak unless absolutely needed.

7:54 my hart feels very fast when I’m stressed.

Autism is something that I was born with. I've always thought differently and can I be pinned instead, @Autism Family

i have austim

I’m thinking when is bed time and when can I have my food that’s all I think about lol.

477 likes👍👍👍👍 ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

as a parent did you ever seen yourself in the same way of being like your autistic kids?

Pherst

I’m petrified of AI

Can i get a pin?

Don't most people on the spectrum talk about one thing like Planes, Trains, or anything else?

Or...neurotypical humour is boring and not funny....is that possible!? If you define our humour in reference to neurotypical humour...thats the problem.