Thank you so much for all of your support!!! 💛 If you enjoy these meme review videos, you might enjoy the video I posted on Sunday, rating hate comments I’ve received recently! 😂It was oddly quite fun! ua-cam.com/video/u_SilJgkNvE/v-deo.html Or if you want more memes, here’s the full autism memes playlist: ua-cam.com/play/PLEHi2YmjD7gEssdqTn0247t_niQMt2b22.html See you soon!! X
oh my gosh we have the same brithday im turing 14 and you are one of the people that helped my find out im autistic im still during my diagnos process but its looking like it and they found out i was dyislexic
i feel like in emotional social situations i don’t realize my true feelings until afterward. like someone could say something rude and id clock it as a flippant comment, and then realize that night that it actually hurt me a lot
Yeah same, I always laugh at what my friends say, and genuinely believe I'm finding it funny until later, like when I'm walking home from school. Sometimes I start getting teary when walking home e.g. because a joke was made after I accidentally knocked into a wall as I walked past (because my spacial awareness sucks)
The sort of anxiety that comes after socializing I call "post stage fright." I have literally had it after getting off stage, having done a perfectly fine performance, and not having had any anxiety before going on stage. It's the same feeling when I've had to socialize. I even told my therapist about it and she'd never heard of it before. Okay, fine, I'll deal with it myself when it all comes flooding back to me while I'm trying to go to sleep. 😊
Every time I have to do something in front of a lot of people I just do the thing and then get out of view of the people and have a panic or anxiety attack 😂
That's totally normal. It's a kind of shock. In that situation you're on autopilot and when you get out and the adrenaline gets lower you start to feel your feelings again.
@@branalobeee3867 no one I know seems to know what I'm talking about when I tell them I feel like this. Maybe they're too embarrassed to admit it, or they don't feel it as sharply? My therapist didn't understand either, which could just be poor communication on my part. Or she wasn't that good a therapist
I don't know what kind of therapist you had but maybe it wasn't a clinical psychologist. Or maybe the education of your therapist is different in your country but my therapist knew this and I work in medicine and there it happens when you have for example an emergency with a patient you probably won't be anxious in that situation you just react and afterwards you can become shaky. But it's not the same for everyone some people just freeze and can't do anything.
I caught my husband doing that yesterday. He shuddered, snapped his finger a few times and did a leg wiggle. I asked what's up (he does a similar thing when he suddenly remembers something important or having an epiphany) and he said "making cringy thoughts go away". I just do a shiver and go bleh when it happens to me.
Do you guys ever get intrusive thoughts so bad. Like something racist or homophobic or ableist and in general stuff you are nowhere near to agreeing with, or is that just me?
@@skachor Kinda! It's from the mythical kitchen cookbook! You have a skittles syrup (a small Skittles pack + water) Then you steep another small skittles pack in milk for the egg milk mix. Then it's just soaking bread, and cooking them!
Ok, so now I have to look up the mythical kitchen cookbook...bc while this sounds intriguing but not appealing, last month my friend suggested Jackson Pollock pancakes & that went smashingly. Sounds like a necessary read!
@@echognomecal6742 There are some really cool recipes in it! Goldfish pizza rolls, Thai green curry enchiladas, fruity pebble pancakes, baconator soft pretzels (which are *so* good) and a lot more!
My Dad always told me "You only HAVE to do it until you WANT to do it. Then you don't HAVE to do it anymore." He would let me sit until I got my head around each chore. If I could change it into a challenge I would. If not, I'd give him a good argument as to why it wasn't worth doing, I would convince him, or not. If not, I would do it because I wanted to do it for him.
I had a big problem in school of taking school assignments in a "sideways" direction, but I only ever did it in such a way as to display absolute mastery over the lesson the assignment was trying to teach. My PDA meant if I COULD utterly disobey a teacher and thoroughly subvert an assignment in a way that ironically fulfilled the requirements perfectly, I would absolutely crash through that wall like the Kool-Aid Man. Only my issue was that I got way too good at it. My teachers almost invariably read what I handed in and said "I'm not even mad. That's actually impressive." Half the time I got extra credit. Only one time in college the professor was literally too stupid to get the satire, and I'm especially salty about it because it was a work of scifi satire in the form of a persuasive presentation that very accurately predicted certain facets of life in 2024 (back in 2006), but it's SAD that it's accurate. In that presentation, I came up with the entire idea and principles behind cryptocurrency (or as I called it "Futuretimey SPACE currency") and it was a JOKE. A satire of techbro capitalism run amok. I don't think I'll ever NOT be salty AF about that one.
Okay so on the sitting thing. I do historical sewing and actually the most optimal position to sit in before sewing machines were a prevalent thing was to sit cross legged on a table. In fact in French you say "s'asseoir en tailleur" to tell someone to sit cross legged, but it literally translates to "sit like a tailor", so yeah I sit cross legged everywhere because sewing
Thanks for that! I do historical sewing and fiber crafts too, but early period (iron age to early medieval) hand sewing and embroidery. There's no instructions for sitting that I've come across yet.
@@ZhovtoBlakytniy I am not 100% sure but I remember seeing the cross legged sitting referenced as early as the 1600s i think? (It might be as early as the 1400s but that is not my wheel house) It certainly was a thing by the 1700s where tailors and seamstresses were stressed to sit in such a manner as well as remember not to slouch. It fell out of use as predominantly hand sewing garments fell out of the norm.
Yeah, even in English it’s technically called a “tailor sit,” but we used to call it sitting “Indian style” in the US (obviously a quite racist name if you think about it, but when I was a kid no one realized that) and now, teachers will tell kids to sit “criss-cross applesauce.”
I literally realized on my own a few weeks ago that the reason I hate brushing my teeth, and have to FORCE myself to do it every day, is because it's SUCH A SLOG with what my brain very acutely perceives as a million tedious steps: 1. Pick up toothbrush 2. Turn on water 3. Wet toothbrush 4. Turn off water 5. Pick up toothpaste 6. Open toothpaste 7. Squeeze out toothpaste 8. Close toothpaste 9. Put toothpaste down 10. Two minutes of boring brushing 11. Turn water on 12. Rinse and spit and repeat 13. Turn water off 14. Put toothbrush down 15. Dry hands and face ...especially when I'm tired and either just woke up and am barely functioning, or all I wanna do is lie down and go to bed and these 15 roadblocks are freaking in the way
I can relate to that! One of the first things I noticed when I started ADHD meds was that I could generally wash the dishes without going “one dish down. Oh god, there’s another! And ANOTHER!” I’m presently not on ADHD meds for various reasons, and it’s gradually getting harder again. 😞
5:21 Yes!! The special interest chooses you! I sometimes avoid learning even a little about something because it feels like it might become another special interest and I just don’t have time for that in my life right now.
Your story about 10/10 presentation remained me about my story. When i was like 10 i got simple homework: "Describe your pet". So what did i do? I measured him with measure tape, everything including ear and tail (when rolled up, and when relaxed). I describe every furr shade that he had. Abik, he was such a good boy! The best dog ever. In hindsight there is a small chance that i may took this task a little too literally. My mum always use this story to brag that "her daughter was born to be engineer", but i think that it was rather sign of my ASD :D. Happy Birthdy!
Relatable. My mum kept the New Zealand project I did when I was ~12 - it was about ten times the length of most people's, full of regurgitated facts from whatever books I could find in the three nearest libraries (written in my appalling handwriting), and I built a 3D relief map for the cover using different coloured sugar paper for all the contour levels. Happy belated birthday!
I used to struggle in art at school, because I was trying to draw every single detail on the apple or whatever we were drawing, to the point that it looked more like an unlabelled diagram than a sketch. I also couldn't draw things symmetrically and my teacher rather helpfully told me to "draw one side and then draw the other side the same"... I also had a lot of issues with my GCSE food tech coursework, because I misunderstood the brief and the teacher didn't notice until I was quite far in. Then she told me I was going to fail, essentially because I couldn't work as fast as everyone else (I'd done a few pages in a lot of detail, rather than lots of pages like the others) and then wondered why I was crying in the corridor... I ended up with an A on that coursework, but it was definitely in spite of my teacher not because of her!
@@hannahk1306 YES! I am extremely slow at drawing because my tendency to paint every little detail. In traditional art it isn't that visible, but in digital i struggle. But you can train your brain to overcome that issue and work faster. Just you need to find system that works for you. I have master degree in mechanical engineer and i thrived in that environment, so there are places where our attention to details can be benefiting.
Oh and for moving away from a known city, i found it really nice shedding some of the places that were reminders of difficulties from throughout my life, as well as providing interesting new things to see. If someone is unhappy, id say its not bad to try changing your surroundings.
A few years back I moved into an rv with my animals and travelled for 9 months, and it was weird inner conflict. It was wonderful to be in new places without any memories every few days, but I hated that I never knew where the grocery store was or which aisle I needed.
It's so literally the opposite of what the majority of my professors believed! If you aren't going to go above and beyond you're basically a useless failure. Added to my internal perfectionism and it was a disaster. I've spent years deprogramming myself, learning that it's not just okay to not be perfect, but it's kinda fun and sometime great ideas come from letting go. I'm still a perfectionist at the core, but it's getting better.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEG!! You’re channel has been such an important part of my journey of discovering myself. i actually binged all of your videos after discovering the channel and i absolutely adore your voice. I hope you have the wonderful day you deserve 🫶🫶
Happy Birthday for tomorrow 🎂 Also, this may be random to say, but, I got my autism diagnosis today, just wanted to say it here as I don't have anyone in my life who's not NT. Love your videos, you've helped me make sense of a lot 🧡
Congratulations on your diagnosis! I’ve got my assessment next week & getting really stressed in case they say I’m not autistic (I’ve been self-diagnosed since first reading about autism about 25 years ago).
@@elyssiacook6913 good luck, I felt the exact same way, followed Megs advice and wrote down so much about myself, but ultimately, best thing I can advise is to be yourself. I believe in you and how you feel you experience life, especially if its been 25 years, itll show through. I know it may be hard reliving those early years or acknowledging those early years from other peoples view and telling someone, I would also say, expect to be completely exhausted afterward. But truly i just truly wish you all the best 🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡
Thank you so much, that’s so kind. I have sent them about 15 pages of notes, but still worry that I’ve missed important points!! & I am trying to unmask a bit, generally, so I hope I can be myself on the day! Thanks again for your supportive comment. 🧡
@@CrimsonNavy-qn7ld. Update!! Got my diagnosis on Tuesday- the whole day felt surreal & very emotional but it was all worth it! Thanks again for your supportive message! 🧡
Happy Birthday! I’m turning forty on Monday and am giving myself the (unreasonably expensive) gift of an official adult autism assessment to mark the occasion. Thanks so much for being part of the reason I’ve come to realize that most humans don’t have to spend the majority of their time within social situations wondering if they’re “humaning” well enough, and that you can’t be too high masking to be neurodivergent.
Happy Birthday! I would squat on chairs and rest my head on my shoulder “like a hen,” apparently, and so earned a number of loving bird-related nicknames from friends in high school, lol.
For me, it's either sideways in a office chair, legs folded under me, leaning back (or rather sideways) or (as I'm doing now) facing the back of the chair, leaning forwards, with my chest pressed against it.
"Done is better than good." I like that a lot. Sounds like something from my favourite philosopher, Mediocrates. He also said "If the minimum wasn't good enough, it wouldn't be called the minimum." I need that man's wisdom, or I'll break myself in half trying to achieve.
Omg I genuinely never considered that 🤯😅. I always feel like I have to prove to myself and boss/coworkers, that I’m not a pos, by going above and beyond, thus taking longer and ultimately achieving less tasks in a day. When they probably prefer more things to be finished, at a lower quality! I need to remind myself “it’s not that deep” way more often 😅
My problem with this is there’s always a voice in the back of my head screaming “NO THATS WRONG, MINIMUM IS NOT ACCEPTABLE AND DONE IS NOT BETTER THAN GOOD!!!”
*bangs my head on a wall* 'it is not that deep' doesn't reflect me as a person, at all. I am very 'all or nothing' there's something inexplicably wrong about being in the middle, but being inefficient and not completing the tasks makes me want to crawl out of my skin and distract myself for the the fear of spiraling into 'how worthless I am'. It is entirely lose-lose in my head 😞 Edit - To clarify preemptively that it's not confrontational, please 😭
I have just been dealing with positivly reinforcing myself! I was looking through old journals and found an (incredibly ableist, even though I was already starting to get into autism stuff) list of reasons why I hated myself! And I realized I'm still terrible about that, so I got angry and made a list of reasons why I love myself to spite the self loathing. But that list was heartbreaking... and it was only 2 years ago.
I thought moving or making noises to get rid of intrusive thoughts was just something I did!! My biggest one is saying "ew" "gross" or "no". I always said if someone saw how I act when I'm by myself they'd be very concerned.
It never occurred to me that I was not the only one either. A few months ago, I watched a “types of stimming” video another autistic UA-camr did, and he mentioned making sounds when a “cringeworthy” thought entered his head. A number of commenters agreed. It blew my mind. (I’m known for blurting out “we’re having fun now!” But in recent times I seem to mostly make little sounds.)
I love thinking up stupid scenarios and acting them out, multi character conversations with accents or creature voices. I talk to myself and my animals way more than to people. Pretty sure my colleagues would think I was cracked out if they saw how I act while alone 😂
Something I've found helpful for that springtime stress is too reorganize one of my spaces. It helps release the bad memories i associate with that room. Anyways, hope you have/had a happy birthday 🎂
I know a character who sits upside down on the couch when watching TV, it's Matt from Eddsworld, who I think is autistic His relationship with his "best friend" Tom is basically "Me and the bad bich I pulled by being autistic" And that's so fun
I used to sit like that on the couch all the time as a kid but was told off constantly so I lost the habit.. (I don't have an ASD diagnosis btw, I'm new to the channel and just recently started to think it might be a possibility)
Hey!! Just wanted to say that I've binged a lot of your videos the last few days and even though I have ADHD and not Autism I find your content so validating!! Ty for making content for all us ND out here 🩷🩷🩷
I pretty much confirmed that I’m straight a while ago, but my preferred sitting method in my office chair starts at 12, then changes around between 2 and 3 after a while. Sometimes though, when I find myself communing with the outer planes, I’m told that I switch to 11, but I can’t be too sure since I don’t have many visitors in my room
5:23 this is true, The 2 guys from they might be giants literally descended from the sky and told me “you must spend every waking moment hyperfixating on us and our music” and then left. That’s how I got hyperfixated on them
I have a friend who had Hirohiko Araki manifest at the end of their bed and inform them about how JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure will take up the rest of their life (he then gave them the complete canonical list of all of the JoJo’s characters’ sexualities)
omg!!! love TMBG!!! I’ve seen them like 10 times live. they do a rad concert, and always some fun stuff. if you’ve never had the chance to catch them live, i highly recommend. the last concert i went to was the Flood anniversary concert, and they did this wild thing where they performed “Sapphire Bullets of Pure Love” legit BACKWARD and recorded the performance in the first half of the show. then the second half of the show they REVERSED the video and played it for us for “proof of concept.” wah!! it was so cool. they called the reverse version “Stellub” lol. totes love the Johns, hahaha. there was another concert i went to once probably a decade or so ago where they did a puppet show during it, lol. those guys are great.💕💕💕
@@dirkgent1y I KNOW I LOVE THE JOHNS!!!! They won’t be performing near my area this coming may but I WILL catch them as soon as they come to the southeast USA!!! Also yes stillub is amazing :D
im a cleaning lady so i dont get to leave until everything is clean. it happend sometimes im faster than my coworkers of the day so then i have to help them out with their portion too. basically you get ounished with more work if you work hard
Meg thank you, I hope you have a wonderful birthday! The intrusive thought "shudder & yelp" is so relatable, for me most common when trying to wind down or relax. I found pre-empting the thought during the day, examining the 2-3am thoughts, gradually declawed them.
My younger son is hypermobile and dodecadouple jointed and regularly sits in all the positions shown plus dozens more. ..and before you say he can't possibly manage position 8 or 15, bear in mind that you will only expose the fact that you haven't met him yet. Happy birthday Meg!
My boyfriend makes little noises when he gets overwhelmed or gets intrusive thoughts, the noise comes with a little twitch and sometimes he swears, like a Pez dispenser for f-bombs he just blurts it out.....
My response to intrusive thoughts (usually about times when I said/did something stupid/embarrassing or completely misunderstood something) is to vocalise something like "Yeah, well, um" and I often do shake my head.
Happy birthday Meg! I'm a few years older than you but I still feel like I'm in my 20s because of weird time-blindness and COVID-19 time warp. I definitely relate to "I'm going to get my shit together this time. Wait- no- now THIS time I need to get my shit together for REAL" Life is too fast! My occupational therapist told me that as autistic people our nervous systems take longer to process things. It's hard to keep up with just surviving, let alone making progress. Love your videos and your humor, and this space that you have created for our neurospicy community. I hope you know how much of a positive effect you have and how grateful so many people are for your unique voice.
Don't know why, but I tend to not process things in the moment entirely with conversations, but later, it might all click and it drives me nuts, so it will replay in that sense. And the chairs, I sit like 3 a lot
I hardly ever comment, but - before anything, Happy Birthday!🎂 Next, I don’t know if I have autism but I have a multitude of the traits described - and vividly presented by you! The new one in this video is *feeling fine* while at a social event, then on leaving until maybe weeks or years later, coming out in a sweat of mortification at things you might’ve said and how those potential faux pas might’ve been perceived. Aargh! Too many others to waffle on about now. Also, Happy Birthday!
My two cents about getting progressively more stressed past about social interactions: as time passes and the memory of the interaction fades, there is less and less "viable evidence" to reassure ourselves that it actually went well - especially if the brain is filling in the gaps with what it considers to be the likeliest scenario, i.e. whatever your trauma wants to conjure up at the time.
Happy early Birthday Meg!!! You really inspire me, and you/your videos have really helped me get through my diagnosis process (not there yet but we’re on the waiting list!) and I may have been binging them for the past few hours… whoops. Anyway, thankyou so so much and have a great day!
Thanks so much for your dedication in providing valuable information for people that are discovering, or on the search for more information about autism. Your channel has helped me a lot.
Belated Happy Birthday, Meg! Sleep can be a challenge sometimes: if I'm not fighting imposter syndrome over something at work then I'm crucifying myself for something stupid I said or did today, last week... or even decades ago. Sitting... I mostly flip between 1 and 3, which is why I'm thankful they let me have a standing desk at work! :)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! ¡FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS! I recently found out I was autistic and your channel has been the biggest comfort and safe place ❤ thank you so much!
Happy birthday Meg! The high standards thing seems to be a very neurodivergent thing. When I explained how I set my standards when doing a job for others to an autism worker they completed the description for me. Basically, if gold standard is between 97 and 100 but acceptable is between 85 and 96, my standard would be 200 because I attained it once before so I must reach that every time. As for sitting, I’m ace but when sitting in a chair I tend to lean forward to the right.
I remember one time I had finished all my work early, including all the reports and paperwork, so Friday afternoon I was leaving at 3:30. My supervisor got in the elevator as I was going down. He said, "I thought we paid you until 4:30". I replied, "I thought you paid me to get my job done." I had punched out and would not be paid for the last hour. A week later I was fired for no apparent reason. Seems the NT would have rather I piddling around at my desk for an extra hour accomplishing nothing rather than leaving early and saving them a bit of money.
Number 2 is my favorite way to sit in a chair too. It feels so good to have my feet up under me and knees bent! I related to so many of these! Happy birthday, btw!
I remember getting told to cross my legs constantly and I had to show people that I couldn’t physically put my knees any lower than well above my elbows.
Happy Birthday Meg! Your "9 Signs You Might Not Be Autistic" video ironically kickstarted my journey into realizing that I in fact, might be autistic 😂 so kudos to you and have a good one!
Happy birthday, Meg! I totally have social PTSD. I think about situations that happened years ago sometimes. I love to sit in position 3...until my leg falls asleep
Woah! Happy birthday! Mine is also in just a few days :). I joke that April is neurodivergent awareness month because everyone is neurodivergent is born in April /j. I know a crazy amount of people who are autistic and/or ADHD who are born in April so that's where I get the joke from. All of your videos feel very natural, btw. From my standpoint, you're so good at writing them that to me they seem perfect as they are! Thank for the video
GOODNESS the post-hangout overthinking and turmoil is so real. I'm so afraid to overshare or go down a rabbit hole about one of my special interests, that whenever I share even a little about myself or my day I get on myself about it, and overthink about how I was perceived.
I loved that first 6.8/10 - and it helped me have a revelation when you said "Oddly specific, I know. Don't ask me why." However, it made me think whether that is a PDA thing. I hate being given scales, and will always pick in-between if possible. Do not tell me (*demand) to stick to ten options. :D And then of course, I want/need to be as precise as possible. :) Anyway, I'm really glad I found you on UA-cam and thanks for the entertainment - I enjoy it! :)
A quick couple of comments on the problems of school work: in secondary school (I lived in France) we had to write an essay about our favourite author. I wrote all about George Orwell and got 0 on 20 because Orwell was not a French author.... the teacher did not specify that it had to be a French author, which obviously seemed evident to her since this was an essay for french.... I wrote it in french, obviously, so to me that was french. I told her that I had no appreciation for French literature... and that didn't help. Next thing, also in secondary school, same country, different school, during the history lessons, we were learning all about Napoleon. During an exam, we were asked to list all his achievements and defeats. I drew a map of France and surrounding countries and then drew little ships, cannons, armies, horses, things blowing up - all on the map. Again, 0 on 20. I might have forgotten about the dates. Apparently, making a visual rendition of Napoleon's events was not acceptable. In both cases, I really enjoyed researching for the essay and writing it (for once, because I could choose who and what) and I really enjoyed drawing the map and all the little representations. I found that most of my teachers lacked imagination and originality and had a low tolerance for anyone 'doing things differently'. Most were friendly and helpful but I think I tended to irritate them, if they noticed me. I went with a hoped invisibility, a please ignore me approach.
That's so sad! Those are the sorts of projects that I would love to receive if I were the teacher! (Then again, I'm going into early childhood education, so wild creativity is a little more widely accepted/respected in my field.)
Me, watching this while sitting in my car, seat back pushed all the way flat, facing the center of the car with one leg tucked in and the other extended over the seat back: “the sitting position thing checks out.”
- I also feel imprisoned by the dedicated hours thing and often end up working later, because after hours feels like less pressure. - I definitely can't accept praise, but feel any form of criticism very deeply. It's why things like feedback and reviews don't actually help me at all: they just stress me out and affect my performance negatively in the time surrounding it. - Two weeks!? I still replay mildly awkward social interactions from my childhood, that other people probably don't even remember, when I'm trying to sleep! - I think the thing in the bowl is soup and that's a ladle, not a knife? - The closest number to my preferred sitting position is probably number 3, but my leg absolutely has to be tucked under my other leg! Sometimes I sit like number 1, but I have to be in the right mood and occasionally like 4, but I'm more cuddling my leg than all floppy like them. - I was also constantly told that the way I was sitting wasn't "very ladylike"... - If I try to sit "normally", my leg jiggles which also annoys people, so I can't win either way! - I also find it really difficult to concentrate with shoes on (and it makes it harder to sit in my preferred position), so amongst many other reasons that's why I prefer working from home. - With things like Teams becoming more popular in a work setting, I've noticed that people often send messages with social stuff mixed into work stuff, which just makes it harder to reply to them: are we socialising or working? - Me and my partner have two dates we've chosen (like unofficial and official dates) - if anyone asks, we just use the official one. I didn't realise that other people had this issue! 😆
@@TheGhostGirl. I have snuck shoes off before whilst at school. Granted, I was sitting at a table, not a desk, so there was more table there to hide what my legs were doing under it, but I wear Western boots everywhere so it was really easy to slide one foot out and tuck it under the other leg under the table, where no one would see it. Of course, if anyone thought to look under my chair, they would see one empty boot next to the full one, but who's looking at those sorts of things during class, anyway? :)
AHHH, HAPPY BIRTHDAYY.. I HOPE YOU HAVE A WONDERFUL DAYYY !! YOU ARE MY FAVOURITE AUTISTIC CONTENT CREATOR AND YOU CONSTANTLY HELP ME FIGURE MYSELF OUT WHILE IM TRYING TO GET DIAGNOSED AS A MINOR, YOU ARE AMAZINGG
Working in a lab for the summer has been so good for me because there’s lots of different tasks to do and most of them are fairly interesting and fun to do, and for lots of them I can listen to music or videos while doing them. Since I work for a plant science lab I also get to work in fields and greenhouses from time to time too so I get a good bit of variety which is very good for my brain and my tendency to be a “jack of all trades” type of person.
Happy birthday Meg!! 🎉 I'm so grateful I've found your channel. Ever since my (late) diagnosis I've been watching all of your videos and you've been so informative and helpful on my journey discovering my true self ❤ You're awesome!!
The shaking head, shuddering, and (occasionally in my case) making weird sounds to stave off intrusive thoughts.......I thought I only did that. Wow. I had to stop the vid and stare speechless
omg I've been using the mantra "better, not good" for stuff, "done is better than good" is a way better way of wording that haha! It's gotten me through so many household tasks that I've been putting off for literal years D:
Happy birthday! Making a noise and shivering to clear intrusive thoughts is very much a thing I do. Especially when it's about something I did in the past and now think it was the worst thing ever!
8:21 ohhh yeah, I’ve been going through this recently too. I also have a bunch of stressor that are making recovery extraordinarily difficult right now.
I’ve always had fantasies about running away and living in the wilderness by myself. Never going to happen because I love my family and I have crap survival skills, but the idea of being alone in nature really appeals to me.
Happy Birthday! I hope you have an enjoyable day, and some of your other stuff works out for you. Chair: 2 and 4 of the pictured poses. I generally don't enjoy sitting in chairs, couches are much more my thing, because it feels much less like there's a "right" way you're supposed to sit on them. I can flop down and do whatever I need.
Hi all, so I’ve been slightly questioning I’m autistic for a little while now and I was hoping I could get some support from neurodivergent people. Some behaviors people around me notice are: 1. Being blunt - sometimes I tend to say (slightly rude-) and inappropriate things in different situations, usually around my friends but sometimes around my parents 2. Difficulty understanding emotions - my friends tell me that I cannot for the life of me read people unless it’s very much blatant. One of them says one day in class, they were extremely pissed but I had no idea and proceeded to joke around and blabber to them- 3. My voice can turn really flat at times - my boyfriend once told me that sometimes my voice can turn really flat and emotionless, and my mother says that I’m not very facially expressive sometimes despite being very happy 4. Extremely passionate interests - I’ve been told by my friends and parents that when I get into something, I get DEEPLY into something. I will absolutely RAVEEE and blabber about one specific thing for a very long time, even if nobody knows about it. 5. Weird posture - I slouch a LOTTTTT and sometimes sit cross legged on my desk or with one leg on my desk and the other on the floor However, there are some things in the autism experience I don’t relate too such as: - strict adherence to routine - Stimming (I only stim on some occasions) - Sensory sensitivities (When I’m in a loud environment, usually my thoughts are just “I hate this and I want to leave”, or I get pretty quiet. I also don’t get particularly upset when I touch or interact with specific textures, just very uncomfortable) - Difficulty in social situations (I’m pretty good at talking to people, I just struggle with eye contact) In my brain though, I have a lot of thoughts that may be a part of the autism experience: 1. I tend to need a whole lot of context when learning or hearing about something and often get confused when I don’t have the exact who, what, where, and especially why 2. When I see people behaving a certain way, I (try to) behave like them but in my mind I’m like “Why the hell do I have to do this? This is really confusing? Why is it good to act this way?” Anywho, I might just be taking a huge leap here but if someone could give me something advice or insight that’d be pretty radical-
My AuDHD sister’s doctor had to tell her to stop sitting indian-style in work/computer chairs (full cross-legged, legs underneath her) because it’s messing up her back. She’s always had crazy posture in chairs, or else she can’t get comfortable.
Lovely video, and an unintentional recovery goals video--as an autistic who always loves to sit with both feet just in the seat of the large comfy chair while working, but can't for a while because one ankle is busted. Getting the flexibility back for it though!
"Mild socializing PTSD" yes 💯 Glad to know I'm not alone 💛😂 "So much of autism is just staring blankly into space" omg yessssss, and God forbid my staring blankly into space is interrupted, it feels like I've randomly been lit on fire for no reason! I have to tell my friends and family not to call me without texting first, because you never know when I might be enjoying a good staring blankly into space session. That's a huge part of how I regulate myself, pls don't interrupt thank you. 🤦♀️😂😂😂 I thought when you first started that video, I love the shirt but it must be so uncomfortable and you were pulling on it the whole time. Powerpuff girls are worth it though! I felt you the whole way through! 😂😂😂
Oh my gosh, I always make those little noises but I didn’t connect it with intrusive thoughts until you just said it!!! It’s like my brain clearing the thought 🤯 innnnnnnteresting…
12:14 I didn't know you were joking at first, I paused it and tried to figure out where the misspelling was 😅 When I gave up you reminded me that the UK and US spell it differently and then I facepalmed in embarrassment because I spent way too much mental energy on figuring out what's wrong with the word favorite.
The fact that I was looking up some cherry earrings earlier today and I came across a video where you're wearing cherry earrings is clearly a nod from the universe that I indeed need some cherry earrings in my life. My favorite ways of sitting in the chair would be #2 and #3.
OMG, yes, social PTSD! Same for me, it can feel like things went okay initially, but then as time goes on, I relitigate the event through a haze of dysphoria. And the shudder, absolutely! It gradually got worse for me over decades, and now I really avoid people in order to avoid this happening. It started with repeated rumination over serious social blunders, and gradually spread out into...everything. It’s such a reflex now that I often can’t even tell what the glancing thought was that triggered it. It’s validating to know that I’m not alone, but I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, certainly not Meg!
Me listening to the recording of my singing voice that sounds like Bruce Dickinson from Wish: hell yeah this is fire Me listening to the recording of my perfectly normal talking voice: DELETE THAT SHIT IMMEDIATELY
Happy birthday Meg, thank you for never falling to make me smile. Your accent is pleasing to the ears (know you can’t control it but I love it) you have helped me learn more about myself.
I had to click on this one just for the title because I'm physically incapable of sitting with my feet on the floor. Im a knees to chest sitter/sleeper. All through school I sat in my desk in basically the fetal position. 😂 Before being diagnosed my therapist would always try to get me to sit with my feet on the floor to ground myself and I genuinely couldnt bring myself to sit that way for more than a few seconds.
It's just cozier to sit knees-to-chest. My mom tried to break my habit of doing so for *years,* with limited success--I will now sit "normally" if I'm eating out or it's a particularly special sit-at-the-table-as-a-family Sunday dinner, but otherwise... well, I'm sitting knees-to-chest right now. If my knees get sore, I might stretch out my legs under my desk, but most likely I'll be going to bed before that happens.
Happy birthday! 9:24 that appears to be some kind of dipping sauce like you might dip vegetables or chips/crisps into I have done #6 on a couch when I was younger
I now realize why I have a such a deep desire to find the optimally designed chair shape. There need to be serious lists of novel chair-sitting ideas. Clearly my seated body is crying out for help.
I recently discovered such a thing as a "wobble chair." (That's what we call it in the preschool I'm volunteering in.) It's basically a little round stool with a rounded bottom that you can wobble around on instead of legs. I find it quite comfortable. (5-gallon buckets are also acceptable for use as chairs.) Maybe not the best for sitting at a desk, but quite fun for sitting in the middle of the floor and observing the world. :)
Thank you so much for all of your support!!! 💛
If you enjoy these meme review videos, you might enjoy the video I posted on Sunday, rating hate comments I’ve received recently! 😂It was oddly quite fun! ua-cam.com/video/u_SilJgkNvE/v-deo.html
Or if you want more memes, here’s the full autism memes playlist: ua-cam.com/play/PLEHi2YmjD7gEssdqTn0247t_niQMt2b22.html
See you soon!! X
oh my gosh we have the same brithday im turing 14 and you are one of the people that helped my find out im autistic im still during my diagnos process but its looking like it and they found out i was dyislexic
Thankyou for existing I love your channel
Happiest birthday wishes to you, Meg!!🎉🎉 Lots of love from Florida!
Happy birthday, Meg!!! 😁🎉🙌
Happy bday :D
i feel like in emotional social situations i don’t realize my true feelings until afterward. like someone could say something rude and id clock it as a flippant comment, and then realize that night that it actually hurt me a lot
Yeah same, I always laugh at what my friends say, and genuinely believe I'm finding it funny until later, like when I'm walking home from school. Sometimes I start getting teary when walking home e.g. because a joke was made after I accidentally knocked into a wall as I walked past (because my spacial awareness sucks)
Delayed emotional processing sucks :( It makes it really easy for resentment to build up in relationships, and is really trifficult :(
The sort of anxiety that comes after socializing I call "post stage fright." I have literally had it after getting off stage, having done a perfectly fine performance, and not having had any anxiety before going on stage. It's the same feeling when I've had to socialize. I even told my therapist about it and she'd never heard of it before. Okay, fine, I'll deal with it myself when it all comes flooding back to me while I'm trying to go to sleep. 😊
Every time I have to do something in front of a lot of people I just do the thing and then get out of view of the people and have a panic or anxiety attack 😂
@@rachelppython exactly!
That's totally normal. It's a kind of shock. In that situation you're on autopilot and when you get out and the adrenaline gets lower you start to feel your feelings again.
@@branalobeee3867 no one I know seems to know what I'm talking about when I tell them I feel like this. Maybe they're too embarrassed to admit it, or they don't feel it as sharply? My therapist didn't understand either, which could just be poor communication on my part. Or she wasn't that good a therapist
I don't know what kind of therapist you had but maybe it wasn't a clinical psychologist. Or maybe the education of your therapist is different in your country but my therapist knew this and I work in medicine and there it happens when you have for example an emergency with a patient you probably won't be anxious in that situation you just react and afterwards you can become shaky. But it's not the same for everyone some people just freeze and can't do anything.
The physical shuddering from intrusive thoughts! I do the EXACT same thing! That honestly feels so validating
I caught my husband doing that yesterday. He shuddered, snapped his finger a few times and did a leg wiggle. I asked what's up (he does a similar thing when he suddenly remembers something important or having an epiphany) and he said "making cringy thoughts go away".
I just do a shiver and go bleh when it happens to me.
Do you guys ever get intrusive thoughts so bad. Like something racist or homophobic or ableist and in general stuff you are nowhere near to agreeing with, or is that just me?
@@OnlyOneGreyToBeatThemAll Yeah that's super common, take comfort that it's not just you, but it does suck.
Same.
I shudder and make this involuntary chirp noise. So glad it's not just me 😅
'It's just the transitions' as I'm sitting here, so eager, yet procrastinating, making skittle French toast
Is skittles french toast as straightforward as it sounds?
Sounds cursed, but delicious.
@@skachor Kinda! It's from the mythical kitchen cookbook! You have a skittles syrup (a small Skittles pack + water) Then you steep another small skittles pack in milk for the egg milk mix. Then it's just soaking bread, and cooking them!
Skittles french toast???!!!!
Ok, so now I have to look up the mythical kitchen cookbook...bc while this sounds intriguing but not appealing, last month my friend suggested Jackson Pollock pancakes & that went smashingly. Sounds like a necessary read!
@@echognomecal6742 There are some really cool recipes in it!
Goldfish pizza rolls, Thai green curry enchiladas, fruity pebble pancakes, baconator soft pretzels (which are *so* good) and a lot more!
My Dad always told me "You only HAVE to do it until you WANT to do it. Then you don't HAVE to do it anymore." He would let me sit until I got my head around each chore. If I could change it into a challenge I would. If not, I'd give him a good argument as to why it wasn't worth doing, I would convince him, or not. If not, I would do it because I wanted to do it for him.
“We are a maze, we are a riddle, we cannot be solved,” is my new favorite quote
Seeing how I was diagnosed with 14 mental illnesses (not all at once) before being diagnosed with autism. I definitely have to agree!
I had a big problem in school of taking school assignments in a "sideways" direction, but I only ever did it in such a way as to display absolute mastery over the lesson the assignment was trying to teach. My PDA meant if I COULD utterly disobey a teacher and thoroughly subvert an assignment in a way that ironically fulfilled the requirements perfectly, I would absolutely crash through that wall like the Kool-Aid Man.
Only my issue was that I got way too good at it. My teachers almost invariably read what I handed in and said "I'm not even mad. That's actually impressive." Half the time I got extra credit.
Only one time in college the professor was literally too stupid to get the satire, and I'm especially salty about it because it was a work of scifi satire in the form of a persuasive presentation that very accurately predicted certain facets of life in 2024 (back in 2006), but it's SAD that it's accurate.
In that presentation, I came up with the entire idea and principles behind cryptocurrency (or as I called it "Futuretimey SPACE currency") and it was a JOKE. A satire of techbro capitalism run amok.
I don't think I'll ever NOT be salty AF about that one.
That sounds super fun, im more impressed you have the guts to do something like that! 😂😂
Okay so on the sitting thing. I do historical sewing and actually the most optimal position to sit in before sewing machines were a prevalent thing was to sit cross legged on a table. In fact in French you say "s'asseoir en tailleur" to tell someone to sit cross legged, but it literally translates to "sit like a tailor", so yeah I sit cross legged everywhere because sewing
In Dutch it is exactly the same: "kleermakerszit". Interesting to see where these literal translations come from.
Thanks for that! I do historical sewing and fiber crafts too, but early period (iron age to early medieval) hand sewing and embroidery. There's no instructions for sitting that I've come across yet.
interesting! In German it's the same, "Schneidersitz" = tailor's way of sitting
@@ZhovtoBlakytniy I am not 100% sure but I remember seeing the cross legged sitting referenced as early as the 1600s i think? (It might be as early as the 1400s but that is not my wheel house) It certainly was a thing by the 1700s where tailors and seamstresses were stressed to sit in such a manner as well as remember not to slouch. It fell out of use as predominantly hand sewing garments fell out of the norm.
Yeah, even in English it’s technically called a “tailor sit,” but we used to call it sitting “Indian style” in the US (obviously a quite racist name if you think about it, but when I was a kid no one realized that) and now, teachers will tell kids to sit “criss-cross applesauce.”
I literally realized on my own a few weeks ago that the reason I hate brushing my teeth, and have to FORCE myself to do it every day, is because it's SUCH A SLOG with what my brain very acutely perceives as a million tedious steps:
1. Pick up toothbrush
2. Turn on water
3. Wet toothbrush
4. Turn off water
5. Pick up toothpaste
6. Open toothpaste
7. Squeeze out toothpaste
8. Close toothpaste
9. Put toothpaste down
10. Two minutes of boring brushing
11. Turn water on
12. Rinse and spit and repeat
13. Turn water off
14. Put toothbrush down
15. Dry hands and face
...especially when I'm tired and either just woke up and am barely functioning, or all I wanna do is lie down and go to bed and these 15 roadblocks are freaking in the way
I can relate to that! One of the first things I noticed when I started ADHD meds was that I could generally wash the dishes without going “one dish down. Oh god, there’s another! And ANOTHER!”
I’m presently not on ADHD meds for various reasons, and it’s gradually getting harder again. 😞
I haven’t brushed my teeth in a while I hate myself for not doing it but i physically can’t and now I’m scared to smile and stuff in public
the physical sensation is unbearable for me so i always forget to brush and then get anxious that im gonna ruin my dental health
5:21 Yes!! The special interest chooses you! I sometimes avoid learning even a little about something because it feels like it might become another special interest and I just don’t have time for that in my life right now.
They do seem to pile up.
I totally relate to Mild Socialising PTSD, which itself is a spot on description of what happens in my brain in the days after socialising!!
I thought it was just me this whole time 😅
Your story about 10/10 presentation remained me about my story. When i was like 10 i got simple homework: "Describe your pet".
So what did i do? I measured him with measure tape, everything including ear and tail (when rolled up, and when relaxed). I describe every furr shade that he had. Abik, he was such a good boy! The best dog ever.
In hindsight there is a small chance that i may took this task a little too literally.
My mum always use this story to brag that "her daughter was born to be engineer", but i think that it was rather sign of my ASD :D.
Happy Birthdy!
Relatable. My mum kept the New Zealand project I did when I was ~12 - it was about ten times the length of most people's, full of regurgitated facts from whatever books I could find in the three nearest libraries (written in my appalling handwriting), and I built a 3D relief map for the cover using different coloured sugar paper for all the contour levels. Happy belated birthday!
I used to struggle in art at school, because I was trying to draw every single detail on the apple or whatever we were drawing, to the point that it looked more like an unlabelled diagram than a sketch. I also couldn't draw things symmetrically and my teacher rather helpfully told me to "draw one side and then draw the other side the same"...
I also had a lot of issues with my GCSE food tech coursework, because I misunderstood the brief and the teacher didn't notice until I was quite far in. Then she told me I was going to fail, essentially because I couldn't work as fast as everyone else (I'd done a few pages in a lot of detail, rather than lots of pages like the others) and then wondered why I was crying in the corridor...
I ended up with an A on that coursework, but it was definitely in spite of my teacher not because of her!
@@hannahk1306 YES! I am extremely slow at drawing because my tendency to paint every little detail. In traditional art it isn't that visible, but in digital i struggle.
But you can train your brain to overcome that issue and work faster. Just you need to find system that works for you.
I have master degree in mechanical engineer and i thrived in that environment, so there are places where our attention to details can be benefiting.
Chair: #3 and especially #5. Sitting sideways on comfy chairs is what it's all about.
It's definitely those two for me, too. Except with #3, I usually sit directly on the foot that's up.
I'm a big #5.
I do a ton of #1 & 2, with 3 & 4 being less frequent. Sitting “normally” is sooooo uncomfortable.
At 3:45: Yes, finding out I forgot something or made a basic mistake on something obvious makes feel like I just fell out of a plane with no chute.
True! It's so hard to get anything else done for the day afterwards.
that is such a good comparison omg
Oh and for moving away from a known city, i found it really nice shedding some of the places that were reminders of difficulties from throughout my life, as well as providing interesting new things to see.
If someone is unhappy, id say its not bad to try changing your surroundings.
A few years back I moved into an rv with my animals and travelled for 9 months, and it was weird inner conflict. It was wonderful to be in new places without any memories every few days, but I hated that I never knew where the grocery store was or which aisle I needed.
"Done is better than good" is great! Also, favorite sitting position is #2 and may your birthday be without unwelcome surprises.
I tend to use. Done is better than perfect .
It's so literally the opposite of what the majority of my professors believed! If you aren't going to go above and beyond you're basically a useless failure. Added to my internal perfectionism and it was a disaster. I've spent years deprogramming myself, learning that it's not just okay to not be perfect, but it's kinda fun and sometime great ideas come from letting go. I'm still a perfectionist at the core, but it's getting better.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEG!! You’re channel has been such an important part of my journey of discovering myself. i actually binged all of your videos after discovering the channel and i absolutely adore your voice. I hope you have the wonderful day you deserve 🫶🫶
Thank you 😭😭😭 I'm so happy I could help you on your journey a little! 🥰
Happy birthday.
Right now, I'm watching this with my legs crossed and dangling over the arm of a chair.
Happy Birthday for tomorrow 🎂
Also, this may be random to say, but, I got my autism diagnosis today, just wanted to say it here as I don't have anyone in my life who's not NT. Love your videos, you've helped me make sense of a lot 🧡
Congratulations on your diagnosis! I’ve got my assessment next week & getting really stressed in case they say I’m not autistic (I’ve been self-diagnosed since first reading about autism about 25 years ago).
@@elyssiacook6913 good luck, I felt the exact same way, followed Megs advice and wrote down so much about myself, but ultimately, best thing I can advise is to be yourself. I believe in you and how you feel you experience life, especially if its been 25 years, itll show through. I know it may be hard reliving those early years or acknowledging those early years from other peoples view and telling someone, I would also say, expect to be completely exhausted afterward. But truly i just truly wish you all the best 🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡
Thank you so much, that’s so kind. I have sent them about 15 pages of notes, but still worry that I’ve missed important points!! & I am trying to unmask a bit, generally, so I hope I can be myself on the day! Thanks again for your supportive comment. 🧡
@@CrimsonNavy-qn7ld. Update!! Got my diagnosis on Tuesday- the whole day felt surreal & very emotional but it was all worth it! Thanks again for your supportive message! 🧡
@@elyssiacook6913 oh my gosh so happy for you!! And no worries anytime. 😊🧡
Happy Birthday! I’m turning forty on Monday and am giving myself the (unreasonably expensive) gift of an official adult autism assessment to mark the occasion. Thanks so much for being part of the reason I’ve come to realize that most humans don’t have to spend the majority of their time within social situations wondering if they’re “humaning” well enough, and that you can’t be too high masking to be neurodivergent.
Happy birthday!! I definitely sit like 2, 3, and 4 on chairs lmao
"... giving that one an 8/10. Don't know why, but i did. "
Perfect :D
Chair sitting is definitely 1, although, 13 has strong appeal.
Happy Birthday!
I would squat on chairs and rest my head on my shoulder “like a hen,” apparently, and so earned a number of loving bird-related nicknames from friends in high school, lol.
For me, it's either sideways in a office chair, legs folded under me, leaning back (or rather sideways) or (as I'm doing now) facing the back of the chair, leaning forwards, with my chest pressed against it.
"Done is better than good." I like that a lot. Sounds like something from my favourite philosopher, Mediocrates. He also said "If the minimum wasn't good enough, it wouldn't be called the minimum." I need that man's wisdom, or I'll break myself in half trying to achieve.
Omg I genuinely never considered that 🤯😅. I always feel like I have to prove to myself and boss/coworkers, that I’m not a pos, by going above and beyond, thus taking longer and ultimately achieving less tasks in a day. When they probably prefer more things to be finished, at a lower quality! I need to remind myself “it’s not that deep” way more often 😅
My problem with this is there’s always a voice in the back of my head screaming “NO THATS WRONG, MINIMUM IS NOT ACCEPTABLE AND DONE IS NOT BETTER THAN GOOD!!!”
*bangs my head on a wall* 'it is not that deep' doesn't reflect me as a person, at all. I am very 'all or nothing' there's something inexplicably wrong about being in the middle, but being inefficient and not completing the tasks makes me want to crawl out of my skin and distract myself for the the fear of spiraling into 'how worthless I am'. It is entirely lose-lose in my head 😞
Edit - To clarify preemptively that it's not confrontational, please 😭
Happy Birthday!
I had to be 40 before my speaking voice matched the internal voice i had for myself my entire life.
I have just been dealing with positivly reinforcing myself! I was looking through old journals and found an (incredibly ableist, even though I was already starting to get into autism stuff) list of reasons why I hated myself! And I realized I'm still terrible about that, so I got angry and made a list of reasons why I love myself to spite the self loathing. But that list was heartbreaking... and it was only 2 years ago.
13:05 Sit in a chair? That’s like only 1/3 of a couch.👹
I thought moving or making noises to get rid of intrusive thoughts was just something I did!!
My biggest one is saying "ew" "gross" or "no".
I always said if someone saw how I act when I'm by myself they'd be very concerned.
It never occurred to me that I was not the only one either. A few months ago, I watched a “types of stimming” video another autistic UA-camr did, and he mentioned making sounds when a “cringeworthy” thought entered his head. A number of commenters agreed. It blew my mind.
(I’m known for blurting out “we’re having fun now!” But in recent times I seem to mostly make little sounds.)
I love thinking up stupid scenarios and acting them out, multi character conversations with accents or creature voices.
I talk to myself and my animals way more than to people.
Pretty sure my colleagues would think I was cracked out if they saw how I act while alone 😂
Something I've found helpful for that springtime stress is too reorganize one of my spaces. It helps release the bad memories i associate with that room. Anyways, hope you have/had a happy birthday 🎂
what a great way to frame reorganizing, thank you for sharing
I know a character who sits upside down on the couch when watching TV, it's Matt from Eddsworld, who I think is autistic
His relationship with his "best friend" Tom is basically "Me and the bad bich I pulled by being autistic"
And that's so fun
I used to sit like that on the couch all the time as a kid but was told off constantly so I lost the habit..
(I don't have an ASD diagnosis btw, I'm new to the channel and just recently started to think it might be a possibility)
I definitely used to "sit" like that when I was younger, but I tried it as an adult and it really hurts my neck now!
Hey!! Just wanted to say that I've binged a lot of your videos the last few days and even though I have ADHD and not Autism I find your content so validating!! Ty for making content for all us ND out here 🩷🩷🩷
The Bart one is so relatable! 😭
For me, #3 is comfiest way of sitting or sitting at edge of my chair.
I pretty much confirmed that I’m straight a while ago, but my preferred sitting method in my office chair starts at 12, then changes around between 2 and 3 after a while. Sometimes though, when I find myself communing with the outer planes, I’m told that I switch to 11, but I can’t be too sure since I don’t have many visitors in my room
"Social situations PTSD" - so much yes.
5:23 this is true, The 2 guys from they might be giants literally descended from the sky and told me “you must spend every waking moment hyperfixating on us and our music” and then left. That’s how I got hyperfixated on them
That tracks. That's very much their style.
I have a friend who had Hirohiko Araki manifest at the end of their bed and inform them about how JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure will take up the rest of their life (he then gave them the complete canonical list of all of the JoJo’s characters’ sexualities)
omg!!! love TMBG!!! I’ve seen them like 10 times live. they do a rad concert, and always some fun stuff. if you’ve never had the chance to catch them live, i highly recommend. the last concert i went to was the Flood anniversary concert, and they did this wild thing where they performed “Sapphire Bullets of Pure Love” legit BACKWARD and recorded the performance in the first half of the show. then the second half of the show they REVERSED the video and played it for us for “proof of concept.” wah!! it was so cool. they called the reverse version “Stellub” lol. totes love the Johns, hahaha. there was another concert i went to once probably a decade or so ago where they did a puppet show during it, lol. those guys are great.💕💕💕
@@dirkgent1y I KNOW I LOVE THE JOHNS!!!! They won’t be performing near my area this coming may but I WILL catch them as soon as they come to the southeast USA!!! Also yes stillub is amazing :D
"I'm your only friend. I'm not your only friend. But I'm a little glowing friend..."
im a cleaning lady so i dont get to leave until everything is clean. it happend sometimes im faster than my coworkers of the day so then i have to help them out with their portion too. basically you get ounished with more work if you work hard
Meg thank you, I hope you have a wonderful birthday!
The intrusive thought "shudder & yelp" is so relatable, for me most common when trying to wind down or relax.
I found pre-empting the thought during the day, examining the 2-3am thoughts, gradually declawed them.
The one about starting over took the breath out of me.
Sitting positions: i constantly switch between 1, 3, feet resting on my old chair while my lower back is on the seat and normal hunched
My younger son is hypermobile and dodecadouple jointed and regularly sits in all the positions shown plus dozens more. ..and before you say he can't possibly manage position 8 or 15, bear in mind that you will only expose the fact that you haven't met him yet. Happy birthday Meg!
Exactly. I am hypermobile and it hurts to sit in one position for too long.
My boyfriend makes little noises when he gets overwhelmed or gets intrusive thoughts, the noise comes with a little twitch and sometimes he swears, like a Pez dispenser for f-bombs he just blurts it out.....
My response to intrusive thoughts (usually about times when I said/did something stupid/embarrassing or completely misunderstood something) is to vocalise something like "Yeah, well, um" and I often do shake my head.
Happy birthday Meg! I'm a few years older than you but I still feel like I'm in my 20s because of weird time-blindness and COVID-19 time warp. I definitely relate to "I'm going to get my shit together this time. Wait- no- now THIS time I need to get my shit together for REAL" Life is too fast! My occupational therapist told me that as autistic people our nervous systems take longer to process things. It's hard to keep up with just surviving, let alone making progress. Love your videos and your humor, and this space that you have created for our neurospicy community. I hope you know how much of a positive effect you have and how grateful so many people are for your unique voice.
I sit “like a frog” (knees on the chais, arms over them, back hunched).
Either 2, 4, or 12
Don't know why, but I tend to not process things in the moment entirely with conversations, but later, it might all click and it drives me nuts, so it will replay in that sense.
And the chairs, I sit like 3 a lot
I hardly ever comment, but - before anything, Happy Birthday!🎂
Next, I don’t know if I have autism but I have a multitude of the traits described - and vividly presented by you! The new one in this video is *feeling fine* while at a social event, then on leaving until maybe weeks or years later, coming out in a sweat of mortification at things you might’ve said and how those potential faux pas might’ve been perceived. Aargh! Too many others to waffle on about now.
Also, Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday Meg!
My whole life people have been complaining and shaming and basically CAN YOU SIT LIKE A NORMAL PERSON... I think 2, 3, 4 is me.
Happy Birthday! May this day bring you as much joy as your videos bring me all the time!!!
Enjoy!!!
My two cents about getting progressively more stressed past about social interactions: as time passes and the memory of the interaction fades, there is less and less "viable evidence" to reassure ourselves that it actually went well - especially if the brain is filling in the gaps with what it considers to be the likeliest scenario, i.e. whatever your trauma wants to conjure up at the time.
Happy birthday!!! Your videos have truly been a comfort after my recent diagnosis. I am so glad I found your channel!
Happy early Birthday Meg!!! You really inspire me, and you/your videos have really helped me get through my diagnosis process (not there yet but we’re on the waiting list!) and I may have been binging them for the past few hours… whoops. Anyway, thankyou so so much and have a great day!
Happy Birthday for tomorrow. Love your channel Meg. Hope tomorrow is as kind to you as possible. 👍
Thanks so much for your dedication in providing valuable information for people that are discovering, or on the search for more information about autism. Your channel has helped me a lot.
Belated Happy Birthday, Meg!
Sleep can be a challenge sometimes: if I'm not fighting imposter syndrome over something at work then I'm crucifying myself for something stupid I said or did today, last week... or even decades ago.
Sitting... I mostly flip between 1 and 3, which is why I'm thankful they let me have a standing desk at work! :)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
¡FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS!
I recently found out I was autistic and your channel has been the biggest comfort and safe place ❤ thank you so much!
Happy Birthday Meg. Thanks for the content.
Happy birthday Meg! The high standards thing seems to be a very neurodivergent thing. When I explained how I set my standards when doing a job for others to an autism worker they completed the description for me. Basically, if gold standard is between 97 and 100 but acceptable is between 85 and 96, my standard would be 200 because I attained it once before so I must reach that every time.
As for sitting, I’m ace but when sitting in a chair I tend to lean forward to the right.
I remember one time I had finished all my work early, including all the reports and paperwork, so Friday afternoon I was leaving at 3:30. My supervisor got in the elevator as I was going down. He said, "I thought we paid you until 4:30". I replied, "I thought you paid me to get my job done." I had punched out and would not be paid for the last hour. A week later I was fired for no apparent reason. Seems the NT would have rather I piddling around at my desk for an extra hour accomplishing nothing rather than leaving early and saving them a bit of money.
Number 2 is my favorite way to sit in a chair too. It feels so good to have my feet up under me and knees bent! I related to so many of these! Happy birthday, btw!
I remember getting told to cross my legs constantly and I had to show people that I couldn’t physically put my knees any lower than well above my elbows.
Happy Birthday Meg! Your "9 Signs You Might Not Be Autistic" video ironically kickstarted my journey into realizing that I in fact, might be autistic 😂 so kudos to you and have a good one!
Happy birthday, Meg!
I totally have social PTSD. I think about situations that happened years ago sometimes.
I love to sit in position 3...until my leg falls asleep
Woah! Happy birthday! Mine is also in just a few days :). I joke that April is neurodivergent awareness month because everyone is neurodivergent is born in April /j. I know a crazy amount of people who are autistic and/or ADHD who are born in April so that's where I get the joke from. All of your videos feel very natural, btw. From my standpoint, you're so good at writing them that to me they seem perfect as they are! Thank for the video
Indeed. I just had my 63rd.
GOODNESS the post-hangout overthinking and turmoil is so real. I'm so afraid to overshare or go down a rabbit hole about one of my special interests, that whenever I share even a little about myself or my day I get on myself about it, and overthink about how I was perceived.
I loved that first 6.8/10 - and it helped me have a revelation when you said "Oddly specific, I know. Don't ask me why." However, it made me think whether that is a PDA thing. I hate being given scales, and will always pick in-between if possible. Do not tell me (*demand) to stick to ten options. :D And then of course, I want/need to be as precise as possible. :)
Anyway, I'm really glad I found you on UA-cam and thanks for the entertainment - I enjoy it! :)
Happy Birthday! Always enjoy your videos. Also sitting in chair number 3 most often but the occasional 2 and 4
A quick couple of comments on the problems of school work: in secondary school (I lived in France) we had to write an essay about our favourite author. I wrote all about George Orwell and got 0 on 20 because Orwell was not a French author.... the teacher did not specify that it had to be a French author, which obviously seemed evident to her since this was an essay for french.... I wrote it in french, obviously, so to me that was french. I told her that I had no appreciation for French literature... and that didn't help. Next thing, also in secondary school, same country, different school, during the history lessons, we were learning all about Napoleon. During an exam, we were asked to list all his achievements and defeats. I drew a map of France and surrounding countries and then drew little ships, cannons, armies, horses, things blowing up - all on the map. Again, 0 on 20. I might have forgotten about the dates. Apparently, making a visual rendition of Napoleon's events was not acceptable. In both cases, I really enjoyed researching for the essay and writing it (for once, because I could choose who and what) and I really enjoyed drawing the map and all the little representations. I found that most of my teachers lacked imagination and originality and had a low tolerance for anyone 'doing things differently'. Most were friendly and helpful but I think I tended to irritate them, if they noticed me. I went with a hoped invisibility, a please ignore me approach.
That's so sad! Those are the sorts of projects that I would love to receive if I were the teacher! (Then again, I'm going into early childhood education, so wild creativity is a little more widely accepted/respected in my field.)
Me, watching this while sitting in my car, seat back pushed all the way flat, facing the center of the car with one leg tucked in and the other extended over the seat back: “the sitting position thing checks out.”
- I also feel imprisoned by the dedicated hours thing and often end up working later, because after hours feels like less pressure.
- I definitely can't accept praise, but feel any form of criticism very deeply. It's why things like feedback and reviews don't actually help me at all: they just stress me out and affect my performance negatively in the time surrounding it.
- Two weeks!? I still replay mildly awkward social interactions from my childhood, that other people probably don't even remember, when I'm trying to sleep!
- I think the thing in the bowl is soup and that's a ladle, not a knife?
- The closest number to my preferred sitting position is probably number 3, but my leg absolutely has to be tucked under my other leg! Sometimes I sit like number 1, but I have to be in the right mood and occasionally like 4, but I'm more cuddling my leg than all floppy like them.
- I was also constantly told that the way I was sitting wasn't "very ladylike"...
- If I try to sit "normally", my leg jiggles which also annoys people, so I can't win either way!
- I also find it really difficult to concentrate with shoes on (and it makes it harder to sit in my preferred position), so amongst many other reasons that's why I prefer working from home.
- With things like Teams becoming more popular in a work setting, I've noticed that people often send messages with social stuff mixed into work stuff, which just makes it harder to reply to them: are we socialising or working?
- Me and my partner have two dates we've chosen (like unofficial and official dates) - if anyone asks, we just use the official one. I didn't realise that other people had this issue! 😆
I relate to the sitting position and shoes disturbing, mostly at school, i'm like I WANT TO TAKE THEM OFF PLS
@@TheGhostGirl. I have snuck shoes off before whilst at school. Granted, I was sitting at a table, not a desk, so there was more table there to hide what my legs were doing under it, but I wear Western boots everywhere so it was really easy to slide one foot out and tuck it under the other leg under the table, where no one would see it. Of course, if anyone thought to look under my chair, they would see one empty boot next to the full one, but who's looking at those sorts of things during class, anyway? :)
AHHH, HAPPY BIRTHDAYY.. I HOPE YOU HAVE A WONDERFUL DAYYY !! YOU ARE MY FAVOURITE AUTISTIC CONTENT CREATOR AND YOU CONSTANTLY HELP ME FIGURE MYSELF OUT WHILE IM TRYING TO GET DIAGNOSED AS A MINOR, YOU ARE AMAZINGG
Working in a lab for the summer has been so good for me because there’s lots of different tasks to do and most of them are fairly interesting and fun to do, and for lots of them I can listen to music or videos while doing them. Since I work for a plant science lab I also get to work in fields and greenhouses from time to time too so I get a good bit of variety which is very good for my brain and my tendency to be a “jack of all trades” type of person.
Happy birthday Meg!! 🎉 I'm so grateful I've found your channel. Ever since my (late) diagnosis I've been watching all of your videos and you've been so informative and helpful on my journey discovering my true self ❤ You're awesome!!
The shaking head, shuddering, and (occasionally in my case) making weird sounds to stave off intrusive thoughts.......I thought I only did that. Wow. I had to stop the vid and stare speechless
#2 #3 (#4 sometimes but definitely retained the "unladylike" internal scolding)
Happy birthday Meg! Most of the video, but particularly that thing you said about perfectionism made me feel seen 🥹
omg I've been using the mantra "better, not good" for stuff, "done is better than good" is a way better way of wording that haha! It's gotten me through so many household tasks that I've been putting off for literal years D:
Happy birthday!
Making a noise and shivering to clear intrusive thoughts is very much a thing I do. Especially when it's about something I did in the past and now think it was the worst thing ever!
Happy birthday! Your channel is nice background noise for me when I draw my comfort characters ^w^
Happy birthday Meg, hope you had fun.
8:21 ohhh yeah, I’ve been going through this recently too. I also have a bunch of stressor that are making recovery extraordinarily difficult right now.
I’ve always had fantasies about running away and living in the wilderness by myself. Never going to happen because I love my family and I have crap survival skills, but the idea of being alone in nature really appeals to me.
Happy Birthday! I hope you have an enjoyable day, and some of your other stuff works out for you.
Chair: 2 and 4 of the pictured poses. I generally don't enjoy sitting in chairs, couches are much more my thing, because it feels much less like there's a "right" way you're supposed to sit on them. I can flop down and do whatever I need.
Hi all, so I’ve been slightly questioning I’m autistic for a little while now and I was hoping I could get some support from neurodivergent people.
Some behaviors people around me notice are:
1. Being blunt - sometimes I tend to say (slightly rude-) and inappropriate things in different situations, usually around my friends but sometimes around my parents
2. Difficulty understanding emotions - my friends tell me that I cannot for the life of me read people unless it’s very much blatant. One of them says one day in class, they were extremely pissed but I had no idea and proceeded to joke around and blabber to them-
3. My voice can turn really flat at times - my boyfriend once told me that sometimes my voice can turn really flat and emotionless, and my mother says that I’m not very facially expressive sometimes despite being very happy
4. Extremely passionate interests - I’ve been told by my friends and parents that when I get into something, I get DEEPLY into something. I will absolutely RAVEEE and blabber about one specific thing for a very long time, even if nobody knows about it.
5. Weird posture - I slouch a LOTTTTT and sometimes sit cross legged on my desk or with one leg on my desk and the other on the floor
However, there are some things in the autism experience I don’t relate too such as:
- strict adherence to routine
- Stimming (I only stim on some occasions)
- Sensory sensitivities (When I’m in a loud environment, usually my thoughts are just “I hate this and I want to leave”, or I get pretty quiet. I also don’t get particularly upset when I touch or interact with specific textures, just very uncomfortable)
- Difficulty in social situations (I’m pretty good at talking to people, I just struggle with eye contact)
In my brain though, I have a lot of thoughts that may be a part of the autism experience:
1. I tend to need a whole lot of context when learning or hearing about something and often get confused when I don’t have the exact who, what, where, and especially why
2. When I see people behaving a certain way, I (try to) behave like them but in my mind I’m like “Why the hell do I have to do this? This is really confusing? Why is it good to act this way?”
Anywho, I might just be taking a huge leap here but if someone could give me something advice or insight that’d be pretty radical-
My AuDHD sister’s doctor had to tell her to stop sitting indian-style in work/computer chairs (full cross-legged, legs underneath her) because it’s messing up her back. She’s always had crazy posture in chairs, or else she can’t get comfortable.
Yes! I’ve got a sideways curve in my back from #3!😬
Lovely video, and an unintentional recovery goals video--as an autistic who always loves to sit with both feet just in the seat of the large comfy chair while working, but can't for a while because one ankle is busted. Getting the flexibility back for it though!
"Mild socializing PTSD" yes 💯 Glad to know I'm not alone 💛😂
"So much of autism is just staring blankly into space" omg yessssss, and God forbid my staring blankly into space is interrupted, it feels like I've randomly been lit on fire for no reason! I have to tell my friends and family not to call me without texting first, because you never know when I might be enjoying a good staring blankly into space session. That's a huge part of how I regulate myself, pls don't interrupt thank you. 🤦♀️😂😂😂
I thought when you first started that video, I love the shirt but it must be so uncomfortable and you were pulling on it the whole time. Powerpuff girls are worth it though! I felt you the whole way through! 😂😂😂
Oh my gosh, I always make those little noises but I didn’t connect it with intrusive thoughts until you just said it!!! It’s like my brain clearing the thought 🤯 innnnnnnteresting…
Happy birthday meg I love your videos they have helped me a lot
12:14 I didn't know you were joking at first, I paused it and tried to figure out where the misspelling was 😅 When I gave up you reminded me that the UK and US spell it differently and then I facepalmed in embarrassment because I spent way too much mental energy on figuring out what's wrong with the word favorite.
The fact that I was looking up some cherry earrings earlier today and I came across a video where you're wearing cherry earrings is clearly a nod from the universe that I indeed need some cherry earrings in my life. My favorite ways of sitting in the chair would be #2 and #3.
I alternate between #1 and #3 when setting.
OMG, yes, social PTSD! Same for me, it can feel like things went okay initially, but then as time goes on, I relitigate the event through a haze of dysphoria. And the shudder, absolutely! It gradually got worse for me over decades, and now I really avoid people in order to avoid this happening. It started with repeated rumination over serious social blunders, and gradually spread out into...everything. It’s such a reflex now that I often can’t even tell what the glancing thought was that triggered it. It’s validating to know that I’m not alone, but I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, certainly not Meg!
Me listening to the recording of my singing voice that sounds like Bruce Dickinson from Wish: hell yeah this is fire
Me listening to the recording of my perfectly normal talking voice: DELETE THAT SHIT IMMEDIATELY
Happy birthday Meg, thank you for never falling to make me smile. Your accent is pleasing to the ears (know you can’t control it but I love it) you have helped me learn more about myself.
Happy birthday, Meg! I just want to say, I like your channel so much, thanks for making the content!
I had to click on this one just for the title because I'm physically incapable of sitting with my feet on the floor. Im a knees to chest sitter/sleeper. All through school I sat in my desk in basically the fetal position. 😂 Before being diagnosed my therapist would always try to get me to sit with my feet on the floor to ground myself and I genuinely couldnt bring myself to sit that way for more than a few seconds.
It's just cozier to sit knees-to-chest. My mom tried to break my habit of doing so for *years,* with limited success--I will now sit "normally" if I'm eating out or it's a particularly special sit-at-the-table-as-a-family Sunday dinner, but otherwise... well, I'm sitting knees-to-chest right now. If my knees get sore, I might stretch out my legs under my desk, but most likely I'll be going to bed before that happens.
Happy birthday!
9:24 that appears to be some kind of dipping sauce like you might dip vegetables or chips/crisps into
I have done #6 on a couch when I was younger
I now realize why I have a such a deep desire to find the optimally designed chair shape. There need to be serious lists of novel chair-sitting ideas. Clearly my seated body is crying out for help.
I recently discovered such a thing as a "wobble chair." (That's what we call it in the preschool I'm volunteering in.) It's basically a little round stool with a rounded bottom that you can wobble around on instead of legs. I find it quite comfortable. (5-gallon buckets are also acceptable for use as chairs.) Maybe not the best for sitting at a desk, but quite fun for sitting in the middle of the floor and observing the world. :)