00:00:02
[Music] Alyssa, we're back. You're back. Round two. Hi. How's it going? It's been uh a
00:00:10
little while since we chatted. And uh I'm stoked to have you back. We're going
00:00:13
to chat. We're not going to talk so much about your Well, we will talk about your
00:00:19
homeschool experience, but not in the way that we did before. Uh with like the history. If you listeners, if you want
00:00:24
to go hear that, go back. I don't know what the number is, but I'll make sure
00:00:28
it's linked down in the show notes before. But we t I chatted with Alyssa before about like her homeschool
00:00:33
upbringing and the wildness that ensued. But today we are going to talk about uh
00:00:39
autism. We're going to talk kind of about some neurode diverency. We're going to talk about different things
00:00:44
like that and kind of like growing up and being around people who are just a little bit different than us. They're
00:00:49
wired a little bit different. So Alyssa, I'm going to let me let me just ask the
00:00:55
dumb question. What is autism? How does it affect people? Like what's the spectrum? What is like what is it? Give
00:01:02
me give me the the the brain dump there. Yeah, sure. So autism it is a neurological development dis
00:01:10
developmental disorder and basically what it does is our brains uh they have different sections that are made for
00:01:20
different things like one part of the brain is for motor skills another part is for language another part is for
00:01:26
emotions um anything that has to do with the mind it's in the brain obviously but with
00:01:35
people with autism or people who are on the spectrum, those parts of the brain formed differently during
00:01:43
um when they were in in development. And it's not something that is caused by
00:01:50
environmental factors. It's not something that is it's not something that's
00:01:59
preventable. It's genetic and it can be caused by I think one one way to kind of
00:02:07
explain it at a basic level is everyone has coding in their DNA and there's a
00:02:14
sequence of how your DNA is supposed to go. Sometimes um during like the the development process like when your you
00:02:24
know your parents get pregnant with you and you're developing the womb you DNA
00:02:29
replicates sometimes it doesn't replicate the way it's supposed to. Sometimes
00:02:34
um a piece of that information can be duplicated. It could be replaced with something else or it can be deleted. And
00:02:42
because of um those mutations, it causes the brain to develop a little differently. And so because of that,
00:02:50
people with autism or ADHD, um just to name a few, they they see the world differently. They don't see it in
00:03:00
the same way that someone with a typical neurotypical brain sees it. And so because of that, it impacts our
00:03:09
relationships. impacts the way we communicate or the way we feel things. And even though it's different, it
00:03:17
doesn't make you it doesn't make the person with autism any less of a person.
00:03:22
It doesn't make them um it doesn't make them stupid. It doesn't make them naive.
00:03:27
It just means that they see the world through a different lens. And honestly, if more people understood that and
00:03:35
accepted it, then just we as humans could progress so much further by valuing the minds that don't fit into
00:03:48
the typical boxes that um we are taught like oh um I'm sorry, is this is this making
00:03:58
sense? Yeah. No, it totally it totally is. And I was I was going to say like the reason I wanted to have you on to
00:04:04
talk about this is you are someone who who has autism and and I wanted to ask kind of maybe like your when did when
00:04:13
did you find out that you were autistic and and get diagnosed with that? Yeah. So fun funny funny thing is I actually
00:04:21
was never diagnosed. Um however I did study child development for two years and then I also um you know I studied
00:04:30
education. I was trained in how to identify children with special needs like what some of what signs of
00:04:37
developmental delays um to look for in a child that could be on the spectrum. And um for me, I showed
00:04:49
a lot of signs of developmental delays when I was growing up. But because I was homeschooled and didn't have access to
00:04:58
professionals, it just went undiagnosed. And rather than recognizing that it was
00:05:05
um something different with my brain, I was constantly told like, "Oh, you're
00:05:11
uncooperative. You're stupid." um just like a the way that people approached me. It was like it was like a
00:05:21
flaw with my character. And um on top of that, I always had issues like struggling to fit in or like
00:05:30
understanding like what's appropriate to say in public, what's not appropriate to
00:05:33
say. And um because of that, I was I really did not have a lot of friends when I was growing up. You know, I had
00:05:42
people who would like say surface level that they were my friends, but then like, you know, I would just like speak
00:05:48
my mind about whatever and they just kind of like ostracize me a bit. And then um like for some just to give some
00:05:57
like very like basic examples, I didn't start speaking until I was four years
00:06:02
old. So, you know, most uh children will say their first words like mama or dada.
00:06:10
um when they're at least a few months old. I did not have any of that at all.
00:06:15
I could only like scream and yell and um some other signs that I showed was like biting
00:06:28
like children on the spectrum. A lot of them can be biters. Um, and I say this because um, I have spent the two weeks
00:06:39
uh, work past two weeks working in a special ed class where I had to deal with a lot of biters.
00:06:46
Um, and then there's just like al also other signs like for me I I mean you might notice but like I tend to look
00:06:53
away from like the camera a lot uh, because like I can't handle eye contact.
00:06:58
It freaks me out. Um, and I also tend to like kind of be more monotone. Like for me, like if I'm
00:07:06
being really expressive with you, like while interacting, it's because I have
00:07:10
to think about what face what facial expressions I have to make. Like, oh, like right now is the time I have to nod
00:07:18
and say mhm to make it like seem like I'm listening or I have to like stare at
00:07:22
your forehead to like let you know that I'm listening. reality is if I'm doing
00:07:27
all those things, I'm probably not actually listening because I'm trying so
00:07:32
hard to make it seem like I'm listening because I have to act like when most
00:07:37
people talk like they you naturally make facial expressions, you naturally nod like you're nodding right now. Um, and
00:07:45
that like those are just things that come naturally to you. But since uh like the part of me that's listening and the
00:07:54
part of my facial expressions don't automatically work together, I have to like manually think about it in
00:08:00
my head like, "Okay, I'm going to I'm going to nod. I'm going to be like,
00:08:04
uh-huh. Yeah." Yeah. um which is a sign of uh masking, which um I don't know if you've ever heard the
00:08:13
term before, but masking is like when a person on the spectrum forces themselves to display certain behaviors
00:08:24
in order to blend in with neurotypical people, right? Makes sense, right? It's
00:08:29
like you want to fit in, you know, you want to match the energies and things like that. It's it's interesting. I
00:08:36
hadn't really thought much about like autism and and and things like that in in the sense of like it's I
00:08:47
don't want to say it's always been normal to me, but I had so many friends
00:08:50
growing up that were like we were all just different. I had a I had a sibling with ADHD. I had like I had friends who
00:08:58
were autistic. I had friends who had Down syndrome. I had friends like just anything and everything you could think
00:09:03
of at dyslexia and dcalcula and like all the different whatever. And so and I I I want to say I don't know
00:09:13
that I did this perfect so I don't want to like totally pat myself on the back
00:09:16
for this but like I didn't I just kind of viewed it I view it now in particular
00:09:22
as like we were all just really unique and different and we learned how to like get along with each other. And like I
00:09:28
remember having a friend who I'm trying to remember if he was autistic or if he
00:09:32
had asberers. I I'm I'm blanking on what it was, but he was it was difficult to
00:09:39
be his friend because he would just his mood swings were crazy and like he would
00:09:43
just like he didn't always have the skills to like have that conversation with you and when he was done he would
00:09:50
just like leave, right? And like um and so it was weird. It was like a weird thing to navigate at first because it
00:09:55
was like, well, why is he doing this? Why is he acting this way, right? And what we came to know was like as as he
00:10:02
shared with us like, well, this is how my brain works and I get overwhelmed and so I need to leave and I need to be on
00:10:07
my own. Okay, that's not a problem. And especially because like his parents were
00:10:11
cool with us being at his house. So, it's like he could have all his friends
00:10:14
over. We could be playing video games, watching a movie, being stupid, being boys. And he's like, "Okay, I'm done.
00:10:21
I'm tapping out." He goes to his room and does what he does, whatever. And his
00:10:26
parents, it wasn't like the party's over. It was just like, "Hey, you guys
00:10:30
continue like the night's not over. You guys do your thing. And when and if he
00:10:33
wants to come back and join you, he'll come back and join you." And so these
00:10:37
things kind of became normalized in the sense of like, and like I said, I also had friends who had Down syndrome. So
00:10:42
that and that's a whole another can of worms of like how um how you interact
00:10:47
with people and how you understand how they operate and how to communicate with them and things like that. And so I
00:10:51
think there was this level of patience that got taught to me when I was a kid and in high school and stuff where I was
00:10:57
like, "Okay, like everyone is just unique and different and you have to learn how people operate and like you
00:11:02
just kind of have to be okay with that and show patience and and grace and mercy, right, to those people to kind of
00:11:08
be like, "Okay, where are you at? Like let me talk to you. Like I can tell you're upset or whatever." Um, but
00:11:14
that's not the case for everybody. A lot of people have that like they kind of
00:11:18
like they ignore or they like live in denial that like these things are real, right? That people's brains are wired
00:11:26
differently. Um, and so I think that's it's something I'm learning more now as
00:11:32
I'm as we're watching the world um view autism uh through the lens of our
00:11:37
political system now. But but I don't know what my question is here. I'm to be honest I'm kind of
00:11:44
blanking but but I think it's um it's interesting do you have a point where
00:11:53
you kind of was it through school that you went like okay now like I get it like I'm autistic that's like where it
00:11:59
clicked for you or had you kind of had suspicions before that if that makes sense like I know I'm kind of asking the
00:12:06
same question I already asked but like was there a point where you like it literally was like light bulb moment
00:12:11
like oh I got it like this is the thing. Yeah. So, I I always knew that I was different in some way um growing up, but
00:12:22
I never understood why. And so, because of that, I would just constantly beat myself up over it. Yeah. And it kind of
00:12:30
turned into this like it turned into low selfworth because it's like okay like
00:12:40
um people didn't want to be my friend because I was weird or um because like I
00:12:48
would just like emotionally shut down if I was over stimulated and it took it to
00:12:53
like oh she's just being a brat right now. she's just she just wants to be a
00:12:58
problem. Um, but in reality, I was just I didn't know how to communicate my needs at the time because I wasn't told
00:13:09
that my needs were legitimate. Um, and that it was just uh me just being a bad person. Yeah.
00:13:20
Um but then like when I started studying child development and you know studying
00:13:24
the signs of like okay this is what a neurotypical um child looks like this is how they will behave um these are the
00:13:33
certain signs um like I don't know if you've ever heard of Sigman and Freud um
00:13:39
but those are two very well-known psychologists who talk about human development and child development and
00:13:44
kind of what is expected at each stage of life. Um but when the child like doesn't
00:13:55
follow those stereotypical stages that you can expect to see at certain ages, um then
00:14:03
that would be those would be the signs that like okay maybe it's time to get
00:14:07
evaluated. And so, um, one of the most common tools that can, it's not a tool I
00:14:16
would say like, oh, if you do this and you score a certain way, then you definitely have autism. But it's, it's a
00:14:22
good first step in getting that diagnosis and kind of understanding like what's normal, what's not normal. And
00:14:31
this is called the RADS test. Um, I'm not sure if you ever heard of it, but basically um like you can search it up
00:14:38
online and it it tests it's like a questionnaire that scores you in different sections of thinking like your
00:14:47
relationships, your uh pattern recognition or hobbies or habits, all that stuff.
00:14:55
And it's if you score under 60, you're most likely not you're most likely
00:15:02
neurotypical. But if you score above 60, then it could be they'll say like, okay, like, yeah, this could be a sign
00:15:11
you have autism. And then it'll kind of break down your scores into showing like
00:15:17
what thinking patterns are most associated with like what type of autism or like what type of uh or it could show
00:15:24
like sense of dyslexia or ADHD. Um so that's a really good first place to start. Um because if you do
00:15:34
that then it can either kind of like reaffirm suspicions of potentially having autism and it can like lead you
00:15:42
on the path of getting professionally diagnosed. And so like I said um the if you're if you score above
00:15:50
60 chances are you may be autistic. I scored a 147. So I'm like okay this is
00:15:57
definitely a sign. But unfortunately since I didn't have like you know I'm 24
00:16:04
years old living in California as a substitute teacher I don't make a lot of
00:16:09
money and so because of that I don't have the resources I need to get professionally diagnosed but
00:16:16
unfortunately because of the current um climate like with RFK creating a autism registry it's probably safer for me now
00:16:26
that I never got diagnosed which is so unfortunate cuz on one hand I would have loved to have been um formerly
00:16:36
diagnosed. I would have loved to know exactly what like what parts of me that were not
00:16:45
considered normal and be able to get the resources I needed um to to kind of navigate those
00:16:53
different areas of my developmental delays. But at the same time, like I said, it's probably like as
00:17:02
of now in my best interest that I was never diagnosed officially. Yeah. No, I Yeah, I agree. I agree with that. Is is
00:17:11
autism like is it a spectrum of like because I I know I I know people who are autistic who
00:17:20
are like fully functioning very independent yourself included who like they can do life on their own and I also
00:17:28
know people who are almost like nonverbal like very severe case of autism so to speak but is it is it
00:17:38
labeled on a spectrum or is there a way of grading being like where you sit on it, do you know? Um, yeah, that's a
00:17:44
great question. So, yeah, it is a spectrum. Okay. Um, but there are like different levels
00:17:52
of needs. So, there's like high functioning autism, autistic people. So, like people who are able to live on
00:17:57
their own, uh, have relationships, uh, have jobs. Um so basically they can survive among neurotypical people but
00:18:11
there are people who are on the lower end of spec who are on the other end of the spectrum who are higher need. So
00:18:20
there are like there'll be people who are 50 years old and they have autism and they're still living with their
00:18:26
families because they need that support. um like some like I so with my special ed class I have about I want to say 11
00:18:36
students and I have some students who are very high functioning they're able
00:18:42
to have conversations they're able to use the bathroom on their own um they're
00:18:47
able to read a bit because it's kindergarten and then I have students on the other end of
00:18:55
the spectrum who can't communicate at all they have to wear pampers. Um, and they are just
00:19:04
higher they they need more support in order to live like a normal life. um how and then there's like also um
00:19:15
Angelman syndrome which um I don't know how much you know about it but I know
00:19:20
there was one family um I'm not going to name them just for like their own privacy um who had a
00:19:27
daughter with Angelman syndrome and so for her that included seizures um being nonverbal uh couldn't walk on her
00:19:40
own. But that didn't change the fact that she was still a person. It didn't
00:19:46
change the fact that, you know, even though she can't communicate in the ways
00:19:51
that we can understand. She still has her own thoughts, she still um she can still feel like it's not just
00:20:05
because like someone's outward abilities don't match what other like neurotypical people doesn't mean that
00:20:13
they're any less of a person. doesn't mean that they have any less value,
00:20:16
right? It just means they need a little help. And in all honesty, like we all need help at some point in our lives.
00:20:24
And just for some people, it's more longterm than others. I think it's really one of the things I found most
00:20:30
interesting and and kind of specifically this last year of my life, but even before that, I just I hadn't even
00:20:37
recognized it, but like being an entrepreneur and and meeting other entrepreneurs, working in the podcasting
00:20:44
arena, I I meet a lot of people. I network. I also get to hear a lot of interviews with people. And what I've
00:20:50
learned is that entrepreneurs tend to be people who think very differently than the average
00:20:58
person. Um, and it's it's something in the wiring, whether that is like neurody
00:21:03
diverency or it's just their personality or whatever, but like they do they operate completely different. And it's
00:21:10
been interesting because this past year I feel like more and more of the entrepreneurs that I'm meeting are
00:21:15
really vocal about the fact that they're like, I have ADHD. I have dyslexia. I'm
00:21:20
autistic. I'm I'm XYZ. Right? They're they're they're kind of claiming it,
00:21:26
right, as like this this kind of like ownership identity thing. And they're like, "That is what sets me in my
00:21:32
business. That's part of what sets me in my business apart because we approach
00:21:36
this in a different way than anybody else would." Um, and so it it's been
00:21:43
kind of this like fascinating thing to be kind of a peer to some of these people. in a way. Um because I'm like I
00:21:52
some of the some of these people I've known for a while. I've known for a
00:21:55
number of years and I never my brain's just stupid. I guess I just never put it together that I'm
00:22:01
like, "Oh, they are like this way." Like I'm just like, "Oh, that's just so and
00:22:04
so, right? They're just that's just their quirkiness." Um and then this past
00:22:07
year of them kind of being more vocal about the fact they're like, "No, I
00:22:10
think this way and that's why my business has succeeded because we operate differently." It goes to your
00:22:17
point of like autistic people are they're people too, right? And also as you go down that that spectrum into
00:22:24
people who cannot care for themselves like I I also had friends who yeah had siblings that that couldn't care for
00:22:31
themselves but they were still people and the the joy and the happiness that they would bring to their family's lives
00:22:38
and their friends lives. It's just in a different way. the value that they add
00:22:42
to the world is different than like the value that you or I add to the world. It's not that they're not bringing
00:22:51
value, it's just not the type of it's not the same value, if that makes sense.
00:22:55
Like, and I don't want to discount it in any way, but it's just it it's been I
00:23:00
don't know. I've been thinking a lot more about that recently of like, wow, I
00:23:04
actually did have this kind of diverse experience of knowing all these people who I viewed them all as people, but
00:23:10
they just we all brought something different to the table and we could all like we shared that we had like humanity
00:23:16
is what we shared in common. We're all humans. We're all like we have these
00:23:19
things. Um I don't know. I I it's just to your point about like RFK, it's
00:23:26
like right now we're in this strange battle of like what is value, what is human value,
00:23:36
and what do we bring to the table, what do we add, and and things like that. And
00:23:39
it's very it's hard to hear someone get up on stage and say things like, you know,
00:23:45
autistic people will never pay taxes and they'll never basically contribute to
00:23:49
society in any way. It's like that's just Um, and it's And we know it's
00:23:55
because you and I have both experienced people who we see the value that they've brought to the table of
00:24:02
just being who they are regardless of whether they can work a job or not, you know. So for those of us who are
00:24:12
not in the like myself who's atypical, right? who who's neurotypical, are there
00:24:21
what what are the best ways that I think we can like support you and figure out like when it comes to an like living
00:24:31
with an autistic person or living with someone who has ADHD, are there things that we should because we have to
00:24:36
educate ourselves as well, I guess is is my point I'm making, but like is there a
00:24:41
best place to go to do that? Yeah, that's a great question. So, there are actually
00:24:48
um there there's one person I don't know if you've ever watched Love on the
00:24:52
Spectrum, but basically it's a show about people on the spectrum navigating romantic relationships. And even though
00:25:01
a lot of people just watch it as, oh, it's reality TV, I think that show in itself is so helpful because it
00:25:11
shows like the realness of not just navigating romantic relationships, but also navigating like communication
00:25:19
styles. Um, like for me, I said earlier, um, I have a hard time understanding social cues. I have a hard time reading
00:25:30
subtext. And so for me personally, I would say the biggest way to support someone with
00:25:39
autism is just to use direct communication because we don't look for any we don't look for the subtext
00:25:47
because we don't have the tools to be able to see it. And so like I'll give an
00:25:54
example for my dating life. Um, this is actually like really sad example, but someone could say like, oh, like I think
00:26:05
we should be friends. And for me, an autistic person, I'll be like, okay, great. A friend. Like, let's do things
00:26:12
that friends do. But in reality, that just means I don't want to talk to you
00:26:15
anymore. And it's just like just be clear about it, dude. Well, I have I have an example on that cuz I had a
00:26:21
friend in college who was autistic and he was he was high functioning. He lived in the dorms with us. He was super nice
00:26:28
guy. Anyway, lived on the same floor my freshman year. Him and I got along decently well. And I think the reason we
00:26:34
got along really well was that I understood that you have to just tell him straight out what it is that you
00:26:42
need. There was there was no You could not like mask it in the like colloquial politeness because he didn't
00:26:50
understand it. And so it was funny because there were all these instances and all these people who I don't think
00:26:56
that they got that they just they were like they would kind of hold him at an arms
00:27:01
length and and and you know they they were like yeah we're friends and whatever and then it would come to like
00:27:07
doing friend stuff like you're talking about and they would be like do we really want to invite him and it's like
00:27:13
if you don't want to invite him you just say this is not a party for you like
00:27:18
plain and simple if that's what you want Right. But I was like, but you guys
00:27:22
dancing around the issue makes it harder for him to operate as a human being. You
00:27:28
need to just like tell him. And so it was funny because one of the I I was dating this girl at the time
00:27:35
and we were hanging out and he came up and he was very proactively hitting on her. Um, and I was like, "Oh, okay.
00:27:44
Interesting." And I took him aside and I said, "Hey, I just I just want to let
00:27:47
you know like we're we're currently dating." Um, and like, you know, you're
00:27:54
you're stepping on my turf. And uh, and he was like, "Oh, dude, not a problem."
00:28:00
Like, as easy as that, it was over. It was done with nothing. And it was so funny to me because other people were
00:28:06
like, "How did you get how did you get him to knock it off?" And I was like, "I
00:28:09
just told him what was going on in plain in English. There was no like, "Hey,
00:28:15
like I just don't know, you know, it was just plain and simple. I'm dating this
00:28:19
person. I would really appreciate it if you like didn't hit on them. Like it
00:28:23
just seems inappropriate." Yeah. Exactly. Or like another example would be like I would ask someone, I'd be
00:28:30
like, "Oh, would you like to come over for dinner?" Cuz in my mind, like I like
00:28:35
to make food and like I like to make food for people. Food is my love language. And so someone could take that
00:28:43
and they could be like, "Oh, she wants something longterm." And then they would
00:28:48
tell me like, "Oh, I'm busy right now, but later." And so in my mind, I'm
00:28:53
thinking, "Okay, they're busy right now. I'll make them dinner later." like
00:28:58
these. It It's It's so frustrating because if they had just like communicated like, "Oh, are you
00:29:08
asking me on a date?" I could say yes or I could say no. I could make it very
00:29:14
clear what my intentions are. But since we constantly dance around this idea of politeness, you're taking away my
00:29:22
ability to communicate with you because you're not giving me the tools that I
00:29:27
need to show you what I'm trying to say. I think that's that's a key that's just
00:29:33
such a key point is just like understanding that yeah it's like if you don't
00:29:41
have if you don't have that function in your brain to like just like read the
00:29:45
subtext of it. It's like and and like I'm not going to say I I also I think
00:29:51
struggle with that. think that's more of a homeschool socialization aspect of
00:29:56
like also sometimes I don't get the subtext but not to the degree of an autistic person but it but it is
00:30:03
interesting to like you said it's just like just tell me straight up yes or no
00:30:07
like it's not going to hurt maybe it will hurt your feelings but like it's
00:30:11
not it's going to benefit me in the long run if you're just straight with me as
00:30:17
opposed to let's just dance around this whole thing and pretend you know let's
00:30:21
be atypical for a second and pretend about whatever. It's like this just like
00:30:26
it doesn't work. It doesn't work. It doesn't work with any of my friends who
00:30:30
are autistic. It's like I'm just like I have to just say no. Yes. No. Maybe. You
00:30:36
know, I feel like in the end it in the long run, like if you're just dancing around
00:30:44
politeness, that's just like more offensive to me because you're basically
00:30:50
telling me like, "Oh, I don't trust you to react well to this." Which when
00:30:57
people treat me like that, it feels like it's kind of like an attack on my character. It's
00:31:03
like, I understand that you can just not want to hang out with someone, but I need you to tell me that. Yeah. So that
00:31:11
way I can react appropriately. But since people like don't want to do that and
00:31:17
they hide behind the niceness of it to try to like not hurt your feelings, it's
00:31:22
just it's just like going way over my head, dude. And so like I have made it a
00:31:28
point to like start telling people straight up like I am autistic. I need direct communication. If at any point
00:31:37
you don't want to like be seeing me anymore, if you don't want to hang out,
00:31:42
just tell me. And it would make it so much easier for me to like, you know, just hear that and be like, "Okay,
00:31:51
cool." and move on rather than like trying to constantly decode subtext. Does that also go the opposite direction
00:32:00
too where you find that like when you communicate with people and you're presented with that
00:32:05
option, right? Like that you're just more direct with people of like like like you brought up the dating
00:32:14
thing, right? Of like oh like I'm kind of busy right now like we'll do dinner
00:32:17
another time. where if you're not feeling it, are you more do you tend to be a lot more just direct of like, hey,
00:32:24
I'm just like not feeling this and like I don't really want to do dinner or or
00:32:28
have you or do you we talked about masking a little bit or do you kind of have you started masking it where you're
00:32:34
like okay like I do the kind of like uh I'm just like really busy right now like
00:32:38
life's just kind of a little nuts. When I when I try to date people, you know,
00:32:43
I'll go out with them and like if I'm not feeling it, I usually just don't say
00:32:48
anything, but if they reach out to me, I'll just say, "Hey, you know, you're cool, but I'm not
00:32:55
feeling it. Sorry." That's it. Move on. They get the message. I don't I won't ever say like, "Oh, I'm
00:33:03
busy right now. Like, maybe later." because like I don't want to communicate
00:33:08
that there's going to be a later if I already know there's not going to be.
00:33:12
Yeah. You know. Yeah. I get Yeah, that totally answered my question of just like that communication of like you you
00:33:21
need the clarity. So that that's I guess what what I was asking is like you need
00:33:24
the clarity of people to tell you like hey like this is you know tell me point blank, right? So that's what I was
00:33:30
wondering is like do you also just feed it back point blank if that makes sense?
00:33:34
Um, yeah, pretty much. Because it's like, why would I say maybe later on something I don't intend on following
00:33:42
through? Like, oh yeah, we'll hang out sometime. I'll be like, okay, when like
00:33:47
let's do it. Because I don't realize that it's just a way of being polite,
00:33:53
you know? And I think like now that I'm like separated from it and I'm like
00:33:58
talking about it, it's easier for me to spot. But like if I'm in the moment and
00:34:05
someone's just trying to politely curve me, it'll just go over my head. Like
00:34:10
it's it's so frustrating because it's like on top of that, like if I like someone and I'm
00:34:19
saying like, "Oh, we should get dinner like sometime." And they're like, "Oh,
00:34:24
I'm busy later." Then I think, "Okay, they're busy later." And then I just
00:34:28
wait for them to stop being busy, you know? Right. You know what's so funny, too, is
00:34:35
that I think even within my own life, like I'm I'm guil I'm I'm guilty of the like, oh,
00:34:43
life's just really busy right now. Like, we'll just let's circle back. Let's, you
00:34:46
know, we'll come back to it, right? And it's kind of sometimes with that
00:34:49
intention of like it's either sometimes it is like I just need to kick the can down the road a little
00:34:55
bit. like I genuinely am really busy, but a but a lot of times it's like I just don't want to do that thing at that
00:35:01
moment that that person is inviting me to do. And what I've realized is like I
00:35:06
get frustrated when people do that to me, right? And I'm like I just want a clear answer.
00:35:11
Yeah. But I also don't give a clear answer half of the time either. So I'm
00:35:15
like us having this conversation, I'm like maybe I should just start giving very blunt clear answers of like, nah, I
00:35:20
don't really want to do that. Like let's do something else instead in a week and
00:35:24
a half, you know? Um because I I almost think it would just be better than us trying to like we've been
00:35:31
talking about this whole dancing around the situation of like kind of just hinting at you know they'll get the
00:35:38
message eventually. It's like no like people just let's just not why do we
00:35:43
leave why do we leave things to like we have to decipher them as humans? Let's
00:35:46
just actually like point blank tell each other. I don't want to do that. Yeah.
00:35:51
Like I I've had I definitely had moments where like it's like when a friend
00:35:56
invites you to their birthday party and you know you're they're your friend and
00:36:03
you know you want to be nice and celebrate them but you also just like don't have the
00:36:09
energy. Like I wouldn't tell them like oh sorry I'm really busy that day or I'm
00:36:15
really busy today. It looks like I won't be able to make it. I'll just like tell
00:36:18
them like straight up like, "Hey, like I don't have the energy right now to do
00:36:23
this. Sorry." And that's it. because like like if they're my friend and I
00:36:30
care about them, I want them to be aware of like where my heart is at, you know,
00:36:37
and like I'm not showing up to your birthday party because I don't care about you as a
00:36:43
person, but I recognize my own needs and that I need to respect those needs, but
00:36:49
I also respect our relationship. So, I'm going to tell you straight up instead of
00:36:53
lying to your face to protect your feelings because I trust you. I trust that you know who I am as this person. I
00:37:00
trust that you know I care about you and you know if I tell you like, hey, I'm really tired or I'm really low
00:37:08
energy right now, then I just trust that to be respected. And also, if you build
00:37:13
a good enough relationship with that person, if they really need you or want you at whatever that situation is, they
00:37:21
will also hopefully feel like they have the ability to communicate that to you, right? To say, "Hey, I actually really
00:37:28
need you at this or I it it bothers me that you can't make it, but I can respect it." Or, you know, whatever. But
00:37:35
like, yeah, I think having that openness of being able to talk transparently and
00:37:40
just be your true authentic self I think is like it's very powerful because to your point
00:37:46
of like if you have a good if you have a solid friendship with somebody and you guys respect each other and you honor
00:37:52
each other's boundaries and things like that it's like then there really won't
00:37:56
be an issue of like you communicating exact your needs with that person you know and them doing it back to you.
00:38:03
Um, I think I do want to kind of pivot just just a little bit and and talk a little bit
00:38:11
about the the like family dynamic of like growing up in a family where maybe a sibling or your parents
00:38:21
are not neurode divergent, right? Not on the spectrum. like that's that can be very taxing um on
00:38:34
them as well. Um but also for you, I'm sure that that's also can be a frustration. I mean, we've kind of
00:38:43
talked about that already, but I guess where I want to go with that is more of like now that you now that you
00:38:54
understand yourself better and you've kind you've come to okay, I know this
00:38:58
about myself. I know that this is how my brain works. How has that changed your relationship with your sisters and with
00:39:05
your dad and and things like that? like how how how have you been able to communicate to them like I this is how I
00:39:12
am like take it or leave I don't know is it a take it or leave it situation is it
00:39:16
like hey I think I need this from you like how how has that shifted so um like I said before like since I never had
00:39:24
like a diagnosis growing up um they had kind of always seen like my autistic behaviors as like misbehavior
00:39:35
like me intentionally like being a problem or like being bad, but in reality, like if I was like having a
00:39:42
meltdown, it was most likely because I was over stimulated, but I didn't know
00:39:46
how to communicate that. And so now that I have an understanding of how my brain works, like
00:39:56
if like some like let's say like someone's like talking too loud at me, I'll just straight up say, "Hey, I'm
00:40:02
over stimulated. Can you shut up please?" like for a second. Um, and then they'll be like, "Oh, okay." Yeah.
00:40:10
Um, and then like sometimes like I'll be talking to my sisters about whatever.
00:40:17
Like I'll be telling them like about a situation I'm in and then they'll kind
00:40:21
of like have to translate for me like, "Oh, this person said this, but they
00:40:26
really mean that." Um, and it's it's still hard in some ways because it's like I had a family member
00:40:38
ask me a while ago like, "Hey, do you think you could take like one of those
00:40:42
classes for autistic people and learning how to talk?" Cuz it would really help
00:40:46
me. And I'm just sitting there thinking, I'm like, "Why don't you take class on
00:40:51
how to learn how to talk to autistic people? The fuck?" like um it it it can be really
00:41:01
tiring because something I've noticed is that like in schools um the reason that
00:41:11
special ed classes, one of the things that special ed classes do is they have social emotional learning time which is
00:41:16
basically like it it's like giving directions on how to communicate or how to behave in certain scenarios, which
00:41:26
you know, okay, that's needed. But at the same time, neurotypical people aren't being given that same that same
00:41:38
education in how to talk to neurode divergent people. And I think it kind of goes back to this idea that like, oh, if
00:41:47
you're neurode divergent, like your way of communicating isn't the right way. it
00:41:52
isn't the preferred way and you have to adjust to fit in with everybody else and
00:41:57
it's like why don't we just both learn how to communicate with each other you
00:42:02
know 100% agree I mean I think we brought it up before it's like for me as someone who's not neurode
00:42:11
divergent it it's like it took me learning patience to get there like Um, I I the best example I can come up
00:42:25
with was somewhat recently. So, I worked at I worked at a toy store and we would
00:42:29
do birthday parties and and typically typically like when kids have a birthday now, I guess it's like you
00:42:35
invite your whole class of kids um that you're at school with, right, to come to
00:42:39
your birthday party. And so this one group came in and one of the boys, it was very obvious that he just was he was
00:42:46
the black sheep of the group. He was the outcast, unfortunately. And again, this is not to pat myself on
00:42:53
the back. It but just like I I clocked it immediately. I was like, "Okay, this
00:42:59
kid is going to need special attention, and that's okay. I can give that." Um,
00:43:05
and so, so it was interesting because he just he he was really he was like hyperfocused on like very specific
00:43:12
thing. We do it was a it was a Lego store and basically we would build the birthday parties consisted of we would
00:43:17
build race cars and race them down a track to figure out who had the fastest car. So, super fun, you know, great
00:43:24
time. And he was like super hyperfocused on this one element of like I don't know
00:43:30
if it was like beating his score or making it faster or making it light, whatever it was, it was just this like
00:43:35
super hyperfocused thing. And it was funny cuz he just would come kept coming and talking to me about this one thing
00:43:40
and he would repeat it over and over and over again. And so I was like I started
00:43:44
to realize that I was like okay my response to him is not he either needs to hear it a couple of times or I'm not
00:43:52
responding in the way he needs me to respond to get him to like continue on the thought if
00:43:58
that makes sense. Um like he he was just hyperfixated on this one thing. And it was so funny. So we would come and I
00:44:04
started like kind of saying different things but I never got to a point of like hey like stop like I'm not doing
00:44:11
this anymore. like you're annoying me with like, you know, bringing up the same thing over and over again. Um, and
00:44:17
his mom came up to me afterwards and was like, "How did you have the patience to
00:44:21
do that when you also you're dealing with him, but you're also dealing with
00:44:25
like the nine other kids that are in the room who are also running up to you and
00:44:28
being like, "Hey, put my car up next. Put my car up next." And and the thing
00:44:33
was that I was just like, "Well, I grew up with people like this." this. And so
00:44:37
I think that it just was like this like I I felt like she's like you made it clear that you had seen him and that
00:44:46
you acknowledged him and like you would tell him when he needed to wait, but you also then would go back
00:44:56
to him when he when you were ready. Um, and I think that's what like I don't
00:45:02
know. It worked out really well, I guess, is what I'm trying to say. And I'm I'm trying to remember why why this
00:45:07
came up, but it was just that that process of learning how to communicate with this other person where it's like
00:45:12
all the rest of the kids I could very easily say like, hey, you need to like get in a straight line. And he couldn't
00:45:17
understand some of those directions. So, it was just learning to it was having to
00:45:22
sit there and be like, how do I communicate this to this kid in a way that he that makes sense to him that
00:45:28
continues with the birthday party where I don't give him all the attention, I
00:45:31
give him the attention he needs. It's a It's a crazy mind juggle. Like I think
00:45:36
that's why I bring it up is like it's it's as someone who doesn't think that
00:45:40
way, it's very hard. But to your point about having a family member be like,
00:45:46
"Why didn't you take classes to learn how to communicate?" Well, it's like it
00:45:50
is very valid of you to say, "Well, why flip it back on that person and say,
00:45:54
"Well, why don't you take classes to learn how to how to communicate with
00:45:56
someone who has autism?" It's like, "Yeah, duh." Because I mean, what's the
00:46:00
number at this point of like one in how many kids has autism? I think it's one
00:46:05
in 36. It's up there. It's not And it's no longer this like, well, nobody has autism, you know, like
00:46:14
back in my day, nobody had autism. It's like that that is more of an undiagnosed
00:46:18
thing than it is nobody had autism. Um, it more has to do with the fact that you
00:46:24
guys didn't have the tools to diagnose these people. Um, and understand that.
00:46:28
And so it's like on top of that, I I had a conversation with my dad. He was like,
00:46:33
"Well, back in my day, you know, there weren't all these labels." And you know,
00:46:37
people were just people. And I don't understand why people can't just be
00:46:41
people. And it's like, okay, yeah, there weren't labels, but there were also no
00:46:46
resources. Like, people weren't getting the help that they needed. I didn't get
00:46:51
the help that I needed. And because of that, it made me severely depressed um among other things. But like and it made
00:47:00
me feel like I was bad or I was wrong for existing and I didn't feel like I mattered in
00:47:10
that way. Yeah. But now that we're having so many more resources and ways to diagnose like in the past like autism
00:47:19
used to be diagnosed as schizophrenia and what did they do in the early days of mental health treatment? They did
00:47:25
electroshock therapy. They did labbotoies and just all these inhumane ways to treat
00:47:34
something like a sickness when it wasn't a sickness, it was a condition. And when
00:47:40
you have a the thing is a sickness can be cured, a condition can't. And you have to learn to live with the
00:47:47
condition. And that's that's like another thing too is just like when when you meet a person with
00:47:56
autism, you don't have to be like, "Oh, I'm so sorry you have autism." And I'm
00:48:02
just It's like, "Why are you apologizing?" Like, if anything, like I
00:48:07
feel like my autism helps me to see the world in a different way. Like it helps me to think outside of the box
00:48:17
and like for example like did I mention the runner kit before we start recording
00:48:23
or was that after? I don't remember. Go ahead. Go ahead again with that. Yeah.
00:48:27
Well anyways I had this one student who he he would run out of the classroom like if the door was unlocked he would
00:48:37
turn off the TVs that we were using. He would mess with the computers. He would tear down
00:48:43
[Music] um uh decorations in the classroom. And usually when he did something like that,
00:48:49
like the teacher would yell like not funny at him and they like pull him away and like make him go sit down and like
00:48:55
put him in timeout. But then I had one of the teachers ask me, they're like,
00:48:59
"We don't know what to do. Like what should we do with him cuz like he's not
00:49:02
getting that he can't do this?" And I was like, well, he's doing it because he's getting
00:49:10
a reaction because when he does something bad, that means he's getting your attention. It could be a sign that
00:49:15
this child does not get attention at home. So rather than just immediately like getting angry and yelling, "No, how
00:49:22
about let's try redirecting." And so it was like as soon as we started redirecting this kid, um the way we did
00:49:31
it was when he was like about to act up, what I would usually do is I grab him, I
00:49:34
sit him down, and I would give him a dry erase board and a marker. And one of the
00:49:39
things that he loved doing was drawing like different TV channel logos or like studio
00:49:47
logos. And then I would sit there with him and I'd be like, "Okay, can you draw
00:49:51
Disney for me? Can you draw Pixar?" Um, and so he'd be like, "Yeah." And and
00:49:57
then he'd like draw it and I'd be like, "That is such a good job. I think that
00:50:02
deserves a high five." And he get really excited. Give me a big old high five.
00:50:06
And then he'd erase it. And then like I would give him something else. And then
00:50:11
eventually we moved that from just drawing TV channel logos to drawing pictures of like school buses, of police
00:50:22
cars. And so redirecting that behavior um was just so helpful because after we started doing that, he didn't run. He
00:50:33
did or he did run occasionally, but when he tried to run, that just meant I need
00:50:38
attention. Please give me attention. And so once we started doing that with him, his behavior changed so much. Yeah.
00:50:47
And it's really just a matter of just like and I think this goes for not even just autistic children or
00:50:57
children on the spectrum, but it just goes for for people in general. Like a misbehavior is a sign that a need is not
00:51:04
being met and they're trying to get it met. Yeah. No, I I that's such an
00:51:08
interesting um observation because I've been thinking along similar lines of like looking at people in my
00:51:19
life and kind of recognizing things that maybe I don't agree with or I don't
00:51:25
like about that person, right? And and their actions. And to your point of like going trying to figure out what is the
00:51:32
root cause of why do they behave that way? Um, and so I think you made a great point in that
00:51:40
that's not exclusively we don't need to be exclusively looking at just like the
00:51:45
the the thought process behind like why does an autistic child like act this way
00:51:51
or misbehave, right? And like what's the, you know, but like that's a humanity thing of like why do we do the
00:51:58
actions that we do, good, bad, evil, wrong, good, you know, healthy, you know, all these things, right? What is
00:52:03
the root cause of it? And so that's I think very important. I think we need to a lot
00:52:09
of us need to take a look inside to kind of start to recognize some of those things about ourselves of like why do I
00:52:16
do the things I do? Um, and then have that hopefully that that ability to look at
00:52:25
other people and and recognize their actions is like, okay, what is what is behind that and let me look at that
00:52:31
instead of just looking solely at the action for what it is. Um, I don't know.
00:52:36
It's a helpful it's a helpful exercise, I think, to kind of like break that down
00:52:41
about like what makes us who we are uh today. And that's not an easy thing to
00:52:45
do. Uh but hopefully hopefully we can take some time and just like recognize that that's like what we need to do as a
00:52:54
society is like why do why do people act the way they do you know it's not always
00:53:00
stemming from really evil stuff or you know Yeah. And like that's another thing
00:53:07
too is like before um I would like to say like when I was younger, well I guess technically I was
00:53:13
still younger, but like a few months ago I used to really view the world as black
00:53:18
and white. It's like okay, you're either good or you're bad. Um and it's like if you're a good
00:53:25
person, you'll do good things. If you're a bad person, you'll do bad things. But
00:53:29
the reality is life itself is not that simple. I was thinking to kind of to drive this a little bit back to the
00:53:37
homeschooling world of like it's such an interesting thing to me to look at the the reasoning behind
00:53:46
why people choose to homeschool their kids. Um it there's a variety of reasons
00:53:52
people do it. Some people do it for religious reasons. Some people do it because of their view on the current
00:53:57
state of our education system. Some people do it um because that's the way they were raised, right? and they're
00:54:02
like, I'm just I'm just continuing the the track, right? Um some people do it
00:54:07
because they have kids who have autism or learning um difference and disability and so they're like, "Okay, let me put I
00:54:15
can I can be a better source for like tailoring their education to match where they are, right?"
00:54:22
Um there's a lot of reasons that could go into homeschooling. And I think what's so interesting is that
00:54:33
like our I look at it like there there was this weird I think there was a weird stigma
00:54:43
around like the mental I don't want to say mental health but there was a weird
00:54:48
stigma around like autism and Asperers and Down syndrome and and ADD and ADHD and like all these different things that
00:54:55
were happening. dyslexia, all these things that were happening inside the homeschool community, but all these
00:54:58
people were doing they they a lot of them had kids who had something in that vein, right? Um but
00:55:06
yet we didn't never talk about it. We didn't like there was a lot of there's a
00:55:10
lot of people I mean I've even realized now talking to more people. I'm like my
00:55:13
family, we pretty openly talked about it within ourselves, which I think is what
00:55:17
led to me being much more like having that patience to kind of like, okay, we just got to like learn how to deal with
00:55:24
everybody's different, right? Um, but there's so many other people I've talked
00:55:27
to now who are like, oh yeah, like my family like lived in denial or like refused to get me like you talked about
00:55:34
like your your parents didn't diagnose you with anything. So, it's like you you
00:55:38
lived 18 plus years of your life being undiagnosed knowing that something was different and something was potentially
00:55:45
off because you didn't see yourself as operating the same way everyone else did. And so, there's this weird stigma
00:55:51
around it where it's like why are we denying people the ability to like find
00:55:56
out the way that they operate um and then not like openly talking about it because it's just it's their operating
00:56:03
system in their body, right? It's just this is how it is. Why do we not want to
00:56:07
give them the tools and the resources they need to operate at the best capacity they could possibly do? Um, I
00:56:15
don't know. Have you talked at all like with your dad about why they wouldn't have I mean you
00:56:23
said you were four before you spoke. Like was there a reason behind why they wouldn't have taken you in to get
00:56:30
diagnosed or looked at? That's a great question. Um, we hadn't really talked about it, but that's also
00:56:40
because like my my dad wasn't around all the time and that was just because he
00:56:46
was constantly working. He was a first responder, so he was gone all the time. And so the
00:56:53
only person that was around was my biological mom. Um, and there I think you know growing up in
00:57:05
the early 2000s like how mental health was really not something that was thought of. It was just like oh if kids
00:57:14
displaying a behavior you don't want you have to discipline it them out like them
00:57:18
out of it. Yeah. Like for example, um one thing that I didn't like was I didn't like people getting near my
00:57:26
mouth. And so rather than rather than you know finding a or actually let me back this up a little bit um because
00:57:39
I realized I didn't give context. So, I didn't like people around my mouth and
00:57:44
because of that it led to issues of trying to get me to brush my teeth. Um, and so, you know, rather than
00:57:55
uh like making the I like the task of brushing your teeth fun or finding like ways
00:58:03
to like gently introduce me to it so I could do it. What she what my biological mom would do was she would spank me
00:58:12
super hard and then, you know, as I opened my mouth to cry, she would shove the toothbrush in there and start
00:58:17
brushing my teeth. And because of that, that just made me associate brushing my teeth with pain.
00:58:26
And so then when I got older and I was able to like brush my teeth on the on my own,
00:58:33
I just didn't want to do it. and that led to dental issues. Um, just because it
00:58:42
wasn't it wasn't prepared for me in a way that I could take it positively and
00:58:49
that had negative effects down the line. And then like also I feel like a might even still stand true for some
00:58:57
parents today, but they feel like if their kid has a mental health issue, two things. one, they're making it up for
00:59:05
attention, or two, it's a sign that they failed as a parent. And cuz like that
00:59:12
that was something like I'm pretty sure you probably heard that saying growing
00:59:16
up like, "Oh, mental health is just all in your head." And it's like I mean,
00:59:21
yeah, mental health is like, "Where did my mental capabilities come from? My
00:59:27
brain, right? You're not wrong, but you're wrong at the same time." Like
00:59:31
it's like one of those sayings that's like right and wrong. Yeah. Yeah. So
00:59:36
there's that. And then like with the issues of mental health like it's not
00:59:41
it's not always caused by environment, you know, like some people just have chemical imbalances. And it's like for
00:59:50
example, you wouldn't tell someone with diabetes, oh, it's all in your head.
00:59:56
Like actually it's in my blood. And because I have diabetes, I need insulin.
01:00:02
Okay. And it's just like that with uh mental health issues as well. Um like di having diabetes doesn't
01:00:11
necessarily mean that like oh you only did some like it's your fault. It's cuz
01:00:15
you didn't take care of your health. Like no, diabetes can also like there can be a genetic factor in that as well.
01:00:21
This has been such a great conversation and it's hard to like put a cap on it
01:00:24
because I I enjoy talking to you so much. Um, but I do want to point people to like is there a best like I don't know
01:00:37
maybe you don't have an answer for this but is there a best resource or something for people who are wanting to
01:00:41
learn more about autism neurody diverency is there something somewhere you can point people
01:00:47
that's like hey this is like a good explainer of like that yeah so actually that's a
01:00:55
great question. Hold on, let me look up the name real quick because I want to make sure I am saying this right because
01:01:02
there is um this one creator I I think her name is Kayn Part or something. Um actually, let me look it up. So, she
01:01:16
was okay. Kayn Partllo. Um, so for those who don't know who Kayn Partllo is, um,
01:01:24
she was on season one of Love on the Spectrum and she is also, I believe she's a behavioral therapist. Um, and
01:01:32
she specifically works with children with autism. And so if you go to her page, she has a lot of great information
01:01:40
about communicating with people with um, who have special needs. Um she also wrote a book about
01:01:49
um living with autism. And so if there's any resource I could say would be a
01:01:55
really great starter just uh Kayla Parlo from Love on the Spectrum. Yeah, I just
01:02:01
looked up her YouTube channel and yeah, her videos look look very informative. So I'll put that in the show notes as
01:02:07
well so people can go check that out. Um and then what was that? You you mentioned a test earlier and I'm I'm
01:02:14
spacing on the name, but kind of like a baseline starting point of like figuring
01:02:17
out where do you sit on a neurode divergent spectrum basically? Yeah. So, it's called the RADS R test. So, it's
01:02:26
spelled R A Ds and then dash R. Um, it's in that's the acronym for it, but it's called
01:02:40
the Ritvo Autism Asperger Diagnosis Scale Revised. Um, so yeah, that's another great test to use to be like,
01:02:50
"Oh, I wonder if there's something a little different for me." Like that.
01:02:53
That's a really great source to use. Okay. So, yeah. Yeah. And I will, like I
01:02:58
said, I'll link all that stuff in the show notes below. I I hope that this conversation has been helpful for
01:03:04
somebody of like just kind of understanding that it's like autism is real. Um, but and autistic people have
01:03:12
they have a place in this world and they have meaning and they provide value and
01:03:16
there's a whole wide gamut and you know Alyssa's experience is is not the
01:03:22
universal experience but it but it is one it is an experience and I wanted to highlight it and I you know I so thank
01:03:30
you for coming on and being and being candid and transparent about it. I appreciate that and putting up with my
01:03:35
dumbass who doesn't know hardly inject about it. Um, so I appreciate that and um, yeah, and hopefully I would love
01:03:45
to have more conversations with people around neurody diverency because it's
01:03:49
something I'm interested in in learning more about and learning how to better understand and better protect
01:03:57
and better just like be there as an advocate and a support of that. Um, I think it's important and we're just we
01:04:05
everyone is uniquely different, right? And we we got to learn how to work together and it only happens through
01:04:10
education, education, education, education. Um, we got to be willing to learn about it. And so, um, so again, I
01:04:18
appreciate you coming on and being candid and transparent, um, with people. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for giving me
01:04:25
a platform to speak. Um, and then I don't know if this is something like this totally up to you if
01:04:31
you want to include it, but I recently decided I want to take up writing more and I I'm starting to write about like
01:04:38
the political climate. I really want to write about autism and so if you want to include it later,
01:04:44
I recently just made a Substack. So, I'll make sure it's linked in the show
01:04:48
notes below. Yeah, for people. But yeah, go follow Alyssa on Substack because that that'll be really cool and I'm
01:04:56
excited. I saw you posted like a poem or something. Yeah. Yeah. I posted a political po poem about
01:05:02
uh it was basically talking about like the constitution. So it's called all men
01:05:08
are created equal, but then I just pointed out the hypocrisies and like how we treat minorities in the country. And
01:05:16
so in case you're wondering like, oh, can autistic people write a poem? Well,
01:05:21
I wrote one and it was kind of badass. So you should go read it. Yeah. I'll make sure it's linked down in the
01:05:27
description below for people to go support. And uh yeah, anything else you want to shout out before we close things
01:05:34
out? Go watch Love on the Spectrum. It's very Okay, cool. Love on the Spectrum.
01:05:40
That's your homework for this week, folks. Go watch Well, I guess it'll be
01:05:42
probably more than a week, but that's your homework for right now. Go watch Love on the Spectrum. Go subscribe to
01:05:47
Alyssa Substack. Uh go watch some of uh Kayn Partllo's uh YouTube videos. Um,
01:05:54
maybe take a test. We'll see. Maybe take the RADS test, the RADS R test. Maybe,
01:05:59
maybe not. Um, and you know what? Also, subscribe to my newsletter. Um, all that's going to be linked in the
01:06:05
description uh below. But Alyssa, once again, I appreciate you. Thank you for coming on. And uh until next week, I'll
01:06:12
see you. All right. Peace. Peace. [Music] [Music]